Yeasted Waffles

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Hello! My name is Erica and I'm a waffle lover. Waffles (and pancakes) are my favorite weekend breakfast. And now that I've had to reduce my sodium, I've had to readjust my favorite recipes. So its fitting that my first blog post is waffles.

One of the frustrations with cooking low sodium is working with leavening ingredients. They just don't seem to work in the same way. They just never seemed to have the same rise or brown properly. I grew frustrated at my waffle making adventures and finally I turned to yeast. The yeast in this recipe gives the waffles that fluff factor and the butter allows them to get nice and browned. Browning the butter also gives them a wonderful new dimension of flavor.

Yes, you have to preplan these a bit. But the only difference is that you have to mix your ingredients the night before. This also allows you to clean up most of the mess so you have a clean kitchen when you cook. Not that I actually do that, I'm notorious for forgetting to start the dishwasher so I always have a full dishwasher when I start cooking.

Makes 12 waffles (6 servings). 292 calories, 33 mg sodium.

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter

• 1 3/4 cups water

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 1½ teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast

• 2 large eggs

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a sauce pan, melt butter, stirring occasionally. Once the butter has melted, continue to stir occasionally until the butter starts turning brown and becomes fragrant.

2. Add water and remove from heat.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. Whisk butter mixture into the dry mixture.

4. Add eggs and vanilla and whisk until combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl and cover. I use a silicone bowl cover but plastic wrap will work too. Refrigerate over night or up to 24 hours.

The next day

1. Preheat the waffle maker. While that's heating up, turn oven on to 200° F and place a wire cooling rack on a baking sheet and place in oven. This step is important for crispy hot waffles.

2. Remove batter from the fridge and stir to recombine. In a hot waffle maker, use 1/4 cup batter per waffle and cook until it stops steaming.

3. Place in warm oven.

4. Serve with your desired toppings.