An Obelios By Any Other Name

Frozen waffles. <shudder>

How about this instead?

I mean, really? Making waffles is not that hard. People have been doing it for thousands of years.

The ubiquitous waffle can be traced back to ancient Greece. The Athenians made tasty (one presumes), flat cakes they called obelios which were cooked between two metal plates over burning embers.

The humble obelios made its way to Europe and in the Middle Ages became the wafer, a very light thin crisp cake baked between wafer irons. The irons were used to produce a variety of different flat, unleavened cakes and were wildly popular. An entire guild was established in 1270 in France to train the vendors who sold them on the street.

Acording to Wikipedia, wafer and waffle share common etymological roots. Wafre is Middle English, adopted from Middle Low German wâfel, with the l changed to r. The Dutch, wafel, was adopted into modern American English as waffle in the 18th century.

The short from the long is that the modern waffle, which we know and love today, is simply a leavened form of wafer.

This recipe is leavened with baking powder.

About 10 minutes before you start, chill the mixing bowl and beaters you will use for the whipped cream in the freezer.

Topping
1 cup heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 to 2 Tbs sugar (or other sweetener), to taste
Fresh berries
Powdered sugar

Before you begin making the waffle batter, make the whipped cream. It can be chilled for up to four hours.

Put the cold heavy cream and the vanilla in the chilled mixing bowl.

With a wire whisk or hand beater (or an electric mixer) whip the cream. Start off slowly.

As the cream thickens, you can speed up the whipping. As it gets foamier, start checking the consistency. You want to whip the cream just until it holds a loose peak. You can check this by lifting the beater from the cream and looking at the shape of the peak at the end of the whisk. It should hold a lazy curve.

At this point, add the sugar, sifting it over the cream. Continue to whip just until it holds a soft peak.

Make sure not to over-whip the cream as it will become lumpy and butter-like.
Put the whipped cream in the refrigerator and get to work on the waffles.

Waffles

2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose or whole wheat flour
1 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup melted butter
1 Tbs sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Heat the waffle iron.

In large bowl, beat eggs with a wire whisk or hand beater until fluffy.

Beat in remaining ingredients just until smooth.

Pour slightly less than 3/4 cup batter onto center of hot waffle iron. (Make sure you check your waffle iron's manufacturer's directions for recommended amount of batter as this can vary wildly.)

Close the iron and bake about 5 minutes or until steaming stops. I like to bake the waffles just past the 'golden brown' stage so that they are very crisp on the outside. Carefully remove waffle.

Sprinkle the waffles with the powdered sugar and top with fresh berries and whipped cream.

Most of all, ENJOY!

Waffle irons use different amounts of batter, so you may end up with more or less than six waffles from this recipe.