Waffle Art Thou, Romeo?

Oh please. Stop with your groaning over my title pun. I am merely commenting on the romance of the glorious waffle. And it IS romantic. Pancakes are everyday but waffles are for special occasions. Crispy on the outside, light and fluffy on the inside. Slathered with good butter and decadent syrup of choice or piled high with fresh fruit and whipped cream. Or inundated with a rich gravy full of shredded turkey or chicken or sausage. Or serving as a unique sandwich bread, with generous dollops of cream cheese and containing tomatoes and onions and mozzarella cheese.

Excuse me. I had to pause for a moment because the first paragraph made me lightheaded. I'd have fainted dead away but I just finished a dinner of toasted waffle sections spread with beans and rice with chicken bits so I was resistant to the sensory overload. Your mileage may vary.

The waffle I ingested was one of those pictured above but I couldn't tell you which one, exactly. I tossed 'em all in the freezer the other day and raid the supply whenever the urge hits. A minute or two with the toaster and I'm good to go -- in whatever direction available food takes me. Hot waffles are good with peanut butter for midnight snacks, in case you haven't tried that version yet. Or with a scoop of ice cream and a drizzle of hot fudge.

This particular recipe came from a fellow waffle lover named Sheryl and you can find her here. She has other waffle recipes but I followed the one on the linked page, called Even Easier Crispy Waffles. This is a yeast batter recipe and is mixed up the night before you want to make the waffles, then put in the refrigerator to slow-rise overnight. I like it because you don't have to deal with the extra step of beating egg whites and folding them in. The batter is light as air just the way it is. I didn't have any beer handy or I would have used it as a liquid instead of the milk. Man, those waffles would have floated to the table on their own if I had!

Hmmm. Maybe I'd better copy her recipe here -- just in case. But I urge you to check out her web site for the other recipes, too. Anyway, here we go:

Even Easier Crispy Waffles
2 cups flour
1-1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 stick melted butter
2 cups warm milk (heated to about 110 degrees)
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

The night before:
Combine and whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl: flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Combine the melted butter and milk. Add the mixture to the dry ingredients. Whisk eggs and vanilla together in a separate small bowl. Add the egg-vanilla mixture to the other mixture, and whisk until well-combined. Cover with plastic wrap and stick in the fridge until tomorrow morning.

The next morning:
Prepare waffle iron as usual. Stir the batter to deflate it (it should be puffy and frothy). Add to waffle iron the same way you would other batter, keeping in mind that this batter will rise more than batters that use baking powder instead of yeast. Eet smakkelijke!

Thank you, Sheryl! Waffle on!