And in the morning, I'm making WAFFLES!
Waffle #2
Originally uploaded by DavidBradyI have been trying to find ways to save money around the household, and when Chaliren pointed out that Bisquick is nearly $8/lb¹ versus $1.50/lb for flour, we agreed that I would attempt to learn to make waffles from scratch. I have to admit I was pretty hesitant. Chaliren says I'm a good cook but I have her fooled: I know my way around a spice rack, and I know how to cook a handful of dishes very well, but beyond that I'm basically a hacker with a spatula. Furthermore, for 37 years of my life, waffles MEANS Bisquick. It's what waffles are MADE of. You can't make them from scratch! What are you, crazy?
Today was the waffle experiment. I grabbed a standard recipe from the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook: Flour, baking soda, sugar, milk, eggs, oil, and vanilla. That's it. Pretty straightforward, really hard to screw up.
I screwed it up.
I mixed everything together at once instead of making the little "well" in the dry ingredients and pouring the premixed wet ingredients in. I also slipped while adding the vanilla, ending up with several tablespoons instead of a teaspoon. The batter required a lot of mixing to get rid of the worst of the flour lumps, and I was sure it would make for really tough waffles. Worse, the batter was really runny; I was expecting a thick batter. I have had mashed potatoes that were more runny than my Bisquick batter; this stuff was soup.
Onto the waffle iron. I was nervous and fretting, and it seemed like they took twice as long to cook. They smelled fantastic though. The vanilla scent steamed out of the iron and soon the whole kitchen smelled like waffles and ice cream.
Finally the light went out and I opened the lid. I knew instantly that I was basking in the presence of glorious griddled perfection. Firstoff, the waffle was mottled. Bisquick waffles come out uniformly colored. This waffle had... personality. Rich browns here mottling into creamy caps there. I grabbed a pair of forks to lift it off the griddle, and discovered that it was crispy. Bisquick waffles can best be described as "firm", but these actually had a hard shell to them! Onto the plate. I poured the next waffle, then handed Chaliren a fork and we prepared our first waffles for eating.
The waffle did something... magical... with the syrup. A Bisquick waffle is quite dry and will soak up the syrup completely. This waffle half-soaked, half-repelled the syrup. It changed color, darkening into a glistening, tempting mass that still floated syrup atop it. I knew even before I put it in my mouth that it would be the best waffle I had ever eaten. And I knew the waffle knew it, too. This waffle had serious attitude.
It was still, impossibly, crispy, even under all that syrup. And inside, even more impossibly, it was moist. I chewed in blissful silence, by which I mean I said nothing but made nonstop delighted moaning noises. It wasn't very silent at all, actually. These waffles were really freaking good. I mean, we'd sit and pick bits off and eat them straight, that kind of good.
These waffles were far more filling than their Bisquick cousins. I could only eat one (or four, depending on how you count; I count the full griddle full of four squares as one waffle). Throughout the day I snuck into the kitchen to snitch another square. The rest we put in baggies and stuck in the freezer. I just pulled a square out and toasted it. I am pleased to report that they also toast up even better than Bisquick waffles. There is simply nothing these waffles don't do better than their premixed counterparts.
So, yeah. Today I discovered I can cook waffles better than Bisquick, and better than most restaurants. How was YOUR day?
¹ Chaliren has informed me that while my ratios are correct, my units are wrong. Bisquick is $8 for a 6lb box, and flour is $1.50 for a 5lb bag.