Halloween Buttermilk Waffles

 Hey Everyone!

Welcome to the Windy City Baker blog!

Today, for my very first blog post, I made Halloween buttermilk waffles. These waffles are crispy on the outside with a soft and tender interior. This recipe is simple to make, cute to look at, and delicious to eat.

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Halloween Buttermilk Waffles

Ingredients:

• 2 large eggs
• 1¾ cups (14 oz) buttermilk
• ½ cup (1 stick, 113g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1¾ cups (7.5 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp (0.5 oz) granulated sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt

Decoration Materials (optional)

• Melted Semi-sweet Chocolate
• Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
• Chocolate Chunks
• Banana
• Raspberries

Making Buttermilk Waffles:

I like to start by melting the butter so it has time to cool slightly before being added to the wet ingredients.  I find that this makes the butter more likely to evenly combine with the batter.

While the butter is melting, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium-sized bowl and set aside.  Make sure to combine the dry ingredients thoroughly so you don’t end up with pockets of salt or baking soda/powder, which can make the waffles taste salty or bitter.

Next, combine the buttermilk (see note “1” below for how to make a buttermilk substitute), butter, eggs, and vanilla (i.e., wet ingredients) in a large bowl and whisk to combine.  If you are using a stand mixer, use the whisk attachment.  Slowly add the dry ingredients until they just smoothly incorporate into the batter.  Do not overmix the batter as this will make the waffles tough.

Turn on your waffle maker and follow the instructions in your user manual.  All waffle irons are slightly different so make sure you are familiar with what works for your machine.

If you are making normal, non-Halloween waffles or the vampire waffles, pour the batter into the hot and ready waffle iron and begin cooking.  If you are making the Frankenstein (or more correctly, Frankenstein’s monster) waffle, add green food coloring to the batter and stir to combine (see note “2” below) before pouring into the waffle iron.  After they are done cooking, you can decorate them!

To decorate a vampire waffle:

• Hair and mouth:
  • Melt a small amount of chocolate over a double boiler or in short increments (3-5 seconds) in the microwave. If you are feeling fancy or don’t want chocolate with a bloom on it (i.e, when a whitish color appears on the top of chocolate), you can temper the chocolate.
  • Place the chocolate in a piping bag (or a ziploc bag) and cut a small hole in the bag’s tip.
  • Pipe the hair and the mouth onto waxed paper or aluminum foil and then place into the freezer to harden for approximately one minute.
  • Remove from the freezer and try to avoid touching the chocolate while removing it. The heat from your fingers will melt the chocolate and leave fingerprints.  You can gently slide a knife between the chocolate and the aluminum foil to separate the chocolate.
  • Position the piped hair and mouth on the waffle.
  • You can pipe the chocolate directly onto the waffle but the bumpy waffle surface doesn’t allow for clearly defined rounded or diagonal lines.
• Eyes
  • Cut two diagonal medallions from a banana. Shape into smaller eye shapes if necessary (my waffles were too small for the banana slices I originally cut so I had to trim them).
  • Cut the rounded end off of a raspberry to make red irises and place an upside chocolate chip into the middle of the raspberry for the pupil.
• Teeth
  • Cut small triangles of banana and place them under the mouth

To decorate a Frankenstein waffle

• Hair and mouth
  • Same as vampire waffle above
• Eyes
  • Cut two circular banana medallions and place a chocolate chip in the middle for a pupil.
• Bolts
  • Attach two small chocolate chunks to the side of the waffle by piping a small amount of melted chocolate onto the chunk.
  • Hold it to the side of the waffle until it hardens slightly (approximately 30 seconds). This will keep the chunk from falling off the waffle.

I frequently make a double batch of this recipe so I can freeze the uneaten waffles and eat them for breakfast during the week.  To re-heat, you can set your oven to 350 degrees and heat for a couple minutes until crispy or pop the waffles into the toaster.  They get crispier when you re-heat them in the oven but I think it’s more convenient to use the toaster.

These Halloween Buttermilk Waffles make for a great breakfast and are super cute for Halloween.  Just add maple syrup and enjoy!

Notes:

Note 1: How to make buttermilk if you don’t want to buy buttermilk for one recipe

• A lot of recipes call for buttermilk, but I don’t usually have this ingredient in my fridge. Luckily, there is an easy substitute that you can use instead of buttermilk.
• Stir 1 Tbsp of lemon juice into a cup of milk and let sit for 5 minutes. The milk will change texture (i.e., there will be some small clumps) and it will look a little like soured milk.
• If you are going to use this in place of regular buttermilk, start this process after you melt your butter (i.e., after the first step) so that it is ready when combining the wet ingredients.

Note 2: If you are only making Frankenstein waffles, then I would add the food coloring to the wet ingredients before adding the dry ingredients.  This will help to avoid overmixing.

This recipe is from the King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion cookbook.

Want more breakfast recipes?

• Cinnamon Honey Scones
• Cranberry Orange Bread