Breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a snack, waffles are a favourite in my house. When these were cooking away in my new Krups waffle maker (read about how well that baby cooks up waffles), both John and Kevin came wandering into the kitchen and took a sniff. Sweet and bread-like, this is an extremely tasty recipe.
Oat flour may be a bit difficult to find in a typical grocery store. I found oat flour at Anita's Organic Mill here in Chilliwack on Yale Road. You can actually find a lot of specialty flours at the store, along with all kinds of other things such as beans, lentils, and baking supplies. Anita's products are also carried in retail locations in Western Canada and online. I love using different flours and experimenting with the various tastes and textures. Oat gives a slightly nutty flavour to these waffles, and combined with the oat bran, they really are somewhat healthy.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup oat bran
1 cup oat flour
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 cups whole milk
4 eggs, separated
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp sugar
1. Heat 1 cup of the milk until steaming hot. Pour over the oat bran and let it sit while you continue with the recipe.
2. In a large bowl, sift and then whisk together the oat flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. If you get a few little bits of grains left behind in the sifter, be sure to add them back into the mixture. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, vanilla, and maple syrup.
4. Stir 1 cup of cold milk into the oat bran and warm milk. The cold milk will bring the temperature down. Whisk the milk and oat bran mixture with the egg yolks and maple syrup.
5. Using an electric mixer, beat your egg whites. At first, they will be frothy but then will begin to become thick, like pictured below. Add 1 tbsp of sugar.
Continue beating the egg whites until fluffy, like cotton candy. It takes approximately three minutes.
Once the egg whites look like this, stop beating them. You don't want to over beat them. If you do, they'll crack and look mealy.
6. Stir the egg and milk mixture into the flour mixture until blended. Don't worry if there are a few lumps still throughout the batter. Fold half of the egg whites into the batter. You don't want to deflate the egg whites so be extra gentle. Add the other half of the egg whites and fold them in as well, being very careful to completely incorporate them but still being careful not to deflate them.
7. The batter will be fluffy and should be cooked right away, or the batter will deflate as it sits. Brush the waffle maker with melted butter, then ladle out about 1/2 cup of the batter at a time (per waffle) into a pre-heated waffle maker. Close the lid and cook the waffles for about 4 minutes.
8. Eat those babies right out of the waffle maker, while they are hot. We liked them topped with yogurt and then drizzled with blueberry syrup. The yogurt is a much nicer (and less fattening) substitute for whipping cream or ice cream. I found a fantastic yogurt from Ridgecrest Dairy at Abbotsford's Lepp Farm Market. Sometimes people find natural yogurt to be a little sour, but this one is really fantastic.
Makes about 12 waffles
Adapted from Good to the Grain
