Saturday, May 09, 2009

In The Morning, I'm Makin' Waffles!

Somewhere at one of the many grandparent's houses, The Barracuda got the idea of waffles. He has been on a mission ever since to have these tasty treats for breakfast, dinner, snacks and any other time he can find a way to squeeze in the suggestion, "We could have waffles..."

With the recent addition of buttermilk to our household, waffles weren't too far off. The only hold out had been the waffle maker. I used this excuse time and again as the reason that waffles hadn't made their appearance. After all, if someone had invented Bisquick then waffles had to be just plain tiresome to make from scratch. I don't know if the previous waffles were Eggo's or not, but in our house we mix our waffles.

Ever resourceful, The Barracuda visited my father's house as per usual and happened to find the old household waffle maker in the pantry. This would have been no issue before, but since the advent of reading there isn't much that passes The Barracuda by. So he asked, "Grandpa, can we borrow your waffle maker?" To which my father looked both sad and baffled, he didn't think he owned one. As you can see, the waffle maker got lots of use over at his house. It turns out this waffle maker was a hold out from the divorce and had been sitting in the pantry ever since being unpacked. The Barracuda, prompt as ever, went scurrying off to procure his new found treasure and prove its existence. Now our household has a waffle maker. Blast the ever resourceful child!

Waffles have now made a very fond entrance into our breakfast lives. Where once there was no breakfast at all, only coffee, there are now meals spent together. On Saturday and Sunday mornings we now sit together and eat a breakfast of pancakes or waffles. Jules and I are all about the pancakes, The Barracuda wants the waffles, so we compromise.

One batch of waffles makes six large waffles. There is no way, even with Jules gorging himself, that our family can eat 6 large waffles. The extras are saved in a Ziploc baggy for the rest of the weeks' mornings before work and school. This way I don't have to get up unrealistically early to make waffles, then do the dishes. (If that were the case there would be no waffles.)

Surprisingly, waffles are crazy simple! I don't know what Mr. Bisquick was thinking inventing an entirely new product to make something so very, very simple. Isn't there cancer to cure? All that it takes are two eggs, some flour, a little baking powder, and milk. So here is our families version of waffles:

Ingredients
2 eggs, separated
2 cups of flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups of buttermilk
3 Tblespns honey
1/8 teaspoon Allspice
1/4 teaspoon Cardamon

3-4 Tblspns of butter (I just scoop some out of the jar)

You are going to need three bowls (don't worry, two wash really really easily) and a whisk. Separate the eggs into two of the bowls. Whisk the egg whites till they form stiff peaks - this is definitely the hardest part. Set aside the egg whites and add the buttermilk, honey, Allspice, and Cardamon to the egg yolks. Whisk them all together and set aside. In the third bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder. In our family we don't really use salt, but if yours does add a 1/2 teaspoon of salt into the flour mixture.

Make a well in the flour and pour in the egg yolk goo by thirds. Mixing thoroughly between pours. Melt the butter and pour into the egg yolk goo, mix thoroughly. Fold in the egg whites and you're done!

The entire process takes about 10 minutes or less! Waffles make a great breakfast, and easy brunch, a quick dinner, and just about everyone likes them. Not only this, but with summer here the fruit you can put on top of them has just multiplied significantly. The best part of the homemade waffles - other than eating them - is that everyone thinks they are super difficult, just like I used to! You can be super mom with little effort at all and no one would no! You could even surprise mom tomorrow with a batch of them and she would think you went to enormous amounts of trouble. A great Mother's Day present for very little cost and not much effort, but lot's of love.

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