In my perennial search for new things to make with sourdough discard, I discovered a recipe for waffles. My partner loves waffles and will occasionally buy a pack to eat with ice-cream. The hope that the results of my kitchen experiments might actually be eaten by my family keeps me interested in life, so I thought I would give the waffles a go.
I have all of the ingredients on hand (or a reasonable substitute), but I don’t have a waffle iron. I went looking on Ebay and found a fairly cheap ($40) waffle iron that goes on the stovetop. Then I forgot all about waffles for six weeks while I waited for the waffle iron to arrive. I found a great recipe for sourdough choc chip biscuits that was a great hit with everyone (I will post the recipe soon) and have been making bulk batches of them for everyone.
When the waffle iron arrived in the mail, I seasoned the cast iron by rubbing it with vegetable oil and heating it on the wood heater for a few hours. This process makes the iron look like it is a hundred years old and may have been used by your great, great grandmother to hunt rabbits in the far distant past. Then I was ready to make waffles.
The first part of the recipe calls for the flour, water and sourdough starter to be mixed together and left on a counter overnight (deliberate neglect… right up my alley). I didn’t have enough wholewheat flour to do the job (waiting for the next shipment of wheat to be ground into flour) so I added 1 cup of rye flour and 1 cup of wholewheat flour.
The next morning I threw in all the other ingredients except the baking soda, and mixed it up. I put the waffle iron on the stove to heat and added the baking soda to the mix.
I oiled up the hot waffle iron and poured in exactly one cup of the bubbly mix. Closing the lid fast is a bit of a skill, the lid has to be closed before the batter reaches the edge of the iron so it doesn’t leak out. It takes about two minutes each side (you flip the iron periodically) to cook them through.
All together, it took me about half an hour to make the batch up, and I made a small batch of blueberry sauce to go over my waffles while I did it.
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups water
- 1 cup sourdough starter
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
This is a fairly easy way to use up sourdough starter, and I am left with a lovely pile of waffles to freeze for future breakfasts too.
Tips;
If the waffle iron starts making smoke… get the waffle out of there and turn the heat down a bit.
Find a good set of leather gloves for opening and closing the waffle iron… getting the tea towel stuck in the waffle is no fun.
Give the waffle iron a long time to cool down before cleaning the stove… may result in blisters.
A straight edged screw driver makes a good scraper for cleaning the stove of any leaks during over filling of the waffle iron… use gently to avoid scratches to the stove.