Belgian Waffles — deep-pocketed, crisp and light

i. Origin & history

Waffles descend from the medieval oublies and wafers baked between engraved iron plates in the Low Countries and France; the word itself comes from Dutch wafel. By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Belgium had developed two distinctive styles. The Brussels waffle (gaufre de Bruxelles) is made from a thin, yeast-raised batter, often lightened with whipped egg whites, and baked in a deep rectangular iron; it is light, crisp and not very sweet. The Liège waffle (gaufre de Liège) is made from a rich brioche-like dough studded with pearl sugar, which caramelises on the iron into a sticky, crunchy crust; it is denser, sweeter and usually eaten plain from street stalls.

Belgian waffles reached North America through world's fairs. They were shown at the 1958 Brussels Expo and at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, but the decisive moment was the 1964 New York World's Fair, where Maurice Vermersch and his family sold 'Bel-Gem' waffles topped with whipped cream and fresh strawberries. They were a sensation. The family is said to have changed the name from 'Brussels waffle' to 'Belgian' because many Americans did not know where Brussels was.

In the following decades the Belgian waffle became an American brunch standard. Electric 'Belgian waffle makers' with deep grids were sold for home kitchens, and hotel breakfast buffets made the flip-over waffle iron familiar to travellers everywhere. Along the way the recipe drifted: most American 'Belgian waffles' today are made from a baking-powder batter in a deep iron, rather than from the yeasted Brussels batter.

In Belgium itself, neither style is a breakfast food: waffles are an afternoon snack or a treat from a street stall, eaten with a dusting of icing sugar, or with cream and fruit in a tearoom. American toppings — maple syrup, fried chicken, butter and bacon — are an entirely North American development.

ii. What yeast and egg whites do

A Belgian waffle should be crisp enough to hold its shape under cream and fruit, but almost hollow inside. Two leaveners working together achieve that.

Yeast gives the batter both lift and flavour. During an hour's rise it fills the batter with carbon dioxide and produces the faintly malty, bready taste that distinguishes a proper Brussels waffle from a pancake-batter one. The fermentation also partly breaks down starches into sugars, which help the surface brown and crisp. A baking-powder batter, by contrast, rises only in the iron and tastes flatter.

Whipped egg whites, folded in at the end, add a second network of tiny air bubbles. In the hot iron those bubbles expand and the egg proteins set around them, giving an extremely light, open interior. The batter is relatively thin — wetter than for American waffles — so that it steams vigorously inside the iron, which also helps puff the waffle and dry the crust.

Crispness depends on heat and fat. The iron must be fully preheated so that the batter sizzles immediately, setting a crust before the inside cooks. Melted butter in the batter fries the surface against the plates. And waffles must not be stacked: steam from a fresh waffle softens the one beneath it. They should be cooked until steam stops pouring from the iron — the sign that most of the surface moisture has evaporated — and served at once or held on a rack in a low oven.

iii. Ingredients

Makes 4 servings · scroll the side panel to adjust

• 250 g plain flour
• 5 g instant yeast
• 15 g caster sugar
• ¾ tsp fine salt
• 375 ml whole milk, lukewarm
• 2 large eggs, separated
• 80 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus extra for the iron
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 200 ml double cream, whipped, to serve
• 300 g strawberries, sliced, to serve
• 2 tbsp icing sugar, to dust

Plain flour gives a tender, crisp waffle; bread flour makes them chewy. Some Belgian recipes replace part of the milk with sparkling water or beer, which makes the batter lighter still. The batter is only lightly sweetened, because the toppings bring the sweetness; add more sugar if you will eat them plain. You need a deep-grid Belgian waffle iron — the deep pockets are what define the style and hold the cream and fruit. The classic World's Fair topping is whipped cream and strawberries; in Belgium a dusting of icing sugar is enough.

iv. Method

1. Whisk the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add the warm milk, egg yolks, melted butter and vanilla and whisk to a smooth, fairly thin batter.
2. Cover and leave in a warm place for 1 hour, until bubbly and roughly doubled. (Or refrigerate overnight and bring back to room temperature for 30 minutes.)
3. Heat the oven to 100 °C (210 °F) and set a wire rack on a baking tray inside, for keeping waffles warm. Preheat the waffle iron fully.
4. Whisk the egg whites to soft, glossy peaks. Stir a third into the risen batter to loosen it, then fold in the rest gently with a spatula until no large streaks of white remain.
5. Brush the iron lightly with butter. Ladle in enough batter to fill the grid just to the tops of the ridges, close and cook for 4–6 minutes, until deep golden and the steam escaping from the iron has almost stopped.
6. Lift the waffle out onto the rack in the oven, in a single layer — never stacked — and repeat with the remaining batter.
7. Serve immediately, topped with whipped cream and strawberries and dusted with icing sugar.

v. Tips & common mistakes

• Preheat the iron completely. A lukewarm iron gives pale, soft waffles that stick. Wait for the ready light, then a little longer.
• Do not open the iron early. If it resists, the waffle is not set; forcing it tears the waffle in two. Wait until steaming slows.
• Fold the whites in gently. Over-mixing knocks out the air that makes the waffles light. A few streaks are fine.
• Do not overfill. The batter expands; fill just to the top of the grid, or it will spill out and the waffle will be dense.
• Keep them on a rack, not a plate. Waffles laid on a plate or stacked steam themselves soft within minutes.
• Use yeast for real flavour. The hour's rise is what gives a Brussels waffle its light, bready taste; a baking-powder batter makes a different, flatter waffle.

vi. Variations

Liège waffles use a stiff, buttery brioche dough rather than a batter, kneaded with Belgian pearl sugar just before cooking so the sugar caramelises on the plates; they are eaten warm and plain. Quick American Belgian waffles replace the yeast with 2 tsp baking powder and need no rise. Overnight waffles rest the yeast batter in the fridge for a deeper, more tangy flavour. Savoury versions with cheese and herbs, or the American chicken and waffles, are popular in the United States.

Other waffles and griddle cakes on DessertCat include Hong Kong's bubbly egg waffle, the Korean croffle made from croissant dough, Danish æbleskiver and American maple pecan pancakes. Korea's fish-shaped bungeoppang, a cousin of Japanese taiyaki, is also baked in a hinged iron mould.

vii. Serving & storage

In North America, Belgian waffles are a weekend brunch: with whipped cream and berries, with butter and maple syrup, or with bananas and chocolate sauce. In the Belgian manner, serve them in the afternoon with icing sugar and coffee. Either way, they should go from iron to table within minutes.

Leftover waffles freeze very well. Cool them on a rack, freeze in a single layer, then bag them; they keep for up to 2 months. Reheat straight from frozen in a toaster or a 180 °C (350 °F) oven for 5–8 minutes, which restores their crispness. The batter itself can rest in the fridge overnight, but once the egg whites are folded in it should be used within half an hour.

ix. More from North American

• Maple Pecan Pancakes — buttermilk stack with maple
• Egg Waffle — Hong Kong bubble waffle
• Croffle — Korean croissant-waffle
• Æbleskiver — Danish pancake puffs
• Strawberry Shortcake — berries, cream and cake
• Bananas Foster — rum-caramel bananas