Karl’s Blueberry Waffles

Since I learned to make pancakes from scratch, I no longer have any commercial pancake  mix in the house. I had adapted a Martha Stewart pancake recipe—less sugar for diabetics—and I went on to adapt a waffle recipe—which turned out to be very close to Martha Stewart’s recipe (again lower sugar). Now, I decided to take it one step further by adding some dried blueberries for Jan’s Mother’s Day breakfast.

Karl’s Blueberry Waffles

Ingredients

1¼ cup AP flour
2 tsp. baking powder (aluminum free, preferred)
½ tsp. Kosher salt
2 Tbs. Karl’s Orange Infused Sugar

4 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted
¼ cup dried blueberries

2 large eggs
1 cup milk (I use low-fat lactose-free)

Directions

1. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt thoroughly in a medium bowl.

Tip: I run the mix through a flour sifter several times to get a good mix.

Note: I do not add the sugar at this point, because the bits of orange zest tend to get caught in the sifter.

2. Whisk the sugar into the dry ingredients.

3. Melt the butter in a small cup and drizzle it over the flour mixture.

Tip: Put the butter in a microwave safe custard cup and zap it for 20-30 seconds.

Note: Keep an eye out during the last few seconds, so that the butter does not boil over.

4. Whisk the butter into the flour to distribute it evenly.

Tip: You want to break the butter into small bits with no large lumps. A chopping motion with the end of the whisk is a good technique.

5. Mix in the dried blueberries.

Tip: You want to break up and clumps of berries that have stuck together.

6. Put the eggs in a large one cup measure and lightly scramble it with one quarter cup of the milk.

Tip: If you are not watching your weight, you may replace some of the milk with half and half.

7. Stir the rest of the milk into the measuring cup.

8. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the milk/egg mixture into the depression.

9. Whisk the ingredients together until there is no dry flour showing.

Tip: This is a bit tricky. You want to thoroughly mix the dry and wet ingredients, but you do not want to over work your batter. This would produce too much gluten and make your pancakes tough. Once you have only a few small lumps, stop.

Note: Some of these lumps will be butter or blueberries, but any flour lumps will continue to absorb the milk and it will be OK.

10. Let the batter rest for 5-10 minutes.

11. Plug in the waffle iron and let it heat up.

Tip: I am using a non-stick electric waffle iron. If you are using an old-fashioned stove waffle iron you may need to lightly Pam it and heat it over medium high heat. Wipe away most of the Pam with a paper towel, you want the merest smear of oil on your iron.

12. Spoon the batter over the waffle iron and close the lid—.

Tip: Press down firmly on the lid to squish the berries a bit.

Note: I find that about a quarter cup of batter fills my iron, but waffle irons come in many different shapes and sizes.  The batter expands while it is cooking to fill many of the gaps in the waffle iron. Do not pour the batter all the way to the edge of the cooking surface—it will expand over the lip and drip all over your counter. I leave about a one inch gap on all sides of the waffle iron.

13. My waffle iron is “idiot-proof,” when the light turns green the waffle is done.

14. Use a fork to lift the waffle out of the iron, and transfer it to a wire rack.

Tip: Laying the waffles on a flat surface will make the bottoms go soggy, as the steam comes out of the fresh waffle.

Note: To keep them warm, you may place the wire rack on a lipped baking sheet and put them in a warmed oven. Do not leave the oven on, or it will dry them out.

15. Continue making waffles until you run out of batter.

Note: This recipe produces about 5-6 8-inch waffles.

16. Serve the waffles warm, with butter and/or your favorite toppings.

Note: I served mine with fresh watermelon and chicken breakfast sausages.