Belgian waffles
- Published: 23 Jan 23
- Updated: 25 Mar 24
Learn how to make perfectly golden Belgian waffles with this traditional recipe from Belgian food writer, Regula Ysewijn. The secret ingredient? Beer…
Recipe taken from Dark Rye and Honey Cake: Festival baking from the heart of the Low Countries by Regula Ysewijn (Murdoch Books, £26) and tested by delicious.
In the mood for something savoury? Try Regula’s buckwheat pancakes filled with Gouda.
Ingredients
- 175g unsalted butter
- 115ml table (low-alcohol) beer or a beer with a spicy flavour
- 250g plain flour
- 25g icing sugar
- 8g fast-action dried yeast
- 1 medium free-range egg yolk
- 150g pearl sugar
- Splash vegetable oil plus extra or lard to grease
Specialist kit
- Waffle iron
Method
- Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat, then pour in the beer. Stir together, then set aside to cool until tepid.
- Put the flour, icing sugar and yeast in a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix to combine, then make a well in the centre and add the egg yolk followed by half the butter mixture. Mix until completely incorporated, then pour in the remaining butter mixture and mix again. Cover and set aside to rest for 6 hours.
- Put the pearl sugar in a bowl and add a splash of vegetable oil, stirring to coat each piece (this stops the sugar absorbing the moisture from the batter). Fold the sugar into the batter – it should be the consistency of thick cake batter. Divide into 7 portions
- Heat your waffle iron according to the manufacturer’s instructions, then brush it with oil or lard. Spoon a portion of the batter into the waffle iron and close. Bake until golden brown – how long this will take depends on your waffle iron. Repeat until all the batter is used up.
- Serve warm with extra butter and sugar (if you like; I find the waffles sweet enough without it). Any leftovers can be kept in an airtight container for up to 3 days, gently reheated in the iron or in the toaster.
- Recipe from February 2023 Issue
Nutrition
- Calories
- 439kcals
- Fat
- 22.7g (13.5g saturated)
- Protein
- 4.7g
- Carbohydrates
- 52.8g (25.4g sugars)
- Fibre
- 1.4g
- Salt
- Trace
delicious. tips
“I found this recipe in a 16th-century handwritten cookery manuscript from Ghent. The beer gives an interesting flavour note to the waffle. We can’t say exactly what 16th-century beer tasted like, but in that period there were two kinds of beer in the region of Ghent: small beer and stronger ‘double’ beer. They were flavoured with a mixture of herbs (called gruit), but spices were also added if people could get hold of them.
Historical recipes can be incredibly vague and omit essential ingredients, but this one was remarkably detailed for its time. It gives a clue about the consistency of the dough/batter, saying a spoon should remain upright in it, and advises starting half a day before you plan to bake. The historical recipe makes about 42 large waffles, but as they’re best eaten fresh I’ve reduced the quantities. Feel free to double or multiply by six if you need to.” Regula Ysewijn
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