On waffles, peaches and the joys of not baking

Every kitchen should have a waffle iron.

Seriously. Let me explain: I've been away on cheesemaking fieldwork for my anthropology dissertation and it's hot here in the Canaries. Yes, they make cheese in the Canaries, and one of them happens to have won the "world's best cheese" award last year at the world cheese awards in Dublin. Hence my vital research on the matter. Plus I like cheese, I like the Canaries, and I like swimming amongst the glistening fish in the crystal clear ocean every day.

But I digress. As it is hot, baking is simply out of the question.

Problem is if you're an oven-refusenik on summer days there aren't many non-bake alternatives to the quotidien muesli. Pancakes are delectable but a bit of a faff when you're in Sundayslug mode and we didn't have any dried cholla bread for making French toast. Thus I mandated to Mama Johansen that the waffle-iron come out for Sunday brunch. She happily demured, went off to read the paper and left me to my waffling.

Out came the extention cord and I placed said waffle iron on the terrace for an al fresco brunch - reducing the distance between 'cooking' and eating. Whilst assembling a variety of jams and condiments for embellishing the waffles, a gloopy batter was conjured out of a few holy ingredients. Good butter, as you might expect, is essential, but otherwise there's no art to making waffles. I set the table, Mama J took care of her coffee and within minutes we were scoffing crisp, glorious waffles and sipping hot coffee, or in my case, M&S Extra Strong Tea (don't ask me why, but I have a real soft spot for Marks & Sparks tea...)

In sum, who needs to bake on sultry summer days when the waffle iron provides such simple bruncheon joy?

To mitigate the waffles - not that they require mitigation per se - we snaffled some Spanish donut peaches:

And here's the humble waffle recipe, a hybrid of Mama J's and the winner of last year's waffle competition in Norway. Norwegians, I might add, have a thing about waffles. Expect to be proffered them wherever you go. Or at least this was the case when I lived there many moons ago. You'll probably be given some god-awful cupcakes or ersatz cookies now.

Ingredients: makes enough for 3-4 people

• 230g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 70g caster sugar
• 70g butter, melted
• 70ml water
• 150g sour cream (greek yogurt will do)
• 100ml whole milk
• 2 eggs
• 1-2 generous teaspoons vanilla extract
• pinch salt

Method:

Sift dry ingredients into large bowl, make a well in middle and add all the liquid ingredients. Stir together until a sticky batter is formed. If you lift the spoon it should take a couple of seconds for the mixture to fall down. Not a minute, nor immediately - a couple of seconds.

Technically you set aside the batter for 1/2 hour to allow the starch cells in the flour to swell. Needless to say, we were too impatient and just cooked the waffles with indecent haste. As Mama J will attest, the waffles were perfect - light, fluffy and crisp on the outside.

Here is a snap from a previous waffle-making session to show you the iron and batter.We gobbled everything on Sunday before photos could be taken. The three hearts above were barely corralled for a photo before we hoovered them...

As for what to serve with waffles, you don't need me to tell you that adding butter and a pinch of cinnamon is gilding the lily, but gild the lily we did. Jams of most descriptions make excellent accompaniments, as do syrups, peanut butter, norwegian gjetost, nutella, fruit, dollops of sour cream, marmite...haha, got you there ;)

That's all for now folks, do let me know if you make waffles or indeed if you have a favourite waffle topping.

Time for a dip in the ocean methinks.

God Jul...

Or for those not fluent in Norwegian:  Merry Christmas!

Santa's arrived, we've had some delicious panettone for breakfast and all is right with the world. It occurred to me that nary a day's gone by this December when I haven't cooked or baked a dish using the following spices:

• cinnamon
• cardamom
• nutmeg
• cloves

And I hope to continue doing so into the new year...It's been wonderful re-discovering cloves, a pungent, rather medicinal spice integral to all Scandinavian and Germanic Christmas baking. But why shouldn't one use it throughout the year - in marinades when roasting pork, in cakes and cookies, or - as winter seems to be particularly fierce this year - in hot drinks? By mid-January I'll invariably grow bored of cloves but for the time being it's high on my list of ingredients.

Anyway, this family's been feasting, thankfully not just on cloves, in fact today the beloved waffle iron made an appearance - I've posted about Norwegian waffles before, and I'll probably do so again. Suffice to say we're fans of the humble waffle, and the recipe I posted in July was today given a yuletide boost by adding the aforementioned spices to the batter. Despite waxing lyrical about cloves, I erred on the side of caution and used only a pinch whilst adding double the cardamom, but you choose which you prefer. 

Waffles eaten warm with a dollop of brandy cream and some plum compote really is Christmas bliss...God Jul, as we say in Scandiland!

Sunday Brunch: Mama Johansen's Sour Cream Waffles

Don't you just love Sunday brunch? I could wax lyrical about the joys of lazy brunches - meals that stretch in a languid, leisurely fashion, for those who haven't a care in the world. Brunch, to me, is the most feline (if there is such a thing) of meals: insouciant, with a hint of arrogance. After all, it's a luxury to spend hours on a Sunday morning/afternoon scoffing muffins, eggs benedict, pancakes, et al. followed perhaps by a walk in the park, or even better: a post-brunch afternoon spent reading the Sunday papers... 

Anyway, this is a recipe my Mother and I adapted from a recent article on www.aftenposten.no, the website for one of Norway's bestselling newspapers. Mama J was initially sceptical and reckoned her recipe would be better, but in the spirit of experimentation we decided to give this one a go. Effectively it's a cross between the Aftenposten article's "World's greatest waffles" and her recipe.  By the way, in case you're wondering, Norway is a rather waffle-obsessed country, thereby the assumption goes that the rest of the world must be too, a peculiarly Norwegian logic. Norwegian waffles done properly though, are light and fluffy, with a crisp exterior, but most importantly, they have a distinct tangy flavour thanks to the addition of sour cream. These can be made in any waffle iron, we just happen to have the traditional heart-shaped waffle iron at our house

 

Serves 6

• 350g plain flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 100g caster sugar
• 100g melted butter
• 100ml water
• 200ml sour cream
• 150ml milk
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla essence (you could also do cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg...)

In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and add the sugar, blending well to distribute the baking powder. Make a well in the centre, adding your liquid ingredients and mixing thoroughly with a large spoon. Cover the bowl with a cloth and set aside for 1/2 hour...

Meanwhile, get your waffle iron ready, and all your accoutrements - I defrosted some sour cherry jam from the Johansen farm for this occasion. Other toppings which work well are greek yoghurt, cinnamon, any fruit, be they fresh or in jam/coulis form. Or if you have some Norwegians coming round, serve a few slices of Geitost, the infamous caramel-flavoured goat's cheese Norwegians know and love (and non-Norwegians apparently find revolting!) If you're making these for lots of people, plug in the iron and place on the table you're eating at, then each of you can make your own waffle...communal cooking at it's best!

When the waffles are done, eat them immediately - they go soggy quite quickly. Otherwise make a huge batch and freeze for future use - simply place in the oven 5-8 minutes at 150ºC and they'll be as good as freshly made ones