Waffeling Around

Tuesday summer evenings in Mt. Pleasant usually mean a trip to the farmers market is in order. This is a great place to get cheap produce, a bite to eat, and just hang out and watch the locals. You get to know some of the vendors, try new foods each week, and look for reasons to come back. This year, as part of the city's plan to remodel Coleman Boulevard (which didn't really need any re-doing...but smoke 'em if you got 'em), the town built a hardened open air structure to host the Tuesday night affair. Seeing this, I was more than pleased in their decision to support an already great event.

The result? This year there are even more vendors, slightly less green-space, and more foodies! Yes, I love food. It's one of the reasons I ride my bike; so I can try new foods and lots of them. So I was extremely delighted when my two interests made an appearance at this year's farmers market in the form of a Waffel stand (no, this is really how you spell it). You're thinking, "Okay, waffels are food, but what does this have to do with cycling?" Waffels are synonymous with Belgium. Belgium is synonymous with cycling (and beer). The greatest cyclists and cycling fans in the world are Belgian. Names like Eddy Merckxx, Tom Boonen, Johan Museeuw. Races like Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and La Fleche Wallone. As I ate my waffel (or waffels as it turned out), I pictured myself along the cobbled roads of Europe. Gritty cyclists racing by throngs of drunken fans. I was in foodie/roadie heaven. I was in disbelief.

Five bucks for two waffels! The guy at the waffel stand was killing it too. I talked to him a bit and asked how he started his 'business'. His 'business' consisted of him slinging batter into a waffel iron and charging $2.50 a pop for the delicious morsels. He said he'd spent some time abroad in college and remembers eating street waffels all of the time in the Netherlands. I guess this is how ideas are started and fortunes made. After all, my five dollars had just covered this guy's entire overhead. Not hinting at all towards his recipe, my brain cranked into the 53x11 gear (that's the big gear for all of you non-crank addicts) and I plotted my assault on Waffelville. It became my whole goal to replicate them. So much so, that after doing some research and as soon as my family was in bed, I snuck out to the store to purchase the necessary items. What follows is what I came up with; my version of the Liege Waffel.

Liege Waffel

Set aside some time for this one, this is a true waffel love affair requiring a few intermediary steps. It first requires making a sponge. Allow one package yeast and a spoonful of sugar (it makes the medicine go down) and flour to proof in one and a third cups of warm milk. Add this brew to an egg and mix until smooth with about one and three-quarters cup of flour. Allow to rise until mighty big and fluffy.

Next make a paste out of 2 spoonfuls of sugar, a dash of salt and baking powder, a quarter cup of flour, a stick of butter and three-quarter cup of Turbinado sugar (or any large crystal sugar). The goal here is to have some sugar undissolved so as to caramelize and in the waffel iron, which you should probably have on at this point. Combine with sponge and allow to rest before forming into equal rounds. This should resemble more of a dough at this point. Cook in waffel iron until done or until you cannot stand it any longer.

Don a cycling cap and indulge, but be careful. These are dangerous and far from low-Cal. Best share them or hoard them all to yourself. I am on to you Waffel man.