Carnival-worthy Belgian Waffles with The Yank!

I get no credit here other than being the messenger.

This is not my recipe. And although my daughter Beth's sweet mother-in-law insists I gave it to her, I've never seen it before in my life. My guess is she found it while browsing my laptop when they were here for a visit last year and I'LL GLADLY HOG THE CREDIT!!!!!

But it's totally undeserved and I wish it wasn't because after I combed the Internet once I got my Belgian Waffle maker for a great recipe, the only one we liked was a VCR.

Not the machine that plays tapes, mind you. "VCR" translates to "Very Complicated Recipe" and who needs that in the morning????

Not this Yankee mama! So this recipe is found here: Link To Original Recipe via Saveur

Here is the recipe with my adjustments:

The original recipe called for self-rising flour. You don't need to spend extra to buy self-rising flour. Simple recipe here:

1 Cup Flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix. Done. Finis. Perfectamente.  So you can either use self-rising flour for this recipe or use the recipe as written:

InGREDIENTS:

Mix together in large bowl:

1 3/4 cups flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

In separate bowls:

4 eggs, separated 

(Temporary separation, they will be reunited later!!!! PARTY!!!) Yes, you see 8 egg yolks there, we did a double batch and not one tiny wedge of a waffle was wasted but I had to call help for crowd control!!! Put whites in mixing bowl for beating, even though that sounds so mean!!!

Add to dry mixture:

1 1/4 cups water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 egg yolks

Whisk until fairly lump free, then add in:

2 sticks butter, melted (1 cup) (shush.... butter is all natural, of course it's GOOD FOR YOU!!!)

Whip egg whites until stiff peaks form.

 My big ol' Kitchen Aid loves a task like this.... Then fold egg whites into the batter, one-half at a time, folding thoroughly.

Yes, you'll still see some of the egg white fluff showing, that's fine, so change that to "Fairly Thoroughly".

Heat waffle iron. No need to spray a non-stick waffle iron, the butter will leave its delicious glaze behind.

Pour a full cup of batter onto the iron, close and watch the steam escape, a great science lesson in evaporations/steam/water cycle, very Earth Science friendly.

Don't fret if a little browned butter drips from the sides... It's no biggie and paper towels become your new best friend:

My iron blinked "ready" at about 4 minutes and they were on the deeper gold side. Some of my peeps like the more tender 3 minute variety, so play with your iron and see what works for you.

These were the best waffles I've ever made, a praise I don't give lightly! 

These are so tender, they don't need syrup or butter, carnival-style with powdered sugar is a hand-held breakfast treat! But they're delicious with butter and real maple syrup, too!!!!

And after all that, I managed to RESIST eating seven of these and ate my salad instead:

But I WANTED the seven waffles, I'm not gonna lie!!!!

Well, after all this cooking, I needed HELP!!!!

Here come the helpers:

Okay, IGNORE this video, it was a short .02 one and I uploaded it by mistake, but it Won't Go Away.

Techno-dunce Ruthy!!!

And here's a sneak peek at next week:

Oh. Yum. And this is what the silverware drawer looked like when my very earnest and adorable helpers were done:

LOVE IT!!!!