Professional Baker Teaches You How To Make WAFFLES!

When making waffles , I always say think outside the box and make them from scratch .

And that's exactly what I'm doing .

Belgian waffles with spice plums and a white chocolate sauce .

Now , I'd like to start with the spice plums and this is essentially a fruit compote .

I've taken a pound of plums and cut them into wedges .

I'll add these to my pots .

It really doesn't matter if you use red black or prune plums , whatever is available .

I like to make this a very fragrant compote .

So in addition to the spices , I also add an orange , I squeeze the juice in and I actually drop in the whole orange because some of that orange flavor cooks out from the zest .

Go before I get the spices in .

I have to sweeten it up three quarters of a cup of sugar .

And now for the spices , I have a little cheese cloth and I want to make a sachet to drop into the compote .

That way , it's easy to pull out all of the whole spices .

I have two star three clothes , two cinnamon sticks and three black peppercorns .

I like the heat that you get from black pepper , just draw it all up .

Little tie and then drop it into the pot and then tie it to the handle that way .

You know , you won't lose it in the pot .

I'll let this simmer uncovered and I'll stir it occasionally .

Now I want to cook the plums so that they're fully cooked and soft , but they don't fall apart .

So I will keep an eye on it and while that's cooking I can start on my waffle dough .

Oh , waffles have to be my favorite style .

I will confess .

And I think in part that's because the dough itself is very much like a Brillo dough .

So this is a yeast raised waffle dough .

I start with a cup of water , not just regular water , sparkling water .

Let's add bubbles and air and volume while we can right off the top .

I'll grab my yeast two and a quarter teaspoons .

I'll add three tablespoons of sugar .

There's not a lot of sugar in this recipe yet and two eggs and I'll just give this a quick mix just to combine the ingredients .

Right now .

I can add four cups of all purpose flour .

I'll let this mix on low speed and as it starts coming together , I'll pour in one cup of melted butter and I just wanna mix this for a few minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic .

While that's mixing .

I'll give the plums a stir .

Hm .

The color is just starting to come out a little bit .

All right .

Oh , yeah , that is a nice rich dough and you need to cover your dough with plastic wrap and all it takes is about an hour for this dough to rise up and double in size .

Now , the last bit for me to get ready before I actually get to make waffles is to make my white chocolate sauce .

I've got whipping cream and I'll measure out half a cup .

Here we go and pour that into a pot .

White chocolate can sometimes be sweet all on its own .

So I'm adding black pepper to it just to build a little contrast .

And I measure half a teaspoon into the cream and then I turn this on high heat .

This will build the flavor into the cream before I add it to the chocolate .

Oh , these plums are coming along nicely .

And what I love is the juice from the plums cooks in with the sugar and that builds in almost a glaze like a second sauce .

Oh , that cream seriously does not take long , pour it right on top of your chocolate .

Just give it a second to sit , let the cream do its thing and then just using a spatula and give it a gentle stir to let it melt all together .

Oh , there we go .

Nice and smooth .

So here's the dough after an hour .

Look at how it's doubled in size .

So I just unwrap it and turn it out onto my work table .

I like to make these waffles when I have people over for brunch .

Now , this buttery dough isn't very sweet because now is the time I add the sugar .

Oh , waffles which were created in Liege Belgium .

Have these caramelized bits of sugar .

And you get that by working in pearl sugar .

One cup .

Now this is just a type of sugar you can find in bakery supply stores or you can take sugar cubes , put them in a bag and pound them out to crush them up .

What counts is you have these little pieces of sugar that you now work into the dough , little hits of sweetness .

So I just get to play , work in the sugar , cut the dough into pieces .

So if you see little pockets of sugar like this , you just keep squishing them around .

So I'm just gonna roughly cut this in half and it's easier to divide into pieces .

Now , this style of waffle is meant to look a little bit rough and rustic .

That's part of its appeal .

So I shape them a little bit into a round but nothing too precise or polished .

I've got my waffle iron heated and the idea is that this waffle doesn't fill the entire iron .

I drop it right in the center , turn it over , I'll do another one and these take the exact same time as those buttermilk waffles about three minutes .

Well , you definitely smell these when they're cooking .

Get the combination of butter and caramelized sugar .

Oh , at , and that is all super crunchy .

That shininess .

You see ?

Oh , that's the caramelized sugar .

Now , you see why I like to have these coming out of the waffle iron when I have guests coming over for brunch .

That smells so good .

Gorgeous .

No , two lie waffles look alike .

Oh , that's a nice one .

So first a bit of my white chocolate sauce with black pepper and a few of these beautiful spiced plans .

Yes .

Some of that gorgeous sauce that really has reduced .

Like a glaze .

Gorgeous .

And there you have it , the waffle plated with a white chocolate sauce and spiced plums .

Hm .

So delicious .