Cooking with Food Storage: Sourdough Waffles

This cooking with food storage post also features one of my non-electric kitchen appliances!

I am not a big fan of sourdough. The flavor in most sourdough recipes is too tart for me. So, when I find one I really like, it becomes a keeper! That happened with this recipe! It has a very, very mild sourdough flavor. The addition of cinnamon helps too. 

Here is the recipe:

2 eggs 
1/3 cup powdered milk

1/4 tsp salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon (Cinnamon doesn't like me so I only added 1/4 tsp.)

2 cups sour dough starter

1/2 tsp baking soda

water or flour to adjust the batter consistency as needed

Of course, since this is cooking with food storage, I used powdered eggs. The equivalent of two eggs is four tablespoons. Then I added the powdered milk.

As I have mentioned before, powdered eggs tend to lump up so I mixed the eggs and dry milk together breaking up any lumps as necessary. To this I added the salt, sugar and cinnamon.

Then I added the two cups of sour dough starter. Remember, you should use starter that you fed 12 - 24 hours ago.  It should be bubbly like this.

When mixed into the dry ingredients this is what it looks like.

Or maybe not. At this point, the consistency will depend on how much liquid is in your starter. If you are feeding your starter with equal amounts of water and flour, your waffle batter will look much more like normal waffle batter than mine does. I like my sour dough starter a little thicker. When I feed my starter, I use 1/4 cup water and 1/2 cup flour. If you do that, the picture above will be an accurate reflection of what your waffle batter will look like. (BTW, powdered eggs also affect the batter consistency. If you use fresh eggs, you will have a thinner batter.)

What you need to do now is adjust the batter to the desired consistency that will work in your waffle iron. If your batter is too thin, add up to 1/2 cup flour. Don't overdo it, only add a little at a time. 

If your batter is too thick, like mine, add some water. I added about 1/4 cup but I didn't measure, so my estimate is not precise. I added a little at a time until the batter was a consistency I liked. You could use regular milk here too. Here is what I got.

When your batter is the right consistency, add 1/2 tsp baking soda and mix well. The baking soda helps to cut the sour taste of the batter. 

Be sure to replenish your sour dough starter by feeding it. The two cups in this recipe used almost all of my starter. 

I added 1/2 cup of water and 1 cup of flour to feed my starter. It will be ready to make bread tomorrow.

You are now ready to make waffles! My waffle iron is a NordicWare 15040 Cast Aluminum Stovetop Belgium Waffle Iron.  It is non-electric! It has a lot of great reviews on Amazon.com.

What I like most about this waffle iron is that it can be used on any stovetop. Electric or non-electric. It even works great on my ceramic stovetop. Sadly, the only thing it won't do is cook over an open fire. The handles are too short and made of plastic. To cook over an open fire, I will have to get another model with longer handles made of wood.

The biggest difference between this and an electric waffle iron is the need to preheat both sides. You also need to cook the waffle on both sides, just like you would make a pancake. I normally cook longer on one side, flip it, then cook it a bit more on the other side to make the waffle a golden brown color. If you find this confusing, don't worry, directions come with the waffle iron.

Here is a picture of the finished waffles!

Perfect waffles, with a very mild, delicious, sour dough flavor!