The Classic Waffle Trial

My family loves waffles. We love eating them. I love making them with Isabella on the weekend. She loves stirring the dry ingredients and helping me hold the mixer. We just plain love them. What we haven't loved is our previous recipe because it required sour cream and we always seemed to be out (since we eat waffles so often) so I went on a hunt for a new recipe and found 'Classic Waffles' on allrecipes.com and decided to give it a try.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups warm milk
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix together flour, salt, baking powder and sugar; set aside. Preheat waffle iron to desired temperature.
2. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs. Stir in the milk, butter and vanilla. Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture; beat until blended.
3. Ladle the batter into a preheated waffle iron. Cook the waffles until golden and crisp. Serve immediately.

About two weeks ago, Isabella was home with a cold and we decided to make waffles. We used our new recipe and even managed to beat and stir when called for. The waffles fluffed up nicely, were crisp on the outside, looked great.... and were way to salty for my taste. Which was a shame since I made a double batch and was planning on freezing the rest for quick breakfasts before daycare. The rest of the batter landed in the garbage when Isabella went down for her nap so she wouldn't see me throwing it away. Avoiding tantrums is always a plus.

I went back online and read through the reviews and decided on what to try the next time we made an attempt. Half the salt, applesauce instead of butter, a teaspoon of cinnamon, 5 tablespoons of sugar instead of 2 and 3 teaspoons of vanilla extract. Lots of changes but I wanted to be adventurous when I next got the urge to make waffles.

Turns out I wasn't the one to get the urge but my lovely husband who made waffles with Isabella so he could do me a favor. And because he wanted waffles. I gave him my altered recipe. He mixed and beat when appropriate. And produced wonderfully tasting waffles that did not fluff up, did not get crisp on the outside and tended to stick to the waffle iron. But we had a very nice breakfast of flat, sticky, wonderfully tasting waffles.

I wonder what happened. I think I will scale back the changes next time and only halve the salt, substitute applesauce and a teaspoon of cinnamon. Maybe I have to add more baking powder since I increased the total amount of ingredients? I wish I knew more about proportions in cooking. But the trial and error method when it comes to perfecting waffles can only mean one thing... lots of waffle to eat. Which I'm ok with.