Originally I was going to write about my pizza making yesterday afternoon but after cooking these waffles this morning I had to share the recipe immediately! They were absolutely DELICIOUS!
The interesting thing about the sourdough feeding process for me is that I have a hard time throwing away half of my starter when I feed it. So I have been perusing the internet to find other ways of using sourdough starter. Originally I was looking for a pancake recipe which you can make using this same batter but I prefer the crispiness of a waffle. So waffles it is...
Bubbly starter spooned into my bowl for sourdough waffles...
I used this recipe from "Little Spoon Farm" for trying out the waffles:
I did not have enough sourdough starter to make the full recipe so I halved the recipe and it worked great! My starter was very nice and bubbly as you can see in the photo. I spooned out about 2/3 of my starter into a metal bowl, fed my remaining starter and added the ingredients for the rest of the batter to my bowl. My batter was really, really, thick so I needed to add a little bit of water to be able to whisk all the ingredients together. I added enough water so the batter was a little thinner than what I usually like knowing that it would thicken up a bit as it sat overnight. The recipe said not to put in the baking soda, salt, or baking powder until the next morning so I left those out for now.
I left the batter sit on top my stove at room temp overnight and the next morning I had a wonderfully fluffy batter.
I added in my salt and baking soda and whisked them together. I added a little extra baking soda and left out the baking powder because in other waffle recipes I have created I have found baking soda to give me a crispier outer crunch. I am sure there is some science behind this... Does anyone know why this seems to be the case?
Anyways... As you can see the dough thickened up nicely and has great leavening from the sourdough starter by the texture of the batter. As I pulled my whisk through you can see where all the air bubbles were. The batter was almost a bit sticky as I could feel the elasticity of the gluten as I whisked in the salt and baking soda.
Loving the sourdough bubbles that appeared immediately.
I preheated my waffle maker and put the first waffles onto the iron. I was very excited to see all of the air bubbles coming up through the top immediately when the batter hit the hot iron. I used a little under a half cup of batter in each side as my waffle maker is not a large circular Belgian style iron. I closed the top and it took just over 3 minutes as I waited for my green light to come back on again and waffles were cooked perfectly to my liking.
A gorgeous sourdough crust on a waffle.
I was a little worried when I was first pulling them off the iron because they were very floppy and did not seem to have any crust to them. But as soon as they cooled for about 30 seconds they developed the most beautiful light crunchy waffle crust! You can see all the brilliant sourdough bubbles on the surface of this waffle!
Waffle holding up to a pool of syrup.
To eat, I love melting about a tablespoon of unsalted butter, a dash of sea salt, and about a 1/4 c. of pure local maple syrup together then spooning it over the waffle. This topping is very thin and can easily make waffles soggy, but on these it just pooled up in the little windows and left the waffle with the most wonderful crispy texture. The crust was very light and airy with the interior slightly sour and chewy just like a really great sourdough bread.
They did not last long!
The balance of the maple syrup's rich earthy sweetness, the note of salt, combined with the sour airy crispiness of the waffle was brilliant! Needless to say the waffles did not last long on my plate!
I have already moved my starter into a larger quart jar so I can make another full batch of these waffles to freeze and eat anytime by warming them in a toaster! I also have a small loaf of bread rising to bake later this afternoon. Hoping for the same great results as the waffles!
Let me know how you like this recipe? Do you have a favorite sourdough recipe? I'd love to try it out! Please share with me in the comments.
I will post about the cast iron sourdough pizza tomorrow.
Happy waffle making :)
Danica