Week 2: Just like mother used to make 'em

Welcome to Nostalgia Sunday on Waffles Across America! Today, we're in Germany, thanks to my mum, who found this recipe in her collection. I'm gonna jump the gun and tell you right now, these are amazing. For me, anyway. To work!

Sidenote: I decided to make only half the batter - I do, after all, live alone and I'm trying very hard not to put on too much weight. It totally worked, and made six 5' x 4.5' waffles. Turns out I can eat 4 when I've not had lunch, so I have 2 left for breakfast tomorrow. Pretty much perfect.

Ingredients (full measures here)
70g butter
25g sugar
1/2 generous tbsp vanilla sugar
1 small pinch of salt
2 eggs
1/2 tsp baking powder
125g flour
50-100ml buttermilk (I ended up using about 200ml)

We talked about vanilla sugar last week on Twitter. A lot of people make it themselves, and I'm told it's amazing. I use Vanillin Zucker, because I can.

Smuggled goods.

Method
1. The recipe says, have the butter at room temperature, so it's soft (but see below!), and mix it together with the sugar and vanilla sugar.
2. Add the salt, then the eggs. Stir like a boss until it's a nice, smooth mixture.
3. Add the flour and baking powder and mix again, then add the buttermilk until you have a lovely, thick-but-runny cake mixture.
4. Leave that to rest for about an hour. If your batter is too thick after that, add more buttermilk until it's runny again, but not too thin!
5. Bake 'em, baby!

Notes
Room temperature, shroom temperature. I reckon you want to melt that butter and let it cool, because if your butter's too hard, this happens:

Room temperature, my backside.

I used about 100ml of buttermilk in the first instance. The mixture was drippy but not as thin as last week's, look:

See how it's running off the stirry bits (what the HECK are they called???)
so slowly, the drops are sitting on top of the mixture? That's how thick it was.

When I came back after an hour, I thought it was too thick and added a bit more buttermilk. And a bit more. Aaaand a bit more. I hate imprecise recipes as much as the next amateur cook, but this is a trial and error kind of thing, I guess. Like I said, I used about 200ml, and it worked. Just keep adding it bit by bit until you think it's right.

I cooked the first batch for 3.30 minutes but they ended up slightly undercooked. 4 minutes seemed to be just right. Note that these do not turn brown! They're meant to be pale. They're also as far from crunchy as you'd expect - again, this is on purpose. Where I come from, waffles are pretty much pancakes made in a waffle iron. I've examined the last sentence and cannot find a single thing wrong with it.

I haven't quite got the hang of exactly how much
batter to pour into the iron. These had holes. I didn't care.

These waffles are amazing with icing sugar. For science, I've also tried them with golden syrup, and with raspberry puree and confirm that those, too, were very tasty. Whatever you put on them, you must have at least one sweet topping. These were made for sweet things.

The buttermilk waffle in its natural environment.

Result
Simplicity of recipe: 10 out of 10. There really is nothing you can do wrong here. Nothing. (Except use cold butter.)
Sweet or savory: Sweet. 
Texture: Soft and chewy. They're so soft you can roll them up like a pancake. Awesome.
Taste: 25 out of 10. They taste like my childhood. And like pancakes, only better.

And there we are! Week 2: Huge success. *happy dance*

Next week, we're making pizza waffles. Because, PIZZA WAFFLES OMG.

Week 2 Shopping List

This Sunday, WAA heads to Germany so that I can try and re-live my childhood! My mum cannot remember which recipe we used to make, but she found this one in one of her books, so it will be tried and, hopefully, found to be amazing. Also, it has buttermilk, which is incredibly exciting! If you'd like to waffle along, here's the shopping list:

125g butter
50g sugar
1 pinch of salt
4 eggs
1tsp baking powder
250g flour
100-200ml buttermilk, and
1 tbsp...oh dear Lord...Vanillezucker.

Now, I import this from Germany; i.e. when I go home, I bring back some.* I realise this isn't an option for most of you... Lemme google that. Right. So, it seems you can make vanilla sugar? Only takes 3-4 weeks!!! HELPFUL.

Some places, you can buy it as Vanillin Sugar. Or, I guess, you could just use a tablespoon of vanilla extract?

Dammit. Maybe this isn't great for waffling along. Tell me if you know of a substitute I could point people at?

This is a same-day recipe but plan to let the batter rest for an hour before cooking it. Method (and results!) on Sunday. See you then?!

* ETA: I have vanilla sugar. Lots of. I just felt bad in case anyone wanted to waffle along and I'm using an ingredient you can't buy easily.

Week 1: Now we're cooking!

Welcome to Week 1 of Waffles Across America! This week, I made these puppies. If you don't fancy clicking, here's the recipe (and my substitutions, if any):

Ingredients
2 cups (230 grams) flour (I used all-purpose)
2 cups (460 g) milk (I used semi-skimmed)
8 tbsp (115 g) melted, and cooled, butter
1/2 tsp instant yeast (I used this stuff)
1 tbsp sugar (I used a HUGELY heaped tablespoon of granulated sugar. Plus what my mum calls "one spoonful for the cook.":)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs

Method
On Saturday night, I mixed all the dry ingredients, including the yeast, then added the milk, cooled melted butter and vanilla extract. It comes out a very thin, light-brown mixture. I covered it, and went to bed.

See? Nothing sticking to the stirry bits. Very thin.

Leave out over night. Won't go off, I promise.

Sunday morning. GET UP, GET UP, WAFFLES!!! The yeast had done its job - look at this bubbly batter:

Beauty and the Yeast.

Now to separate eggs! ...oh man, I'd forgotten how I sucked at separating eggs. After I'd picked out the bits of shell from everywhere, I whisked the whites LIKE A BOSS.

Those are WHIPPED, baby.

Stirred in the yokes, then the whites. The mixture turned all airy and fluffy from science. And then! I baked the things. The first batch went in for 4 minutes and came out looking like this:

Look at these beauties. Just look at them.

They're not evenly browned because I had a minor disagreement with the cooking spray. But they were amazing. Especially with strawberries and vanilla icecream.

Not pictured: The strawberry sauce I bucketed over these
prior to consumption.

Success! I have achieved edible, rather tasty waffles. And my house smelled of cinnamon the entire day. You should make these, #TeamWaffle. They're really nice.

Result
Simplicity of recipe: 8 out of 10. Having to prepare them the night before means you can't just throw this together at the spur of a moment. Also, I hate separating eggs.
Sweet or savory: Sweet. 
Texture: They came out almost too fluffy. It was like eating tasty air. I'd use  a little less milk and only one egg white if I made them again.
Taste: 10 out of 10. They taste like waffles, with a hint of cinnamon. 

Thank you so much, Brian, for recommending this recipe! We're off to a great start.

Next week
Something with buttermilk! Because BUTTERMILK! I've not had buttermilk in about 20 years? 25? This is an outrage.

Do you like waffles?

This Sunday, I will be making a recipe recommended by @thefoodgeek. Whoooo!

Wanna waffle along? Here's the recipe.

And whilst we're waiting for the weekend, here's an amazing #wafflesacrossamerica video @camannwordsmith made. Look at this beautiful thing. Just look at it.


Send me your recipes! If you want to.

Here's one I prepared earlier

I'm working this weekend in order to get on top of the to-do pile in preparation of HecticMonday and TerribleTuesday ahead of DeadlineWednesday. So I didn't think I'd get time to make waffles, until yesterday afternoon, which went like this:

Twitter: Hey, Sus, look at all these people discussing #waffles and making waffle plans!
Sus: Dude, I'm working. Stop distracting me.
Twitter: Ooooh, look, D and J are eating #waffles in San Francisco! Awww, how sweet!
Sus: I said... *blink* You know what, fine. FINE.

So I unpacked the brand new waffle iron and read the instructions. (That's right, boys. Always read the instructions. All of them.)










Look at this beautiful thing.


In the absence of a recipe collection, I decided to make the really easy-looking recipe for "Traditional Waffles" that came with the iron. This was a mistake.

I will post the recipe here as A WARNING FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS of waffle makers. Don't try this at home, kids. These are awful.

Ahem.

++++++++++++++++++

Traditional Waffles according to Andrew James, Artisinal Kitchen Implements
3 free range eggs
170ml semi-skimmed milk
230g self raising flour
30g sugar [Ed.: This should've been a dead give-away. That's nowhere near enough sugar.]
100g butter

Melt the butter and allow to cool slightly. Whisk 3 eggs, add melted butter, sugar and milk. Carefully fold in the flour. Cook for around 4-5 minutes.

++++++++++++++++++

So, I made the batter, I poured, I cooked, and I achieved waffles. YAY! They totally looked the part, too.

Don't be fooled. These only looked like #waffles to give you a false sense of security. They tasted of nothing and stale bread. They were also very tough (maybe that was my fault for using regular flour) and they certainly weren't at all sweet. Maybe folks who aren't German don't take "traditional" to mean "sweet enough that you don't need extra sugar" but I do, and these were just gross.

In summary:

Simplicity of recipe: 10 out of 10. Doesn't get any easier, does it? OR DOES IT?
Sweet or savory: Neither. Just plain bland.
Texture: That of old bread.
Taste: Nothing with a hint of stale bread.

Let this be a warning. Don't make these. Anyway!

Next week: I don't know yet, but I have 12 recipes already, whooooo! So we'll be making something tasty. Excelsior! Have a great Sunday, everyone.

Wherein I attempt to explain myself and make a request

Hey, you! If you're here, you were kind enough to click a link I tweeted or facebooked or shouted about, and I thank you for doing so. Now to explain what the hell I'm doing here without using All The Words. Thus:

Remember when @JadeSnake declared I should visit everyone on #TeamWaffle and it would be, like, WAFFLES ACROSS AMERICA!? And when @aliceandstuff said she'd like to come along and film a documentary? And how we got so excited, we spent a few minutes wondering if we could kickstart that and what the rewards should be? And how it turned out that we can't actually get enough time off work...?

In the aftermath of #JCCC3 and the huge boost of DO, AND DON'T STOP TO TALK YOURSELF OUT OF IT, I have decided that I'm in need of a project, and I'm pleased to report that I have conceived of one. It's silly and self-indulgent, and probably very definitely unhealthy, but it's going to be fun for me, if not for anybody else. To wit:

I want to make waffles, every Sunday from now until JCCC4.

And what I'd like most of all is to make different waffles every week. Which means I need...48 recipes. *gulp* And this is where you come in: Would you let me have your favourite waffle recipe? I'd like to collect recipes from all over America (and the rest of the world!) and try to make them. I'm not a great cook, so there will be many false starts. I will diligently report my findings on this here blog. I'm hoping to achieve two things by doing this:

1. I'll spend some more in the kitchen. I really want to be a better cook, and this would mean I have no excuse not to try.

2. I'll be writing a little bit again. As you can see from this here word salad, I badly need the practice.

I don't know if I can even sustain a weekly waffle habit, but I want to try. Will you help? Hit me with your recipes! You could post them here in the comments if you want, or you could DM me on Twitter (@SusLikesTurtles) for my email address, or tweet me a link? If we're friends on facebook, message me? It would be really helpful to include where you live, because I have this idea that I'd like to create an interactive Waffle Map Of The World (not that I have even the slightest idea of how to do that) that links waffle recipes to locations...or something.

Enough with the words. Thank you so, so much for indulging me.

Yay, #waffles!
Sus

PS: Please post or link or email your favourite waffle recipe! In return, when next we meet, I will make you waffles. I promise! *

* Unless the next time I see you is on a boat...