Waffles on a Sunday

My lovely niece and nephews, Dani, Matt and Ryan, came over on Sunday morning to join Mum and I for a spot of brekky. What better way to begin a Sunday than with a fresh batch of waffles? They're pretty hard to beat.

You can serve waffles with just about anything you want: Ice cream, maple syrup, berries, banana, nutella, nuts, whipped cream and, believe it or not, I recently discovered that creme patissiere is very good indeed with waffles. Of course, I don't expect you to have that laying around. I happened to have some leftover from a cake that I made, so I froze it and then defrosted it in the microwave. It froze exceptionally well, so it is worth keeping in mind if you want something extra special with your waffles, without having to go to the effort of making custard early in the morning.

How, you may ask, does a waffle batter differ from pancakes?

Fairly straight forward, really. The only difference is that the eggs are separated, the yolks added to the batter and the egg whites whipped and folded through before cooking. If you haven't got a waffle machine, you could certainly cook this batter in a fry pan. What you will get are beautifully thick and fluffy pancakes, with a hint of crispness on the surface.

Bon appetit!

Recipe (yields 8-10 waffles)

Ingredients

225g Pastry flour (plain flour will do fine)

pinch of salt

15g Baking powder (about a tablespoon, I believe)

3 eggs, separated

1 1/4 cups milk

50g unsalted butter, melted

30g caster sugar

Method

In a large bowl, combine the flour salt and baking powder. Make a well in the centre. In a small, separate bowl, mix together the egg yolks, milk and butter. Pour these wet ingredients into the well in the centre of the dry.Gradually whisk the flour mixture from the outside of the well into the wet ingredients until you have a smooth batter, free of any dry ingredients.

In a third, medium sized mixing bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy and white. At this stage, continue whisking, incorporating the sugar little by little. Beat until stiff peaks form- to test this, hold the bowl upside down over your head; if they are whisked properly, there is no fear of them falling on your head.

Take a third of the egg white and whisk into the batter. Then, fold the remainder of the egg white delicately into the batter. The batter is then ready to use in either a preheated waffle maker or a good, non-stick frypan. Serve as you desire- the possibilities are endless.