Liege waffles

This is a post I found in my drafts folder which for some reason never got published at the time of writing. I'm not sure why, as these are in my opinion the best waffles I have ever made. They definitely rival the wonderful Belgian Waffles sold at the Cambridge marketplace, although after some industrial espionage, the dough for the marketplace waffles is very different from the one used here, it's much more solid (it's not scooped, it's in actual lumps which the Waffle Guy puts in his proper full-on iron waffle maker), and it's also darker so I'm suspecting some sort of treacle etc. is used in there. But nonetheless, for being home made waffles made by Claude (my rather cheap waffle maker I bough online) they are as close to perfection as you can get in my humble opinion.
In the last week I have learned a lot about waffles. One thing I have learned is that to make authentic Liege waffles, you need pearl sugar. Funnily enough, it's something I happened to have in my cupboard as I have imported it from back home, but I haven't been able to find it in any store here in the UK. Apparently it's also very important that you have proper pearl sugar made from sugar beets for the right caramelisation. I was also a bit worried to embark on this road as all the recipes said you have to be really careful to find the very narrow heat range where the sugar will caramelise and not burn and you should have an infrared thermometer to make sure you have the right temperature. I might have been really lucky, but I managed to find a good setting on my waffle maker almost immediately. 

Recipe from allrecipies.com here

Liege waffles (makes 8):
7 g instant yeast
1 1/2 tbsp cater sugar
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup lukewarm milk
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract 
1 cup (225 g) melted butter
1 1/2 cups pearl sugar (I only added 1 cup)

The howto:
Mix yeast, flour, caster sugar and salt. Add the milk, eggs, vanilla extract and melted butter and mix. The original recipe suggests you should let the dough rise for about 30 minutes, but nothing had happened to my dough in that time. I think it's because the butter makes it such a rich dough. I left mine for about three hours after which it had risen well and looked fluffy. After the dough has risen, mix in the pearl sugar. The original recipe says you can store the dough in the fridge over night shaped into single servings wrapped in plastic wrap.

All recipes for Liege waffles say you should keep your waffle maker on a low setting to not burn the pearl sugar. I turned down the temperature on my very cheap basic waffle maker and had to turn it right back up to a bit past medium again to the same setting I use for any other waffles to get the beautiful golden brown caramelisation and I had absolutely no problem with burnt sugar. If you are not sure, turn down your waffle maker a bit and keep an eye on it while cooking the first waffle. For me, using a somewhat over medium setting and cooking for 7 minutes per waffle was a perfect setting. 

The verdict:
These waffles come out of the waffle iron quite soft, but leave them on a wire rack for a minute or two and they develop that amazing crunchy crust. They are also rather sweet, I only added 1 cup of the pearl sugar and they were still on the sweet side. Also, they are very rich with all that butter. I'm convinced it's the combination of butter and sugar which makes them so incredibly dreamy and crunchy, but I think next time I will try to reduce the amount of butter somewhat. I really felt quite bad eating the waffles despite them being so incredibly delicious because of the indulgent amount of butter. But out of several different waffle recipes I have tried lately, these are by far superior to any others and much more similar to the amazing Belgian waffles you can get at the marketplace in Cambridge. These are definitely amazing waffles, maybe something to save for a special occasion such as a birthday, or a Sunday afternoon.

BLT waffles

What a glorious weekend we have had, I hope it has been as lovely for you wherever you are. I enjoyed the sun with a glass of ice cold Pimms in my hand. I really like the new blackberry and elderflower flavour. Our garden is perfect for slouching in the sun as it gets sunlight pretty much all through the day, although I did have to move into the shade of the plum tree for a while when it got a bit too hot for my delicate tastes.

We also had our first al fresco brunch on Saturday with the Culinary Consultant, enjoying these amazing BLT waffles. My family will come and visit in July, so I have been working very hard (what a chore it is, poor me!) to identify acceptable brunch recipes. So far I have found way too many, and this one will go onto the ever growing list. And there was another great one this weekend as well, watch this space...

Brunch in the garden

On a completely different note, am I the only person who can't understand why computer games have to be so incredibly loud? Most of the sound effects are just soooo annoying. I can't understand how the other inhabitant in this house can stand them for hours and hours on end. Either the sound of fighting, shooting and grunting or car chases and sirens. Luckily the house is large enough so there are places to go where the noise doesn't follow (perchance the craft room...), but I can't imagine listening to it non-stop for two days. Just goes to show the male brain is wired differently.

Today's recipe for our al fresco brunch is from Joy The Baker, and the photos over there are just amazing so pop over and have a look! As soon as I saw this recipe, I knew Claude (the waffle maker, aka. the love of my life) would come out of the closet this weekend. But even with my less impressive photos, these waffles are still amazing. I adore a good weekend brunch, usually we go and get the weekly grocery shop done and then I make something delicious for us to eat and get the weekend started for real.

Cheddar and buttermilk BLT waffles (makes 6):
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
pinch of black pepper
1 tbsp sugar
1/3 cup (75 g) melted unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup grated cheddar (I added a few tbsp of grated parmesan as well)

For the sandwiches:
Mayonnaise (I used a cracked pepper and garlic mayonnaise)
Tomatoes
Lettuce
Cooked bacon

The howto:
Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. In another bowl, mix the butter, eggs and buttermilk. Mix all ingredients together and add the cheese. Or if you are lazy like me, mix all the ingredients together in one bowl, seemed to work well enough and saves time and washing up. 

Let the batter rest while the waffle maker is heating up. Cook according to instructions. For me that meant six minutes on 2/3 of the maximum heat. The batter makes six large waffles. Keep the waffles hot in the oven while cooking the rest of them. While the waffles are cooking, cook the bacon either in the oven or in a pan depending on your preference.
I didn't make proper waffle "sandwiches", just topped the waffles with mayonnaise, tomato, lettuce straight from our own greenhouse and a few slices of bacon.

The verdict:
This waffle recipe was really great. It has enough butter to give the waffles that slightly crispy crust after you let them rest for a minute or two on a wire rack after cooking. But there isn't too much butter to make them too buttery. (As a sideline, why on earth do all US recipes give butter measurements in cups? Would you really just melt a random amount of butter and then measure up 1/3 cup? I wouldn't! I certainly want to have my butter measures in weight, not volume to avoid any waste of perfectly good butter). The cheddar brings loads of flavour. I think out of all the savoury waffles I have made, so far these are my favourites. I also love BLTs so no wonder I loved this brunch. They went down a treat with the Culinary Consultant as well. I guess you could always add a bit of scrambled egg or an egg sunny side up if you wanted, but for us this was a substantial enough brunch on it's own. I popped a few of the leftover waffles in the freezer and took the last leftover waffle to work and enjoyed as my Monday morning breakfast treat. It sure made the start of the week better!

Carrot cake waffles

I'm not quite sure what's going on with me lately. My energy levels are non-existant. Today, I woke up at my usual time, had a quick trip to the supermarket and got back. Got into bed and slept for another three hours, until two in the afternoon! I never take naps, they make me feel dreadful, and I'm currently having that slightly hung over feeling of exhaustion you get after a nap that turned out way too long. And for full disclosure, I have to admit, I grabbed my computer and am now doing my blogging in bed. No intention to go back to sleep, but I felt too tired to sit in a chair. I'm sure whatever this is will blow over soon, but it feels very uncharacteristic and strange. 

Probably due to whatever flunk I'm in, I haven't gotten anything done lately. No cooking, no crafting, no blogging, no cleaning and no gardening. Last weekend I oven roasted a leg of lamb in mint and garlic pesto (at least that was home made) and a big chunk of beef silverside. All week, we have been eating meat with various veg. We got a ginormous cauliflower and some sprouting broccoli from the Culinary Consultant's Dad when we visited during the Easter break. That along with the amazing harvest of asparagus and a long forgotten broccoli in the back of the fridge kept us going all week. The Culinary Consultant was thrilled with the amount of meat, whereas come Friday I had all the meat I could take. So for dinner, I had a huge plate of asparagus and cauliflower with a good know of butter on top. One of the perks of being a grown up, you can have whatever the heck you want for dinner!

These waffles were pretty much the only thing I got around to cooking last weekend. The recipe is used without modification as it was published on Adventures in the Baking Aisle.

Carrot cake waffles (makes 4-5):
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs
2 cups finely grated carrots

The howto:
In a bowl mix the flour, walnuts, baking powder and spices. In another bowl, mix sugar, buttermilk, oil, vanilla and eggs. Mix together, add carrots and give a quick stir. To be honest, I just mixed all ingredients in one bowl, as I couldn't see a point to get two bowl dirty for this. It turned out great. 

Cook in your waffle maker according to instructions. I did mine on 2/3 of maximum heat for about 6 minutes each. Makes 4-5 waffles, for me it made 4 full size and one slightly smaller. Serve with maple syrup or cream cheese frosting.

The verdict:
These waffles are much softer and more cake-y than the Belgian type of waffles I usually make. The crispy crust of the Belgian waffles comes from the butter and the sugar. These waffles are much softer due to the lack of butter and smaller amount of sugar. They are much more healthy as well, although I do love the crusty type of waffles. Not saying these weren't good, but they certainly were different.

The spices give the waffles a flavour of carrot cake, although as the carrot doesn't cook as thoroughly as it would in a cake you can taste the carrot much more. I rather liked it. We had ours for breakfast with some maple syrup, but I would imagine they would also make a great dessert if served with a cream cheese icing, like the one I made for my red velvet cake.

Savoury cornmeal waffles

Finally my holiday has begun!!! I got home yesterday evening after my work trip to Bath, and I was exhausted after a really interesting last day and then driving all the way back. I'm not a very confident driver, so the drive was a bit more exhausting than I had expected. But I had a great last day at work with my wonderful colleague, and we got a lot of work done, but we also had time to chat about a lot of things. I got home quite late after trying to finish off a few last things at the office. Then I got home and just enjoyed the incredible sense of relief that the day I have been waiting for so long had finally arrived. And I ended up in bed asleep before 9 pm. So this morning, I woke up an hour earlier than I usually did for work! I had finished my first crafting project before 8 am. I am hoping this holiday will go on and on, but I am trying to focus on enjoying every moment of it instead of worrying about it ending too soon.

After that random rambling, on to today's recipe. I found these savoury waffles on the Kitchenaid blog. As I am very much in love with Claude, my wafflemaker who arrived to our little family a few weeks ago, I am constantly on the lookout for new waffle recipes. And these sounded perfect for a weekend brunch along with some eggs and bacon.

Cornbread waffles (makes 8):
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/4 cup cornflour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne
2 cups buttermilk
2 eggs, separated
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled to lukewarm
1 tbsp honey

The howto:
Mix all the dry ingredients. Add the rest of the ingredients apart from the egg whites. Don't overmix, only mix until batter is smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites until stiff peaks form, and gently fold into the batter. Cook according to the instructions of your waffle maker. I cooked on about 75% of maximum heat for 6 minutes and the waffles turned out lovely and golden brown. Serve with bacon and eggs.

The verdict:
These were lovely and fluffy waffles. Super quick and easy to make, the batter only takes a few moments to prepare, so they are perfect for breakfast or brunch. They were nicely crunchy on the surface but soft and fluffy on the inside. I think the cornflour adds a nice crunch compared to using only regular flour.

Waffles are not just a sweet treat, there are so many different variations you can make from savoury waffles. As the recipe makes so many waffles, we enjoyed a few for breakfast, and I popped the remaining waffles in the freezer to be enjoyed at a later date.