Waffles with Fruit

      

Every once in a while my stomach craves a hearty, delicious waffle. Unfortunately, I have high standards for waffles...standards that my cooking skills cannot meet. You see, once upon a time I traveled to Brussels, Belgium with a friend of mine. Without knowing much about the city, we traveled to the city center (like every good tourist in Europe does) and decided to pop into a cozy little restaurant for a waffle. I know, I know, it sounds cliché--a Belgian waffle in Belgium. I'm okay with being cliché though because it was the *BEST* waffle I have ever had. Every waffle I will ever eat will be compared to this waffle. Luckily, I was able to dig up a photo to share. I also found another picture that I think you might all like, but I've placed it at a more discreet location at the bottom of this post.

Does that not look amazing? We didn't even eat our waffles with syrup; the taste and texture were perfect without it. I found out later that this is actually called a Liege waffle. It was dense and heavy and sugary and warm and satisfying in every way a waffle should be. I have been scouring the Internet ever since that day to try and find a recipe that would match my waffle experience in Brussels. I did find this recipe and really wanted to make it, but I didn't have half the ingredients or the right waffle iron. I instead made a completely different type of waffle, fully knowing that it would not live up to my expectations. Don't get me wrong though...it was pretty tasty for being just a regular waffle, especially with the fruit topping.

The waffle recipe I used requires overnight preparation because there is yeast involved. Don't get scared though! It only takes about five minutes to combine the ingredients, cover the bowl, and pop the batter into the fridge to rest overnight. Then when you wake up in the morning, all you have to do is plug in the waffle iron. As you can see, I got a little over-zealous with the batter and had some major spillage happening.

Waffle Recipe (makes about 4-5 waffles):

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup spelt flour

1/2 package active dry yeast

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 cup vegetable oil (you could also use butter here instead)

2-3 tablespoons brown sugar

1 1/2 cups milk

2 eggs

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine the flours, yeast, and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the oil, sugar, milk, eggs, and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk for 2 minutes or until very thoroughly combined. The mixture should be thin. If it seems too thick, add a little more milk. Cover the bowl and place in the fridge overnight. Remove the batter the next morning and follow your waffle iron's instructions. Top with fruit (see recipe below), powdered sugar, and a little bit of maple syrup.

Fruit Salad:

1/2 pineapple, chopped

2 kiwis, peeled and chopped

1 apple, chopped

1 pear, chopped

2 small blood oranges, peeled and segmented

1 cup pomegranate seeds

1 tablespoon honey

juice from 1/2 a lemon

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Put all of the fruit in a bowl. In a separate small bowl, combine the cinnamon, lemon juice, and honey. Warm the small bowl in the microwave for about 20 seconds and give the mixture a quick stir. Pour the lemon and honey over the fruit and stir the mixture so that each piece of fruit has a light coating.

As promised, here is me in Brussels taking a bite out of the biggest plastic waffle I have ever seen.

Have a lovely day. :)