Overnight Yeasted Waffles

A few months ago, my husband and I enjoyed a weekend away at one of our favorite places in Sun Valley.  It’s mostly my favorite place because of the amazing European bakery that’s right outside my door at all times.  Aside from killer bakery items, they have a fabulous cafe, and their breakfasts in particular, are a family favorite.  I instagrammed this picture on our last morning there, of my Belgian Waffles with Lingonberry Syrup and Chocolate-Hazelnut Whipped Cream.  It was as amazing as it sounds and I promptly went home and made it myself.  Only I went for an overnight yeasted waffle {insert drool here}.  If you’ve never made yeasted waffles, they’re a little different than the standard type you’re probably used to.  The batter, as can be expected from the name, has yeast in it, that works magic in a slow overnight rise.  In the morning you pop it into your waffle maker and it creates the most wonderfully textured waffle with intense flavor.  These ones are kicked up even one more notch with the addition of brown butter.  I love them.

Start with some whole milk, that’s been warmed slightly.

Add in some buttermilk.  Yes, mine is super chunk-i-fied.  That’s because I made my own so it’s nice and coagulated.  If you’re ever without buttermilk, you can easily make your own by squeezing in a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar and then fill up your remaining cup with regular milk.  You’ll see it immediately thicken and form some clumps like this.  I like to let mine sit for a few minutes before using.

Then sprinkle in a packet of yeast.

And some dry ingredients.

Lastly, whisk in some brown butter.  If you’ve never browned butter before, we have a great tutorial with step by step instructions.  You can find it here.

As amazingly delicious as brown butter is, you can also use regular melted butter here if you’re in a time pinch.

That mixture comes together super quick, and then it just needs to sit for 8-12 hours.  I might suggest if you’re going to let it sit longer than that (12-24 hours) you refrigerate it during this rest time.  This is when the yeast works its magic!

In the morning, all you need to do is whisk a couple of eggs and a little baking soda into the batter.

And pop it into a hot waffle iron.

Now, I want you to be warned that these won’t look like normal waffles at first.  They don’t puff up the way a normal batter would, and the tops actually sometimes look kind of flat and funny and you think the recipe is a total fail.

But don’t fear!  Flip those babies over and look at that golden goodness.  They have this amazing texture, which is sort of hard to explain, but it’s almost more chewy than fluffy, and has this awesome flavor of a yeasted bread.

I highly suggest, that even if you don’t make brown butter for the batter, you make some to drizzle on top.  Oh my gosh, amazing.

The waffles tear open and are incredibly soft, with the most amazing flavor.  Definitely eat one plain, hot out of the waffle iron with real butter on top before you eat it with anything else.  And then bust out the anything-else.

I wanted to replicate those amazing waffles at the Konditeroi Bakery, so I made my own Chocolate-Hazelnut Whipped Cream.

Since these are overnight waffles, I wanted to make this cream the night before as well, so it was all ready, which is why I have an extra ingredient in here.  I’ve found that just a little bit of instant pudding mix helps stabilize whipped cream so it can sit for longer periods of time without falling.  You could use chocolate or vanilla here.  Just sift a little in (otherwise you’ll get some lumps) with some whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla.

And of course we need this:

Place a big scoop of Nutella in a bowl

and add a spoonful of the whipped cream mixture.  We’re just lightening the mix at this point,

so go ahead and stir it right in.

Now that it’s lightened, take the rest of the cream, a few big spoonfuls at a time, and very gently fold it together (don’t stir, fold) so you keep all of the air in the cream.  When it’s combined, place it in the fridge to chill.

I also wanted a dark berry sauce to mimic the Lingonberry jam at the bakery.  My store was out of my favorite Swiss Jam, so I grabbed this Oregon Marion Blackberry from Private Selection, which was awesome.

Warm up the jam and stir until smooth.  You can use a little bit of hot water if you need to thin it into a syrup.  Drizzle that over butter-slathered waffles and top with the Chocolate Hazelnut Whipped Cream.

Hello gorgeous.

I’m telling you. You will eat this once, and then dream of eating it every morning for the rest of your life.

Whip these up and let me know what you think!