Basic Belgian Waffle Recipe

The best way to make a Belgium waffle is to use yeast. Yeast will make Belgian waffles fluffy, soft and yummy.  Yeast is where many North American attempts at the Brussels/Belgian waffle fall down: the yeast raising changes the chemistry of the batter, producing a more tender crumb in the finished waffle than baking-powder raising can. The yeast and the beaten egg whites which are folded into the batter work together to produce a light crisp waffle.

Please see the bottom ** if you want to make a Liege style waffle like they sell at the vendors.

Ingredients:

? 3 1/4 cups (1 lb. ? 500g) all purpose flour and one package  (7g) instant dried yeast

? 4 medium eggs

? whole milk (you can also add some sparkling mineral water and make them even fluffier)

? two sticks (1/2 lb. ? 250g) butter

? vanilla sugar

? some salt

Directions for Basic Belgium waffle recipe:

1. Take a cup of milk to start and heat it until it is lukewarm then mix in your yeast. You can now leave the yeast standing for a while.  I usually warm up extra aside from the one cup with yeast just in case the dough is too thick.  Be prepared to add more warm milk to make a batter that is a little thicker than a pancake batter.

2. In the mean time ? melt the butter, but stop as soon as it melts, don?t over heat it or even burn it ? you will lose the taste.

3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and beat the egg whites until you get snow.

4. Now take a big giant huge bowl and throw in all the flour, vanilla sugar (one sachet) and some salt. Make a hole in the middle of the flour and fill it with melted butter, dissolved yeast and egg yolk.

5. Mix while you are adding milk (and some mineral water if you want). You should mix it really well so there are no lumps. The question you might ask here is how dense should the dough be, how much milk? It should be thick, think pancakes and then make it a bit thicker.

6. Gently mix the beaten egg whites into the dough.

7. Leave the dough to rest and rise at room temperature for a while. How long? Until the volume of the dough doubles or even triples! We told you to take a really big bowl. If you are in a hurry then wait for 30 minutes to one hour, but if you can, make the waffle dough in the evening and leave it overnight.

8. Use the oil to grease the waffle iron

(which should be very hot) so your waffles don?t stick to it and pour the dough in it. Bake them until they turn golden brown.

*** For a Liege style waffle that you buy from the vendor, add a cup of pearl sugar after the dough has doubled and you are ready to cook the waffles.  Because we mixed in the sugar late in the process it will melt and caramelize and give that special Liege waffle taste. Just be careful when you take them out of the waffle maker, caramelized sugar can make them sticky.

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