Amazing Overnight Waffles

From the book The 150 Best American Recipes by Fran McCullough and Molly Stevens

Introduction

There’s nothing like a batch of waffles (these come from the book Mollie Katzen’s Sunlight Café) to brighten a morning, especially if they’re homemade. Mix the batter the night before, and all you have to do in the morning is beat an egg, melt some butter, and stir. At the very most, there’s 15 minutes of work here. Yeast gives the waffles a special subtle quality, and the overnight rise adds a mellow tang and a pleasingly chewy texture that sets them apart from the usual baking-powder-and-baking-soda kind.

Ingredients

Steps

1. Combine the flour, sugar, yeast, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk in the milk until blended. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let stand overnight at room temperature. (If it’s warmer than 70 degrees, refrigerate the batter.)
2. The next morning, heat the waffle iron. Beat the egg and melted butter into the batter, which will be quite thin.
3. Spray the hot waffle iron with nonstick cooking spray and rub on a little butter with a paper towel or a piece of bread. Add just enough batter to cover the cooking surface, about 1⅓ cups for a Belgian waffle, ⅔ cup for a standard waffle.
4. Cook the waffles until crisp and browned but not too dark, 2 to 3 minutes each. Serve hot.

Notes

A great way to keep waffles warm until you’re ready to serve them is to heat the oven to 200 degrees and place the cooked waffles directly on the oven rack without stacking. This keeps the waffles warm and crisp, whereas stacking makes them soggy.

This content is from the book The 150 Best American Recipes by Fran McCullough and Molly Stevens.