Belgian Waffles

I made Belgian Liege waffles from a recipe I found online.

I'm gonna copy it here, not because I want to rip it off, but because these things historically have a way of disappearing after a few years, and I don't want to lose the recipe. The ingredients are:

• 1 lb. (500g) plain flour
• 7g instant dried yeast (one sachet)
• 2 medium eggs
• 1 cup Whole Milk
• ½ lb. (250g) Butter
• 2 oz. (60g) honey
• Vanilla
• 10 oz (300g) pearl sugar (or loaf sugar, broken into small, 1/8'' 3mm chunks)

If you can't find pearl sugar, I did what they recommended, and moistened 300g of granulated sugar with just enough water to make it clump up, then put it in a 325 degree oven until it dried out. Once it's dry, break it up into half-sugar-cube-sized chunks.

I started the batter the night before, putting the flour & yeast into the Kitchenaid, and setting it to low as I cracked in the two eggs. Then added the milk & honey, and the melted butter. This turned into a really loose, sticky batter. I scraped down the sides of the bowl, covered it in plastic wrap, and left it to sit overnight.

I made the sugar blobs the next morning, and the batter had about doubled in size. I used the dough hook to mix in the sugar chunks, then left it for another half hour on top of the stove, which was warm from when I'd dried out the sugar.

With a ladle, I dropped in a giant blob of the batter into the hot waffle iron, and let it go 'till it was a dark brown. The sugar chunks melt inside the dough, forming these sweet channels of carmelized sugar that run through the waffle, and a nice, crunchy crust.

I served 'em with a really sparse drizzle of maple syrup, and a sliced strawberry. They freeze well, and just require a toasting to become nice and edible again.

Total prep time wasn't bad - maybe 20 minutes of actual work, with a night + a half hour worth of waiting. I'd definitely make this recipe again.