Episode 81 – Belgian Waffles

Episode 81
December 18, 2011
Belgian Waffles

I feel like if you were to ask most pastry cooks what their favorite meal of the day was, most of them would come back and say breakfast.  Seriously, what’s not to love about a real homemade breakfast complete with eggs, bacon, tater tots or hashbrowns, and of course Belgian waffles.

One of my absolute favorite breakfast pastries are Belgian waffles, followed closely by French toast.  I’ve actually been sitting on this recipe for a while.  I was trying to get a Belgian waffle iron specifically for this episode but I couldn’t find anyone who had one I could borrow, and I really didn’t want to buy yet another appliance!  I mean there’s only so much room in my kitchen!  I decided I would give the episode a try and if it really just didn’t work I would get a Belgian waffle iron.  Turns out the recipe is great for any kind of waffle iron!

This recipe is so successful because of the yeast.  The yeast really brings in a hearty warm flavor that is lacking in the basic waffle episode.  But just like in the basic waffle episode it incorporates an egg white meringue.  Though it may be a little tedious for just waffles, the meringue really helps aerate the batter and gives it a great final crispness that would be absent without the meringue.

Now if you really want to make this recipe but don’t have an hour to allow the batter to rise in the morning there are a couple solutions you can experiment with.  The first is to make the batter the night before and allow it to rise in the fridge.  The resulting batter could be potentially a little more sourdough bread in flavor but it will be ready when you are.  The second is to make the waffles ahead of time and just freeze them.  You can easily pop them in the oven to get them warm and crispy again.  In fact that’s what I did with the leftover waffles.

Here’s the Belgian waffle recipe and the video is below.  Thank you for watching!