Here is a peek at the yeasted waffle experience. You awaken and the dread you might normally feel at the prospect of leaving the bed dissipates as you remember the night before, when you whisked together a few things in a bowl sometime between dinner and wandering around the house, turning out the lights. Your eyes still closed, a smile plays around your lips and your shoulders relax as you realize you are only a few minutes away from eating some of the world’s most sublime waffles. How will you eat them? Plain? Adorned with whipped cream or yogurt? What syrup will you drizzle? Which fruit might you add? Or is it a day when simplicity feels best—a little maple syrup and nothing more?
Yeasted waffles are an absolute revelation, and if you have never tried one it is our honor to introduce you. This particular recipe is a play on our favorite, of which Marion Cunningham is the brilliant source. If you’re reading this from a location where you only have all-purpose flour, you can make these with two cups of all-purpose flour and enjoy a very satisfying breakfast. For years we made them only with all-purpose flour and for years they have brought us reliable culinary bliss.
Yeasted Waffles are an absolute revelation
Since we mix the dry ingredients in a bag before leaving on vacation (or we have all of them on hand when we’re home), we like to play with different flours for the exciting characteristics each can bring. Deborah Madison had the inspired idea to substitute buckwheat flour for a portion of the all-purpose. We’ve also had great results with cornmeal and oat flours. Whatever flour decisions you make, these waffles are extraordinarily crisp, light, and flavorful.
YEASTED CORNMEAL WAFFLES
Serves 5
Night before:
2 1/4 teaspoons (or 1 package) active dry yeast
1 1/4 cups all purpose or whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup cornmeal, oat, or buckwheat flour
1 teaspoon sugar
2 cups lukewarm milk (hotter than 100F will begin to kill the yeast)
8 tablespoons butter, melted, or vegetable oil
1/2 tsp salt
Morning of:
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Melt the butter in a small saucepan, adding the milk before the melting is complete (or just add oil to the warm milk if you’re using it instead of butter). Be careful not to overheat the milk and butter or your yeast will suffer. While it melts, combine the yeast, sugar, flours, and salt in a large bowl with a cover (the batter will rise over night).
Add the milk and butter to the bowl, whisk thoroughly, then cover for the night. Some people put their batter in the refrigerator; we never have space for that and we want the batter to acquire a hint of yeasty tang.
While the waffle iron heats, whisk two eggs and 1/2 teaspoon soda into batter. Cook according to waffle-iron instructions. (We’ve found this recipe works best in either irons that make thin waffles or irons that flip upside down during cooking.)
Unless your people come to the table at orderly intervals, heat the oven to 200 degrees, put a cooling rack onto a sheetpan, and put cooked waffles onto it, and into the oven, as they come off the iron. You decide whether you want to cook them all before inviting others to the table, so you can sit down together, or whether you’ll invite people as soon as you have one or two ready, so you can give the job to someone else while you sit down and eat.
We’ve just remembered that our freezer is holding a couple of extra waffles that tomorrow morning will spend a few minutes in the toaster oven before giving us a very happy start to the day.
