Belgian Waffles

Belgium is famous for a few things. Chocolates, beer, frites, and waffles. Today, I'm going to help you with one of them....the beer. Just kidding. That's another post for another day. This one is about waffles. Delicious, fluffy, crispy waffles. Drooling yet? No? Ok. give it a few more paragraphs.

If you're looking for something a little more delicious and a little more fluffy than a box of eggo waffles, look no further. This is one of my favorite recipes. It's easy enough to follow first thing in the morning, and trust me, I'm no Einstein before I've had my coffee. And best of all it's truly worth the effort!

If you don't have a waffle iron, you can use the same exact recipe for pancakes. They make for really fantastic, and yes fluffy, pancakes. If you are looking to purchase a new iron, I highly recommend the bella cucina waffle iron. It's cheap, light, looks really cute, and most importantly makes perfectly cooked fluffy waffles.

*Tip - Look at the entire recipe and take all your ingredients/tools out ahead of time. There's actually a culinary term for this - Mise en place.  This helps not only because you're not scrambling and running around the kitchen like the chicken you're about to cook, but also helps with making sure you have the right amount of ingredients and timing of adding those ingredients.

So the ingredients you will need  for this recipes are:

2  eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

2 tblsps melted butter

This picture is in case you've never seen eggs and butter before.

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tblsp white sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

You will need three mixing bowls. One for the wet ingredients, one for the dry ingredients, and a separate bowl just for the egg whites.

Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites. The easiest way to do this is to use the egg shells. This is beginner knowledge, so I'm assuming you know how to do this. Also, make sure you don't accidentally drop yolk in the whites.

This is the bowl of egg whites - you can put this aside for the moment

Add the vanilla, buttermilk and butter to the yolks. Mix well.

In the third bowl combine the flours, baking powder and soda, sugar, salt and cinnamon.

If you don't want to be as healthy and are all about the tasty carbs, you can just use 1 cup of all purpose and no whole wheat. On the flip side, for the super health nuts, I don't recommend using all whole wheat though. The waffle will be very dense and will lose that lovely fluffiness. Trust me, you may not think a non fluffy waffle is a big deal, but when it comes down to it, it's one of the biggest deals of them all.

Incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet ones. I do this a half bowl at a time. I find that if you add all the dry ingredients at once the mixture gets lumpy and and does not mix as well.

Once you've done that, clean your mixing whisks. You need to be sure to have only egg whites in the bowl and any contaminants will ruin the end results - fluffiness. Mix your egg whites until they have formed peaks.

You will see that they have doubled, or do they triple? Well they have a heck of a lot more volume, and you will see your whisks leave trails in the foam. Do not over mix. You will recognize this when the foam separates and starts forming a liquid again. This isn't the end of the world, but the point of the foam is to create volume and fluffiness.

Now carefully combine the foam into the batter.

Be very gentle with the foam. It is very fragile, and like many sensitive hearts, can easily be broken.

When you see that all of the foam has been incorporated into the batter, you will see that the batter now has a different consistency and is a bit more airy and light. Did I mention fluffy?

Turn your waffle iron on and let it "preheat" for a minute or so.

I like to use a pastry brush to very lightly oil the surface even if it is non-stick. Probably not necessary, but it does give me peace of mind.

Once the waffle iron is hot, add the batter starting from the middle of the iron.

You will not need to fill it completely, because the batter will expand and I'm guessing you don't want it to overflow out the sides and create a fluffy mess.

The iron will start steaming, so unless you want a very uncomfortable facial, stand a bit away from it.

Most irons have a green light that indicates the waffles are done. Ok I don't know about most irons, just mine. The steam will also slow down when it's finished cooking.

Take a peek, and if it is a bit crunchy feeling on the outside, it is ready.

Carefully lift the waffle out. It will be HOT! Take out your favorite maple syrup or fruit topping, or heck even some whipped cream, chocolate and strawberries,  and enjoy!