52 New Things: Ate and Made the Liège Waffle (15 to go)

Part One: Eating the waffles

I'm counting this one as two new things.  A couple weeks back, Chris' parents were in town. His dad had served and LDS mission in the Netherlands and wanted to get these authentic waffles in downtown Salt Lake at Bruges Waffles & Frites.

Bruges Waffles & Frites downtown Salt Lake

They were indescribable.  But let me try anyway.  The liège waffle goes by many different names: Brussles waffle, Flemish waffle, Bergische waffle, or simply, sugar waffle.  

It was like no waffle I'd ever had.  They were crusty and carmelized on the outside with a little hint of cinnamon. They were doughy, gooey, sweet deliciousness on the inside.  The flavor was complex and tasted nothing like any other waffle I'd ever had.  They were very sweet, but that didn't inhibit the flavor.  The texture was so variable, my mind was blown.

Chris and I went back twice in the next couple of weeks to have them. 

To Salt Lake. 

They were that good.

Okay, we were already in Salt Lake both times, but I WOULD have driven 60 minutes to taste these waffles.  I knew I had to create them myself.

Most of the ingredients in these waffles are common, except for the Belgium pearl sugar.

Belgium pearl sugar is different from Swedish or Swiss, because it easily caramelizes with heat, where as the others stay solid. Important, because you don't want crunchy chunks of sugar in your waffles, just crusty caramel.:)

Part Two: Making the waffles

As I have expressed, these waffles are VERY unique and VERY different from regular Belguim waffles.  I wanted to make them right.  I researched and read a lot about how to make them and compared a lot of recipes. I finally settled on this baby.  

Why?  Primarily because this guy has an entire blog, no no, not blog post,  an ENTIRE BLOG dedicated just to these waffles.  Yeah, they're good:)  This recipe was very specific and explained why each step was essential to creating an authentic liège waffle.  

This recipe starts the dough making process the day before.  It's quite specific about amounts and mixing times.  I was sooooooo happy when my dough balled up within 30 seconds of when he said it should!  Victory, part one:)  But I'm not gonna lie, I skimped a little on the 4 hour rising period to "develop the flavor."  Because I wanted to go to bed before 2:00.  Silly me.  Baking should always come first;)

     *Side note; the morning after rising, I made pumpkin pancakes with some leftover pumpkin from

pumpkin bread. Can I just state that I love fall and baking with pumpkin:)))??? But I thought it 

would be inappropriate to serve simple pumpkin pancakes along with these gourmet waffles, 

so we ate them all this morning.:)

Anyway, the dough sat in the fridge all day (under heavy objects of course, wouldn't want that dough getting all crazy and trying to rise...) while I was at work.  After work I came home and my pearl sugar had arrived!  I ordered it off Amazon.  Lars Own was the recommended brand, so that's what I bought. 

I mixed it into the dough, let it rise 90 minutes and threw them in the waffle iron.  I played with turning the iron off and on because it was hotter than the recommended fancy cast iron Liège waffle iron.

They turned out perfect!!!!!

After crouching with my chin on the counter watching them cook, I took my first bite and was literally jumping for joy.  They were just like the ones we had:)  VICTORY!