Episode 58 – Waffles and Strawberry Compote

Episode 58
July 10, 2011
Waffles and Strawberry Compote

Welcome to the first of my breakfast mini-series (within a series)!  One of my favorite meals of the day is breakfast, but like most people I don’t really have the time to prepare a full breakfast in the morning (or I just lack the motivation).  Of all the breakfast pastries out there I’d have to say that waffles are probably one of my top choices – especially belgian waffles.  This episode isn’t the belgian waffle recipe (which is made with yeast and uses a different style of waffle iron) but it’s still pretty tasty!

To keep your waffles crispy while you finish the rest of the batter, lay them in a single layer. Stacking them may cause the bottom one to get very soggy.

Regular waffle batter is most similar to pancake batter, but instead of cooking the batter in a pan the batter is baked in a waffle iron (some people say fried but that is incorrect).  The result is a lighter, crisper product.  This recipe evolves the typical pancake batter recipe by folding in a french meringue.  This helps make the waffle even crispier and lighter – plus more volume means more batter to use so it actually increases your yield as well.

With the added meringue that means this recipe isn’t the easiest or fastest to make but I promise that it tastes much better with the meringue added.  Plus, would you all really want to watch an episode where I blitz everything in a blender and just cook it?

In addition to the breakfast pastry in this episode I also make strawberry compote.

Compotes are heated sauces, often thickened with cornstarch, and full of fruit. Compotes can be served right away.

Compote has already made its debut in the dessert sushi episode as the strawberry-mango compote but that compote is significantly thicker.  Compote is a sauce that is made from fruit and simple syrup and reduced to make thicker and very often has added cornstarch to make it a little thicker and to change its color.  By contrast, purees are simply blended fruit often without added sugar, without being heated, and without any added thickeners like cornstarch.  Apple sauce is an example of a puree.  Reduction sauces are essentially identical to compotes, but often are made without cornstarch or thickeners (relying heavily on reducing for thickness) and compotes are usually heavy with fruit while reductions often have most if not all of the fruit strained out.

Compotes are great in plated desserts because they provide quick and easy color, temperature, texture, and flavor contrasts.  They also work well as a cake or pastry topping.  Thicker compotes, either by further reduction or additional cornstarch, also work well as fillings.

Many people avoid making their own sauces nowadays because they feel that sauce recipes are complicated or take too much time and there are plenty of decent substitutes available.  I’m here to say that it just isn’t true!  A homemade sauce, especially a fruit sauce, is incredibly easy to make.  Homemade sauces also have the advantage of being fresher and healthier than their pre-made counterparts which are often full of preservatives (I won’t pretend that our homemade sauce has less sugar in it).

I hope you enjoy this breakfast episode.  In the video I say that I plan on doing two more videos but I think I want to do even more than that.  Don’t worry, I still plan on doing cakes and other classical pastries but I just needed a break from some of the longer episodes.

Here is the waffle recipe and the recipe for strawberry compote.  Enjoy the video below!