Bacon + Egg Waffles and Banana Walnut Waffles
Waffles. The chewy, crispy, golden queen of breakfast carbs. I was hankering for some recently I decided to turn to my good friend Marion Cunningham and "The Breakfast Book" - she will never let you down. Similar to Ina Garten and a handful of others, I trust them blindly. Like when Ina says you need 4 sticks of butter and every other recipe says 3. Just do it.
I wish I had time to try Marion's recipe for Raised Waffles which are supposed to be delish (but require an overnight batter raise). I'll have to do it some other Saturday night when I'm at home and thinking about waffles. So I went the Classic Waffle route and decided to mix it up with a few different toppings.
First variation - BACON. We always eat bacon or some kind of breakfast sausage alongside our pancakes, waffles, french toast or regular toast. Why not cook it, chop it, and toss it right on in? Everything is better with an egg on top so obviously I did that as well.
Second variation - banana and walnut. A classic combo that can't go wrong.
So here we go! These spur-of-the-moment waffles are a perfect celebratory breakfast.
Classic Waffles - Marion Cunningham, "The Breakfast Book"
(about eight waffles)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups milk, warmed slightly
- 1/3 cup vegetable shortening, melted (I didn't do this - just replace with butter if you have an aversion to shortening)
- 1/3 cup butter, melted
Put the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar in the mixing bowl and stir the mixture with a fork until blended.
In another bowl, beat the eggs well and stir in the milk. Combine with the flour mixture until mixed. Add the melted shortening and butter and beat until blended.
Pour about 1/2 cup batter into a very hot waffle iron. (it takes from 1/2 to 3/4 cup of batter to make one waffle, depending on the size of your waffle iron).
If you are making the bacon variation, take your chopped pre-cooked bacon and sprinkle it over the waffle batter before you close up the griddle. You could mix it directly into the batter as well if you're doing a full batch of these bad boys.
Bake the waffles until they are golden and crisp. For your bacon variation, fry up the egg while your waffle is almost done. Serve hot.
* Full disclosure: I for the life of me can not get my Cuisinart waffle iron to heat up as much as I'd like it. My first attempt at making a waffle was pitiful. I used canola spray to grease the iron and the waffle turned out limp and not so golden. Second try I used butter to grease it - voila! Better. I'd still consider a griddle upgrade however.