Seeing as it was General Conference this past weekend, Jordan and I have a tradition of making these waffles every Sunday morning for conference. We have done it the past two years and always look forward to it! These waffles do take some time and effort the day before you make them, but it is completely worth it, and if you're like me it makes them taste so much better (although I don't know if that's possible)! Enjoy!
1 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/4 cup scalded whole milk at 110-115 degrees
2 tablespoon. + 2 teaspoons of water at 110-115 degrees
2 cups bread flour
1 large room temperature egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon. + 1 teaspoon light brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
8 1/2 tablespoon soft room temperature unsalted butter
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup Belgian Pearl Sugar - *we use a brand called Lars that can be found on amazon <-- link here*
Directions
1. Place yeast, milk, and water into the bowl of a stand mixer. Give it a quick stir to moisten the yeast.
2. Add the egg and 2/3 of a cup of the flour. Mix to blend. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed.
3. Next, sprinkle the remaining 1 and 1/3 cups of flour over the mixture, but DO NOT stir it in. Cover and let stand 75-90 minutes. Once the time if over, you will see that the batter has started to bubble up through the flour.
4. Add the brown sugar and salt to the workbowl with the other ingredients. Mix on low speed to blend.
5. With machine on low, add honey and vanilla. Then add 2 Tbsp. of room temperature butter at a time. Mix 4 minutes at medium-low speed; scrape down sides once or twice in that period. Let the dough rest for 1 minute and then continue to mix for 2 minutes. If you measured your ingredients perfectly, the dough will be sticking to the sides of the bowl in the last minute of mixing and then, in the last 30 seconds of so, will start to ball-up on the paddle. If this does not happen, let the dough rest for 1 more minute and mix for another 2 minutes. This should yield a slightly sticky dough.
6. Scrape the dough into a large bowl, sprinkle lightly with flour, cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for 4 hours. This is where all of the yummy flavor develops :)
7. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes before moving on the #8. This is an important step that you don't want to skip! It slows down the yeast.
8. Gently deflate the gases from the dough, by pressing on it with a rubber spatula and scrape it onto a piece of plastic wrap, and then use the spatula to press the dough into a long rectangle. Fold that rectangle over on itself (by thirds – like a letter) so that you have a square of dough. Wrap it in plastic, weigh it down a bit (I put two heavy dinner plates on top of it) and refrigerate OVERNIGHT.
9. The next day, place the cold dough (it will be quite firm) in a large bowl and add all of the pearl sugar to a bowl. It will seem like a lot of sugar, but it’s supposed to be :) Mix it into the dough by hand until the chunks are evenly distributed. Once mixed, divide the dough into 5 pieces of equal size.
10. Shape each chunk into an oval ball (like a football without the pointy ends) and let it rise (covered loosely in plastic wrap) for 90 minutes. If you accidently skip this step, it is ok, the waffles just aren't quite as chewy as they would be, however, they are still delicious :)
11. Spray your waffle iron with cooking spray and place dough in the center of the iron. Let it cook for about 2 minutes. As you continue on with each waffle, the pearl sugar that sticks to the waffle iron does start to burn a little, so feel free to clean it our if you'd like!
Top with homemade buttermilk syrup, whipped cream, sliced fruit, or nutella!
ENJOY!
*Recipe found on pumpkinwaffles weebly blog, thank you!*