Karl’s Egg 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 almost exactly Martha Stewart’s recipe (again lower sugar). This time I thought I would make a radical change—no milk.

Over time, I have added various fruits and nuts to the recipe, but this time I thought to take it a bit further. I have been making challah lately and I wondered if you could make waffles without milk in the same way. One change I had to make for this posting was to reduce the amount of baking powder—without the milk to neutralize it—two teaspoons the waffles tasted overly salty.

Karl’s Egg Waffles

Ingredients

1¼ cup AP flour
1 tsp. baking powder (aluminum free, preferred)
¼ tsp. Kosher salt

2 Tbs. Karl’s Orange Infused Sugar
4 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted

4 large eggs

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: Set a cover over the cup. At some point, the moisture in the butter may turn to steam and “pop” the butter right out of the cup—leaving a very messy cleanup.

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—although fingers work the best.

5. Put the eggs in a large one cup measure and scramble them well.

6. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the eggs into the depression.

7. 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 overwork 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, but any flour lumps will continue to absorb the liquid and it will be OK.

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

9. 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.

10. Spoon the batter over the waffle iron and close the lid.

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 when I first add the batter.

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

12. 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.

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

Note: This recipe produces about five 8-inch waffles.

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

Note: My wife likes a poached egg with her morning waffle.