I had just moved back to Minnesota, and slowly began the process of unpacking. I was digging through boxes of stuff that’d been living in storage when I pulled out my oil splattered Belgian waffle maker. I immediately tossed it into the garage sale pile.
But it needed to be scrubbed. So, I did that, to the tune of about 25 minutes. Then it hit me- I just wasted 25 minutes of my life to earn a buck, literally (that was my proposed price tag). Silly. At this point, and it did become a pride issue at this point, I saved it from it’s fate as a secondhand appliance thrown haphazardly into the back of somebody’s beat up minivan, I resurrected it to its full glory. And since then I’ve been in waffle production, almost every morning. It’s daily use has now become a ritual, and my kiddos give me a totally peeved look when the waffle house is not in production just to let me know that cereal and toast are no longer acceptable.
I first developed a curiosity, then a mild obsession with the idea that the my basic Belgian waffle recipe had room for improvement (gourmet-ifying). So I thought of beer, and naturally Belgian beers to go with the Belgian theme, duh. Well, I ended up whipping up this recipe on a beautiful autumn day for my friends at St. Paul’s Wine Thief, and then it turned into a full on appetizer bar which accompanied the afternoon’s wine tasting. The reviews came back very positive, and I hope you’ll like it too if you decide to give it a try. Tweak it to your own specs. I have about a hundred more ideas about how to do them next time. The variations get my little wheels spinnin.
With the help of the nifty bearded gents at The Ale Jail, we settled on Minnesota’s own Surly Brewing Co. Cynic, which is a tasty little number made in a Belgian-style Saison. A Saison is a beer brewed with orange peel and coriander, in case you’re wondering.
This makes a savory waffle, a fun little idea for an hors d‘oeuvre or in our case, afternoon noshing. You could sweeten them up as a brunchy treat with a tablespoon of sugar mixed into the dry ingredients, and finish with with sweet toppings, like berries and whip.
Surly Cynic Beer Waffles
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
5 Tbsp olive oil
3/4 cup warm water
1 cup of Surly Cynic beer, at room temperature
2 large eggs
Roasted, salted pumpkin seeds
Mascarpone
Sea salt, big flaky style
In a large mixing bowl whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
In a separate medium-sized mixing bowl mix the olive oil with, water, and beer. Add in the eggs and whisk together. It will foam up so take cfile://localhost/Users/AprilStar77/Desktop/A843E8lCcAA-ARC-1.jpg-large.jpegare that your bowl is large enough.
Make a well in the dry ingredients and fold in the wet ingredients. Whisk until smooth.
Heat your Belgian waffle maker and grease lightly with olive oil. Pour 1/4 cup into the waffle maker, and heat for a couple minutes or until your preferred level of goldeny deliciousness.
Finish with a dollop of Mascarpone, a light dusting of high quality sea salt and a sprinkling of roasted pumpkin seeds.
Next time I want to whip some pumpkin puree into the Mascarpone for a dash of flavor, and put it into a squirty bottle and drizzle it over the waffle so that it’s distributed onto every tasty bite. Deliciousness.
*This blog post is my own, but was originally published at Roasted Passion, Fermented Love
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