We had breakfast for dinner last night, and I thought it was time to pass on a small recommendation for this recipe from King Arthur. The waffles and pancakes it makes are light and crispy, very tasty. The recipe calls for an overnight ferment when you are planning for breakfast. When I'm planning dinner, I make the ferment in the morning. Works great for me.

Anyway, here comes a tip from me, and it might be sacrilege, but it's the real reason I'm writing:

When I feed my starter, I hate to throw away all that excess, as one is supposed to do. So usually I just keep it -- I store it in a sealed plastic container in the refrigerator. Every time I feed my starter, basically weekly, I add the excess to the plastic container. I don't feed it, I don't treat it with any respect at all, I just glop it in that container. If it gets to be over four-six weeks old (by my estimate; I don't keep track!), I will just throw it out and start all over at the next feeding. But if it's not too old, I use it in this recipe. Note that the recipe calls for sourdough starter straight out of the fridge, unfed. And that certainly fits the description of what I use! 

The recipe is on the King Arthur site:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/sourdough-waffles-recipe

Try it sometime. You'll like it.

I've been making some killer waffles by replacing the AP flour in the King Arthur Belgian waffle recipe with Graham flour. I also only use 1 tsp yeast,as 1.5 was too yeasty tasting.

The recipe can be found at http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/belgian-style-yeast-waffles-recipe.

In our quest to balance taste and fat intake, this morning I replaced half the butter with canola oil, using a replacement ratio of .75 by weight (I used 45 g butter and 30 g oil).

The result? A chalkier, noticeably less flavorful waffle.

Any thoughts here for future tinkering?

I saw a lots of questions about the pearl sugar from Belgium. It was hard to find online within the US. So we use to buy the Lars one, which is the only alternative we have, even if it's not the right one for the Liege waffles.

Well, not anymore. I found real beet pearl sugar from Belgium at www.belgianpearlsugar.com

Unlike the Lars, it won't melt AND will become soft instead of rocky.

Also, the trick is to get a pro waffles maker getting high temperature to cook the waffles fast with getting the sugar into caramel...

Hi everyone in TFL-land. I finally created an account after several months of browsing this site. I've been trying to replicate a certain type of Liege waffle at home, but I can't seem to get it right. Has anybody tried Liege waffles from the "Le Waf" stands located all over Lake Tahoe ski resorts? They're eggy, buttery, rich, and coated in a beautiful caramelized sugar crust. I believe they're a lot richer and sweeter than authentic Liege Waffles, and they're ridiculously good.

Here's a photo of the dough resting

Here's a close-up of the crust

and here's a shot of the crumb:

I've tried a brioche-type dough to recreate the texture, but the crumb was too soft and finely textured. I then tried a laminated dough method, which came close to the striated texture, but didn't taste nearly as rich or buttery as the original version. The original tastes like a butter, egg and vanilla explosion. Additionally, I had problems melting the pearl sugar. The latter problem is probably due to the fact that I have a cheap aluminum plated waffle iron that heat-cycles and therefore does not reach the necessary temperature to melt the sugar.

Does anyone have any advice? I'm not sure how widespread Le Waf products are. They used to allow mail orders of their products, but I called their CEO, who says that they're concentrating on their retail stores for now, and that it may take years for them to revamp their mail order business.

Waffles are a form of quick bread, so I thought I'd share a recipe for pumpkin waffles that I've been working on + post some photos of them! Let me know what you think.

The initial mix of dry ingredients...

Whisk to blend...

The initial mix of wet ingredients (butter not yet added)...

The wet ingredients blended with the melted butter...

Beginning to blend dry and wet ingredients...

The perfect mix of dry and wet; it's still a little lumpy, and that's perfect...

Egg whites at the stiff peak stage...

The final batter with egg whites folded in...

A fresh waffle about to be taken from the iron...

I like to make pancakes.  I used to have a (cheap) waffle iron, but it bit the dust.  I never replaced it, thinking it was too specialized and not necessary.

Although pancake and waffle batters are very similar, each recipe is specifically "pancakes" or "waffles".  But what makes this a pancake recipe and that a waffle recipe?

The original recipe is from The Baker's Companion Spring 2007. BUT, I made a change to this recipe that makes all the difference in the world to the texture and taste. If you are a fan of waffles, and can get your hands on some "Kefir", this recipe is a definite keeper!