Playing With A New Toy: All Clad Waffle Maker & Buttermilk Waffles

I am a breakfast junkie. My friends from the south always said I would make a great Southerner when it comes to breakfast, as I like it pretty much not good for you at all. There must be something sweet; when I am dining out first choice is Belgian waffle, then French toast. Dining in, I also love pancakes but I want brown sugar on them, which is a drawback in restaurants. I also want a meat, a good pork sausage or thick cut bacon. And I want home fries–I don’t care if that makes a second starch, it’s just what I want. And if John gets an omelet I like to sneak bites of that as well.

We have a good breakfast place in town; its specialities are pancakes and it does great French toast. However, their waffles are terrible. They are dense and heavy–not at all what I want in a waffle. Add to that my mom packed her waffle iron away while her kutchen was remodeled this last year, and I have been waffle deprived. I used to own a waffle iron, but John is not a lazy weekend brunch kind of guy (one of his few flaws), and it got lost in one of our moves. But since then I’ve had kids, and they love breakfast like me. So when I saw Williams and Sonoma was running a rebate special on their All Clad waffle irons, I started paying attention and counting up Williams and Sonoma gift cards (we get them as cash back from our credit card company).

Now I do not work for All Clad or Williams and Sonoma, nor have I ever spoken to them about writing on my blog. But I do love them both (when I can afford them), and I am so excited about this appliance–and they are running the special for a few more days still–so I thought I would review it. I chose the 4 square waffle iron; I knew I wanted the deeper Belgian style, so the round was out, and I just cannot see the point in the 2 square. Maybe if we were a 2 person household, but we’re not, we’re 4 (even if not–who eats only one square, really?). Breakfast makes me feel like enough of a short order cook without adding more repetitions to the process. Being All Clad, the waffle maker is pricey, but it got fabulous reviews, I had the gift cards, and until May 15 they are running a rebate special. For example, for the 4 square iron, you get a $50 Williams and Sonoma gift card.

The first recipe I chose was the Buttermilk Waffles recipe included with the iron. As far as the waffle maker goes, it all went perfectly. It beeped when they were ready (edited to add: it beeps when it comes back to temperature, but so far [2 different sets of waffles; 2 different recipes] when it comes back to temp is when the waffles are ready. So you may need to use a timer but thus far I have not), it did not make a mess (what spillover there was went right into the drip tray perfectly), and it made gorgeous waffles. As for the recipe, texturally it was perfect. It is a brunch (or breakfast for dinner, which is what we did) kind of recipe as it does require whipping the egg whites separately. I’d give it an A-, because while I swooned with every bite, it was just a tad too eggy for my tastes. I realize that sounded contradictory, but I love waffles, and I especially love waffles that are light, crispy on the outside and melting on the inside. And these were. I used farmer’s market eggs, which can be kinda big, so it is possible I used too big of eggs also. Because of that I will probably give this recipe another try with smaller eggs.

All Clad Buttermilk Waffles
from the All Clad recipe booklet accompanying waffle iron

3 large eggs, separated
1 3/4 cups buttermilk (I used low fat)
8 T (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 t vanilla
1 3/4 cups (280 g) AP flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/3 cup sugar

(I am only including the directions for the batter; proceed as you would for your waffle iron.)

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar together into a bowl. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, butter (cooled slightly), buttermilk and vanilla. Stir the flour mixture into this.

Whip the egg whites until stiff, but not dry. Fold 1 cup of the egg whites into the batter; then fold in the rest of the egg whites. Proceed according to waffle iron directions.