Have you ever been to Brussels and tried the delicious waffles they serve there? Well don’t worry, you don’t have to go to Belgium to eat amazing desserts like this, because we have the perfect recipe to help you conjure up delicious waffles that are both crispy on the outside and soft on the inside in your very own home.
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The traditional waffle recipe
- 500g flour
- 6 eggs
- 100g sugar
- 15g yeast
- 700ml milk
- 150g melted butter
- 1 pinch of salt
Mix the flour, sugar and yeast together before then adding the eggs and milk. Finally, add the melted butter and process everything until you have a smooth dough. Leave the dough for an hour to rise and then you can start cooking your waffle.
If you don’t fancy a sweet waffle, why not try one of these hearty waffle burgers instead?
For a super airy waffle batter, you could always replace half of the milk with beer. A darker beer would add a give your dough a bit more kick and spice, whereas a lighter beer wouldn’t really affect the taste too much. The yeast in the dough causes a chemical reaction in the beer which makes your waffles come out delicious, airy and light.
Mix your dough right
There is nothing worse than finding lumps of flour in your waffle batter. To prevent these lumps from forming, mix the dough using a blender or a hand mixer which will give your mixture a wonderfully smooth texture without any lumps.
Separate your eggs
If you want light, crispy waffles, you should beat the egg whites separately until you have a meringue. To do this, separate the yolk from the whites and beat them with a little baking soda. Then, carefully fold the egg yolks into this mixture. A silicone spatula would be ideal for this as it is soft and you want to avoid knocking the air out of the meringue mixture.
Add sparkling water
If you feel like your waffle batter is too heavy, you could loosen up the dough by adding a little sparkling water. Simply replace half or all of the milk with this water and your waffles will still be super tasty but will come out a little lighter than usual.
Leave your dough to rest
It’s no big secret. A good dough needs enough time to rest. Therefore, it’s best to prepare your dough the day before and leave it to rest overnight in a cool, dry place. The longer you leave this dough to rest, the better your waffles will be. If you’re in a hurry, an hour would suffice, but you do need to make sure you leave your dough so it has enough time to rise.
Grease your waffle maker
When your waffle batter is ready, it’s time to fire up the waffle maker! For lovely, golden waffles, you should grease your waffle iron with some butter and make sure to top this butter up after every few waffles. This also prevents the dough from sticking to the waffle iron.
