Birthday Belgian Waffles

I love pancakes and waffles and I am always trying new variations to find the ultimate in homemade breakfast items. For my birthday I really wanted some waffles so Chris, being the great husband that he is, whipped some up- this is the only picture we have of the actual waffles because they were consumed so quickly. Look how perfectly fluffy they are. These are delicious and luckily Chris never looks at this blog so he won't ever see this picture of himself posted for your enjoyment. When you decide to try these out, make sure you have plenty of time as the batter has to rise for an hour (we were hungry so we only let ours rise for half the time and they still turned out great).

A little bit of food history for you all-this was included with the recipe:

When Belgian waffles were introduced to Americans at the 1964 World's Fair in New York City, they were yeast-raised and served with sweetened whipped cream. This recipe is in the spirit of the original Belgian waffle.

Recipe

Whisk together:

1 envelope (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm (105°F to 110°F) milk

Let stand until the yeast is dissolved, about 5 minutes. Whisk together in a large bowl:

3 large egg yolks
1/4 cup lukewarm milk
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to lukewarm

Whisk in the yeast mixture along with:

1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons vanilla

Add, in 3 parts:

4 cups all purpose flour

alternating, in 2 parts, with:

2 1/2 cups warm (105 °F to 115 °F) milk

Beat until soft peaks form, then fold into the batter:

3 large egg whites

Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour. Stir to deflate the batter. Preheat your waffle iron.

Spoon batter onto your waffle iron as you normally would and bake until waffle is golden brown.

We served ours with real maple syrup, berries, and freshly whipped cream.

From the Joy of Cooking's All About Breakfast & Brunch