Instructions

1. Measure the milk into a large jug and bring it to room temperature. If you are in a hurry, you can gently warm the milk (either on the stove or in the microwave) until it is between 32°C and 38°C (90°F and 100°F).
2. Crumble the fresh yeast into the milk, and stir to dissolve the yeast.
3. In a very large bowl which will later take all of the ingredients, measure the flour, salt, ground cardamom, and sugar.
4. Whisk the dry ingredients together to aerate them.
5. In a medium-sized bowl, or using the bowl of an electric stand-mixer, whisk the egg whites until they have tripled in volume and stiff peaks form.
6. Add the egg yolks to the milk mixture, together with the vanilla extract.
7. Slowly pour the milk mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients, whisking as you do so to remove any lumps.
8. Keep whisking until you have a smooth batter.
9. Fold the beaten egg whites into the batter, one third at a time.
10. Cover the mixing bowl with a clean tea towel and leave the batter to rest for about 40-60 minutes in a warm place. I like to do this in an oven at 50°C (120°F) (without fan).
11. After the resting period, the batter should have risen by about a quarter, and there should be lots of air bubbles present.
12. Preheat the oven to 100°C (212°F) (without fan) and place a large roasting tray in the oven. This tray will be used to keep the aebleskivers warm while you are cooking them in batches.
13. Heat an aebleskiver pan on medium-high heat.
14. Dot the indents of the aebleskiver pan with some butter (about 1/4 teaspoon).
15. Fill each of the indents of the aebleskiver pan. For my pan, I like to use an ice-cream scoop with a 60 ml (1/4 cup) capacity but a large jug also works as well.
16. After a 1-2 minutes, use some toothpicks to check the colour of the aebleskivers.
17. Once the ebelskivers are a nice and golden colour, turn all of the aebleskivers 90° by using two toothpicks to pull the aebleskivers up. As you do so, the uncooked batter will slide to the bottom of each indent.
18. Quickly add a small amount of extra batter to each aebleskiver, on top of the existing uncooked batter. For my aebleskiver pan, I use an ice-cream scoop with a 15 ml (1 tablespoon) capacity (see also Kitchen Notes).
19. Then turn all of the aebleskivers 180° so that the open seam is facing the bottom. As you do so, the aebleskivers should turn easily in the pan, and any excess batter around the pan can be gently tucked under each aebleskivers.
20. Once the aebleskivers are nicely golden, check with a clean toothpick to make sure that they have cooked through completely in the centre (but see next step).
21. Remove the cooked aebleskivers to the roasting tray in the heated oven where they can be kept warm while you repeat the above steps. It is fine if the aebleskivers are slightly undercooked in the centre because they will continue to cook a little in the oven.
22. Repeat with the remaining batter.
23. After the first few batches, you may have to adjust the heat so that the pan is not too hot.
24. To serve, sprinkle with icing sugar (powdered sugar) and dip in raspberry jam.