Belgian waffles as in the best confectioneries
Slightly crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside… Perfect with jam or lightly whipped sweet sour cream and fresh fruit.
Belgian waffles are a popular dessert created in the Middle Ages, whose recipe has survived to this day and gained additional popularity due to the ease of preparation and numerous variations.
Going to Belgium and not trying the Belgian waffles is the same as going to Paris and not seeing the Eiffel Tower. Tourists in Belgium are easily recognizable precisely because they always and everywhere order this delicacy.
This butter treat is eaten hot, sprinkled with powdered sugar, or coated with Nutella. The locals of Brussels never put chocolate, cream, whipped cream, and similar additives on the waffles, but sometimes only powdered sugar. But it’s great to experiment a little with flavors and to try some other additions you may like more. The recipe for Belgian waffles is very similar to the recipe for biscuits, but these cakes are somehow softer and airier.
What characterizes Belgian waffles is the way they are baked — between two red-hot metal plates, and the specific matrix appearance that comes from the shape of those plates. This look was established quite early, in the 15th century and, was immortalized in the painting “The Struggle between Carnival and Lent” by the Flemish Renaissance painter Pieter Bruegel, which clearly shows Belgian waffles with a recognizable matrix outline used as a stake when throwing dice.
Although the first known recipe for Belgian waffles was created in Paris, in the instruction that one confectioner left to his young wife: “Beat a few eggs in a bowl, season with salt and wine. Add some flour and stir ”, in Belgium, waffles received the status of a national delicacy and numerous forms that are still used today.
As the price of sugar has fallen throughout history, Belgian waffles have become more accessible to the masses, and street vendors who make this delicacy on the spot are still present in many Belgian cities.
Belgian Waffles were popularized in the USA, in 1964, when Maurice Vermersch from Brussels (Belgium) presented the Waffles of the same name at the New York World Fair. Their original name was “Brussels Waffles “, but the name was soon changed to “Belgian Waffles.”
Brussel Waffle Recipe
Ingredients
1 kg of flour
30 g of yeast
25 g of brown sugar
1250 ml of lukewarm water
250 g of skimmed milk powder
10 g of salt
half a teaspoon of vanilla extract or bags of vanilla sugar
400–500 grams of melted butter
6–8 egg whites, whipped in snow
Preparation
Pour the flour into a larger bowl. Make a depression in the flour and add the yeast and 250 ml of lukewarm water.
Add brown sugar, milk powder, vanilla extract, or vanilla sugar and the rest of the water. Whisk the dough well and then leave it to rise for 20–30 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the butter and allow it to cool slightly.
Add melted butter. Mix well. Whisk the egg whites in the snow. Carefully add them to the mixture until evenly mixed.
Bake in a Belgian waffle maker.
Serve garnished with powdered sugar, whipped cream, and fruit or melted chocolate or Nutella.
