Spiced Brown Butter Waffles

This recipe I'm posting right now is totally NOT the recipe I had been planning on sharing today.  Yup.  Spiced brown butter waffles (as delicious and amazing as they were, just wait), were NOT supposed to be posted today.  Today, I had been intending on posting a whole wheat oatmeal bread.  You know, one of those really nice artisan-looking breads that has a beautiful golden brown crust, with a nice sprinkling of oats on the top?  And this one was supposed to be even more amazing, because it was a no-knead bread that gets baked in a dutch oven, so it looks even more artisan-like than it already is.  That's what I should be posting today, but, due to my carelessness, you will have to settle for these waffles (which are REALLY good, I promise) instead. You see, today is my dad's birthday!  I had totally planned on baking him a nice loaf of bread (his favorite thing ever!) and posting it today for him, but like I said before, I was careless, and because of that, there is no bread post for today.  

What could I have possibly done that was so careless that I had to switch around the order of my posts?  It's something kind of silly, and I couldn't believe it happened.  I completely forgot to grease the dutch oven I used to bake the bread....yuuupppp.  Silly me.

I'm not sure how I managed to forget something as important as greasing the pot I was baking in.  I've been baking for so long, that lining my baking sheets and greasing cake pans has become automatic, so this was just silly.  I baked the bread in the dutch oven pulled it out of the oven, got super happy because it looks SO GOOD, let it cool for a bit, and then went to take the bread out...and I realized that I had derped. Sigh.  No matter how much I tried to shake the dutch oven, or how often I ran a knife along the edge of the pot, that loaf of bread was just not going to come out.  I called in for reinforcements (aka my sister and my mom) and they failed at getting the bread out too.  We gave up, just tore a piece off the top, and it was delicious.  My mom eventually managed to somehow get the bread out, and of course, it was only one tiny sport that was actually stuck to the bottom of the dutch oven.  Ugh.  Oh well.  That bread was so good, that it will definitely be re-made and the recipe posted sometime in the future.  My dad loved the bread anyway!

But for now, here are some spiced brown butter waffles.  I made these when I went home for Thanksgiving (along with lots of other treats!), because my sister and I had a serious craving for serious breakfast food.  We made all kinds of yummy breakfasts while I was at home, like chocolate chip pancakes, scrambled eggs with brown sugar bacon (check the pic out on Instagram!), and of course, these waffles.  This recipe came about because we wanted to make something other than plain waffles, but our pantry was running low on yummy ingredients to mix into the batter.  Good thing spices are always in my kitchen!  Waffles with brown sugar and spices are a perfect late-fall/winter breakfast treat, and they can be made even better by doing one small change to the original recipe.

Brown the butter.  Oh yes.

Brown butter is such a wonderful thing, and I am so happy I finally got around to baking with it.  I made these lovely blueberry muffins a couple of months ago, and a couple of weeks ago, I made an amazing hazelnut cake with brown butter for a friend's birthday (which I'm planning on making again, it was so good!).  Brown butter really enhances the flavor of whatever it is you are preparing, and since it takes so little effort to make brown butter (you literally just let the butter cook on its own for a couple of minutes), so it's totally worth the extra step. The butter develops a nutty taste and just smells amazing; if you haven't experimented with brown butter yet, I'm really not sure what you're waiting for!

These waffles may take a little time to prepare, but the extra time spent whipping the egg whites to form stiff peaks is completely worth the end result.  Waffles are the breakfast food that remind me the most of my childhood, and I don't think I'll ever be able to say no to a waffle.  Serve these with warm maple syrup and enjoy!

This may not have been the birthday post I was planning on, but in any case, Happy Birthday dad!!!

Spiced Brown Butter Waffles
adapted from Williams Sonoma

Ingredients

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
pinch ground cloves
3 large eggs, separated
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

maple syrup, for serving

Directions

Preheat a Belgian waffle maker (any waffle maker will work, though) according to the manufacturer's instructions.  Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan or skillet set over medium heat. Melt and cook down the butter until it begins to form little brown bits, and begins to turn a rich shade of brown.  Keep an eye on the butter as it will begin to brown quickly!  Once it has browned, remove the butter from the heat.  

Over a sheet of parchment paper, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.  In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, and then whisk in the buttermilk, brown butter (make sure to get all the little brown bits!), and vanilla, whisking until blended.  Add the flour mixture and brown sugar to the yolk mixture, and whisk until smooth. 

In a separate small bowl, beat the egg whites with a hand-held mixer until stiff peaks form.  Fold in about a third of the egg whites into the waffle batter, and then carefully fold in the remaining egg whites until just combined. 

Ladle the waffle batter into the preheated waffle iron (I found that 2/3 cup of waffle batter made a perfectly even waffle, but this amount may vary among waffle irons), close the lid, and cook according to your waffle iron's instructions.  Transfer the finished waffle to the oven to keep them warm and crisp as you prepare the rest of the waffles.  Repeat with the remaining batter.  Serve the waffles with maple syrup, and enjoy!  

Makes about 8 waffles (will vary among waffle irons)