I say on the sidebar to this blog that I’m concentrating on “company” food, not on what I made for dinner Tuesday night. It’s not really cheating for me to include this recipe, since I have made it for an overnight guest–once. These waffles have been a Saturday breakfast staple at our house for almost 20 years, as I can remember making them when Gideon was a baby. (I probably got started making them because we were given a waffle iron as a wedding present. Thanks, Steve and Evelyn! That waffle iron lasted a long, long time.) Over those same 20 years I’ve made various changes of my own, so I now feel comfortable posting the recipe. The original is from a cookbook I’ve mentioned before, Beat That! Cookbook by the inimitable Ann Hodgman. You know a cookbook is good when the pages are splattered and covered with notations. That’s certainly true for my copy of this one. Ann titled this recipe “The Only Waffles Better Than That Damn Mix” (her language, not mine!). The mix she’s referring to is Pepperidge Farm’s Homestyle Pancake and Waffle Mix, which I’ve never seen on a grocery store shelf. But then, I don’t buy mixes. (Hoity-toity, aren’t I?) I do make these using freshly-ground flour from my grain mill, but don’t let that scare you off. I think they’d be very good (just not as good) made with store-bought white whole-wheat flour. You can mix up the dry and the wet ingredients the night before. I’ve tried mixing up the batter completely the night before and putting it in the fridge, but I’ve decided that it’s not as good that way.
Debi's Waffles
Ingredients
- 1 tsp . yeast
- 2 tsp. sugar
- 1/2 cup lukewarm water
- 1 stick butter (yes, one whole stick, or 8 tablespoons) of real butter, melted in the microwave for two minutes at 50% power
- 2 cups milk
- 3 eggs
- 1/4 cup real maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp . vanilla
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- A few gratings of fresh nutmeg
- 2 cups white whole-wheat pastry flour or white whole-wheat flour, or regular whole-wheat flour
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup rye flour keep this in the freezer
- 2 tablespoons cornmeal ditto
- 1/8 tsp . baking soda I don't know how much of a difference this small amount of baking soda could possibly make to the finished product, but I've never had enough nerve to leave it out and see what happens.
Instructions
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Mix together the sugar, yeast and water in a cup and set aside to foam. (You need to do this even if you're using instant yeast, as this ingredient is in the mix simply for flavor, and it needs to have a chance to "bloom.")
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Melt the butter in the bowl you're going to use to mix the batter, then pour in the milk and mix with a hand mixer until the butter (which will re-solidify when the cold milk hits it) is broken up into bits. Doing it this way makes the final product crisp and chewy instead of cakey, which is what happens if you mix the butter and eggs together first. Once the milk and butter are done, mix in the rest of the wet ingredients.
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Whisk or stir or sift the dry ingredients together and add to the wet ones, then add the yeast mixture. Cook the waffles according to your waffle iron's directions; for mine, I find that 45 seconds on the lowest setting gives me the light golden brown that I'm aiming for.
Recipe Notes
I would say that I get about a dozen regular-size round waffles from this recipe, but waffle irons vary tremendously. I wish that I had bought a bigger waffle iron when the original one wore out, but this one can't last forever. I'm going to get the kind that makes two square waffles at a time. Anyway, these are best eaten right away, but we freeze the leftovers and reheat them in the toaster during the week. Do try them!
