Waffles of Insane Greatness

Welcome to a new year here at Homemade in Hagerstown!  And there is no better way to start a year than by annihilating those pesky weight-loss-related New Year's resolutions with a batch of delicious waffles.  Am I right?  You know I am.

Today's recipe came to me from my friend Jimi, and it was our Christmas Eve breakfast here on the homestead.  I swear, I thought that these were at least as good as any I have ever had in a restaurant.  Take that, IHOP.

For a printer-friendly copy of this recipe, click here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/15xu9oKtF3PKVghZD_h1DyKr7Tq9abeyjVfjQPnag8Co/edit

Ingredients:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2/3 tsp vanilla

I know, it looks like a lot of ingredients, but they go together so easily you will be amazed.

Step 1:  Combine the dry ingredients (the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar) in a medium bowl.  Use your whisk and make sure that it is very homogeneous.

Step 2:  Add the wet ingredients (the milk, buttermilk, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla).  Whisk again, blending well, so that very few lumps remain.

Step 3:  Read a book, take a shower, whatever, for 30 minutes while the batter rests.  Dream of waffles.

Step 4:  Prepare the waffle iron.  Before you turn it on, you need to oil it.  Make sure that whatever you use to grease it up gets into all of the little cracks and crevices or your waffle will tear, thus ending your dreams of a gold medal in the waffle olympics.  I used a little vegetable oil and a basting brush and it worked fantastically well.  I stuck to the same kind of oil that I had already used in the batter so as to not mess with the taste at all.  Turn your waffle iron on to medium-high.  Mine has a little light that tells me when it is warm enough.

Step 5:  When your waffle iron is hot, pour the waffle batter into the center.  My waffle iron holds 1/3 cup of batter per waffle.  When you have dumped it in, push the lid down.  This will squash the batter into all of the crevices and make it look all waffle-y.  My waffle iron has a light that goes off when it is done, but if yours doesn't, just pull it off when it stops steaming.

Step 6:  Douse your new waffles with copious amounts of butter and syrup.  Serve to small boys, who will decide that they are a hand food.  Enjoy the applause.

One caveat about these:  as with all waffles, they get soggy standing around in the air, so be prepared to start eating them as you go.  You can try to keep them warm in an oven set to 200 degrees, but they will be best right out of the iron.

Just typing this has made me crave these little brown beauties.  I think that tomorrow is waffle day here in Hagerstown.