The Liège Waffle
(Also known in the original
French as
Gauffre de Liège, or gauff' au suc' in
Wallonie. Thanks
Albert Herring!)
This is a recipe for a denser waffle, with embedded pearls of semi-caramelised sugar. Anyone who has eaten one (such as travellers through Bristol Temple Meads) wil be able to tell you why this is the best waffle recipe in the world. My mind boggles as to why this is not already here.
This recipe taken from Pamela M Weston's website (She appears to have learned this while actually living in Belgium) http://www.geocities.com/heartland/ridge/7310/Missions/culture01.html
Note the lack of water in this recipe, giving the denser, gooeier texture. The coarse sugar really is vital, as when the thing is cooked, the pearls melt, but only slightly, making the difference between these and store-bought, mass-produced waffles. Accept no substitute
The best way to eat Liege Waffles are warm and straight from the waffle iron, though you can add toppings if you like. (This really is gilding the lily, though).
The values given will make something like enough waffles for 4 people; the actual number of walls depends on the number of balls: Sneff suggests about 12; Mad propz to him for converting this to metric and reducing quantities. For those of you used to other units try checking cup, Volume Conversion Factors, Quick unit conversion, English units / Metric conversion factors, and last but most definitely not least Everything Kitchen Conversion Table.
- 2 cups (500ml) flour (plus extra for kneading)
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) caster sugar
- 1 tsp. dry yeast
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 cup (250 ml) milk
- 1/2 cup (250 ml) butter
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 tsp. vanilla
- 1/4 box pearl sugar (only found in Europe) or 1/2 cup (125 ml) coarsley crushed sugar cubes
Mix dry ingredients (flour, sugar, yeast, & salt). Warm milk and butter until butter has melted and add to dry ingredients and mix. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.
Dough will be soft. Knead dough adding flour as necessary. Then let dough rest and rise in a warm place until doubled. Put dough onto a floured board, flatten and sprinkle pearl sugar on dough. Knead sugar into the dough and then divide into 10-12 small balls. Let the balls rise again, covered, until doubled.
Bake in a waffle iron 2-5 minutes on medium high until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.