Celebrate A Party with Homemade Waffle & Maple Syrup

Waffle is directly derived from the Dutch ’wafel’and with ancient origin tracing back to the neolithic age. A waffle is a batter-based or dough-based cake cooked in a waffle iron patterned to give a characteristic size, shape and surface impression.

Waffles are eaten throughout the world, particularly in Belgium, France, Netherlands, Scandinavia, and the United States.

My first experience with waffles was when I had it in the US and can never forget its wonderful crispy texture with the tasty maple syrup. Recently my SIL gifted me a waffle maker which are available in India too. It fired me up to prepare the waffles at home.

The perfect combination is to have waffles with a spoonful of maple syrup. In India maple syrup is expensive so I found a alternative recipe on the internet courtesy to Peggy on About.com which tasted as good.

So celebrate a waffle party with your family

Ingredients for Homemade Maple Syrup Substitute

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 teaspoon butter
• 1 teaspoon maple extract or vanilla extract

Preparation:
Place granulated sugar in a heavy skillet. Heat until the sugar melts and turns brown.

Meanwhile, place brown sugar into a heavy saucepan. Pour water over brown sugar and bring to a boil without stirring.

Add caramelized white sugar to the melted brown sugar in the saucepan. Simmer, stirring often, until syrup is thickened.

Remove from heat, and whisk in butter and maple or vanilla extract. 

Waffle Ingredients

• 1.5 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 3 eggs seperated
• 3 tbsp butter melted
• 2.5 cup milk
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder

Seive the dry ingredients together and keep aside

Seperate the egg white and egg yolk, beat the egg yolk along with butter and milk till it blends

Mix the above dry ingredient to it and make a smooth paste.

Now beat the egg whites in a medium speed till small peaks form

Now add the egg white to the batter and fold it carefully with spatula until it gets incorporated. Dont fold too much

Heat the waffle maker and pour a scoop of batter in each segment and close it. Let it cook until the waffle maker gives the green indication or until it turns golden brown, it will take approximately 7-8 minutes per session

Note:
1. You can replace the butter with oil

2. Batter should be mildly flowy

3. You mix chocolate chips with the batter and make chocochip waffle.

The Magical Process Of Storing Green Peas

This is the season of green peas and it is time to think like a ant.And we always tend to buy frozen green peas at super markets and they do cost a lot.

A year back I bought 10 kg of green pea pods and freezed them and used for a whole year without any compromise in use for many of my dishes. I want to share this lovely technique of storing green peas with you all.

The credit goes to my SIL who taught me this wonderful process to store green peas with a shelf life of 6-8 months !!

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg green peas pods
• 1 medium size ziploc for storage

Procedure

Split and extract the peas and keep in bowl  
Take a large bowl and fill 3/4 th with water and boil it.

Once it starts boiling reduce the flame and add the green peas.

 It will settle in bottom initially and it will start to float slowly. 
 
Once all the peas float scoop them and dry them on a cloth.This process will take 1-2 minutes. 

Store in a medium size ziploc and keep in freezer.

Note:
1.You can also store them in freezer safe storage container which is very popular in tupperware brand.  

2.Do not overboil the peas as they will get cooked, it should be semi-boiled for reuse.