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!
Meyer Lemon, Raspberry, Goat Cheese Waffles
I'm currently on a bit of a citrus kick. Our fruit basket is chock-full of various shades of orange, pink and yellow, and I may have already confused a grapefruit and a blood orange for a lemon multiple times this season. All the colors and shades start to blend together until you actually cut the thing open and taste it! Thanks to the kitchn I learned storing lemons in a ziplock bag in the fridge keeps them fresh for a month! I tried it and it works like a gem. Lemon water has been a new obsession of mine as well. And meyer lemon water? Don't even get me started - I could drink gallons of the stuff. It's tangy, sweet, refreshing, and it's supposed to be detoxifying and SUPER good for you.
If you've never had the chance to try a meyer lemon, they are sort of a delicacy and can be on the pricier side but are well worth it. They are generally softer than a regular lemon, with brighter more orange skins, they produce more juice and best of all their taste is sweeter and softer than regular lemons. They're really a treat.
There are few combinations I love more than meyer lemon and goat cheese, especially in the winter. They taste amazing in my favorite one pot kale & quinoa dish so I figured why not let them play together in something sweeter. Meyer lemon waffles with sweet raspberries and tangy goat cheese. So so good. And the best part about these waffles? They freeze beautifully, just pop them in the toaster and they taste like they just came off the waffle iron. Happy Sunday.
Meyer Lemon, Raspberry, Goat Cheese Waffles
Makes 4 large waffles
adapted from Joy the Baker
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons coconut sugar (or granulated sugar)
1 tablespoon meyer lemon zest, (from about 2 large lemons)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup meyer lemon juice (from about 2 large lemons)
1/3 cup greek yogurt, I used 2% Fage
1/2 cup almond milk, regular milk, or water (I used almond)
1 heaping cup fresh or frozen raspberries, thawed slightly
2.5 oz crumbled goat cheese (about 1/2 cup loosely packed)
Preheat your waffle iron. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a small prep bowl, stir together sugar and zest until the mixture becomes fragrant. Add the sugar mixture to the flour mixture and whisk to combine.
In a large bowl, mix together butter, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice, greek yogurt, and milk. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir until just combined, don't over-mix. Pour in raspberries and goat cheese and stir gently, keeping the goat cheese crumbles intact. Dollop the batter into your waffle maker and cook until golden, following manufacture's instructions.
Notes:
- You could totally use regular lemons if you can't find meyers.
- I have a very un-fancy waffle maker and I know they are all probably a little different, but I found turning up the dial to the highest "most brown" setting worked best. I also sprayed my iron with coconut oil between waffles.
- These freeze beautifully. Just pop them in the toaster and they taste almost better than they did on day 1.