Nutella & Banana filled Peanut Butter Ebelskivers

I first discovered Nutella when I was studying at University College Cork in Cork, Ireland. I can’t believe that I totally missed out on having it during my obviously deprived childhood. I did grow up on an Island, which the yummy hazelnutty goodness of Nutella had apparently not reached. You can imagine my amazement when I saw my college buddies spreading it on toast. What! You can eat chocolate spread on toast! Where have I been! On my first taste I became an instant fan. Also being a huge fan of peanut butter, I immediately dreamed of pairing the two together. Peanut butter was not very popular in Ireland and usually the few jars of it I did come across in the stores were marked “American Peanut Butter” and were adorned with the stars and stripes to ensure there was no mistaking from where this strange concoction had arrived. Chuckling, I grabbed a jar and what can I say…perfection!

Nom!Nom!Nom!

Today, February 5th is the 5th Annual World Nutella Day. This celebration of all things Nutella was started in 2007 by Sara at Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle at Bleeding Espresso as a day to celebrate, get creative with and most importantly, to EAT Nutella.

To that end, I would like to share my fantastically tasty recipe for Nutella & Banana filled Peanut Butter Ebelskivers.”What are ebelskivers” you may ask. They are round pancakes which originated in Denmark and are perfect for breakfast, appetizers or snacks. You will of coarse need one special piece of equipment to make these goodies-namely the Ebelskiver Pan. My husband received one for his birthday a couple of years ago. The ebelskiver turners, long, carved wooden sticks, are great to have, but you could possibly get by with chopsticks, wooden skewers or even knitting needles in a pinch.

Ebelskiver Pan and Turners

One of the biggest keys to being able to successfully create ebelskivers is having all of your ingredients you plan to use, prepped and ready to go.

Bananas standing by

Once you put the batter in the wells of the pan, you must work fairly quickly to add your filling items and then cover them with more of the batter.

Ebelskiver with filling ready for second layer of batter

Turning the treats takes a bit of practice, but you’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly. Once it is time to turn them, place your turners on opposite sides of the pancakes and slide them down between the wall of the well and the cooked edges.Gently lift and rotate. Rather than flip mine over all at once, I quickly move around the pan rotating them 1/4 turn at a time until they are completely turned over.

Ebelskivers mid-turn

Once these ebelskivers were done cooking, I rolled them in cinnamon sugar. They are unbelieveable. So mouthwatering, I swear you will absolutely swoon!

Nutella & Banana filled Peanut Butter Ebelskivers

1 Cup (5 oz./155 g) all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs, separated

1 Cup (8 fl. oz/250 ml) milk

1/2 cup (5 oz/155 g) creamy peanut butter

3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

Nutella

1 banana cut into 1/2 inch slices and then quartered.

Cinnamon sugar for coating

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl, lightly whisk the egg yolks, then whisk in the milk, peanut butter, and 2 tablespoons of the melted butter until smooth. Add the yolk mixture to the flour mixture and, using a wooden spoon, stir until well blended. Don’t worry-the batter will be lumpy.

In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold one-third of the egg whites into the batter to lighten it, then fold in the rest just until no white streaks remain.

Add butter to the wells of the ebelskiver pan. This can be done with a pastry brush, or I often just put about 1/8 tsp. in each well. Place the pan over medium heat. When the butter starts to bubble, add 1 tablespoon of the batter to each well. Working quickly, carefully spoon 1/2 teaspoon of Nutella into the center of each pancake. Add 2-3 pieces of the quarter banana slices. Top each with another 1 tablespoon of the batter.

Cook until the bottoms of the pancakes are lightly browned and crisp, about 3-5 minutes. Use your ebelskiver turners or whatever you have, turn all of the pancakes and cook until browned on the second side-about 3 minutes longer.

Remove the pancakes from the pan, quickly roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture and transfer to a plate. Serve immeadiatly.

Makes 16 ebelskivers. Recipe adapted from Ebelskivers by Kevin Crafts.

Enjoy!