Some friends of ours are twittering their way through Belgium, making us jealous with their food posts — especially the Belgian waffles (aka Gauffres, or Gauffrettes). It has been several years since I’ve been there, and we just barely found find a quality reproduction. Don’t be fooled by belgian waffles in your average cookbook.. the real thing is a dense and sweet yeast-raised delicacy peddled by street vendors, and more suitable for a dessert splurge than a breakfast. There’s a place in downtown salt lake called Bruges Waffles and Frites, and we finally got around to trying it out the other day after taking the kids to the childrens museum..

The waffles were SOOOO good.. just like I remembered in Belgium. The first thing Emily said after taking a bite was “Mommy, do we have the recipe for this?”

We also had to experience their Belgian fries (aka Frites). They are fried in canola and sunflower oil, and you get your choice of at least half a dozen different mayos. I let the kids decided, and they came out of the shop with ‘curry mayo’, which was surprisingly good.

So naturally, this morning when I woke up bright and early with the twins, I thought I’d do a little waffle experiment. The logistical problem with my experiment is that I had two 6 months old babies sitting on the counter, helping me cook in their bumbo chairs… so I had to act fast. Besides, the other kids would be waking up soon, and I didn’t have time to let waffles rise. So I searched for a short cut version that would still accomplish the right effect. Another disclaimer is that traditionally belgian street waffles have a TON of butter in them, and I didn’t want to feed the family a pound of butter for breakfast, so Dallin did some quick math for me and converted the 3/4 lb of sweet butter into a cup and a half of oil.

Quick Nearly-real Belgian Waffles

4 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 c. canola oil (or 3/4 lb. sweet butter, softened)
4 eggs
2 tbsp. milk (or more until you get the right consistency)
Some vanilla
Salt to taste (if you used oil instead of butter)

Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl. Make a well in the center and put the softened butter, eggs and rum in well. Gradually mix the flour into other ingredients. Let the mixture, which will be a paste, stand at room temperature, uncovered, for 2 hours. Divide into small balls the size of 2 tablespoons, and cook them in a waffle iron. Makes: plenty.

The batter will look something like this (a tooth-paste consistency):

The finished product turned out pretty good, considering they only took a few minutes to make. Definitely better than your average waffle recipe. They have that dense yeasty consistency, but no where near the quality of the street vendors in Bruges, or the Bruges vendors in SLC.

Lisa made these the other night, and they were sooo good.  We had them with a tikka masala dish, but they were so good that we even had a couple with strawberry jam on them for breakfast the next morning

yummy naan

Naan (Indian-style flatbread)

2.5 cups bread flour

1/4 c whole wheat flour

1 pkg (2.25 t) instant yeast

2 t sugar

1.5 t salt

1 c water (room temp)

1/4 c plain yogurt

4 T oil (or 1/2 stick butter if you insist)

Combine flours, yeast, sugar, salt in a mixer and blend briefly.  Add water, yogurt, oil and mix on low until a shaggy dog I mean dough forms (about 30 sec), and then keep kneading for 5-10 more minutes, adding 1 T of flour at a time as needed to clear the sides of the dough bowl.  Let double in size for about 45 minutes. Turn onto a clean (or dirty) work surface and divide into 8 smaller balls and let sit for 10 minutes. Roll out the dough balls into flat breads and cook on a large skillet over medium heat until done (i.e. small bubbles appear, golden brown, or whatever your standard is for cooked naans… or go to cafe rio and watch how they make their tortillas and it’s the same general concept).

Ok, here is last night’s fare:

Jeremy sent out a mass email with the recipe after he found it (and drooled over it) on tastespotting, and Lisa was the first one to make it. The kids ended up eating PB&J sandwiches instead, and after trying a few, we gave the rest to Casey: