Waffles!

[BarbaraY]

I once worked in a pancake house where all batters were made from scratch. We had beautiful waffles, tender inside and crispy outside. . The recipe used 8 lbs. of flour and a gallon of eggs. I have tried and tried to duplicate it into a small batch but have never got it right.

Mixes that I've found around here just don't do it dor me.

The golden malted flour does look interesting.

[Carolyn Tillie]

I loved and fell in love with Jeff Smith's (Frugal Gourmet's) waffle recipe -- he separates the eggs and whips the whites making for a VERY light, fluffy interior and a crisp, crunchy crust.

My SO is a consummate waffle lover and saddened at his last attempt at an admittedly soggy sourdough waffle, we combined his sourdough version with Jeff Smith's idea of the egg separation and never looked back.

Indeed, we often make multiple batches for the freezer and had some breakfast just yesterday -- even re-heated after several months in the freezer, they are great!

[Kim Shook]

I make Gingerbread Waffles. These are very tasty and very different from any other waffle I've ever made.

[MelissaH]

My favorites are all yeast-raised. Light, crispy, and delicious. Originally, I used Marion Cunningham's recipe, as published in the Fannie Farmer cookbook and others, but also available on the Web in many places including this one. But I've modified the method a little bit after reading an article in Cook's Illustrated about yeast waffles. Now, I mix all the ingredients together (including the eggs, but omitting the baking soda completely) and refrigerate the batter overnight. It bubbles up just fine, and the waffles are just as good.

Since acquiring a sourdough starter, I've been using that rather than dry yeast to make my waffles. I make up the whole batch, and then freeze whatever I don't eat right away for later toasting.

MelissaH

[tamiam]

Since acquiring a sourdough starter, I've been using that rather than dry yeast to make my waffles. I make up the whole batch, and then freeze whatever I don't eat right away for later toasting.

MelissaH

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Can you tell us how you do that? I am looking for things to do with my starter.

[MelissaH]

Since acquiring a sourdough starter, I've been using that rather than dry yeast to make my waffles. I make up the whole batch, and then freeze whatever I don't eat right away for later toasting.

MelissaH

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Can you tell us how you do that? I am looking for things to do with my starter.

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My recipe is from King Arthur, and it's written for a fairly goopy starter. I refresh mine with equal masses of water and flour, a little more than 4 oz. each per refreshment. This is one of my favorite things to do with the part of the starter that gets removed in the refreshing. I generally don't measure too carefully when I make these, which is atypical of me!

2 cups flour (can use half WW; about 9 oz)

2 Tbsp sugar, more or less

2 cups buttermilk (I generally don't have buttermilk on hand, so I about half-fill my 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup with plain yogurt and then fill the cup with regular milk, making sure I stir a bit to avoid any air pockets)

1 cup starter (usually works out to about 8 or 9 oz, but I use whatever I remove from my starter jar just before adding water and flour to refresh)

2 eggs

1/4 cup oil or melted butter (melted butter tastes better, but always seizes when I try to mix it in)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

Mix flour and sugar in whatever bowl you'll use for the batter. I like an 8-cup bowl with a spout and a handle.

Mix together milk and starter. Break up the starter as well as you can. Stir into flour. Cover (I use a shower cap swiped from a hotel) and leave out overnight.

In the morning, blend in eggs, oil, salt, and baking soda.

My Black and Decker waffle iron needs about 3/4 cup of batter per waffle.

Sometime, I'll try the mix-it-all-together-and-refrigerate method. I'm concerned that if I left it in my fridge, my starter would be too cold and sluggish to do much.

MelissaH

[tamiam]

Nice, and thank you for taking the time to write that out.

[MelissaH]

As snowangel requested of me in a PM, the sourdough waffle recipe is now a part of RecipeGullet. You can find it here.

MelissaH

[jsmeeker]

Agree about yeast based and fermenting overnight. It produces a very light, very crisp waffle.

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Heck yeah!!!

This is the way I make waffles. I first saw a recipe for it in Cooks Illustrated. For me, it was the perfect recipe just from the convenience factor. It's like making any other simple batter, except it has yeast in it. No need to mess around with whipping egg whites (more work than I want to do first thing in the mroning for breakfast). Fix up the batter the night before. Put the batter in the fridge. In the morning, pull it out, heat up the waffle iron, and start to make fresh waffles.

It's brilliant.

[presto]

another thought for fruit in waffles...a ripe (to the point of slimy) banana can be subbed for some of the butter/liquid in a baking powder recipe - I'll also throw in a little vanilla to improve the flavour. Spread some peanut butter over and voila!

[andiesenji]

I am not usually a fan of commercial mixes, however, I recently was given a can of this "Barefoot Contessa's favorite" mix and I have found it to be very good.

There is also a regular mix but I like a more complex flavor and have long made a recipe from scratch that is half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose flour or sometimes White Lily flour.

I also make waffles using my cornbread recipe substituting flour for up to half of the cornmeal and adding a couple of tablespoons of sugar.

I thought my recipe was in RecipeGullet, however I don't see it there and will post it in a little while.

[natasha1270]

Tonight I made liege waffles:

The recipe is from Everybody Eats Well in Belgium Cookbook by Ruth Van Waerebeekand and is the best I have found yet. Alot of people have mentioned fermenting their waffle batter overnight. I think I will try that next time to see what it will add to this recipe.

For quick, no fuss waffles, I use the golden malted mix but am interested to try some of the other recipes everyone has mentioned.

N.

[RDCollins]

This is by far the very best I've ever had -- and they're simple to make:

BUTTERMILK WAFFLES

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup melted butter (cooled)

1 1/3 tablespoons sugar

1/3 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/3 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup flour

1/4 cup additional buttermilk (if needed)

1. Beat eggs in large bowl with wire whisk until well blended.

2. Add buttermilk and mix well

3. Add melted butter and mix well.

4. Add sugar and salt and mix well.

5. Add baking soda and baking powder and mix until just blended in.

6. Add flour and mix until just smooth; do not over beat.

7. If batter seems rather thick, add a little more buttermilk to thin it.

8. Bake in hot waffle iron until crisp and golden.

9. Serve with warm maple syrup and strawberries, if desired.

Note: Make sure the waffle iron is HOT!

[RodneyCk]

I have been experimenting with different waffle recipes lately. Nothing beats the yeasted waffle, crispiest waffle hands down. I also discovered that to have that crispy on the outside waffle, tender on the inside, they must be cooked at the highest possible heat for a very short time. Many commercial waffle makers do not make the cut. There are a few brands that work ok, Villawear brand does a fairly good job, but they can be pricy.

For the yeasted waffle, currently this one is unbelievably good and my pick so far;

http://www.crispywaffle.com/2005/01/perfect-waffle.html

Note: her recipe calls for 1 tsp of instant yeast. You can use, despite what she claims, 2 tsps of Active dry yeast instead, whichever you have on hand. The reason being that there is more active yeast cells in instant yeast, so you have to double the active to make up for it. (Abridged explanation)

For the same-day waffles she (pointing to the website mentioned above) likes Alton Brown's recipe(s). I do not. My favorite out of this bunch went to the Cook's Illustrated "The Best Buttermilk Waffles" and "Almost-As-Good-As-Buttermilk Waffles", again using the highest heat setting. Recipes found here;

http://www.astray.com/recipes/?show=The%20...rmilk%20waffles

http://www.astray.com/recipes/?show=Almost...rmilk%20waffles

Note: these recipes are included in their New Best Recipes Book, unfortunately with typos calling for the incorrect amounts of baking soda and tartar. This is something that plagues their cookbooks quite frequently, which is a shame. You would think being the meticulous writers that they are, a proper editor would be in order. Their Baking Illustrated book is riddled with errors as well.

[snowangel]

Those yeasted waffles sound divine, and the waffle maker I have (the Nordicware stovetop) gets blazing hot and has unbelievable recovery time.

[vilasman]

For those of you who have tried the waffle recipe from fine cooking, have you run across any reciepes that were as light as that one but with more flavor or in some other way superior to that one?

[A Patric]

I use the yeast waffle recipe in Shirley Corriher's book:

Cookwise: The Secrets of Cooking Revealed

It has been proclaimed the favorite waffle recipe of more than one member of my family, one of whom is a huge fan of waffles. It has an excellent flavor, due to the yeast, proportion of sugar and salt, and the whole stick of butter, and is easy to make, is crispy on the outside and feather-light on the inside, and is just plain amazing. How's that for a sentence?!

I've also used the separated egg trick (with the beaten whites) with these waffles, and they are even better that way, though it's not necessary if you're too tired in the morning.

I'd give them a try if you have the recipe.

[andiesenji]

Last month, when this topic was bumped up, I began looking for additional waffle recipes and trying the ones that were "different" and came across this site.

Waffles.

For the Rice Recipe #1 I deliberately overcooked the rice so it was crumbly and the waffles were excellent.

I made it a second time using sweet rice, which is much stickier and the results were even better.

I loved the German waffles and found them to be quite different from any of the others.

The Virginia waffles, made with cornmeal, turned out very crisp and took longer to cook than any of the others and were well worth the effort. I used Anson Mills White corn meal.

I made the Spicy waffles but did not serve them for breakfast. I served them for dinner topped with chili and a dollop of sour cream. Delicious! and very different.

[snowangel]

Thanks for the link, Andi. I have often made Rice Waffles and always use leftover jasmine rice, which is pretty "glumpy" and pretty sweet. I'll have to try some of the other recipes.

Chili on waffles. Hmmm. I just put a mess of leftover chili in the freezer; the family doesn't know it, but they are in for an experiment!

BTW, as I made waffles today on my neat-o keen-o Nordicware stovetop waffler, I was yet again amazed by how well it works, and how fast the recovery and cook time is (not to mention that I don't have to hunt for a cord, and it is slim and easy to store).

[andiesenji]

I have a stove-top waffle iron too. Mine is a Griswold but unlike the regular round ones is rectangular and has what are sometimes called stars & hearts designs but are actually playing card suits. It is very well seasoned but it doesn't fit on a modern stove top very well - although I have never tried it on my new cooktop with the continuous grate. It was made to sit on a solid cast iron stovetop with the lid removed directly under it so the iron would heat faster.

It is a bit tricky to turn over.

[Philanthrophobe]

Can anyone recommend a good waffle iron that's not nonstick? I have parrots, and overheating anything with a nonstick coating can result in fumes which could be lethal to them. And I've got an electric range (blech).

[andiesenji]

I haven't seen any uncoated waffle irons for a few years. The non-stick ones showed up in the 60s.

I have a large collection of old waffle irons and all are in working condition. However some are better than others, heat more rapidly, cook more evenly, etc.

I often use a "vintage" GE which is huge. I use Bak-Klene spray on it and it has achieved a degree of seasoning that means the waffles will not stick, but it does take a few sessions for them to come out completely clean.

I bought several of the ones in my collection on ebay. If you decide to bid on one, use a bidding service such as Bidnapper which places your bid right at the end of the auction so someone else can't bid the price up. Decide on the maximum you are willing to pay and enter than on Bidnapper. Don't bid up.

Look for GE, Sunbeam Toastmaster and General Mills like this one. which were manufactured to complement the new image of Betty Crocker and were made by McGraw Electric, a premier, top of the line manufacturer.

There are not many of these around and they are excellent when in this kind of condition.

Edited October 30, 2006 by andiesenji (log)

[Philanthrophobe]

Thank you!!! Excellent!!!

[emmalish]

Mmmm, all this talk about waffles is making me want to pull out my waffle iron. And I have some buttermilk in the fridge I can use, too.

[Kayakado]

If you want to buy a vintage waffle iron or get one fixed - try this place

http://www.toastercentral.com/index.htm

Some of my favorite waffles are made with cornmeal and topped with cheese and chili or taco fixings.

Edited October 30, 2006 by Kayakado (log)