They See Me Wafflin'

Earlier this summer, I broke down and bought a waffle iron. I'd spent weeks before searching and re-searching the same cabinets and closets, looking for the waffle maker we'd brought from our old house. Eventually, The Husband managed to convince me we'd tossed it due to lack of use. So, to the Amazon I went, to procure a new waffle iron (and a waffle cookbook, because why not?).

I'm really pleased with this Proctor-Silex 26500Y Belgian waffle iron. It's reasonably light, but sturdy, and stores upright between the bread bin and kitchen scale. Every day, I see the waffle iron and so, every day, I think about making waffles. This is much better than with the old waffle iron -- when we had it, it lived in a cupboard and we very seldom thought about making waffles.

Unsurprisingly, I've made waffles a bunch of times now and I have to say the basic batter recipes in the back of Tara Duggan's Waffles: Sweet and Savory Recipes for Every Meal are quite good. I've made the classic, buttermilk, and the breakfast version of the cornmeal waffle batters with very tasty results. If you find Duggan's cookbook at your library, I strongly suggest checking it out.

Another recipe I've made with great success is a variation on the buttermilk waffle recipe that came with the waffle iron. I modified it to use white whole wheat flour and orange or Mexican vanilla extract. I prefer it with orange extract, but the choice of extract really depends on what you plan to top the waffles with.

Whole Grain Waffles

Ingredients
1½ cups organic white whole wheat flour [King Arthur Flour]
1½ tsp baking powder [Bakewell Cream]
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt

½ cups nonfat organic buttermilk [Butterworks Farm]
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs [Farmers Cow]
1 capful extract of choice

Directions
In a medium bowl, whisk together first set of (dry) ingredients and set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together second set of (wet) ingredients. Add wet bowl to dry bowl and stir until batter is thoroughly mixed. Batter will be very thick and fluffy.

Cook your waffles according to the manufacturer's directions. For my Belgian waffle iron, each waffle took 1 scant cup batter and cooked for 5 minutes. Lay cooked waffles on a sheet pan in a warm oven to keep while you make the remainder.

The Husband eats his waffles smeared with Nutella so he was really pleased with the addition of orange extract to the batter -- every delicious forkful tasted of melted Terry's Chocolate Orange and waffle.

If you'd like a more orange-y waffle, you could stir in some orange zest. Mmm. Orange zest, orange extract, and mini chocolate chips would be awesome!