Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Loaded Baked Potato Waffles #FoodieExtravaganza



Take all the lovely ingredients of a fully loaded baked potato, stir them into waffle batter and bake till golden in a Belgian waffle iron. Perfection squared. 

Last month my Foodie Extravanza group celebrated peaches and I missed the whole thing because of traveling. It made me a little sad, but with the choice of London or cooking peaches, I had to go with London! But it did make me doubly determined to participate this month, especially when I heard that we were celebrating waffles. Waffles can be sweet or savory so, if you know me at all, you know which way I was sure to go. And since my mother, well documented on this site as being a lover of all things potato, was visiting, a waffle with all the fixings of a loaded baked potato seemed perfect. And indeed it was. Serve them plain with extra sour cream, chives and cheese. Or pop a fried egg on top.

Make sure you scroll down to the bottom to see all the lovely waffles we are sharing. Many thanks to Summer from Summer Scraps who is hosting this month!

Ingredients for six or seven square Belgian waffles
5-6 slices streaky smoked bacon (just less than 4 1/2 oz or 125g)
1 cup or 125g flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
Fresh black pepper
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup or 120ml sour cream plus more to serve, if desired
3/4 cup or 180ml milk
1 egg
1 potato (about 7 1/2 oz or 210g)
1/2 oz or 15g green onions, plus more to serve, if desired
1/2 cup or 45g grated extra sharp cheddar cheese, plus more to serve, if desired

Method
Cut the bacon into small pieces and fry it until crispy. Remove it from the skillet with a slotted spoon and drain on some paper towels. Put a little of the bacon fat in a small bowl and set it aside. Yep, we are going to grease the waffle iron with it for extra flavor.

Combine the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and a few generous grinds of fresh black pepper in a large mixing bowl. Add in the grated cheese, crispy bacon and green onion tops and stir well.



Whisk the egg, sour cream and milk together in a smaller mixing bowl.  Peel and grate the potato and add it immediately to the egg bowl and stir to stop the potato from oxidizing and turning brown.

Looks like the grated cheese, doesn't it?


Preheat your waffle maker as per manufacturer’s instructions.

Now fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.



Using a pastry brush, grease your waffle maker with a little of the reserved bacon fat.



Pour the manufacturer’s recommended amount of  batter into the center of the lower half of the waffle maker, being careful to leave room for when the batter spreads out as you lower the lid and also for when the waffle starts to rise when baking.



Close the lid and watch for the signal that your waffle is cooking.  On my waffle maker, the light goes green when it is ready for batter, red when it is cooking and then green again when the waffle is ready.  I leave the waffle in just a little bit longer after the light turns green the second time so the waffles are nice and crispy.  But if you like them less crunchy, by all means take them out earlier.



Serve topped with a little extra sour cream, green onions and even grated cheese, if desired.



If you have any batter left over, go ahead and baked the waffles and store them, wrapped in cling film, in the refrigerator or freezer. They reheat beautifully in the toaster. A couple of days after making these, I toasted one and served it with a couple sunny-side up eggs on top, more bacon on the side. Sadly, I didn’t take a photo but it was wonderful. The runny egg yolk nicely filled many of the waffle holes. Soooo much better than plain toast!

Enjoy!

My helper is always right there, on clean up duty, just in case I drop something. Hope springs eternal.




We are a group of bloggers who love to blog about food! And each month we all incorporate one main ingredient into a recipe or choose to celebrate a certain dish and put our own twist on it. This month that dish is waffles! We hope you all enjoy our delicious waffles this and come see what next month's new ingredient or dish will be. If you would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our bloggers Facebook group Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you!

Check out all the fabulous waffles we've made this month!

Savory Waffles


Sweet Waffles


Ambidextrous Waffles




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