Trying my hand at Britishly baking something Danish

Andy and I don't watch a lot of TV, but when we do, it's likely an hour-long food show and that's about as long as our tired attention span is. Lately, we've been watching older episodes of The Great British Bake Off. We love how polite and kind people are on the show. There's more of a team spirit and less of a competitive nature. Well, we watched one recently where the bakers had to make aebleskiver. Oddly enough I have a pan! I asked for it for Christmas a while back, but I've never used it. We watched the show on a Friday night and Saturday morning where could you find me? At the stove whipping up a batch of aebleskiver. These are not for the tender hearted. They take some grit and determination to do your best and keep on turning. I had a few that I called juicy lucys... they weren't quite done in the middle, but mostly they were very good. My kids loved them. Andy said, "they are just pancakes in a different shape." He's not a pancake fan. I just shake my head... unAmerican - doesn't like pancakes. The rest of us really enjoyed this bite-sized pancakes. You can fill them - I decided I didn't want to try that on my first run. I made them plain and topped them with powdered sugar and dipped in a little syrup. SO good. I will certainly be making these again.

Danish Aebleskiver
Ingredients
2 1/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp sugar
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup butter melted
1 tsp vanilla
3 large eggs separated
melted butter for greasing pan
apples or jam optional for filling
powdered sugar or maple syrup optional for topping

Instructions
In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking soda and sugar.
Add in the buttermilk, vanilla and egg yolks (reserving the whites). Mix until just combined. Melt the butter and allow it to cool slightly, then add the butter in and mix.
Whip the egg whites using a hand mixer until they hold stiff peaks. Fold the egg whites into the batter.
Place the aebleskiver pan on the heat and allow it to get quite hot, but not smoking. Use a silicone pasty brush to paint melted butter onto the depressions, and then fill each one about 3/4 full with aebleskiver batter.
Cook the batter for 1-2 minutes, until it begins to puff. Use a kitchen skewer or knitting needle to stab into each cup and slide the pancakes about 90 degrees spilling a bit of the raw dough into the pastry.
As soon as you've turned the whole pan 90 degrees, immediately go through and turn them another 90 degrees so that they're fully upside down. Once they've formed a cooked surface all the way around, allow them to cook another minute or two, turning occasionally until they're cooked through.
Remove from the pan to a plate and repeat until the batter is all cooked.
If you're using filling, add batter until the cups are about 1/3 full, then add a very small amount of filling and then top with more batter on top of the filling. Proceed with the turning process in the same way.
Serve topped with powdered sugar, maple syrup or jam.