Strike while the waffle iron is hot for brunch
Though they require special equipment and are trickier to cook for a crowd than a pan of home fries or a stack of pancakes, waffles are fun for leisurely weekends -- as long as guests don't mind waiting while the waffle iron cranks out those big crisp squares. Made from a rich batter, waffles should have golden exteriors and tender interiors, with deep wells for butter, syrup, and fruit topping to pool into.
This breakfast treat has popped in and out of fashion in the last 100 years (it's in now). And though waffle irons might be tucked into the recesses of a kitchen cupboard, when they're pulled out, dusted off, and heated for the traditional batter, they're a welcome sight to everyone in the household. This time of year, as families gather for graduation parties and wedding celebrations, a trusty waffle iron might come in handy.
At the Centre Street Cafe in Jamaica Plain, two variations of waffles appear on the brunch menu and occasionally at lunch. Cornmeal-oatmeal waffles are topped with maple-whipped cream and seasonal fruit, and ''fly out of the kitchen," says owner Felicia Sanchez. Raised waffles, made from a yeast-based batter, are crisp and delicate, with a texture that Sanchez compares to a sugar doughnut. ''I could eat them till the cows come home," she says.
Waffles are thought to have come from Holland in the late 18th century, writes Harold McGee in ''On Food and Cooking." A 1930s edition of Fannie Farmer's ''Boston Cooking School Cookbook" includes recipes for chocolate, sweet potato, and rice waffles, while a mid-1960s ''Joy of Cooking" suggests adding raw bacon to a cornmeal batter or serving creamed foods, leftovers, and ice cream on the griddle cakes. That trend of using waffles as a catch-all base was encouraged by the electric waffle iron companies, according to James Beard's ''American Cookery." The late writer dismissed waffles' appearance at breakfast, lunch, and dinner as ''a bore."
Recipes for bacon and cornmeal waffles don't appear in too many contemporary cookbooks, though a handful of variations remain popular, including waffles with heavy cream, sour cream, or buttermilk, and batters that call for yeast and are left to rise overnight.
This raised variety is a traditional Belgian waffle, says pastry chef Delphin Gomes, who explains that the light yeasted batter allows the waffles to achieve their characteristic height without becoming too heavy. Yeast gives the batter more volume, says the French-born chef, and the cooked waffle is ''crispy but light." Recipes relying only on eggs as leaveners will result in rubbery waffles, says Gomes, who directs the pastry program at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts. Adding yeast to a batter ''allows you to cut back on the eggs and cut back on the milk," and therefore lower the fat content, he says.
Raised waffles were the favorite at an informal tasting recently; participants sampled buttermilk, raised, and four-grain waffles. Many cooks use buttermilk for waffle and pancake batters because of its tang and for the tender treats it produces. Next to the yeasted version, buttermilk waffles seemed heavy and dull. The four-grain version, with pulverized oats and plenty of crunchy cornmeal, was appreciated for its rustic texture and hearty flavor, but neither sample outdid the delicate raised squares.
If it's yeast you're using, make the batter the night before. If you forget, says Sanchez, the Jamaica Plain restaurateur, hot water and hot milk can speed the rising process. When preparing waffles for a crowd, keep the cooked waffles in a low oven until you're ready to serve. Raised waffles ''can get really crispy on the outside without vulcanizing the inside," says Sanchez, so a few minutes in the oven -- while the others cook -- won't hurt them.
As anyone who has ever popped an Eggo waffle into a toaster oven knows, the squares or rounds freeze and reheat well. Add butter, syrup, lemon curd, jam, yogurt, or fruit.
Just don't serve them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
