I’d love to say we’re having waffle weather. What’s that you ask? What’s waffle weather? It’s cold. For starters. Second, ideally, it’s raining. Lastly, in this fall-appropriate weather forecast, you have nothing to do on this particular waffle weather day, but chill. In your pjs. TV on all day…even if no one is watching. We’re not having anything in the ballpark of waffle weather in California, but let’s pretend.
When my daughter was three (I think) she received a Hello Kitty waffle iron for her birthday. Our Hello Kitty waffle maker has lived in two countries and a total of four cities. She’s seen my kids through pre-school, elementary school and now middle school. She’s quite the world traveller and has served us well…full of awesome morning memories. But there is a caveat to this walk down memory lane. For the past eight years, we’ve had nothing but Hello Kitty waffles. Nada. My sweet, dear son kindly asked the other day, “Could we have waffles that don’t look like Hello Kitty?”
It’s a fair question. I felt a little like I had dropped the ball. Hello Kitty waffles for a little girl: awesome. Plus, I did like how that waffle iron cooked a waffle. The waffles were so small that there was an abundance of crispy edges. A key component of the waffle. For me. But OF COURSE my son wants a different waffle. How had this not come to me on my own? I searched high and low for a Star Wars waffle iron, thinking it was his turn to shine a bit and dominate the weekend breakfast with a touch of masculinity. I mean, Star Wars waffles, how cool would that be? But mei you (that’s Mandarin for: there’s nary a frickin Star Wars waffle maker on the planet).
So then I found myself mindlessly wandering the aisles of Costco this past week. I know some people can’t stand Costco. Turn up their nose at the mass production of food and products and that it’s the fall of modern civilization. But I love it. It’s heaven. I see possibilities in every product. On this particular day I told myself I just needed to grab a couple of items and I’d be out the door for under $100US. Insert the crying-laughing emoji right here. On the way home I felt like I’d been roofied. My bank account drained and car packed so high with groceries I couldn’t see out the back. And shoved between the five pounds of bagels and the 2015 desk calendar was a proper waffle iron. Was it the sausage bite sample I ate in the deli section? We’ll never know…
Once recovered, I set out on the perfect waffle recipe. I was currently using the Canyon Ranch Pecan Waffle recipe. LOVE. It’s great. But, I was in the major leagues now…this new waffle recipe was going to require butter. And lots of it. We were about to go big. I really wanted to dazzle out of the gate…so I married two of my favorite waffle recipes: The Joy of Cooking basic waffle (I mean, come on, it’s a classic) and Canyon Ranch. I really like the butter and flavor happening in The Joy recipe. But I also love the whole-wheat thing happening in the Canyon Ranch recipe. I’m not one to try and healthy-up a traditionally gut-bomb-esque recipe, but I like the whole wheat here…it gives the waffle a little more personality. It says, come and get to know me more…I’m a little groovier than you think I am. The recipe below is by no means ‘healthy.’ But it is tasty. Best of all, my son loves his man’d up waffles.
WAFFLE UPDATE: Add 1 cup of granola to your waffle batter — it’s delicious! I’m working on a specific recipe for this..but I did it with this recipe and it’s FAB! I did pick out any large nuts (giggle) and super hard chunks. Keep an eye out for this recipe! xoxo
***If you saw this recipe on Instagram, I used brown butter instead of melted butter. You can follow my brown butter instructions here. Also, I used cherry syrup. I used three handfuls of frozen cherries and about 1/4 cup of maple syrup and heated it up in a saucepan. You can do the same thing with frozen berries (strawberries are my favorite!). This is perfect when you have no fresh fruit and need to go to the store (or it’s winter)! xo
Crispy Buttermilk Waffles
Ingredients
For the Waffles
- 1 cup (135 g) all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup (101 g) white whole-wheat flour (or more all-purpose flour)
- 3 tablespoons (36 g) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon (15 g) baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 g) baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon (3 g) salt
- 1 1/3 cups (320 g) buttermilk room temperature
- 1/2 cup (120 g) milk (or more buttermilk) room temperature
- 12 tablespoons ( 170 g or 6 ounces) unsalted butter melted
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon (2 g) real vanilla extract
For the Garnish
- blueberries
- real maple syrup
- powdered sugar
Instructions
- Either brush your waffle iron with some veggie oil or spray with nonstick (although some say that the latter will gunk up your machine and make it stick more in the long run…you decide). Pre-heat your waffle iron on the hottest setting (this is how mine needs to be…really hot to get that nice crust). Go as hot as you can go with yours, without hitting the burn level. Waffle irons are like ovens and microwaves…zero consistency. So go with your gut on how hot to make yours.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, white whole wheat flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, milk, melted butter, eggs and vanilla. Add to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Don’t overmix…your batter will be lumpy.
- At this point, your waffle iron should be hot and ready to go. But pause a beat. Let your batter hang out a sec. I always think the batter performs better when you let it chill and mingle a bit before it hits the heat. This is the perfect time to mix up a Bloody Mary or pop open some champagne. I’m talking maybe ten minutes. This is not totally necessary if you’re impatient.
- Pour the batter in your waffle iron and set the timer on 4 minutes…but you know your waffle maker better than I do. Use that number as a ballpark. In the Hello Kitty waffle iron, it would have been 3 minutes MAX.
- If you’re serving a crowd, you would obviously double the recipe and have the oven on a low 200 degrees F. Set a cooling rack on top of a cookie sheet and place in the oven. Set the finished waffles on the cooling rack in the oven as they come out of the waffle iron.
- Ideally, you serve the waffles as soon as they come out of the waffle iron. They’re best that way. I like to sprinkle with powdered sugar. It looks pretty. Always 100% pure maple syrup in my house. It’s a rule. Sometimes we sprinkle with blueberries so it’s transformed into a health breakfast. Really.
Ahh waffle weather. I feel like waffle weather should be every day…why are they so good?!
I feel you on Costco…but yeah you basically buy a few things and your bill is like $300 and you’re like what?!! But then you’ve got 100 lbs of food and you’re good..