Waffles with the Works

Last year for my birthday my husband bought himself a waffle iron. True story. He then used it to make me waffles for a celebratory birthday breakfast, and it was a weekday and all, so that took some planning and recipe-googling. It actually was a really nice way to start the day. After I had eaten my waffles, I did narrow my eyes and say, "Well played, Sir, well played" because while I have a take it or leave it relationship with waffles (and thus have never cared enough to buy a waffle iron myself), V loves them.

I can't say we've ever made weekday waffles since that birthday morning. But we regularly pull out the waffle iron when friends come over for brunch and set out a build-your-own-waffle bar. It has high crowd pleasing potential for not a lot of effort.

If you ask me, the perfect waffle should be crispy on the outside, tender on the inside and light as a feather. We tried out a few recipes before we found the perfect one in Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything. It is a overnight waffle which makes early morning entertaining that much easier because you do most of the work the night before. Not that I'd call mixing a bunch of things "work". The trick is that these waffles are yeasted. The yeast works overnight to make light and tender waffles scented with the aroma of fresh bread. I changed the recipe a little to add some cornmeal and it makes them even more crispy and flavorful.

Yeasted Overnight Waffles

(Recipe adapted from Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything)

1. In a large bowl, mix

• 1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup coarse cornmeal
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp. instant yeast
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt

2. To the dry ingredients, add in this order and mix

• 2 cups milk (I use whole milk)
• 1 stick (8 tbsp.) butter, melted
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

3. The batter will be loose. Cover (not airtight) and let the batter rise at room temperature overnight.

4. When you are ready to make waffles, separate two eggs. Stir in the yolks into the batter. Whisk the whites to soft peaks and fold them gently into the batter.

5. Make waffles using some oil on the waffle batter. We get better results when we let the waffles for bit longer to let them get crispy and golden.

Notes:
1. By the way, once when we had guests who wanted to avoid eggs, we used ground flaxseed in place of the eggs and the substitution worked quite nicely.
2. These waffles freeze well too.

The waffles themselves are not sweet. We tend to set out some of these toppings:

• Peanut butter and other nut butters
• Jam or preserves
• Maple syrup or honey or agave nectar
• Salted caramel sauce
• Chocolate sauce
• Whipped cream
• Berries and other fresh seasonal fruit
• Butter
• Ice cream (in which case the waffles are officially the dessert course)

V's favorite waffle combination: crunchy peanut butter, honey and sliced bananas.

I'd really like to try a savory waffle sometime. I've even seen waffles with idli batter. Do you make pancakes or waffles on weekends? 

For this birthday, V did not get a kitchen appliance, either for himself or for me! He got me an iphone so I can retire my 7 year old flip phone, and hence join the 21st century, I suppose.

Have a great week, friends.