NATIONAL WAFFLE DAY TREATS
Today is ‘National Waffle Day’. Here are some Waffle Treats for you to make for your friends and/or family.
Sweet Potato Waffles – a great way to use leftover Sweet Potatoes or just to use your Sweet Potatoes. Good for Breakfast and or Dinner instead of Potatoes.
Sweet Potato Waffle with Apples
Gingerbread Waffles – this is definitely a ‘makeover’ using leftover Gingerbread pieces. This may not be appropriate for ‘National Waffle Day’ in August but keep it mind for your Winter Breakfasts or Desserts!
Gingerbread Waffles
Hong Kong Waffles – a favorite of mine – fun to make and fun to eat. These Waffles are sold as ‘Street Food’ in Hong Kong but can easily be made with your Belgian Waffle Iron.
Hong Kong Egg Waffles
A Hong Kong Waffle spread with Peanut Butter and Sugar
More Waffles – just an overview of the types of Waffle Irons and recipes available today!
Try one or more of these today or for your weekend Brunch, Lunch or Supper
5 of Hearts Waffle Iron
GINGERBREAD WAFFLES – A Culinary Makeover
Baking is one of my favorite things to do and during the Winter Holidays I make Gingerbread Houses and I teach other people how to make Gingerbread. This past December, in addition to my classes I baked and built four different houses. One for the Cancer Support Community’s Holiday Boutique, one for a sample for my class, one for home and one as a gift. There are two ways to bake the houses – one is to cut out the pieces from the unbaked dough and the other is to bake the dough first before cutting out the pieces. The advantage of the second method is that the pieces will all fit together without additional trimming after the baking process. The disadvantage is that there are going to be a lot of sections of cookie that will not be big enough for any house, except for the chimney and how many of those do you need? Now we do love to eat the leftovers but when there are a lot of leftovers, you can only so much.
As I said, Baking is one of my favorite things to do, but another one of my favorite culinary activities is to turn leftovers into new products and that is what I did with the leftover Gingerbread pieces. I pulverized them to a fine crumb in my Food Processor and turned them into a Waffle Batter. If you like Gingerbread, then you certainly will like Gingerbread Waffles. Here is how I did it.
- Break up the leftover Gingerbread pieces into sections that will fit in your Food Processor that has been fitted with the Chopping Blade. Use the Pulse Button to break up the pieces into small pieces and then turn it on to finely chop the Gingerbread pieces. You should end up with a medium to fine crumb.
- Measure the Crumbs – 2 cups of Gingerbread Crumbs will make enough waffles for 3-4 people.
Gingerbread Crumbs
- Use your Food Processor (do not wash out the bowl) or a large mixing bowl. Beat 3 Eggs until well mixed and then add 1 1/2 cups Buttermilk and blend together.
- Combine the Gingerbread Crumbs with 1 1/2 cups of All-Purpose Flour, 1 tsp. Cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. Ground Ginger and 1/2 tsp. Baking Soda. Add to the Buttermilk/Egg mixture and Pulse, just until mixed. If doing in a bowl, with a whisk, just mix until the Ingredients are blended – DO NOT OVER-MIX! (Over-mixing Waffle, Pancake or Muffin Batter will make the product tough.
- Stir in 1/4 cup Melted Butter.
Gingerbread Waffle Batter
- Heat your Waffle Iron until the indicator light tells you the Iron is hot. If necessary, lightly oil or spray the surface of the Iron.
- Pour approximately 1/2 cup of Batter on each section of you Waffle Irons Grids (this will vary, depending on the size and shape of our Waffle Iron)
Batter on Grids
- Close and Bake until the steaming stops. Keep the baked Waffles warm in a low oven until you are ready to serve them.
Baked Waffles
- Serve with Fruit Compote and or Maple Syrup and melted Butter. The Waffles in the Feature Photo are served with crisply cooked bacon.
- For the Fruit Compote,I melted about 2 Tbsps. of Butter along with Brown Sugar (2-4 Tbsps.). I then added pitted and halved Cherries, Blackberries and fresh Pineapple pieces. This will work with just about any fruit – Apples are great with Gingerbread as well as Bananas, Mango or Papaya.
Making Fruit Compote
And this is how you use leftover Gingerbread to make Waffles! As a convenience, I have also listed the ingredients below.
2 CUPS Gingerbread Crumbs
1 1/2 cups Flour
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground Ginger
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
3 Eggs
1 1/2 cups Buttermilk
1/4 cup melted Butter
Categories: Bread, Breakfast Ideas, Cooking for Kids, GINGERBREAD HOUSES, Holiday Meals, Main Tags: Apples, baking, butter, Buttermilk, Eggs, family dinner, Fruit Compote, gingerbread, holiday recipes, kids cooking, Waffles
GINGERBREAD HOUSE WORKSHOP
The December Holidays are coming up very fast and what better way to help celebrate them than to build a Gingerbread House. It really help to have a little expertise, someone who has built many over the years and has overcome all the pitfalls that hinder the novice. I have been teaching people (Adults and Parent/Child Teams) how to make Gingerbread Houses for the last 26 years. This year I am going to be teaching my Gingerbread House at the Academy of Culinary Education in Woodland Hills. You will learn how to make the Dough, how to make house templates and how to cut out the house parts from the dough in an efficient manner.
After the House parts are baked and after lunch and a short demo, each team or participant will build and then decorate their house according to their own specifications. Not only will the class be fun and enjoyable, but you will learn skills that you will be able to use throughout your lifetime.
Come to our Gingerbread House Class at the Academy of Culinary Education in Woodland Hills.on December 6th – this is an all-day class starting at 10:30 and ending at 5 with a lunch break in-between.
For photos of Gingerbread houses please go to https://www.flickr.com/photos/sylveeeskitchen/sets/
The class is open to singles or pairs – parent/child or spouses or partners or an older sibling with a younger one.
To sign up for the class go to http://www.academyofculinaryeducation.com/singleclasses.html
Categories: Food as Gifts, Holiday Ideas, Main Tags: baking, Children's Cooking, Classes, gingerbread, Gingerbread House Class, Holidays
Guidelines for Baking and Decorating a Gingerbread House
This is the time of the year when Gingerbread House Construction occurs. Making your own Gingerbread House can be rewarding, but it can also be frustrating unless you have some guidelines to follow. Guidelines are suggested to help with your baking, constructing and decorating endeavors.
