Seedy Sprouted Sourdough Waffles
2017 was the year I finally got the courage to tackle sourdough! It's been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember so this summer when I had a couple months off I took the plunge. I used King Arthur Flour's starter recipe to create my own starter over about a week. For those of you familiar with sourdough you know that each time a starter is "fed" you need to discard about half of it. It can feel pretty wasteful, at least for me, until I realized you can actually use discarded starter for recipes like these waffles! I've since made these waffles what feels like dozens of times.
The original version calls for all purpose flour and don't get me wrong, it's delicious. But I was hoping for something a little more sustaining so I loaded this version with protein-rich hemp seeds, spouted wheat flour, oat flour, and lots of seeds! The result is a waffle that's strong enough to eat for weekday breakfast and feel full until lunch. You can dress it up with maple syrup and whipped cream (like I did for my husband's birthday this week) or dress it down with almond butter and banana. It freezes beautifully and makes for a quick easy breakfast that just needs to be reheated in the toaster. And, like you'd expect it has that subtle lovely sourdough taste!
If you've never considered making your own sourdough, these waffles are just one more excuse to take the plunge, it's well worth it!
Makes about 10 waffles
For the "Overnight Sponge":
1 cup unfed sourdough starter
2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups milk of your choice
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup sprouted wheat flour (or white whole wheat flour)
1 oat flour (I just pulse 1 cup old fashioned oats in the blender)
2 tablespoons chia seeds (optional)
For the waffle batter:
all of the overnight sponge
2 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
The night before you want to make the waffles combine all of the ingredients for the overnight sponge in a large bowl, cover and let sit at room temperature for 8-12 hours.
The following morning, warm your waffle iron. Add eggs, vegetable oil, salt and baking soda to the overnight sponge and stir to combine. Spray the waffle iron with oil, pour batter into the iron and cook per the manufacturers instructions. Serve immediately!
Notes:
These waffles freeze beautifully in freezer bags between sheets of wax paper and re-heat excellently in the toaster oven!