This is not a story about buttermilk waffles swimming in maple syrup served at 7 a.m. in your local coffee shop.
Nor is it a tale of thick Belgian waffles laden with whipped cream and berries before being wolfed down at the state fair.
It is, all waffling aside, a story about the popularity of waffles in upscale eateries. It is the story of a breakfast classic gone high-class in the hands of Chicago chefs.
Michael Foley serves them, done up as chocolate and living in delicious sin with strawberries.
Dennis Terczak pairs them with a deeply-flavored prune coulis and double vanilla ice cream.
David Jarvis curls hot-from-the-griddle mahogany-hued waffles, fills them with ice cream, then presents them with fresh fruit.
Peter Heise rolls them, coats them with bittersweet chocolate and serves them in the company of an orange chocolate mousse and creme anglaise swirled with chocolate fudge.
These are not breakfast waffles designed as eye-openers, but as exclamation points to prime-time dinners.
Yet all those waffles, say the chefs, are nothing but updated versions of classic recipes from their pasts.
”My grandmother used to make the best buttermilk waffles, and my mother made waffles using her recipe,” says Foley, who has been serving waffles in a variety of ways in Chicago since 1978.
At Foley`s restaurants-Printer`s Row on South Dearborn and Foley`s on Ohio-waffles have shown up in dessert, appetizers and entrees.
”We make little waffles that we serve with caviar,” he says.
”Sometimes they`re flavored with anise or fennel. I`ve also done a creamed scallop dish with a fennel- or herb-flavored waffle. Waffles are not just dessert, nor do they have to be a single course offering.”
At Chez Jenny on Franklin, Terczak created the waffle and prune coulis combination for cold weather months. For spring, heart-shaped waffles, pastry cream, grand marnier, whipped cream and a strawberry coulis have been matched up. ”Waffles as a dessert concept is a very old idea. We`re just not accustomed to it in this country.”
Indeed, culinary author Waverley Root traces the common breakfast waffle to the Dutch. Foley says it`s considered fast food in Belgium, the Netherlands and northern Germany. Terczak enjoyed them in Paris, where stove-top grills turned out waffles covered with caramelized sugar.
As a kid, Jarvis and his pals regularly pedaled over to the local dairy in Buffalo, N.Y., for fresh-made ice cream cones and ice cream sandwiches.
”I thought, how can I update and bring that into the `80s?,” says Jarvis, who put waffles on the menu at Melange in Wilmette last summer.
His recipe uses a rich-as-a-brownie batter, bakes it as thin as possible, then fills the rolled and cooled shell with white chocolate ice cream and sets it on a plate with raspberry sauce before arranging fresh berries around it. Sometimes the ice cream will be espresso, sometimes the sauce will vary.
The triple chocolate cannoli at the new Trattoria No. 10 on Dearborn is a fantasy of Dan Rosenthal and the creation of chef Heise. Rosenthal, president of Rosenthal-Newton Inc., a restaurant management and development firm, was turned off by traditional cannoli. ”They`re either too thick or too rubbery,” he says. So working with an ice cream cone batter, they came up with a version that`s so popular that they also are shaping it into a cornucopia before filling it with ice cream and fresh fruit.
At its simplest, a waffle is a relatively thin batter, sometimes leavened with baking powder or yeast, that is baked in a waffle iron.
That waffle iron may be square, round, electrically heated or heated atop a stove burner. Confectioners may use such a batter to make ice cream cones. When the chefs roll the freshly-baked waffle into a tube, it sometimes gets labeled cannoli with a bow to the deep-fried and cheese-filled Italian sweet. The idea in all of these, of course, is to bake a grid pattern into the batter, a process that crisps up what might otherwise be nothing more than a plebeian pancake, and transforms this breakfast bread into waffle.
What a transformation it is. Why even that ultra-chic emporium, Tiffany & Co., tied red ribbons to heart-shaped waffles and hung them in the windows. MICHAEL FOLEY`S CHOCOLATE WAFFLES WITH WARM POACHED STRAWBERRIES
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Standing time: 30 minutes
Baking time: 2 to 4 minutes
Yield: 8 servings
Be generous with the poached strawberries for each serving.
Strawberries:
2 1/4 pounds fresh strawberries, hulled
Juice of 1 small lemon
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 vanilla bean, split or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups water
Waffles:
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon each: salt, baking soda
3 large eggs, separated
1 3/4 cups milk
1/4 cup melted butter
Whipped cream, mint sprigs, optional
1. Put strawberries, lemon juice and 1 heaping cup of sugar in a bowl. Let sit for about 30 minutes.
2. Put remaining sugar, vanilla bean or extract and water into a saucepan. Cook and stir until sugar dissolves. Add strawberries, heat to simmer; poach over low heat until almost tender, 1 to 3 minutes. Do not overcook. Cool slightly.
3. Heat waffle iron. For waffles, sift together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Lightly beat in egg yolks and milk.
4. Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold into batter along with melted butter. Bake waffles according to manufacturer`s directions.
5. To serve, while waffles are hot, top with warm poached strawberries, garnish with whipped cream and mint.
CHEZ JENNY WAFFLES WITH PRUNE ARMAGNAC COULIS
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 4 minutes
Yield: 6 servings
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon (1/4 pound) flour
3/4 cup (1/4 pound) cornstarch
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 large eggs, separated
1 1/4 cups milk
4 tablespoons butter, melted
Prune coulis, recipe follows
Rich vanilla ice cream
Confectioners` sugar
1. Sift flour, cornstarch, 1/3 cup of the sugar and baking powder together into a bowl.
2. Combine egg yolks, milk and butter in another bowl. Combine wet and dry ingredients, whisking until smooth. Heat waffle iron.
3. Beat egg whites with remaining sugar in an electric mixer until whites are glossy and hold firm peaks. Fold whites into batter.
4. Bake waffles on medium-high until puffed and light brown, about 4 minutes.
5. To serve, spoon prune coulis on individual serving plates. Top with a scoop of ice cream. Arrange 2 waffle segments over ice cream. Finish with a dusting of confectioners` sugar.
PRUNE COULIS
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Yield: 3 1/2 cups
This coulis is sweet and thick, and can also be used as jam.
1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 pound dried pitted prunes
1/4 cup armagnac or brandy
1. Boil water and sugar until sugar dissolves to make a syrup. Poach prunes with half the syrup and armagnac until soft. Transfer to bowl of food processor fitted with a steel blade.
2. Process until prunes are chunky and saucelike in consistency. While processing, add remaining syrup and more armagnac to taste. Do not puree smooth. Sauce should be slightly thick, like a jam, not watery. If coulis is too thick, and you have no more syrup or armagnac, add a small amount of hot water to thin.
MELANGE`S ICE CREAM CANNOLI
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Baking time: 2 minutes
Yield: 14 cannoli
These dark, fragile wafer-like waffles are best made with a pizelle waffle iron.
4 ounces semisweet chocolate
6 tablespoons each: cocoa, water
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon boiling water
Garnishes:
Vanilla ice cream
Pureed fruit sauce, such as raspberry, optional
Fresh fruit, confectioners` sugar for garnish
1. Melt chocolate in a double boiler.
2. Whisk cocoa and water together in a small pan; heat to simmer, whisking until thick. Add melted chocolate. Set aside.
3. Beat butter with electric mixer on medium high until soft. Beat in brown and granulated sugars.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs with vanilla. Add to butter mixture. Beat in chocolate mixture, then half the flour. Beat until combined.
5. Mix baking soda with boiling water. Stir into batter. Add remaining flour. Mix only until combined. Batter will be very thick. Bake on a very thin waffle iron or Italian waffle iron or in a cone (waffle) maker for 1 to 2 minutes. While warm, roll on a thin rolling pin; reserve and cool.
6. Spoon or pipe ice cream with a pastry bag inside cone.
7. Spoon a small amount of fruit sauce on individual serving plate if desired. Set filled cannoli on sauce. Arrange fresh fruit garnish (berries, mandarin orange segments) on plate. Dust with confectioners` sugar. –
