Archive for: waffles
One of my favorite waffle recipes is my recipe for Blender Waffles. The batter for them is made entirely in the blender, so it takes almost no time to put together – and you can pour it easily straight from the blender onto your waffle iron with no mess. These Honey Whole Wheat Waffles are a variation on this basic recipe that is a little bit healthier than the classic recipe, but just as tasty. The waffles are light, with a hint of butter and honey to them that makes them almost sweet enough that you can skip the syrup and eat them plain, hot out of the waffle iron.
The waffle batter uses white whole wheat flour in it, instead of regular all purpose flour. This gives you a good dose of whole grain in your waffles. I prefer the white whole wheat over regular whole wheat flour because it still gives you a nutty whole grain flavor, but keeps the waffles light and fluffy. Regular whole wheat flour can make waffles a little bit dense, so if you don’t have white whole wheat flour, I would cut regular whole wheat with a little bit (25-30%) of all purpose flour to keep the waffles light and tender.
I sometimes add a little bit of ground flaxseed to these waffles to give them a little nutritional edge, but you can skip that if you don’t have any on hand. You can also add a little bit more, if you are a fan of flax. And, if you don’t have a blender, you can make this batter in the food processor or with a whisk and a large bowl – but the blender will really help fluff up the batter and give you a great, easy finished product. Any way you make them, serve them with honey, maple syrup and a touch of butter.
The waffles can be made in a traditional waffle iron or a deep Belgian-style iron. The recipe can also be doubled to serve a crowd. Leftover waffles can be cooled to room temperature, stacked with pieces of wax or parchment paper and stored in an airtight back in the freezer for future breakfasts, too.
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A freshly cooked waffle that is crisp on the outside and both moist and tender inside is one of the best breakfast foods that you can eat, especially if you happen to have a bottle of maple syrup ready to serve with it. The downside to making waffles at home is not that the processes is time consuming to make one waffle, it is that it is time consuming to make a whole batch of waffles. Waffle makers typically cook just one waffle at a time, which means that you need to cook one after another after another if you have a group to serve. Waffles can be made and stored in a low oven for a few minutes until they’re ready to serve, of course, but this little problem was the inspiration behind an unusual new pan from Wilton.
The Waffle Dipper Pan bakes 18 small waffles in a pan that looks like it could be used to make some unusually shaped cupcakes. Each of the cavities of the pan has that classic waffle grid pattern on the base, and has a nonstick coating for an easy release. You simply pour your waffle batter into each cavity and bake until golden. Your waffles will only have one side with the “grid” while one side remains plain, but you will have a whole batch of finger food-sized waffles ready all at once. For weekend breakfasts at home, a traditional waffle iron is still going to give you the very best results if you can eat them when they’re hot off the grill. But if you’re putting a big brunch out for a group, or serving some hungry kids, you just might start to see the appeal of having an option to make a lot of smaller waffles all at once. And don’t forget that because this is a regular baking pan, you can always use it to bake up some brownie or blondie bars if you’re not baking waffles!
If you have a waffle iron, the odds are good that you don’t take it out and use it nearly often enough. For most people, waffle making is a weekend activity that involves making a mess and spending a lot of time in the kitchen. For some waffle recipes – especially yeast waffles – this is true, but waffle making doesn’t have to be difficult. A streamlined recipe like these Blender Waffles lets you make waffles in less then five minutes, which means that you can have them any time and get a lot more use out of that waffle iron.
The waffle batter is mixed up entirely in a blender. It’s a simple recipe make with flour, milk, butter and flavored with a hint of vanilla. The waffles are crisp and tender, and while you can taste a hint of vanilla, they’re plain enough that you can top them with syrup, fresh fruit, whipped cream or just about anything else you can think of. The batter makes excellent waffles in regular waffle irons and in Belgian-style waffle irons (which I used here), that make waffles with very deep, syrup-catching squares.
This waffle recipe also makes a good base for other flavors. Cinnamon, cloves and other spices can be added to give these waffles a warm and wintry flavor. Fresh lemon or orange zest can be added to give them a light flavor, perfect for a spring or summer brunch. The recipe makes 4 large waffles and can easily be doubled to serve a bigger crowd – although you might need to do two batches if you don’t have a large blender.
When making waffles, preheat your oven to about 200F and store the waffles in there as you’re cooking to keep them crispy until you’re ready to serve them. Leftovers freeze well and can be reheated in the toaster or in the oven.
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As much as I enjoy pancakes, I have to admit that it is difficult to beat out a stack of freshly made waffles for breakfast. Pancakes always seem so simple and homey, so easy to throw together. Waffles actually don’t take much more time to put together than pancakes, but somehow they seem fancier and more time-intensive. For this reason, I tend to be much more likely to throw together a batch of pancakes for breakfast than a batch of waffles early in the morning. It also makes me appreciate this overnight waffle recipe even more, because it takes all of the effort out of making waffles for breakfast.
These Overnight Buttermilk Waffles are yeast waffles where the batter is prepared the night before you plan to make the waffles. The batter is left to ferment in the refrigerator for 8-12 hours before cooking, which allows the batter plenty of time to rise. In the morning, a small amount of baking soda is stirred into the batter before cooking, which reacts with the dough and aerates it even more. The result is a fluffy waffle that is crisp on the outside with a moist and tender interior that takes only minutes to cook.
The waffle batter is made with butter and buttermilk, and they have a rich, buttery flavor to them. If you have a Belgian waffle maker, you are going to have a slightly lighter waffle than a flatter waffle iron will produce with this recipe, but you can definitely make these with any type of waffle iron.There is only a tiny amount of sugar in the batter, so they’re perfect for serving with maple syrup or with whipped cream and fresh berries.
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Egg waffles are a popular street food in Hong Kong. The unique waffles look like bubble wrap and come out of a specially shaped waffle iron crisp on the outside and fluffy inside, with a sweet, eggy flavor. This was one of those foods that you really only saw when traveling to Hong Kong, and it was difficult to find the special pans anywhere else, but Nordic Ware has just introduced an Egg Waffle Pan at Williams Sonoma that will enable you to make these street food favorites at home.
The heavy duty, cast aluminum pan has two pieces that fold over to create the pockets for the waffles. Each piece of the pan – the top and the bottom – are actually heated on separate burners of the stove and then put together after you add the batter to one half of the pan. This ensures that your pan heats up thoroughly and you get the best “puff” on your waffle. The interior of the pan is nonstick, so while a little butter or oil will help the outside of the waffle to crisp up, you don’t need any for the waffle to release easily. Serve the egg waffles flat, with syrup and butter as you would a regular waffle, or roll them into a cone shape and eat them street-food style.
