Falstaff Waffles

This recipe is on version 2, updated with one less egg, 10% more milk, and a no extra step separating the egg whites.

These are a kind of liege waffle, except with more milk, a pleasing amount of butter, and significantly more eggs. This makes them into a miniature meal. The high sugar content means no syrup is necessary, they are perfectly self-contained, so they make a nice snack for working outside or hiking.

The exterior is crisp, and is achieved mostly by caramelizing sugar added at the last moment, and the interior is tender and slightly bready, like a brioche dough.

Named after the lusty Sir John Falstaff from Shakespeare’s plays, on a suggestion by Erin M.

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This recipe is forgiving, so don’t worry if you don’t see much yeast activity or get a big rise in the dough. But in general, the longer you wait for a rise, the better.

Warm the milk (microwave or stovetop) and add the yeast together in your mixing bowl. Add the small amount of sugar or maple syrup. Let sit in a warm spot for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, melt or soften the butter.

After the 10 minutes have passed, add the butter, eggs, and vanilla extract to the mixing bowl. Then add the salt and the flour. Because you have added the wet ingredients first, if you are using a KitchenAid or other stand mixer, it should mix quite nicely now with a dough hook. Mix for a few minutes, until it is a uniform paste-like yellow dough.

Cover and let sit for 45 minutes to an hour in a warm place. If you trust your oven’s proof setting, you could use that. With 5 minutes to go, plug in your waffle iron.

With this heavy dough, after 45 minutes you won't see a "rise" so much as a "bulge". These pictures were taken with an earlier version of the recipe where I was separating out egg whites, hence the extra-yellow dough in the first 2 pictures. You don't need to do that!

Just before you’re ready to start making the waffles, you will want to add the turbinado sugar and mix it around. This leaves the sugar mostly unincorporated, so that it has a chance to melt and caramelize on the outside. This gives the most pleasing gradient of color to the waffles.

Fill the waffle iron with blobs of dough. There is no need to pre-butter the iron. I like to make them smaller, because the edges are cuter, and because I feel better about eating ten of them that way. In my picture I filled it a bit larger than I find ideal. Again this step is forgiving.

It is easiest to remove the waffles with wooden chopsticks.

These pictures were taken with an earlier version of the recipe where I was separating out egg whites, your dough will look a little more uniform than this.

Serve warm or cold.

notes

I recommend a Krups waffle maker, such as this one. I use it with a heat level of 4.

I recommend SAF instant yeast. You can buy the little brick and decant it into a ball jar that you put in your freezer. You can use the yeast directly from the jar. The people (knights?) at King Arthur have done this with SAF yeast for over ten years in their freezer and its still activating well.

All purpose flour can be used, but 00 flour will give a slightly softer, more pastry-like texture to the waffles that is desirable. The turbinado sugar amount is approximate, to taste. I have tried from 120g to 180g.

You cannot rely on the presence of sugar to cover for all the other inputs - like with any pastry, the quality of each ingredient makes a difference. Cultured butter tends to have a better flavor and higher fat content than sweet cream butter.

Buy enough ingredients to make these again tomorrow.

frequently asked questions

— "Can these be overnighted? I want to make them ahead and let them rise in the fridge."

I think so. Though the dough will be very tough the next morning, so you may want to roll it out and cut it into pieces and manually add the turbinado sugar that way. A benefit of doing that is that each waffle could have a more consistent amount of sugar.

— "I want to try six eggs. Or seven"

Me too. Six eggs works well, but it makes the waffles so dense that next-day they are quite chewy, a little too tough. Excellent reheated or dipped into coffee, though.

— "What probably-inappropriate ingredient are you going to add to the next batch?"

Orange blossom water.

Don’t try adding molasses by the way. It ruins the beautiful color gradient.

— "Why did no one ever tell me the principle of wet-ingredients-first into the KitchenAid?"

I don’t know. It should be stapled onto the machine when you buy it.

— "200ml of milk is actually 207 grams, not 200. Milk is slightly more dense than water."

Listen: people that say baking is a science and not an art are wrong. With almost any batter, most of the ingredients have fairly decent leeway. I never measure vanilla, I just pour a satisfying-looking amount. I have all kinds of chickens and no idea what their egg sizes are. And if after mixing the sugar, I feel on that day a slight breeze from the window, or the cat rubbing against my leg, or a distant unnamed melancholy, I’ll add two spoonfuls more.