Messin with Perfection Perfect Waffles
It doesn’t get much better than leisurely Sunday breakfast at home. Expecially once you have a few tricks up your sleeve. 🙂
We don’t see as much of our kids lately, everyone being busy with jobs, kids, etc. Our daughter and her brood got a chance to swing by this past weekend, Sunday morning, and they all like waffles. I hadn’t had a chance for her to try these yet, so I whipped a batch together Saturday night. As always, with this recipe, they were a huge hit. I wish I would have gotten a chance to snap that picture of Emma, with that huge smile on her face and whipped cream on the corner of her lips. So cute!
I made a double batch, since there were 4 adults and 4 kids. There were only two left over, which I sent home with them. It was a rare treat, just spending a few hours talking, catching up, making holiday plans.
And, seriously, those of you who have that weird fear of yeast, don’t let that stop you from making these. They are SO easy to put together and, by doing it the night before (you really do need to do that), it’s not any stress to make these at all. I do have a double sided waffle iron, so that made it easier to make them for a crowd, but if you set the oven at 20o degrees and put these on a rack in the oven, you can get some of them made up and you won’t have that lag time that you usually get with waffles – and they are SOOO worth it. My daughter hasn’t ever really cared for waffles, but she sure liked these. They are so crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside…and they stay that way while you’re eating them. These are not your typical “pancake batter” waffles, trust me. And once you try them, you won’t want to go back to the other ones.
I first saw a yeast waffle recipe in the little book that came with the waffle maker. I ended up trying the ones from Cooks Illustrated, and OMG. Follow the directions, don’t overcomplicate it. Make sure the milk is a little cooler than a baby’s bottle, and they will be perfect. That yeast has all night to grow, it doesn’t need very warm water.
OH! and IF you have any leftovers, wrap them up good in plastic wrap and freeze them, then just warm them in the toaster. They are delish.
- 1¾ cups milk
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (10 ounces)
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 1½ teaspoons instant yeast
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Warm the milk, don't boil it. Just warm enough to melt the butter. Add the butter to the milk and set aside.
- Mix flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in a bowl large enough to allow the batter to double in size (glass works best here).
- In a small bowl beat the eggs with the vanilla. Once the milk has cooled, whisk or stir it into the flour mixture, then whisk in the eggs. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, then cover tightly with plastic wrap, and place in the fridge to rest overnight, or up to 24 hours. DON'T TRY TO MAKE THIS THEN COOK IT RIGHT AWAY - it really doesn't work the same AT ALL.
- Following manufacturer's instructions, heat the waffle iron and spray lightly with non stick cooking spray or brush with shortening. Stir the waffle batter to recombine, it will be foamy and about double in size and will deflate when you stir it up. That's fine.
- Cook the waffles according to the manufacturers instruction. using about ½ cup batter for a 7 inch round waffle and about 1 cup for a 9 inch square waffle. Serve immediately or keep warm in the oven on a rack at about 200 degrees F. Freeze leftovers to warm in the toaster.