Tuesday, 4 September 2007

Waffling on....

Due to popular demand, here is my mother-in-law's recipe for waffeln (pronounced "vofflen" in German).

Waffeln are served at kaffe und kuchen (coffee and cake), the equivalent of afternoon tea in a country where they have no concept of black tea, and will offer herbal tea if you want an alternative to the strong bitter filter coffee they drink.

I celebrated my birthday this year in Germany, and was the guest of honour at kaffe und kuchen with the family. The photos are from then.


Waffeln

250g margarine or softened butter
150g sugar
6 eggs
1 tspn vanilla essence
pinch of salt
500g plain flour
1/2 tspn baking powder
250 ml milk
250 ml soda or plain mineral water

Cream butter or margarine and sugar until pale; add vanilla, salt and eggs and mix well. Sift the flour with the baking powder. Gradually add the flour, alternating with the liquid ingredients, until the batter is smooth and completely mixed (but avoid over-beating).

Cook in waffle iron according to manufacturer's directions, and serve with warm cherry sauce and whipped cream.



This recipe makes a whopping great pile of waffles:


Warm Cherry Sauce

440g tin of cherries in syrup
1/2 tspn vanilla essence
1 Tbspn cornflour

Place the cherries, including syrup, and vanilla in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil over a medium heat before reducing heat to a simmer. Mix cornflour to a thin paste with water; add to simmering cherries and simmer until sauce thickens. (You may wish to add more cornflour for a thicker sauce) .



Waffeln can be packaged up and frozen; defrosted and gentley warmed they are just as good as when freshly cooked.

Now, I know lots of you have had waffles in one form or another before - what's your favourite topping? Or addition to the batter?

10 comments:

Denise said...

MAPLE SYRUP and WHIPPED BUTTER!

But the cherries and whipped cream were DAMN good.

Must. Buy. Waffle. Iron.

Thanks for the recipe :)

Rose Red said...

I have to admit I like sweet and savoury - so I quite like waffles (or pancakes for that matter) with crisp bacon and maple syrup...does that make me a total food heathen?

Bells said...

thanks George. After payday I'm going to look for a waffle iron!

I've had both the butter and maple syrup version and the maple syrup and bacon version. Yum on both counts.

But the cherry sauce was brand new to me and I LOVED it!

Michelle said...

Every school holidays, my mum would take my brother and I to town to go shopping, and for lunch we would always go to the Coles cafeteria and order a strawberry milkshake and waffles with caramel sauce and icecream. Invariably, only half the waffle was eaten and we would be groaning in the car all the way home.

That was in Townsville. My QM did the same thing as a child in Bendigo. It must have been a tradition in the 70s.

While caramel and icecream are still my favourite toppings, they are nowhere near as classy as the cherry sauce and cream I had on Saturday. Yum! Thanks for sharing the recipe.

amy said...

I always liked Belgian waffles with fresh strawberries and real whipped cream. I used to work at a Kosher deli in Providence (RI, USA) that had the most perfect waffles. Sadly, it's now closed. According to my recipe book, actual Belgian waffles are a yeast dough that needs to rise, so I haven't made them at home, but I have made regular waffles with real whipped cream and strawberries, prompting my boys to ask, confused, "But where's the syrup?"

And it must be REAL maple syrup, as well. None of the imitation stuff that clog the supermarket shelves. From Vermont, or Canada. Yum.

Rhonda said...

I put pecans in our waffles and then top them with a whipped mixture of butter, cream cheese, cinnamon and maple syrup. But I am going to try warm cherry sauce next time. Have you ever tried making it with the frozen cherries? I wonder?

TinkingBell said...

Try blueberries in the waffle batter and then top with fresh (or frozen) bleuberries - if you want to go completely overboard add blue berry yoghurt! We also like bacon, poached eggs and maple syrup - yes the real real stuff, and banana and maple syrup, and sometimes add chopped ham and grated cheese to the batter - omitting any sugar, and theres a really nice one with buttermilk and herbs - oh hell - just go to google and type in 'waffle recipes' - another favourite is lemon waffles yum

Tanya said...

Oh my goodness - how delicious do those waffles look? Drooooooolll!!!

Em said...

Belgian-style waffles are they only ones I've had. My favorite topping, I have to say, is ice cream and sundae fixings. My mom used to make these for my sisters and me in the morning when we had sleep-over birthday parties. Yours look wonderful, maybe one day I'll commandeer my mom's waffle iron and try them out.

Alwen said...

I grew up with real maple syrup & butter, and the last couple of years we've finally tapped our big maples and tried making our own syrup (yum).

But if the waffle recipe is tasty enough, I confess that as a kid I would steal and eat anye leftover ones plain!