Norpro Cast Iron Stuffed Pancake Pan, Munk/Aebleskiver, 2" / 5cm diameter, Black

Bite sized pancakes, biscuits, and all that jazz. Even stovetop brownies are a breeze in this thing. Then I took it to the next level and started stuffing these things with all kinds of goodies. Like bacon, jelly, bacon, cream cheese, bacon, chocolate chips, and oh yeah… and bacon!!! I’m sure there are other things you could stuff in there, but I’ll stick with bacon.So this thing comes to us unseasoned and in and unusual metallic silver finish. Lovely right? Okay so like all new cast iron items go ahead and blast it in the oven. I suggest not going over 500 degrees. If you can dedicate a good 12 hours to this thing then by all means do so. If you buy it in the winter go ahead and do this process during the day if you’re at home. It will keep your kitchen and other surround areas warm. Just like in the olden days. And you can cut off the heat to save a few cents for the day. You can do the 12 hour round or you can break it down into 3 four hour sets. Let this thing cool overnight after each round. It’s gonna change color. It won’t turn black, not just yet like your great grand mama’s, but it will eventually. It will be a deep amber/brownish color. Now rub the whole thing in a cooking oil of your choice. Meaning the top, bottom, and handle. Oil needs to be on every exposed surface. Make sure it’s something with a high smoking point. I suggest safflower oil which is usually sold at most supermarkets and not too expensive. Toss it back in the over for a few hours. 3 or 4 should do it. Let it cool and take it back out. Now the destructive part… Get a brillo pad or a steel scouring pad and scratch the tackiness from inside the cooking area. You could scratch the entire pan, but only the cooking surface is necessary. Over time the tackiness, if there is any left at this point, will only quicken the darkening process of the pan. Oil the scratched surface and put it back in the over for another 4 hours and cool it down. Do this two more times and the pan will be safe to use. You won’t have that metal taste or black flacks ending up in your food.When cooking with this apparatus, make sure your pancake or biscuit is cooked on the edges before rolling/flipping it over. Using a chopstick or a fork will do the trick. With brownies let them cook a little longer unless you like fudgy insides. Also if you’re trying to stuff your items with bacon or a filling of your choice, do so before flipping. You can push hard fillings down into the batter and flip. When adding jellies and creams, add a small dollop of batter on top of the filling and then flip.After you burn a few or let a few come out doughy, you will learn the range of the pan and what temperatures work best with which kind of food. There are only 7 spaces, but for the most part things cook up really fast. You’ll have a whole mound of goodies sooner than you think. Have at it people!

I bought this as an alternative to the "Pancake" version that is selling on infomercials. The price on Amazon was way less than what was offered on TV so I pulled the trigger.The pan arrived at my house and as much as my kids wanted to fire it up right away, my Grandma always taught me that you must season a new cast iron pan first before using. There are about 1000 different methods out on the web to seasoning your pan. I chose to season my pan in Crisco and instead of using the oven on cleaning mode and putting up with the smoke in the house, I took it outside and put it on my charcoal grill where I had a nice HOT fire waiting for it and a piece of aluminum foil underneath the pan to catch the excess. I left it overnight and took it out the next day and saw that it was a very dark Carmel color - and now ready to its first use.There is a bit of a learning curve to getting the temp right for the pan and also flipping over the pancakes, muffins, eggs, etc. Also, be sure to use a non-stick cooking spray before using the pan and after each pan of whatever you are cooking. You will also definitely need a couple of utensils to flip over each item in the cooking well - it's not as easy as they make it look on TV with using a single bamboo skewer, but with some practice it's not difficult at all.We cooked several pans of pancakes and then my wife used it for eggs. Use the smaller eggs since the cooking wells are not very large - the small eggs are just the perfect size for it. We have also used it for blueberry muffins and the desert recipe that came with the pan. It does take a bit longer to cook the same amount of pancakes but the kids love it and who am I kidding, so do I. Highly Recommend.

It took a while to arrive. I was excited when I received it but it didn't last long. First it did not look like any other cast iron that I own. Even though it does weigh as heavy as cast iron, it looks too gray than any cast iron. So I washed and applied oil generously and started cooking in it. After a few minutes of heating it just started with weird fumes with a weird burnt plastic smell. Still I tried to make the first batch because I thought it was the oil coating I had applied. But it just kept fuming and giving off that plastic chemical smell and I didn't want to use it anymore. I washed it thoroughly and seasoned it again and still gives off that yucky plastic smell and it definitely is not like the usual cast iron. It's still the same gray as when it arrived and I own so many cast iron pots n pans which I have seasoned on my own and this is nothing like it. I doubt if it's cast iron or if some other non stick coating was applied during manufacturing itself because my first batch I cooked just fell out of the pan, literally. No sticking nothing. I have never had a cast iron that did that on the first use and even after several washes there's no rust and it still smells the same when I heat it. I need to return it and either get a new one. Hopefully that'll work better.

Don’t read the other reviews. Those people don’t know how to season, clean, or cook with cast iron. The reason their pans rusted was because they A) did not dry them properly or B) didn’t know it had to be seasoned.First thing is first, this pan comes with no seasoning so you have to take the time to do that which is fine! Second, while I was seasoning for the first two hours my whole kitchen smelled of melting plastic which was super gross abs annoying. But it’s fine. I got a nice dark seasoning on my pan, about 4 coats and absolutely no sticking at all. It works just perfectly. Pan seems small but the amount of aebleskivers it makes is enough for one to two people.To the reviews who hated this pan... season it at least 4 times. Heat it up for 10-15 minutes on a low/medium setting before using. Make sure you add oil to it before batter. Do not wash this pan!!! If you have seasoned it well, you just wipe it clean. And if it does need a wash, hand dry and throw it into a hot oven for 20 minutes. It won’t rust, I promise.