Delicious buttermilk waffles, a recipe from restaurant genius Alice Waters, founder of Chez Panisse
About this recipe
These American waffles are simply delicious, especially if you're a fan of buttermilk pancakes : These waffles are based on a similar recipe
Source of the recipe
I found this recipe in Alice Waters's book "Chez Panisse Fruit", the founder of the notorious French-Californian restaurant "Chez Panisse", located in Berkeley, CA.
Chez Panisse Restaurant and Café
1517 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94709-1516
Alice Waters started this restaurant after a trip to France which made a great impression on her. Not only because of the dishes, the taste and the art of French culinary, but also because she noticed French people would be served local food and would eat slowly, with long lunch and diner meals.
She then advocated the principles of "slow food" and "local food" in her restaurant, a real revolution back then.
The recipe is on page 33
The Alice Waters method: Buttermilk
This recipe uses a method that is close to that of buttermilk pancakes:
● Using Buttermilk which gives a nice taste and helps to make waffles fluffier
● Egg whites that are beaten to make waffles airy and lighter
1rst mixing bowl
1. Sift over a mixing bowl: the Flour (2 Cups or 290 g), the Baking Powder (2 teaspoons), the Baking Soda (½ teaspoon), the Salt (1 teaspoon) and the Sugar (2 tablespoons)
2. Set aside these powders
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2nd mixing bowl
3. Whisk with a wire whip: the Eggs (2), the Buttermilk (2 Cups or 500 g) and the Vanilla Extract (½ teaspoon)
Le Buttermilk
Par quoi remplacer?
4. The Butter must be soft but not melted
5. The Butter must not be totally liquid as it would be too hot. And its high temperature would then activate the Baking Powder before baking !
6. In another mixing bowl, add in the Butter (½ Cup or 113 g)
7. You are left with two bowls : The powders and the liquids
8. Pour the liquids onto the powders bowl
9. Do not overwhisk !
10. To make great pancakes, as well as these waffles, a good trick is to leave lumps, that's why you don't want to whisk for too long!
11. As a result, your batter should be full of lumps
The waffle iron
12. I start warming up my waffle iron for 10 minutes
13. I am also using an oil spray (a neutral vegetable oil such as Canola oil), that I am using for the first batch of waffles
14. I pour a ladle of batter
OXO Nylon Ladle
OXO Stainless Steel Ladle
15. Spread and just before bringing the top lid down, wait 10 seconds for the batter to bubble
16. The batter starts to puff quick fast
17. Bring the top lid down
18. Most waffle irons have a light indicating when your waffle is ready. If not, check the waffle by slightly opening the lid to see if it has browned
19. You want to get a nice golden color
20. Let your waffles cool down on a rack to avoid them to become soggy while they are drying
21. You can use scissors to separate them
A real treat for kids (and for you and me!)
Everyone loves those buttermilk waffles !
This recipe is amazing and very forgiving! I converted this waffle batter recipe into a multigrain pancake batter with stuff I had on hand.
For flour, I had a cup of spelt flour, 1/2 cup of oat flour, and the last half cup was a combination of a couple tablespoons of flax meal, couple tablespoons buckwheat flour, and the rest almond flour.
I didn't have actual buttermilk (and frankly buttermilk doesn't taste delicious, if you have ever tasted it straight you know what I mean), so I made a mixture of sour cream, whole milk plain yogurt, and whole milk...and added a bit of water to equal the full two cups. I know buckwheat is pretty absorbent so I added a bit more water at the end to thin the batter just a bit.
I think I was a bit shy on the melted butter, maybe 80g. We are snowed in and I needed to save a bit of butter for serving!
Served with Kerrygold butter and warm maple syrup... WOW
These were the most delicious pancakes EVER!
Thank you so much!