One of my favorite waffle recipes. I made these for breakfast this morning
These Cornmeal Buttermilk Waffles puff up nicely and have a great crispy crunch.
Buttermilk Cornmeal Waffles
Adapted slightly from Gourmet
Yield: About 16 waffles
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour (sift before measuring)
1 cup yellow cornmeal, preferably stoneground
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
2 cups well-shaken buttermilk
6 tablespoons vegetable oil plus additional oil for brushing waffle iron
Accompaniment: pure maple syrup
Into a large bowl sift together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Repeat sifting 2 more times.
In another large bowl whisk together eggs, buttermilk, and oil. Add flour mixture all at once and whisk just until combined.
Preheat a waffle iron and preheat oven to 200 °F.
Brush waffle iron lightly with additional oil. Spoon batter into waffle iron, using 1/4 cup batter for each 4-inch-square standard waffle and spreading batter evenly, and cook according to manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer waffle to a baking sheet and keep warm, uncovered, in middle of oven. Make more waffles with remaining batter in same manner, brushing waffle iron with mire oil before adding each batch.
Serve waffles with syrup.
This is my homemade vanilla extract after just 1 day of steeping. Wow! This is going to be sooooooooo good!
I had purchased some vanilla beans from Amazon.com
in preparation for making vanilla extract, but darned if I had \ever gotten around to actually making it. One issue was finding a suitable jar to steep the beans and alcohol, but recently a jar of peaches presented the perfect container. It is wide mouthed enough to allow easy access when I need to add new beans and alcohol in the future, but not so large that I would make so much that I would never use it all.
Click for larger images
Since this jar is clear, I will keep it in a cool dark location so that sunlight doesn’t spoil the mix, but once I start drawing on this batch, I will move it to smaller, dark plastic or glass containers to keep in the kitchen.
So, how do you make vanilla extract? It couldn’t be simpler!
Take vanilla beans and steep them in vodka or other neutral grain spirits like Everclear. For this batch, I picked up a 1/2 gallon of inexpensive vodka I found on sale over the holidays. The alcohol will pull out all the vanilla goodness and turn a dark brown. The process takes a few months to work, but you will be rewarded with pure vanilla extract whenever you want to use it for your baked goods. This batch will come in handy for my next batch of cookie baking, for sure.
As you use the vanilla extract, you can top up the jar with more alcohol and let it steep some more. You will eventually will way to replace the beans as well, but you will be surprised how much flavor they contain.
A friend in the UK sent us this wonderful gift for Christmas. They were part of our Podcaster’s Christmas Carol, saw this on the High Street and thought it would be perfect for us.
Post arrived the other day with this picture of The Queen attached. I love getting mail from outside the US. It always reminds me to expand my world view.
Special treat this morning, using the leftover eggnog from our celebrations. I used this recipe – Eggnog Pancakes from Cassie Craves. Some of them ended up a bit gooey in the middle, but I think this was because I was being careful not to burn them. Give them a few more minutes than a normal pancake, just to make sure they cook all the way through.
Here is what Christmas morning looked like at our house. Click for much larger versions.
Taken with 360 Panorama iPhone app ($0.99)
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