Not Quite a Blog

As I said a while back, I'd heard that my Aunt Catherine's Waffle Recipe wasn't working out for some people.

I had made the recipe a few times before, so I hadn't a clue as to what the potential problem was. Yesterday, I made the recipe again and had very good results. In that spirit, I've written up a more verbose version of the recipe, trying to give a few clues about the more tacit elements of the recipe.

A verbose version of my aunt Catherine's waffle recipe...

Ingredients:

(makes 6 large waffles)

• 2 c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 eggs, separated
• 2 c. milk
• 4-6 tbsp. oil or melted butter, margerine

Directions:

1. Add dry ingredients to a medium bowl, whisk to combine thoroughly with a wire whisk. Pour the dry ingredients into a sifter on wax paper and then sift dry ingredients onto the wax paper.
2. Get a large bowl and your mixer ready. Separate the eggs by cracking the whites carefully in the mixer bowl and placing the two yolks at the bottom of the large bowl. In the large bowl, beat egg yolks until well beaten, add milk & oil. Whisk well.
3. Turn on mixer with whisk attachment at a few stops less than high speed.
4. Grab the edges of the wax paper and pour dry stuff into wet stuff, mix (do not overmix).
5. When egg whites are stiff, gently fold into batter. You can tell when egg whites are stiff by stopping the mixer and seeing if the peaks the mix holds when you pull the whisk out are stiff (stand straight up without any droop). This is key. When you go to fold this into the batter, it will not want to combine with the batter. That's ok. Just fold gently for a minute or two until it combines a bit.
6. Drop these with a measuring cup onto a hot waffle iron that sizzles when you dribble water on it. You'll want to drop enough batter so that it reaches the edges before you close it and then let the top iron gently fall on the bottom. It will take about 3-4 minutes for the waffles to cook. They should be golden and springy with no batter uncooked in the middle.