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My First Waffle Recipe

January 16

Hope y’all are having a lovely weekend so far! I’m having a really wonderful Sunday. 🙂 It’s my day off! And if that alone didn’t totally make me deliriously happy, we also made and ate some delicious waffles this morning, with freshly brewed coffee, and now I’m blogging while watching The Littlest Hobo. It really can’t get any better than this! (Does anyone else out there totally love this show?? It was my favourite show as a kid and I still melt at the sight of the floompher. And who can resist that catchy theme song?)

My mom got me a waffle maker for Christmas and I’ve been dying to try it out. So last night, while watching a slew of truly awesomely awful movies that were on tv (Jurassic Park, Deep Blue Sea, Demolition Man…don’t worry, we didn’t actually sit through all of these, just flipped back and forth between them and had a raucously good time making fun of them), I researched waffle recipes on the internet and came up with a version I decided to try this morning.

My First Waffle Recipe (cuz I know I’m gonna experiment and probably try about a million different versions) (Makes about twelve 5″ x 4″ waffles)

  • 2 C unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp organic cane sugar (I don’t like very sweet things in the morning, so add more if you have a sweeter palate…most recipes called for 2 TB)
  • 2 eggs, separated
  • 2 C skim milk
  • 2 TB canola oil
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

 

Preheat your waffle maker.

(Wheeee my new waffle maker!! I’ve wanted one of these for so long now!)

Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre.

I decided to try whipping egg whites into the batter; I read that it makes lighter, fluffier waffles. But I read lots of recipes that just said to whisk in the eggs whole, and I’m not sure if it made a big difference or not. I’ll have to try it that way next time and see if I notice a difference.

Anyhoos, if you’re gonna separate eggs and whip the whites, first bring the eggs to room temperature, either by leaving them out for about 30 mins or, if you’re very hungry and impatient like me, immerse them in some warm water for about 10 mins. Then crack and carefully separate the yolks from the whites by passing it back and forth between your hands, being careful not to leave any yolk at all in the whites. And be sure that your hands and bowl for the whites are totally free of any traces of oil, or they won’t whip properly. Set aside the whites (you want to whip them right before they go into the batter because they don’t stay whipped for very long).

Lightly beat the egg yolks. Then stir in the milk, oil, and vanilla to combine. Pour the mixture into the well in the dry ingredients. Stir together until just moistened. Batter should be lumpy. Don’t overmix.

Ok, now onto the egg whites. I’ve actually never whipped egg whites before so I was very excited! As per what I read, I added a tiny pinch of salt before starting, and whipped at a lower speed at first, switching to a higher speed gradually. (I used a hand-held electric mixer) I didn’t have any cream of tartar on hand, but read that a few drops of lemon juice also works to help stabilize the whites, so I added that. (You add this once the whites become frothy) I whipped away until the egg whites were glossy and formed stiff peaks. Took less than a minute from start to finish. I also read that you need to be careful not to over-whip them or they will break down and separate again.

I was too excited to take proper pictures of this process, but the egg whites were so pretty when whipped up!

Gently fold in the egg whites into the batter, leaving a few egg white fluffs. Again, don’t overmix.

Now just spoon in about a 1/4 C batter for each waffle square, spreading it all over and into the corners with your spatula, close the lid, and let them cook for about 6 mins or until they stop steaming.

You can keep waffles warm before serving (and while you cook them in batches) in a 200° oven, placed single -layer on a cookie sheet.

 

They turned out really well! Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. We had them with frozen blueberries and maple syrup, with fruit and coffee on the side. I was one happy girl!

We froze the remaining waffles we didn’t eat, and we’ll just need to toast them in the toaster oven when we want them.

I want to experiment in the future with some healthier substitutions and additions, like whole wheat flour, flax, fruit, and applesauce. Stay tuned! 🙂

 

Posted by on January 16, 2011 in Kitchen Adventures

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Weekend TV and Eats

September 27

Weekend has come and gone. It was grand.

Saturday night we had hot pot:

In the spread:

  • beef slices
  • prawns
  • geoduck slices
  • fish tofu, fried tofu, bean curd sheets, and a Japanese kind of tofu that I don’t remember the name for
  • fish balls, taro balls
  • tilapia fillets
  • pile o’ vegetables: suey choy, lettuce, lotus root, snap peas, chayote, oyster mushroom
  • udon

My favourite in any hot pot is the udon at the end. The noodles just soak up all the flavours in the broth that was made so tasty by all the other food that had gone in it. YUM.

Today was a relaxing day off for me. Went grocery shopping, running with Len, tried a new yogurt:

It was pretty good. Tasted a lot like the Source yogurt we usually have. My favourite is still the Biobest.

What’s your favourite brand of yogurt?

And we had naan pizzas tonight:

Mine had 2 different halves: one side had spicy capicollo, spinach, mushroom, green onion, and mozza, while the other had ham, zucchini, peppers, pineapple, and cheddar. I couldn’t decided which side I preferred.

And all this was leading up to the main event(s) of the day: season premieres of The Amazing Race and Battle of the Blades!

BOTB was so much fun to watch. It was a preview night, focussing on introducing all the competitors and their interactions during the boot camp before they got paired up. It was funny to watch all the hockey players struggle while donning figure skates for the first time. Not to mention when they got their first ballet lesson! I’m so excited to watch them learn and grow through this season–there are some exciting match-ups!  Without having seen any of the pairings yet, I am most looking forward to seeing Shae-Lynn Bourne and Ekaterina Gordeeva with their respective partners. Shae-Lynn has really captured my attention in recent years with her innovative, creative style and her driven attitude, and of course, I have always adored watching Katia do anything on the ice and you might say I’ve long held quite a girl crush on her! Can’t wait for next week!

And then TAR!! What an awesome first episode it was. Full of comedy gold, interesting cast, and of course, Phil! This leg’s winners got a new prize: the Express Pass. With it, they can bypass any task they don’t want to do on future legs (up to the 8th leg). That’s potentially HUGE. So I got to thinking what I might potentially use this pass for. You know, in the very likely scenario that I would be racing on the Amazing Race, of course. A team could use this to get out of doing something they fear. Which has always been such a big part of this race–the testing of your limits, the facing of your deepest fears. I’m not sure what would be my biggest challenge/fear. I do have a mild fear of heights, which, on occasion, I’ve discovered may not be so mild afterall. I don’t have any upper body strength at all. Or much strength anywhere for that matter. So I would most likely have trouble with strength challenges. Now, I eat practically anything under the sun, but I can see that some teams might use this to bypass a food challenge. And we the viewers might get saved from having to watch yet another team puke up some ethnic delicacy.

What would you use the pass for? What are your most intense phobias that you’d have to face on such a race?

Fun, fun night of television. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend too!

 

Posted by on September 27, 2010 in Hanging Out

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