Snow Day = Brunch Time

As a result of our epic snowstorm last weekend, we had off work for 4 days (Monday through Thursday). On the typical weekday, or even weekend, our breakfasts aren't usually exciting (toast, cereal, etc), so this was the perfect opportunity for eating brunches! On Tuesday we made french toast and bacon, and on Wednesday, we made waffles and sausage. It was a great way to start our snowy day, and good fuel for all the shoveling that followed!

I used the Pioneer Woman's Perfect Pancake recipe, and it worked really well. The waffle maker is a belgian waffle maker, so our waffles were thick, yet very light and fluffy (probably from the high amount of baking powder in the recipe), and had a light buttery-vanilla taste. The recipe made enough for 5 full-sized waffles, so there were no skimpy servings here. We even had enough left over for another brunch/lunch/dinner serving for one.

The only complicating factor was that the recipe calls for (and strongly suggests/recommends) the use of cake flour. Considering the storm and all, I was not about to venture out to a store (which may or may not be open) to find cake flour, so I googled coversion factors between cake flour and all purpose flour, and found that 1 cup 2 Tbsp cake flour is equivalent to 1 cup AP flour (see Joy of Baking for more info). Alternatively, I could have made my own cake flour by combing 3/4 cup AP flour with 2 tbsp cornstartch to make 1 cup cake flour. The main difference between the two is that cake flour has a lower protein content and is used to make more delicate baked goods. I weighed out my flour to make sure I used the amount called for.

We ate the waffles with Bob Evan's maple syrup flavored sausage. Pan fried, they were juicy and delicious!! We also had some tea: orange pekoe tea with some sweetened condensed milk stirred in- yum!! The maple syrup was the last of the containers we brought back home from our Maine vacation in October, 2009.

Melvin's Waffles

(adapted from: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/05/perfect-pancakes/)

388.9 grams (approx 2 3/4) cups AP flour

½ tsp Salt
3 Tbsp Baking Powder
2 Tbsp Sugar
2 cups Milk
2 whole Large Eggs
3 tspVanilla
4 Tbsp Butter

Maple Syrup and Powdered sugar for topping

Mix together dry ingredients in large bowl. Add milk, eggs, vanilla and melted butter. Stir gently until just combined.

Place batter in waffle maker and cook according to waffle maker instructions, or until waffles are golden brown. Our belgian waffle maker used ~1 cup batter per round of waffles, and each waffle took about 7-8 minutes to cook fully (but I kept on opening up the waffle maker to check the waffles, as the waffle maker doesn't have a 'done' light or timer). Note that the batter puffs up quite a bit during cooking, so don't overfill the waffle maker, or it will overflow or puff up so that the waffle maker doesn't fully close (the latter happened to us).

Serve with maple syrup, butter and powdered sugar