Waffles

[housewolf]

I'm watching Bobby Flay throwdown a NY Belgium Waffle street vendor.

Oh my gosh, I want one of that's guy's waffles right now! He makes 2 types - the one we Americans refer to as Belgium waffles (tall, deep pockets, light & airy, square) that the Belgiums call "Brussels waffles, and one called a Liege waffle that's made from a yeasted dough, still tall & deep pockets but chewy and irregular in shape. They use something called "pro sugar" (I think that's the name) - small balls of sugar, not the loose crystals that we typically use - or maybe it's "pearl sugar" and they sprinkle it on the waffle iron to create a crisp, sweet crunch oon the outside of the waffles. A whole variety of different toppings - some look like a sundae on top, others are more simple like prailine topping with bananas.

Holy cow, do I ever want a good belgium waffle mmaker right now! My waffle maker makes very thin heart-shaped waffles and I can make some good waffles with it, but right now, those belgium waffles just look SO good!

What kind of waffles do you make and what kind of waffle iron do you have?

[grasswire]

1. I'd be happy for just an Eggo right now.

I'm watching too, and my o my. I want my Eggo with blackberry jelly. Now are they making aebleskivers??

[housewolf]

8. No aebleskivers

but yeasted Flemish waffles called Liege Waffles. Gotta find some pearl sugar...

[ginnyinWI]

2. I just bought this one last summer:

http://www.amazon.com/Presto-03510-FlipSide-Belgian-Waffle/dp/B000TYBWIG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1264055618&sr=8-1

Presto, on sale at Kohl's. It converted my husband from, "Oh, I don't really like waffles" to "Mmmm these are really, really good!". Instead of crispy and hard, these are wonderfully light and soft and irresistible. A totally different animal from Eggo toaster waffles or thinner homemade waffles that you have to attack with a knife.

The waffle maker comes with a recipe to make them from scratch and they bake in about 3 min., but if you use a waffle mix instead, beware--the time should be cut down to 1 min, 15 sec. or so or you will have toast.

There is a timer on this waffle maker. You pour the batter on one side and spread it around a bit, then close and flip so that both sides fill out equally. Makes a fine waffle!

[housewolf]

9. Presto Flipside waffler

That waffle maker has tremendously positive reviews at Amazon.com. About the only negative comment about it is that it doesn't have a browinging control. Do you feel that your waffles are browned enough?

[ginnyinWI]

12. They will get too brown if you don't watch them.

So yes if you like them brown and crispy you can do that. I like them softer though. The main reason I bought this one is that it had the deepest pockets of all the so-called Belgian waffle makers at Kohl's that day. And it didn't cost and arm and a leg. I at first thought the flip feature was kind of gimmicky, but I can see the usefulness of it now that I'm using it.

[MagickMuffin]

3. I don't currently own a waffle iron, but, I have been doing something similar regarding sugar

I have been using this technique since I was a teenager. I always liked the cinnamon toast cooked under the broiler, especially when the sugar had completely dissolved and melted with the cinnamon.
However, I decided one day to experiment and found the stove top method better than the broiler.

Here's my discovery: Melt butter in skillet place bread so it soaks up the butter, take bread out of the skillet sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on the buttered side, add a little more butter to skillet to melt, place prepared bread sugar cinnamon side down. Cook until bubbly. I usually turn bread over and rotate it around the skillet.


I also do this technique with French Toast. I sprinkle some sugar on the top before cooking.


I hope to acquire a waffle maker in the near future. I have always loved waffles more than pancakes. I guess I just love crunchy, crispy concoctions.

[housewolf]

10. I love cinnamon toast, too

But I've never thought of turning it sugar-side-down in a pan. I'll have to give that a try! Thanks for the idea.

I especially love cinnamon-sugar topped English muffins under the broiler... yummm!

[Phentex]

4. My son got a Waring Pro belgian waffle iron for his birthday...

so technically it's his, but he makes waffles for all of us.

Sometimes they are breakfast and sometimes dessert! MMMmmmmmmmmm...

[housewolf]

6. I've been considering this one

as well as the VillaWare Pro, but I'm a bit leery of them. I spent a while looking at them on Amazon.com, and checked a number of reviews. The reviews run about 1/3 negative to 2/3 positive for both. The biggest problem seems to be that after a short period of time the wafflers just stop working - seems they blow an internal fuse. One out of 3 negatives is pretty bad odds, it seems to me. Plus I actually purchased a waffler of a similar style from QVC a few years ago that broke on it's 3rd use (not the fuse but a little piece of plastic that allowed the heating elements to rotate) so it went back right away.

I'm intrigued by the concept of flipping the waffles but have this question: how much of a difference does it really make?

Did you use a different style of waffler before? What difference do you notice?

That's very sweet of your son to share his waffles. Does he have a recipe that he's happy with that he would be willing to share? Lucky you to not only have a a Pro waffler like that in the house but to have a chef to make them for you as well!

[TreasonousBastard]

13. It does make a difference. I've used the flip ones with good results, but...

now I have one that doesn't flip and the tops of the waffles don't always fill up.

I've experimented with different times and temperatures, various batters, and whatever else I could think of, but to get really nice looking waffles I end up with batter flowing out the sides.

Flipping largely solves the problem, but that can make more of a mess with the one I have. Could cause burns, too. And maybe a fire.

[Tesha]

14. The gizmo is called a "thermal fuse".

> The reviews run about 1/3 negative to 2/3 positive for both. The biggest problem
> seems to be that after a short period of time the wafflers just stop working - seems
> they blow an internal fuse.

The gizmo is called a "thermal fuse" or "thermal cut-out" or "thermal cut-off".
Its purpose is to prevent the appliance from catching fire if something in the
appliance gets "too hot" (where the exact definition of "too hot" depends on
the appliance).

o http://www.cci-tco.com/



Nowadays, with regulatory standards being what they are, almost every appliance
has one of these somewhere. In lots of cases (like battery chargers, box fans, and
such), the thermal fuses last forever because in normal operation, nothing in those
appliances gets at all hot; they only overheat when something within the appliance
has broken.

The situation is a bit tougher in "heating appliances" like coffee makers and waffle
irons. There, the very purpose of the appliance is to get hot. So the appliance
contains a thermostat that automatically switches off the electricity flowing to
the heater when the appliance gets appropriately hot. And it also contains this
"thermal fuse" that's set to a somewhat higher temperature. If something goes
wrong with the normal thermostat and it were to leave the heater running past
the normal operating temperature, eventually the appliance heats up to the point
where the thermal fuse blows. The appliance permanently stops heating but
*DOESN'T* catch fire. That's what happens to *SOME* waffle irons that stop
operating.

But there's one problem, though. Every ordinary heat/cool cycle also degrades the
thermal fuse a little. Depending on the design of the device, after a few tens of
cycles (a lousy design) or a few hundreds or thousands of cycles (for a good design),
the thermal fuse blows anyway, just because it "wore out" (the metal inside it crystallizes
and gets brittle) and not because anything got too hot.

If you're handy, in that second situation, they *CAN* be replaced. Mr. Tesha fixed
my daughter's waffle iron in exactly this way. For now, I'll spare you the boring
details of how to do the repair. Someday, it will blow again and he'll replace it
again -- he's already got a spare fuse waiting. ;). (On the other hand, when the
same thing happened to my quite-old coffee maker, he didn't want to bother
replacing the fuse and we just bought a new machine, although for some strange
reason he hasn't thrown the old coffee maker away yet!)

Also, if you buy a waffle iron with an adjustable thermostat (our free one has
this feature), you can run at a somewhat lower temperature than maximum.
This will cause less wear-and-tear on the thermal fuse than running "at full
throttle".

Tesha

[Tesha]

5. We found a free waffle maker on FreeCycle

and it was perfect - we made the kind with the whipped egg whites and they were light and fluffy - and surprise! they're even wonderful frozen...

but today I found this site... http://www.waffleizer.com/


how about... S'moreffles


http://www.waffleizer.com/.a/6a012875e7fa37970c012876d1e05d970c-800wi

[housewolf]

7. FreeCycle is amazing, itsn't it?

Lucky you to find a waffle iron there!

Thanks for the Waffleizer site - she's got some interesting things going on there!

I came across this site last night
http://recipes.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Category:Waffle_Recipes
There are waffle many sorts of waffle recipes there, including some from Germany and France.

Hope you're enjoying you waffle-find - often!

[Tesha]

11. Thanks!

Great link! I guess I've made the "german waffles"

and yes, the are really great

and I love FreeCycle - the last thing I gave away was a little Tea Set, my grandsons were done with it.
A wonderful woman who's 3 year old grand daughter was coming to stay for a while took it for tea parties...

[hippywife]

15. I have one that Bill bought me years

ago because he LOVES waffles. LOL It's a Toastmaster Belgian Waffle Maker. Non-stick, and you know I think I would have rather searched out an real old waffle iron without the non-stick coating, but it was a gift so I use it. It works well and he enjoys his breakfasts.

I usually make buckwheat waffles. Sometimes I top them with some of the peaches I canned last year with some pecans, too. Sometimes he just wants blueberries, and I froze a whole mess of them last year, so there are plenty.