Waffles'n'Kali

*Got back a little while ago from the Kali grading session. There were five of us being graded and I think everyone did pretty well. He didn't announce any pass/fails yet because the scores still have to be compiled. It will probably be announced to the class next Saturday, though he said he wouldn't announce a fail to the class, but tell you in private. I think I passed. It's hard to say because I don't know how much they mark down for mistakes and I definitely made several. I generally felt a bit unsure of myself, but hopefully that wasn't visible. We'll see!

*Now... THE WAFFLES! They were a 95% success.


These are Liège Waffles. There are two types of "Belgian Waffle": Liège and Brussels Waffle. Generally, when people in the US say "I just had the best Belgian waffle", they're talking about the Brussels Waffle: rectangular, golden brown, crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, served with a topping like strawberries and whipped cream. The Liège Waffle is a different animal entirely. It has a more bready texture, studded with bits of perl sugar, and a luscious outer crust formed by the caramelization of the dough. It needs no topping and is usually served warm in a folded piece of wax paper. Ooh la la!

The recipe we tried for this first batch made twelve 4"x4" waffles. We are quite thrilled with how they came out. They're not too far off from the kind you'd get in Belgium. Next time we try it, we will have to use more vanilla and definitely have to find some perl sugar. I spent about 30 minutes chopping sugar cubes and ended up with a blister on my index finger (from the knife blade) and a pile of quite large chunks in a heap of sugar granules. The recipe we used called for leaving the dough out overnight, which was sort of interesting. It seems like this is probably the correct way of doing it; to let the yeast do its thing properly and perhaps allow for a little fermentation and flavor development. The recipe:

• 1 lb. (500g) plain flour
• 7g instant dried yeast (one sachet)
• 2 medium eggs
• 1 cup Whole Milk
• ½ lb. (250g) Butter
• 2 oz. (60g) honey
• Vanilla
• 10 oz (300g) pearl sugar (or loaf sugar, broken into small, 1/8'' 3mm chunks)

Mix flour and yeast in a large bowl; beat in eggs one-by-one. Then add milk and honey gradually, beating all the while, to make a thick batter or moist dough. Melt butter and add gradually to the batter, beating all the while. Cover with cling film and leave overnight at room temperature.

The batter dough should have risen and be full of bubbles when you rise on Sunday.

Pearl sugar or loaf sugar may a little tricky to find. You can use sugar lumps, but they are a little too hard and too large. What I have found works best it to put granulated sugar into a clean frying pan or baking tray and add enough water to dampen the sugar. Then, on a low heat, dry out the sugar again, so that it forms a solid crust. Get the sugar out of the pan (by banging!), and then beat the sugar with a rolling pin to break it into small lumps (about half the size of a US sugar lump).

Mix the sugar lumps and vanilla essence into the dough and let it stand in a warm place for 15-30 minutes.

Heat the waffle iron; brush lightly with butter or oil. Ladle batter into iron (leave room for the batter to expand) and close. The waffles should be dark brown when they come out of the iron, not golden brown. The sugar melts out and caramelizes, so be careful taking the waffles out—the caramel will stick to your skin and burn you if you touch it.

[source: http://www.aopy00.dsl.pipex.com/recipes/liege_waffles.shtml]

There's another recipe we will try next time: Liège Waffles