Childhood waffles and my American book tour

I'm coming to the US in May

Hello everyone, welcome to all my new subscribers too! It’s lovely to see this little place grow. Big news, I’m coming to the US for my book tour! Strangely, America is where my book sells the most copies, so I thought it was time to cross the “big pond” and meet my lovely American readers! I am beyond excited! I hope that if you are near any of these cities, you will come! More info at the end of this post after the waffle recipe!

I’m writing to you from my kitchen while I bake waffles, which means having to pop off my stool to check on their colour (or “cuisson” in posh French cooking terms that are normal to us here in trilingual Belgium) every few seconds. The whole kitchen studio is filled with the scent of waffles, the scent of my childhood - though that scent often involved burnt waffle too when my mind had wandered and I had forgotten to check on the waffles.

I’m sharing with you a waffle recipe that isn’t in my latest book Dark Rye and Honey Cake - this is the version I made from the original recipe from the one cookbook I had growing up in a time when cookbooks weren’t a thing.
This turned into the recipe in the book entitled Regula’s Waffles because this is how I labelled them as a child when I made parcels of waffles to hand out to family. These waffles do not require any topping.
My publisher baked Regula’s waffles in an office Bake off and they poured syrup over them. Not all waffles are eaten with syrup or cream, some are eaten plain like these ones. (see my waffle newsletter for more about proper waffle etiquette!) But at the end of the day, if you want to pour syrup or chocolate over them that is up to you! The waffles below can be coated in a layer of chocolate, leaving them to cool and set so you have a thin crips layer. I never do because I’m not the biggest chocolate lover so don’t think it’s worth faffing around with chocolate and marble boards to temper it so it shines and cracks. But please do if you are addicted to the brown stuff!

This is what we call a pantry waffle in Belgium (bewaarwafel), they keep for a long while in an airtight container. I go back and forth between this recipe and the one in the book; that’s how it goes with the recipes you’ve been making for decades, they can either be set in stone, or they can continue to evolve.

I now regret not putting this waffle recipe in the book as well. That’s my biggest problem with book writing; once they are published, that’s it, you can’t go back and edit like I can this newsletter. Of course, there are second printings, but you don’t want to change too much. The original cookery book this recipe comes from didn’t give a method, so I’ve made them in different ways throughout my childhood. Now I cream the butter with the sugar in my standing mixer, as a child I did it all by hand and the resulting waffles had a minor grain, which I actually liked. Sometimes I’d melt the butter, other times I just used softened, which is what I do here (why make a pan dirty to melt butter if it’s not necessary).

You do need a waffle iron for this recipe, sorry about that, but you can get cheap ones these days. Long gone are the days when my grandmother had to save up for months to buy the first electric waffle iron. My dad actually regrets that moment because it ended waffle baking over the stove with the whole family, as it required a couple of helping hands. My dad explained that they didn’t have a TV so they watched the waffles being baked in anticipation of sinking their teeth into them. When the electric iron came, my grandma was alone in the kitchen, baking them. Progress ended a family bonding moment.

I hope you’ll take this recipe and make it your own. These are perfect waffles for kid’s snacks as they are soft the next day. These are the waffles that are often made on fairs or for charity events to sell door-to-door, this kind of event is called “wafelenbak”. And also, with the risk of sounding a bit hippy, these are the waffles that give me peace of mind, they ground me, they are therapy to bake. They bring my past and present together in one. Just you, the batter and the hot waffle iron. I wish this for you too.

Regula’s original childhood waffles

Ingredients

• 500 g plain white flour or white rye flour

• 250 g unsalted butter, very soft

• 300 g plain white sugar (fine grain is best)

• 5 eggs (45-50 g each)

• 140 ml full-fat milk

• 3 tsp natural vanilla essence or the seeds of one vanilla bean

Making the batter

Whisk the butter and the sugar until creamy and lighter in colour. Do this either by hand or in your standing mixer.

Add the eggs one by one, making sure each egg is incorporated into the mixture before adding the next.

Sift in half the flour (it will prevent flour clots in your batter) followed by the milk and the vanilla essence or vanilla bean’s seeds scraped out with a knife, then add the rest of the flour.

Leave overnight in the fridge, which will be good for the batter, or use straight away.

Baking the waffles

Before you can start you need to preheat your iron, if it’s electric, the light will go out indicating that it is hot. You don’t need to butter the iron unless it’s an antique steel one.

I prefer making small ones so I can fit four in one go, but you can choose how large you make them. They don’t need to fill the entire iron, as you can see, mine are freeform which is traditional for these kind of waffles. The thing with trying to fill the entire iron is that you might over-fill it and the waffle will come out too condensed.

I use a teaspoon to scoop and a spatula to release the batter onto the hot iron. Leave to cool on a wire rack and then transfer to an airtight container. They keep for a week and can be frozen too.

The waffles come out a little crisp on the outside and soft on the inside, but the next day they are soft.

Enjoy! Smakelijk!

American Book Tour information

In May I’m heading to the West Coast and then in autumn I’m travelling to the East coast, it was just a little too big a trip to do in one go, especially since I only had a small gap before we start filming Bake Off again. If you are in the West Coast I do hope you’ll come to one of the events below.

San Francisco

Omnivore Books – Thursday 18 May

6:30 PM

Author talk. The event is free but you do need to book to secure your place as spaces are limited. Book here >

Location: 3885A Cesar Chavez St. San Francisco, CA 94131

Seattle

Book Larder – Saturday 20 May

10:oo – 11:30 AM

Author talk. Moderator: Rachael Coyle, owner of Coyle’s Bakeshop, Seattle
Entry $5 or free when you purchase the book (you can choose on the event page)
spaces are limited so be sure to book your spot here >

Location: 4252 Fremont Ave N Seattle, Washington 98103

Los Angeles

Now Serving – Thursday 25 May

7:00 PM

Author talk. Regula will be interviewed by Nik Sharma (who has a substack here >), a molecular biologist turned two-time James Beard finalist and best-selling cookbook author of The Flavour Equation and Season.  

Book your spot here >

Location: 727 N. Broadway Unit 133 Los Angeles, CA 90012 (213) 395-0627

Hope to see some of you!