Sourdough Banana Aebleskiver (Vegan)

I am an Indian (Geez, you didn't know that right?). We eat Indian food every day. Bread is not one of the main things we eat everyday. I think I bake so much bread for my passion rather than for consuming. No wonder my neighbors, colleagues love me. For the same passion, I maintain a sourdough starter. And every week when I have to feed it, if I am not making bread using that, I have to come up with something else to do. You know me by now, I don't usually throw stuff out.

So, I brought out the starter container from the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature. It was time for the feed. I measured out 1 cup of it and replenished my starter with equal amounts of flour and water by weight. Then it hit me. Starter is just flour and water mixture which has some yeast in it. I can make Aebleskiver or Paniyaram/Gundupongal/Paddu as we call it in India. There goes my experiment and I should say a successful one.

Ingredients:
This gave me 40 Aebleskivers
Sourdough Starter - 1 cup (unfed room temperature) - See Notes
Whole Wheat flour - 1 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup - 1 cup (I used 1 cup but can be cut down to 3/4 cup)
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Salt - a pinch (optional)
Water - 1/2 cup (You could use milk if you prefer)
Banana - 1 large mashed (about 1/2 cup)
Oil - 10 tsp for cooking.
Cardamom - 5 pods powdered (optional - you could use vanilla extract instead)

Method:
In a bowl mash banana. Add Whole wheat flour, sourdough starter, sugar and mix well. Add cardamom powder and salt if using. Stir. Add the baking powder and very gently fold in. Set aside. Heat the Aebleskiver pan. Put 1/4 tsp of oil into each hole of your Aebleskiver pan. When hot and ready, pour enough batter to each hole. Cover with a lid. It gets cooked pretty fast. In a minute or two, carefully flip them to cook the other side. You don't have to cover with a lid after flipping. Take it out when lightly golden. The first batch I made turned a bit darker.

Notes:
You don't have to have sourdough starter to make this. Just use 1 cup of all purpose flour or whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup of water mixed together in its place. You don't have to limit this to a banana flavored one. You could use any fruit puree in its place or crushed pineapple. Add Coconut if you love coconut about 1/2 cup shredded.
Don't like sweet dish, you can make it savory by not using sugar and adding some pepper, salt, garlic and some green onions or chives. You can come up with your own preferred combination of herbs and spices to make it savory.

Counting Calories:

I am sending this to Susan's Yeastspotting.

Enjoy!!