Oh Waffle!

On mornings when I am planning to make waffles I like to spend a few extra minutes in bed, just preparing for the chaos that will inevitably happen in my kitchen. It isn’t that waffles are that difficult or messy to make, but more that the kids will want to help. Waffles represent a fun time cooking with mom.  I love these moments, but they definitely take mental preparation, and coffee…lots of coffee.   This recipe has really evolved since I got my waffle iron at my wedding shower, oh so many years ago.  I started with just pancake batter in the waffle iron, and slowly have adjusted and read up on and practiced at making a flavorful and crispy waffle.   So let the insanity begin.

First thing I do is get a stick of butter into a dish and melt it in the microwave.  Then we sift all of our dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, sugar and salt) together into another bowl.  This is definitely the job for a seven year old.

Next we move on to our eggs.  I separate two of the eggs and start whipping up the whites.  I love how they look like clouds!

While I do that, Captain America mixes the yolks with another egg, some buttermilk and the vanilla. I love the flavor that real buttermilk brings to this.  Sometimes I  just don’t have buttermilk on hand so I mix milk and vinegar to get the acidity I need for whatever I am making, but I would not do that here.  The buttermilk adds a great flavor to the waffles, that you just can’t recreate.

Now we pour our dry ingredients and our melted butter into our eggs and buttermilk.  It is very easy to forget about that butter in the microwave, a few times I have wondered what went wrong with my waffles only to find the butter sitting in the microwave later on in the day.  All of the Avengers might need to unite for this stirring task.

Now comes mom’s job of gently folding the whites into the batter.  I don’t know why but my kids don’t seem to grasp what the word gentle means.

You should fold just until incorporated, you don’t want to over mix.  If you still see some egg white thats ok!

Onto the waffle iron.  Basically just follow the instructions that came with your machine. One of the biggest things for crispy waffles is not undercooking them, this will take some practice to know just how long they need to cook in your maker to get that beautiful dark golden color. After her brothers’ hard work the baby gets to enjoy her job.