RECIPE AT THE TOP #5: spelt flour waffles 🧇
who doesn’t love a good waffle??
Yes! Here is the recipe: AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE. Blurb comes after — what a concept 🤯
SPELT FLOUR WAFFLES 🧇
(a recipe adaptation of America’s Test Kitchen’s Buttermilk Waffles — makes 12 waffles)
Ingredients
6T butter (melted and cooled)
2 ½ cups milk
juice of 1 lemon
3 eggs (yolks and whites separated)
2 cups spelt flour
1 cup all purpose flour
¾ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp fine sea salt
Directions
melt the butter in a microwave-safe measuring cup, let cool to room temp.
meanwhile, in a medium bowl or large measuring cup, combine the milk and lemon juice. let sit 5 minutes to slightly curdle — this is your “buttermilk”
separate your eggs — whites in a separate medium or large bowl and the yolks in the “buttermilk”
if cooled, add your butter to the “buttermilk”/egg yolk mixture, whisk until combined.
in a large bowl, whisk your flours, baking soda, and salt.
beat the egg whites with an electric hand mixer on medium-low speed until foamy, about 1 minute. increase the speed to medium-high and whip the whites to stiff peaks, 2 to 4 minutes.
following the manufacturer’s instructions, heat a waffle iron.
add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients in a thin, steady stream while mixing gently with a rubber spatula. (do not add the liquid faster than you can incorporate it into the batter.) toward the end of mixing, use a folding motion in incorporate the ingredients.
gently fold the egg white into the batter.
spread an appropriate amount of batter onto the waffle iron (see photo below). following the manufacturer’s instructions, cook the waffle until golden brown, 2 to 5 minutes.
serve with maple syrup / thin + creamy peanut butter / fruit compote / chopped fresh fruit / bacon / whatever you like
The pancake vs. waffle debate is always an interesting one. If you couldn’t already tell, my vote is for waffles. Why? They are basically the same as pancakes, right? Wrong.
I might say that I like pancakes better… if someone else is making them. There is so much room for error when making pancakes — the first one is always the worst, you’re constantly messing with the heat, the butter keeps browning before you get the batter on the skillet, the flipping of the pancakes is anxiety-inducing. Not really, but if you’re not making pancakes regularly enough, there’s always that little bit of self-doubt as you “let go and let god” before flipping, praying that you don’t flip another goddamn pancake onto the wall of the skillet, or off of it, getting all over your stovetop… or even onto the ceiling, like my best friend did once in high school and I’ll never let her forget it (love you, Em 😘)
But the waffle-making process is smooth. It is streamlined. It is simple. You really have to fuck up big to fuck up waffles. All you have to do is make the batter, portion it correctly on the waffle iron, and then you surrender to the machine. (Like we are all eventually going to surrender to AI and our world turns into that of the likes of Terminator and you all of a sudden are looking at a naked Arnold Schwarzenegger in your kitchen.) Making waffles is working smarter, not harder. The only “fussy” part of this is whipping the egg whites. But to me, it’s a step that’s totally worth it, solely to avoid having pancake fails make a mess out of my kitchen.
Why spelt? And why haven’t I answered this question that you’ve probably been wondering since the beginning? Short answer: spelt is an ancient grain that has a higher protein content, has a more complex flavor profile, and is mostly a true whole-wheat flour 1:1 substitute for all-purpose flour.
The longer answer is the subject of next week’s issue, part of my ‘unsung heroes of food’ series. If you like to nerd out on ingredients and their nutritional profiles, then I can’t wait for you to read it next week!
Lastly, I just want to say that making waffles is a perfect cozy Sunday morning activity. Make a big ass pot of coffee ☕️, whip up a big ass batch of waffle batter 🧇, put on your favorite cozy music 🎶 (I like a good Andy Shauf, Joni Mitchell, Sufjan Stevens, Chet Baker, or Nina Simone playlist on shuffle) and just let the slow morning vibes take over.
Freeze your remaining waffles for beyond easy breakfasts that I think we can firmly say are NOT Eggo waffles… (the chokehold that this company had/has? on the processed breakfast food scene: my childhood was occupied with when I could get my next fix of an Eggo waffle.) To freeze: stack your waffles in a gallon freezer bag, placing a square of parchment paper in between to prevent them from sticking/freezing together. Like pictured above.
And to end this issue, I’ll put my weekly reminder that annual subscriptions for Lovingly Made are 50% off through the end of the year! $30 for a year of full access to my entire archive and to support my work that will be coming your way every Saturday morning — a screamin’ deal considering that as of early 2025, (almost) all 2024 issues will be paywalled and future issues will be paywalled 21 days after their publication date.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you for being here.
❤️ Sarah
Did we really feed you Eggo waffles??!! We beg forgiveness!