I saw the Good Eats waffle episode for about the seventeenth time last week. It inspired me to finally go get a waffle iron. I mixed up a batch of batter to Alton’s specifications, and cooked away. I made some decent waffles. Let me reiterate: they were merely decent. I seldom have results short of great when trying his recipes and techniques. I’ve evolved his biscuit recipe into sublime baking perfection with only minor tweaks, but they were pretty damn good start with. His pancakes are great, and because of him I finally learned how to make an outstanding omelette. In short, the man has demonstrated his knowledge of breakfast.
But when sitting down to one of my first homemade waffles ever, I didn’t have the foodgasm I expected. The texture was good; they were the right mix of crispy outside and soft inside. But the taste was just a little…bland. I was expecting something with a little more of a malty sweetness. I thought maybe the whole wheat flour was dragging the show down with too much “earthiness”. So I tried again a couple days later with just plain all-purpose flour. It lightened the the wheaty flavor a little, but didn’t make any other tastes stand out. I decided at that point the the recipe was just a little plain. Not bad. But plain. They might make a good base for the chicken and waffles Alton made at the end of the show, or something else savory. But perfect for breakfast, topped with whipped cream and strawberries, they’re not.
So, I’m looking for something a little sweeter, a little maltier, a little more suited for a great breakfast. Does the SDMB have some good waffle recipes to share?
OK, I’ll bite the bullet and offer up some heresy:
I love his show, but IMHO, Alton Brown is a technician, and his recipes seem rather artless, and though I haven’t actually tried any of them, I would surmise that shows through in the taste.
I give you Cheez_Whia’s raised waffles - all funny comments are hers:
Heat 1.75c milk in the microwave in a large bowl. Dissolve 1 pkg yeast in 1/4c water of temperature appropriate to the yeast brand (usually 90-100F) in a separate container. Add 1 tsp sugar to the yeast and set aside.
To the milk in the bowl, add 1/2c butter, 1 tsp salt, 5 more tsp sugar and 2 c flour. Mix with wire whisk. Add 3 eggs and beat well. Stir in yeast mixture (should be bubbly by now; if not, your yeast is dead. Have a funeral in the disposal and start over with new yeast). Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 8-12 hours (overnight).
In the morning: stir batter down as soon as the coffee kicks in and bake in a preheated waffle iron until the steaming stops, about 5 minutes each. Can also be used to make pancakes - but why would you?
I top my raised waffles with a raspberry/blackberry sauce. I can post my recipe if you think you’d like that.
They were brined, and the brine contained sugar, so when I browned them they didn’t brown so much as they blacked. The bitter burnt sugar flavour pretty much ruined the dish, but if that didn’t the salt would have. DAMN they were salty. Between the brining and the heavy seasoning called for later, they were just sickeningly salty.
Remove the egg whites
add the yolks to the wet mix
stir together wet and dry
allow mixture to rest while iron heats up
beat whites until soft peaks have formed
fold whites into batterMy other trick is to add a tsp of vanilla to the batter.
Ahh…vanilla just might do it. It would seem to add that complexity they’re missing. I’ll have to try that next time.
As far as Belgian waffle makers…I guess that’s what I have. It makes 7" round waffles, pretty standard configuration, I’d say. Is there something about that that precludes my attempting the Joy of Cooking recipe?
I’m a huge fan of his and most of what I know about cooking I learned from his show. I find this OP interesting because I had the exact same experience with the waffles. My waffle iron was practically an antique so I chalked part of the problems I had to that, but the ones that did come out with a decent texture were very, very bland.
Overall I find his recipes to be a little hit-or-miss. The techniques are almost always rock solid, but occasionally I think he and I have vastly different tastes when it comes to seasonings and the like. The beauty of the show is that he spends so much time explaining why things are the way they are, I’m almost always able to create a version of his dishes that I love. Still no luck with the waffles though. I’ve resigned to the fact that it will forever be a treat I go out for.
Pancakes, waffles, crepes, etc. are just milk, eggs, butter, flour, and baking soda in varying ratios. They’re not that interesting. This is why people put crap on them. Or in them.
It’s a basic formula very forgiving of additions or substitutions. Lemon zest, cinnamon, vanilla, almond, wasabi, exotic oils instead of butter, chocolate chips, peanut butter, bits of fruit, jellies, jams, preserves, whole berries, different kinds of milk, different kinds of flour… It’ll probably still be edible unless you’re just being willfully strange (Kefir-bacon grease-rice flour crepes, anyone?).
My husband is the waffler in my household. He always uses the Joy of Cooking basic waffles recipe from the 1995-ish edition. It comes in 3 fat levels. Low medium and high. He always uses the medium fat version (calls for 8 Tb of melted butter as opposed to 4 or 16, IIRC) and uses a Belgian waffle maker - sounds like the same size as yours. He does add a touch of vanilla (not sure if the recipe calls for it or he just adds it) and also a splash of maple syrup. Maybe a Tb or so.
I can get the recipe and post it if you’re interested. I don’t have my cookbooks here at work with me.
I have recently started making waffles at home and I just use a mix (the generic brand at our local grocery store - Publix). I follow the recipe (mix, egg, olive oil and milk) and put it in my kick ass waffle iron from Williams-Sonoma that tells me when the waffles are done and they are awesome. I have not tried making the batter completely from scratch (I consider what I do “from scratch” but I’m lazy) but this thread has me a bit scared to do it.
If you want waffles with a real taste, not just generic ‘flour + milk’, then go for yeasted waffles. You need to be organized enough to start the night before (or get up a few hours before breakfast), but it’s worth it. Recipes abound on the internet; I prefer the ones on the low end of the eggs & butter scale.
You can let it rise overnight in the fridge, or just a couple hours at room temp (if you’re making dinner or late-brunch waffles).
Ya know, I love Alton, but I have a tendency to thing something is wrong with his sense of taste. I just looked at the recipe and, while a good waffle base…he left out all of the flavor. Add a little vanilla extract, personally I like almond extract for waffles (fricken awesome taste, especially if serving with fresh strawberries and maple syrup). Add nutmeg or cinnamon if that’s your thing. Combine a few of these maybe. These things will give the waffle flavor. All you have there is waffle shaped bread.
