Recipe: Waffled brown sugar-banana cake [Poor Girl Gourmet]

Poor Girl Gourmet blogger Amy McCoy writes and photographs today's guest post, with the exception of the above photo, which I shot in my kitchen after I prepared the recipe below.

Amy's book, Poor Girl Gourmet: Eat in Style on a Bare-Bones Budget, will be released this spring. 

This is the second part of a two-part post. Read the first part here.

It turns out that you need your cast iron waffler to be very hot. Like smoking hot, in order to get a good waffle from a less-sturdy-than-bread-dough waffle candidate. My first attempt was merde. Very, very good smelling merde, but merde nonetheless. The waffle tore apart crosswise, leaving the cakey interior exposed, but, alas, no complete waffle to enjoy.

There was a glimmer of hope, though, in this first attempt — a small, untorn piece that did waffle. I returned to the stove (having allowed the waffle iron to cool completely, then scrubbing it with an old toothbrush to remove the stuck bits of cake), this time buttering the waffle iron generously, preheating both sides of the waffle iron on medium high heat, and then adding the batter. 

It almost completely waffled. Only it seemed to have some doughnut envy, so it carved a hole out of its middle that peeled away from the main waffle. (Though there was also the issue of the hot spot on this particular burner that rendered part of the remaining donut-waffle blackened. A small setback, in the scheme of things. Surely I could eat slightly blackened waffles if only I could make a whole one.)

I became convinced that there was some operator error involved, so I moved on to batch Number Three. The plates were preheated, buttered generously, and batter poured onto plates. I cooked this batch at medium heat. This was a mistake. The cast iron waffler demands medium-high heat to actually cook the waffle (but not high heat, as that will cause the seasoning to peel off). More sweet, banana-cinnamon-scented merde.

I then moved on to batch Number Four, whereby I tried to answer the burning question, “Will brown sugar-banana cake muffin in a silicone brioche pan?” And the answer to that, my friends, is a resounding, “Yes. Yes, it will.”

However, given the relative complexities and the nuance of the cast iron waffler, I firmly believe that the cake will waffle in an electric non-stick waffler. I’ll be saving up for one of those better models myself (before I get the one with the coat of arms. In the meantime, I’ll be designing that coat of arms), for no matter how much I like rustic, there is much to be said for convenience. And waffling. Which I now spend much time considering. Oh, the crispy exterior. Oh, the chewy interior. Ah, the endless possibility.

Amy's right. These will waffle, though they're a bit difficult to get out of the waffle iron. My experience suggests that if you waffle them long enough to be easily removed, they're overcooked. Instead, remove while they're still soft and just beginning to turn golden. This will probably take six or seven minutes, though waffling time will vary significantly based on model and temperature.

Abandon all hope of removing the entire waffle at once; instead focus on removing sections one at a time.

Brown Sugar-Banana Cake (for waffles, cake, or muffins)

Ingredients:

• 3 medium ripe bananas, sliced into 1/8-inch rounds [3mm]
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened [113 grams]
• 1 cup granulated sugar [200 grams]
• 1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar [100 grams]
• 6 ounces cream cheese [170 grams], softened, and cut into approximately 1-ounce chunks
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour [187 grams]
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions:

1. Place the banana rounds in a small mixing bowl, then sprinkle them with the cinnamon-sugar mixture, and give it all a stir to distribute the cinnamon-sugar evenly. Let the bananas stand for 30 minutes.

2. In a large mixing bowl, mix the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until they are well-blended, then add the cream cheese. Mix until the cream cheese has been completely incorporated into the sugar mixture, then add the eggs, one at a time, and mix until they are just blended into the batter. Pour in the vanilla and mix well to combine.

3. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt, then pour the flour mixture into the butter and sugar mixture. Mix until the dry ingredients are completely blended into the wet ingredients.

4. Pour the bananas and any accumulated juices into the batter, and fold the bananas into the batter. 

5. Preheat both sides of the waffle iron over medium high heat. While they are preheating, spread a pat of butter over each side to ensure that sticking, and the subsequent tearing, does not happen to you. You may use a silicone brush to do this, though if you make quick work of it, you can glide the melting butter around with a butter knife without damaging your hard-earned cast iron seasoning. Using approximately 1/3 cup batter per waffle (for a 6 1/2-inch waffle maker), transfer the batter to the preheated waffle iron, and, using a very heat resistant oven mitt (that’s another thing: the cast iron does not have a heat-proof, or touchable surface at all, so you must use a thick oven mitt or high-heat resistant silicone mitt to assemble it on the stove and to flip it), place the other plate over top and close the waffle iron. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes per side, and use a knife to gently pry the waffle out if necessary.

You can keep your waffles warm until serving time by placing them on a baking sheet in a 200ºF oven, and, as is the case with all waffles, and quite a boon at that, they may be frozen for future use once they have cooled completely.

Waffled brown sugar-banana cake [Poor Girl Gourmet]

Amy McCoy blogs at Poor Girl Gourmet. Her cookbook, Poor Girl Gourmet: Eat in Style on a Bare-Bones Budget, is due to be released this spring.

She wrote and photographed today's post. 

You have to understand that when I approached Amy early last month with the idea of guest-posting on this blog, there was no Waffleizer. There was me, trying to get a few people onboard my as-yet-untitled waffle project, writing a polite email.

Amy wrote back. She said yes.

I've always wondered about those cast-iron waffle irons — waffle irons in the truest sense of the word.

I'm out of town for a few days. Here's the first part of Amy's post:

When Dan first approached me to discuss the prospect of waffleizing, my head filled with visions of kitchen destruction: accidents, foibles, perhaps even some worthy of writing about. The “Will it Waffle?” question made me think of crushing and compressing things, splattering their doughy bodies between the hot, gridded iron.

Waffles, I learned from the trusty Joy of Cooking, evolved from the communion wafer served to parishioners at church. Early communion wafers were waffled — yep, complete with the honeycomb pattern. Just as the communion wafer remains unleavened to this day, those early versions were flat, and, if the current taste of communion wafer is consistent with those of early Christianity, I’m sure tasted a bit of cardboard. 

Waffles are, happily for us, leavened, and while early waffle irons had very elaborate designs on the plates, including landscape scenes and coats of arms, modern waffle irons come in pretty simple patterns: grid or grid. Of course, you can get your grid on round, square, or heart-shaped waffles. Always good to have options, right? One day, when I am rolling around in money, I am going to get me a waffle iron with a coat of arms design.

In the meantime, having never made waffles, I had not even a plain old waffler, so I had to set about finding one. Sadly, none of my friends or relations had added a waffle iron to their wedding registries (or had they, this wish was not fulfilled), and so I was left to purchase one — not a Belgian waffle iron, mind you, a classic, flat waffle iron. I shopped around at a discount housewares store, where they had nary a waffle iron — not even Belgian, and then, in all the excitement of being in a retail store after 15 months of underemployment, proceeded to break a mirror in their wall art department. 

I returned to my trusty world wide web (where I am unable to break any mirrors, and, clearly, where I should have stayed in the first place), where I located the least expensive waffle iron I could find; one that also happened to appeal to my rustic cooking sensibility — an unseasoned cast iron over-the-gas-stove-or-campfire jobby.

I mean, while I’m working on what will or won’t waffle, why not add the extra step of seasoning cast iron to the mix? That only takes a day or so.

My decision to purchase the cast iron waffle iron was also influenced by price and quality concerns. It turns out that the lower-priced electric waffle makers were a bit chintzy-looking, and didn’t get rave reviews for functionality. And one thing I knew was that I wanted rave reviews. Of whatever the heck I waffled.

The camping-set reviewers all seemed to love this waffle maker, and so I one-clicked my way to cast iron waffle maker ownership.

After an unsuccessful half hour of furiously scrubbing the cast iron plates with hot, soapy water to remove the protective layer of paraffin wax (it prevents rusting, and seemingly prevents its own removal), not including five additional minutes of chiseling wax off of the plates with my thumbnails (cast iron is a mighty fine nail file, might I add), I finally resorted to melting the wax off in the oven. The plates sat on a rack in a 350ºF oven for one hour while a piece of aluminum foil sat on the rack below them to catch any drippings. 

Once the plates had cooled completely, I coated them with canola oil, then placed them back in the oven, turned the temperature back up to 350ºF, and let them bake for an hour, then turned off the heat, and allowed them to cool in the oven.

When using cast iron wafflers, it’s generally advisable to make a sacrificial waffle or two before getting into the edible waffles. This way, if any of your seasoning oil has collected and then flakes off, it ends up on your pre-waffle waffles. For this batch of waffles, I patched together a couple pieces of roll-sized oatmeal-apple bread dough I had in the freezer.

As it turns out, oatmeal-apple bread waffles like a charm, and there appeared to be no seasoning flakes attached to the finished waffle, so, after taking pictures of the waffle, I promptly ate it. (That's the photo at the top of this post). Crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, and savory — I made a mental note that a sandwich of waffled oatmeal-apple bread with Gorgonzola dolce, Granny Smith apple slices, and Black Forest bacon would be a nice addition to my lunchtime menu options.

However, my primary goal was to waffle my favorite apple cake, though when I started envisioning a completed dessert waffle stack, a pint of Kafe Lila’s Brown Sugar Banana ice cream was calling out to me, and the thought of caramel sauce and chopped toasted walnuts also beckoned.

I modified the apple cake recipe by substituting 1/2 cup of light brown sugar for 1/2 cup of the granulated, using 3 ripe bananas (not over-ripe, just ripe) sliced into 1/8-inch rounds, and macerating the bananas with 2 tablespoons plus one teaspoon of cinnamon-sugar to create a brown sugar-banana cake.

So does brown sugar-banana cake waffle? Um, yeah, kinda.

The recipe — and the full story on whether it waffled — is the next post.

Recipe: Chocolate waffle cakes with cacao nibs

Should you make a waffleburger? If you own a cast-iron frying pan and don't run a waffling blog, it might be more trouble than it's worth. I can't decide that for you. 

But you should definitely make these chocolate waffle cakes.

Cocoa nibs are roasted, unsweetened cacao beans. They contribute a nutty, chocolatey crunch. If you don't have them, you may omit them.

This recipe was adapted from one by Martha Stewart.

Chocolate waffle cakes with cacao nibs

Makes about 18 cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 stick butter
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt if using unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup dutch-process cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• Optional: 1/2 ounce cocoa nibs, broken down into bits in a food processor, or in a plastic bag with a blunt object (meat tenderizer, rolling pin, old waffle iron, etc.)
• Powdered sugar for dusting

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a saucepan. Let cool slightly.

2. Put eggs, vanilla, and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale, 4 to 5 minutes. Mix in butter, salt, cocoa powder, cocoa nibs (if using) and the flour.

3. Heat a waffle iron until hot. Lightly grease iron with a neutral oil, such as canola. Spoon about 1 tablespoon batter onto center of each waffle-iron section to make 1 1/2-inch rounds. Close cover; cook until set, about 1 1/2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack. Let cool completely. Repeat with remaining batter, coating grids with oil after each batch.

Dust with powdered sugar.

Your waffle iron and my waffle iron

I've heard two things from a lot of people.

The first: "Gee, I should really dig out my waffle iron."

Yes, you really should. It's in the back of the cabinet next to the flour sifter. You're welcome.

Now, along the same lines, we need to address a very serious issue. Because the second thing I hear from a lot of people is this:

"Gee, I should really get a waffle iron."

Which ... sounds like you don't already have a waffle iron.

Which can't be true.

Because waffles are delicious.*

And you seem like a reasonable person.

Ergo, you would enjoy delicious things.

Fancy latin term, you would have a waffle iron.

I have gotten a lot of requests for recommendations on waffle iron. 

Most of the recipes on this site were tested in a standard waffle iron, though some have also worked in Belgian-style models. Belgian vs. standard is a very personal decision, and, in seeking to remain above the fray, I recommend that you buy both. Ahem.

Many people want to know what kind of waffle iron I have. That is now addressed in the FAQ. (I have a circa 1985 Kenmore, which I have nicknamed Sparky. In all likelihood, it will not survive this blog.)

Finally, as I make recommendations and pronouncements, I think it is important to remember my credentials here, which I will state plainly so as to remove any doubt:

I am some guy on the Internet.

I'm some guy off the Internet, too. But that's not important.

What's important is that I hope you like your new waffle iron.

*Not that this blog is about waffles, mind you.

* * *

My thanks to Lifehacker. MetaFilter, Thrillist, Smitten Kitchen, Parent Hacks, BBspot, Guy Gourmet, The Presurfer, J-Walk Blog, Design Crush and others who have linked to Waffleizer in the last week or so. Some of those blogs I was already reading and some I was happy to discover. I've added several to my RSS feed — which I have less time than ever to enjoy because of this blog. 

Thanks very much also to those of you who have pasted this blog into your Facebook status, joined its Facebook page or tweeted about it in the last few days.

If you use Stumbleupon, Digg or Reddit, thank you for that, too.

All of this really helps to get the word out about the blog and I appreciate it.

Recipe: Waffled aloo parantha

For background on this recipe, see the previous post.

This recipe comes to us from Kathy Skutecki, who blogs at Stresscake: Exploring the bake and release theory. It was adapted from Mark Bittman's The Best Recipes in the World.

The waffled aloo parantha is pictured served with a cilantro chutney and garnished with slices of red onion and cilantro.

If you have leftovers, they can be warmed in a 300-degree oven.

Parantha dough

This recipe makes enough for about a dozen stuffed flatbreads

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 3/4 cup warm water

Directions:

1. In the work bowl of a food processor, add both flours, salt and cumin and pulse to combine.

2. With the motor running, add the water and olive oil through the tube and process until a ball forms.  If the dough is a little dry, add another 1-2 Tablespoons warm water until it comes together.

3. Turn the dough out onto the counter and knead briefly until smooth.

4. Place dough in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Let the dough rest 30 minutes while you make the filling.

Potato filling

Ingredients:

• 1 pound baking potatoes (Idaho), peeled and cut in large chunks
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 3 gloves garlic, diced
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and finely diced
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• juice of 1/2 lime

Directions:

1. Place the potatoes in a pan, cover with water, add a good pinch of salt and bring to a boil.

2. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 15-20 minutes until tender.

3. Meanwhile, in a saute pan over medium heat, add 1 Tablespoon olive oil and saute onions until golden.

4. Toward the end, add the garlic and sauté until just fragrant – careful not to overbrown or burn.

5.Drain the potatoes and mash or run through a ricer until fine.

6. Add the sauteed onion and garlic, jalapeno, coriander, cumin seeds, salt, pepper and lime juice; stir to combine.  Set aside.

Bringing it all together: Waffled aloo parantha

1. To assemble: Break off a piece of dough the size of a golf ball and roll into a smooth ball.  Dip the ball into a bowl of flour until lightly coated.

2. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a thin circle about 5 to 6 inches in diameter.  (Note:  I found using my tortilla press to start the process then finishing with a rolling pin to work very well.)

3. Place about 1 1/2 Tablespoons of the filling in the center of the dough circle.

4. Moisten the edges of the dough with water – to help it stick – then gather up the sides of the dough, creasing and pressing as you go (sort of like making a dumpling.)

5. Press the edges together in the center to seal and make a parcel.

6. Very gently, with the flat of your hand, push down the center of the dough to flatten.

7. Lightly flour the work surface and gently roll the dough out from the center to the edges with a rolling pin to about a 6-inch round.  Be careful – there are air bubbles in the center and if you press too hard your filling may burst out the sides. This may be a bit messy but is no big deal. Just keep rolling.

8. Place dough round (aka parantha) on a parchment- or plastic wrap-lined sheet pan and cover with plastic wrap to prevent drying while you continue with the remaining dough/filling.

9. To cook: Preheat waffle iron on the highest setting.

10. Brush each parantha well with olive oil.

11. Spray the waffle iron well with cooking spray.

12. Place a parantha in the center of the waffle iron, close the lid and let cook for about 4 minutes until crisp.

13. Keep warm in a 300°F oven while you cook remaining paranthas.

14. Eat while warm.

Cilantro Chutney

Makes about 3/4 cup

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch cilantro
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 jalapeno
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 Tablespoons water

Directions:

1. Rinse cilantro; shake dry and separate tender leaves from tougher, thicker stems. Discard stems.

2. Add all ingredients to the work bowl of a food processor and process until pureed and well combined.

3. Store in the refrigerator with a layer of plastic wrap pressed against the surface to prevent discoloration for a few days.