you can cook
  • You Can Cook!
  • About Me
  • Recipe Box
    • Appetizers >
      • Buffalo Chicken Dip
      • Cream Cheese Appetizer
      • Sweet and Salty Nuts
      • Thai Peanut Sauce
    • Beverages >
      • Blueberry Lemonade
      • Cosmopolitan
    • Breakfast >
      • Apple Pancake
      • Homemade Granola
      • Peanut Butter Cup Smoothie
      • Stick-to-your-ribs smoothie
      • Veggie Omelet
      • Yeasted Waffles
    • Main Dishes >
      • Beef Stew
      • Chicken Fajitas
      • Choley
      • Grilled Chicken
      • Low and Slow Chicken Breasts
      • Roast Turkey
      • Rub for Pulled Pork (and other meats too!)
      • Salmon Burgers
      • Simple Homemade Mac & Cheese
      • Simple Red Sauce
      • Steak and Potato Salad
    • Sides >
      • Bacon-Roasted Brussel Sprouts
      • Creamy Polenta
      • Homemade Potato Chips
      • "Magic" Salad Recipe
    • Soup >
      • Apple Cheddar Soup
      • Butternut Squash Soup
      • Chicken Noodle Soup
      • Creamy Tomato Basil Soup
      • Smokey Beef Chili
    • Sweets and Treats >
      • Almond Cake
      • Apple Crisp
      • Bruna Kakor
      • Butterscotch Pecan Sandies
      • Chocolate Fudge Brownies
      • Chocolate Mousse
      • Compost Cookies
      • New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies
      • Pumpkin Pie
      • Salted Caramel Sauce
  • Classes
  • Contact Me
  • You Can Cook!
  • About Me
  • Recipe Box
    • Appetizers >
      • Buffalo Chicken Dip
      • Cream Cheese Appetizer
      • Sweet and Salty Nuts
      • Thai Peanut Sauce
    • Beverages >
      • Blueberry Lemonade
      • Cosmopolitan
    • Breakfast >
      • Apple Pancake
      • Homemade Granola
      • Peanut Butter Cup Smoothie
      • Stick-to-your-ribs smoothie
      • Veggie Omelet
      • Yeasted Waffles
    • Main Dishes >
      • Beef Stew
      • Chicken Fajitas
      • Choley
      • Grilled Chicken
      • Low and Slow Chicken Breasts
      • Roast Turkey
      • Rub for Pulled Pork (and other meats too!)
      • Salmon Burgers
      • Simple Homemade Mac & Cheese
      • Simple Red Sauce
      • Steak and Potato Salad
    • Sides >
      • Bacon-Roasted Brussel Sprouts
      • Creamy Polenta
      • Homemade Potato Chips
      • "Magic" Salad Recipe
    • Soup >
      • Apple Cheddar Soup
      • Butternut Squash Soup
      • Chicken Noodle Soup
      • Creamy Tomato Basil Soup
      • Smokey Beef Chili
    • Sweets and Treats >
      • Almond Cake
      • Apple Crisp
      • Bruna Kakor
      • Butterscotch Pecan Sandies
      • Chocolate Fudge Brownies
      • Chocolate Mousse
      • Compost Cookies
      • New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies
      • Pumpkin Pie
      • Salted Caramel Sauce
  • Classes
  • Contact Me
you can cook

Adventures in Cooking: The Perfect Waffle

1/18/2016

Comments

 
Picture
When I was about 9 or 10, I discovered the wonders of Bisquick. Amazing stuff, it could be used to make biscuits, dumplings, oven-fried chicken, pancakes, muffins and best of all waffles. Hot, fresh and drowning in 2% maple syrup and real butter (I'm from Wisconsin), they were everything my little carb-loving heart could desire. My family was of like mind, and tucked into them right along side of me, praising my delicious creations.

Fast forward to a 2013 vacation on Nantucket with my family. My brother and sister-in-law, foodies (among many other delightful characteristics) from Seattle, prepared waffles one morning. Their recipe was not Bisquick, but a throwback recipe, "Marion Cunningham's Yeasted Waffles", the winner of a best-of-breed waffle contest on the Blog Orangette which is run by a Seattle restaurateur. Drenched in real maple syrup, not only did they taste fabulous, but the process of making a simple batter at night and cooking it in the morning was appealing as well.

The only problem with these delicious waffles is that the recipe, which dates from the early 1900's, was designed to be made in an old-school waffle iron, producing a rather flat waffle, and like almost anyone who has purchased a waffle iron in the last 20 years, I have a Belgian waffle iron, which makes tall, fluffy waffles. So my delicious yeasted waffles were coming out all flat on one side. Now it's simple enough to turn them over before serving (who among you hasn't given your kid a grilled cheese sandwich burnt side down??), but I wanted to completely fill the waffle iron with fluffy deliciousness.

Picture
Picture
Surely, it couldn't be that hard.

The basic ingredients are few: butter, flour, yeast, milk, sugar, salt, eggs and baking soda. 

Given that this is a very runny batter, I started by simply adding more flour. The result? A bisquick-style waffle, that looked really good and tasted, well, kind of like it's Bisquick predecessor. Adding less milk gave the same result.

Next, I tried doubling the number of eggs (more protein, yay!). The resulting waffle was quite delicious, but just as flat as his less-eggy cousin.

The next add was more baking soda. Unfortunately, instead of creating a "recipe", I concocted more of a "science experiment" by adding 1/2 tsp. baking soda to a 1/2 c. of waffle batter. The resulting waffle was still flat as a pancake, as well as being completely inedible. So they were good for dieting (it is January after all) but not so good to actually eat.

It was my 15 year old daughter who finally solved the puzzle. She makes light, airy pancakes out of -- wait for it -- Bisquick -- by separating the eggs, whipping the egg whites and folding them back into the batter. When she pours the batter into a hot skillet, they rise up faster than a pancake in an ihop commercial. And they actually taste really good.
Picture
So here is the secret to the best waffle you will ever eat, without having to serve it bad-side-down: whip up the egg whites and fold them in.

One note: to me, one of the things that make this recipe so attractive is that you prepare it the night before with a minimum of effort and expend even less effort to add two eggs in the morning and make fresh waffles. If you prefer less effort, you should absolutely make the original recipe - it's fabulous. And if you are a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed morning person who wants an adventure in cooking, by all means, separate the eggs, whip the egg whites and fold them back in. You will be delightfully rewarded for your extra work.

Tastefully yours,
Chris
Comments
    Picture

    Author

    Chris, cooking instructor, disability advocate and mom. Food geek and passionate believer in fresh, simple and homemade.

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Categories

    All
    Best Practices
    Chocolate
    Common Sense
    Cookies
    Cool Tools
    Dessert
    Entertaining
    From The Garden
    Healthy
    Holiday Cooking
    Kitchen Adventures
    Quick
    Snack
    Taste Test!

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    May 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014

    The typeface at the top of this page is Goudy Old Style, the same typeface used in my first copy of The Fanny Farmer Cookbook. My copy is a successor of The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook, first published by Fanny Farmer in 1896. It was one of the first cookbooks to use the standard measures that are common today.