Monday, March 29, 2010

Serendipity Waffles

Waffles over-offer in the looks department. Applying my personal Chorus Line rating they get: Looks 10; Flavor and texture 3. In food photos, in cook books or on restaurant menus, they look crispy and crunchy, hot and delicious. I'm almost always disappointed with the real thing -"in the flesh" they end up being soggy and flacid.  Yes, the basic flavor profile is there no matter, what but without a crisp texture,  the result is a generally blah flavor experience.

An error of omission in the kitchen - a bit of serendipity this morning resulted in a couple of excellent waffles. I made them ahead of breakfast time and cached them in the oven to keep warm, forgetting one critical thing - to turn the oven on! We sat down to eat, spread butter on them and realized as the solid butter pats remained intact, that they were pretty well cold. While the batter was gone, the waffle iron was still sizzling hot. Breakfast was rapidly turning into a disaster, so with nothing to lose, I thought I'd try putting them back in the iron, butter and all, to see if they'd warm up without setting the iron on fire. I twisted the timer for one more cooking cycle, watching carefully while running through my mental refrigerator inventory figuring out what we could eat instead but when the timer dinged, the waffles were gilded, crusty and crispy, piping hot and best of all had a buttery aroma and flavor which added that element of background flavor missing in the average waffle. With just a touch -  a kiss of maple syrup - they were perfect to accompany the L.A. Times crossword puzzle.

I'd like to be able to spray on syrup but would probably have to use a commercial pump. Pouring it on is just that - pouring it on. I wonder if the goo could be squirted out of a spray bottle. Something to rig up for next Sunday.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous11:20 AM

    i made waffles over the weekend while Megan was here. I have an old waffle iron I purchased at an estate sale for $1.50 and it works perfectly (altho no dials or settings) you just get one chance for them to cook to perfection. I had the same experience, the waffles were kind of soggy and very tasteless. Megan and I found a place in Memphis (on our cross country trip) that had great, crispy waffles and I wondered how they did it. Maybe putting them back in the iron loaded with butter is the key. I'm going to try it next time I make waffles. Thanks for the tip.
    Nancy

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