fannie farmer waffles

I've been away from my computer for a while. There's a few explanations for the absence: a trip to Florida, a trip to Prince Edward County, Christmas celebrations, too many holiday parties, re-reading the Song of Ice and Fire books, re-watching the entire series of Friends and a broken internet connection (wow - some of those excuses are very weak).

Back to regularly scheduled programming! One of my 2013 resolutions is to get up early and eat breakfast with my favourite boy every morning. So far, we've covered pancakes, french toast, oatmeal and lots of eggs. I've written about my love of breakfast before, and I'm finding my obsession is being fed by this awesome cookbook: Marion Cunningham's The Breakfast Book.

As a side note, I started reading The Breakfast Book because of this other awesome book - not quite a cookbook, but a compendium of great cookbooks of the last century. 101 Classic Cookbooks is a goldmine of the best American Cookbooks of the last 100 years - everything from turn of the century cookbooks like Fannie Farmer and The White House Cookbook to books from some of my favourite female chefs, like The Splendid Table (by host of The Splendid Table podcast, Lynne Rossetto Kasper) and The Moosewood Cookbook (from Mollie Katzen, one of the pioneers of whole foods and vegetarian cooking).

Here's one of my favourite recipes so far. These waffles are crispy on the outside, light and fluffy on the inside, and have a great flavour (I attribute it to the yeast and melted butter). Don't be put off by the overnight wait - they take 10 minutes to prepare at night, then in the morning, you just stir in some eggs and soda, heat up your waffle iron, and tuck in!

fannie farmer waffles
Makes 8 to 10 waffles.

1/2 cup warm water
1 package dry yeast
2 cups milk, warmed
1/2 cup melted butter
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all purpose)
2 eggs
1/4 tsp baking soda

Use a large mixing bowl (the batter is going to rise and double in size overnight). Put warm water in the bowl, and sprinkle yeast on top. Set aside to proof for 5 minutes. Add the warm milk, melted butter, salt, sugar and flour to the yeast mixture. Whisk together until batter is smooth and lumps are gone. Cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature overnight.

In the morning, beat two eggs in a small bowl. Add beaten eggs and soda to waffle batter. Stir to combine. Cook on a very hot waffle iron, using about 1/2 cup batter per waffle.

Guess what? The batter keeps a few days in the fridge, so you can satisfy your waffle craving all through the week.