Liège waffle

Ingredients

Dough

• 400 gstrong white bread flour
• 150 mlwhole milk, warmed to 35°C (95°F)
• 12 gfresh yeast (or 5 g instant)
• 2eggs, at room temperature
• 50 gsoft light brown sugar
• 1 tspfine salt
• 1 tspvanilla extract
• ½ tspground cinnamon (optional)
• 220 gunsalted butter, very soft

The sugar

• 200 gBelgian pearl sugar (sucre perle, grade C-150)

For the iron

• a little butter or neutral oil for the first waffle only

Directions

1. Whisk the yeast into the warm milk with a spoonful of the flour and leave 15 minutes until foaming.
2. Mix the remaining flour, brown sugar and salt, add the yeast milk, eggs, vanilla and cinnamon, and knead 8 minutes in a mixer or 12 by hand until the dough is smooth and elastic.
3. Add the very soft butter in five or six additions, kneading each fully in before the next. The dough will look broken and greasy, then suddenly come together glossy and slack, like a brioche. This takes about 10 minutes.
4. Cover and prove at room temperature for 2 hours, until doubled and airy, then chill for 30 minutes to firm the butter and make the dough handleable.
5. Tip the dough out and fold in the pearl sugar by hand, quickly, with as few turns as possible — worked too long, the sugar dissolves into the dough and you lose the pockets.
6. Divide into 10 pieces of about 100 g, roll each into a rough ball, and rest them under a cloth for 15 minutes.
7. Heat a cast-iron waffle iron to 180–200°C (350–400°F). Grease it only for the first waffle; after that the butter and sugar in the dough take over.
8. Cook one ball at a time for 3–4 minutes, until the caramelised sugar on the outside is dark amber and lacquered and the waffle is crisp at the edges and soft in the middle.
9. Lift out carefully with a fork or wooden spatula and cool 2 minutes on a rack so the caramel sets to a crust. Eat warm, in the hand, with nothing on it.

Technique

• Liege waffles are made from a yeasted, brioche-rich dough, not a batter, and are the dense, uneven, oval waffles sold in the street. Brussels waffles are the other thing entirely: light, rectangular, made from a thin batter with whisked egg white.
• Pearl sugar is compressed sugar that survives the iron and melts into caramel pockets rather than dissolving. Crushed sugar cubes are the only realistic stand-in; granulated sugar will simply dissolve.
• Sugar that escapes onto the plates will burn and smoke. Scrape the iron clean with a wooden skewer between waffles rather than letting the burnt sugar build up.
• Never top a Liege waffle with cream and fruit in Belgium; that treatment belongs to the Brussels waffle.

Substitutions

• No pearl sugar: bash sugar cubes into rough 4–5 mm pieces and fold them in the same way. Expect slightly more leakage and caramel on the iron.
• The dough can be made a day ahead and proved slowly overnight in the fridge, which improves the flavour; add the pearl sugar cold, straight before shaping.

Variations

• Gaufre de Liege a la cannelle, with a full teaspoon of cinnamon in the dough, common in the Ardennes.
• Some bakers brush the finished waffles with a thin film of melted butter and dust them with vanilla sugar as they leave the iron.

History

Made from a heavy brioche dough studded with pearl sugar that caramelises on the iron; nineteenth-century street sellers spread it across Wallonia.

Frequently asked questions

What is Liège waffle?

Liège waffle is a street food from Belgium: dense yeasted waffle studded with caramelising pearl sugar. Made from a heavy brioche dough studded with pearl sugar that caramelises on the iron; nineteenth-century street sellers spread it across Wallonia.

How long does Liège waffle take to make?

Liège waffle takes 30 min of preparation and 2 hr 30 min resting plus 25 min cooking of cooking. The recipe makes 10 waffles. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Liège waffle?

Yes, within limits. No pearl sugar: bash sugar cubes into rough 4–5 mm pieces and fold them in the same way. Expect slightly more leakage and caramel on the iron. The dough can be made a day ahead and proved slowly overnight in the fridge, which improves the flavour; add the pearl sugar cold, straight before shaping.

What is the most important thing to get right in Liège waffle?

Pearl sugar is compressed sugar that survives the iron and melts into caramel pockets rather than dissolving. Crushed sugar cubes are the only realistic stand-in; granulated sugar will simply dissolve.