Thursday, May 15, 2008

The Search For Perfect Waffles



I’m very picky about my waffles. (Ok, so I’m very picky about most of my cooking.) For years I scoured through cookbooks trying to find the ultimate waffle recipe. I knew they had to be light and crispy with lots of flavor. I tried the recipes in all my favorite cookbooks: Favorite Comfort Food by Martha Stewart (by the way, her book has the best pancake recipe ever), How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman, The Joy of Cooking, The New Best Recipe, and several recipes on the food network website including Alton Brown’s recipe. All produced good, but not the best waffles. The hunt continued.

Then I bought CookSmart by Pam Anderson a few years ago and fell in love with her waffle recipe. This was it. The perfect waffle. Sometimes I buy cookbooks and find a winner of a recipe and think, "Even if this was the only good recipe inthis book, it was worth the money." That's how much I love this recipe. I modified the recipe just a touch (I didn’t see much difference for whipping the egg whites separately and then folding them into the batter.) The only drawback is that they are high in fat, but I guess that’s what makes them so crispy and good. I think the high oil content and using cornstarch is the secret. This recipe makes a lot but I love leftovers heated in the toaster the next day. (Makes 13 round waffles or 20ish square ones.)

Best Waffles Ever
2 ¼ cups flour
¾ cup cornstarch
1 ½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
3 tablespoons sugar
2 ½-3 cups buttermilk
¾ cup vegetable oil
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Whisk the dry ingredients, whisk the wet ingredients. Stir them all together. If your waffle iron (like mine) has different settings, Set the iron to a high setting for crispy waffles. As waffles cook, place them in the oven on the rack, in a single layer for 5 minutes. Do not skip this step or your waffles will steam and get soggy on your plate.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I always add applesauce in place of the oil and add a touch of cinnamon! I love dessert for breakfast :-)

Ilene said...

Um, I don't even have a waffle iron. I did but it broke several years ago. Perhaps this will inspire a trip to the store; especially with all of the lovely strawberries in season.

Carry Grace said...

Yum, these sound delish!

Casey said...

Yum! We'll have to try them. We use Alton Brown's recipe and think that's great. I can't imagine better ones. And we definitely don't like soggy waffles.

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