Last year the husband and I took a trip to Belgium, specifically Ghent and Bruge and we had a really amazing time! I feel like Belgium gets a little overlooked for countries like Italy and France (which are also amazing!), and it’s kind of a bummer, because Belgium has so much to offer! Aside from the gorgeous architecture I feel in love with their waffles, specifically liege waffles. I honestly don’t think I had had a liege waffle ever before and I couldn’t believe what I was eating. The waffle was soft, dense, chewy, sweet….basically pure joy and unlike any other waffle I had in the past. It was one of the best sweet treats I’ve ever eaten in my life, really.
I came home just HAVING to find or at least be able to make one of those delicious waffles, so I set out looking for one to buy. Turns out it was a little harder than I thought it would be, so I set out to make one instead. After a little bit of research I began testing my liege waffle recipe. After about a good month of testing (I REALLY wanted to nail this one), I landed on a version I was super happy with. I love the recipe so much that I decided I needed to make a variation. I probably ate a dozen of those waffles in Belgium and aside from the original version with a little whipped cream on top, one of my favorite versions was one I had dipped in dark chocolate. It was just so incredibly delicious and addicting, so today we have our own version of Salted Chocolate Dipped Liege Waffle. I added a lil’ salt, because I love salty and sweet desserts, heavy on the salt please! I really hope you guys try this waffle out, it’s just so incredibly good and not too hard to make. Plus, you can make the doughy batter ahead of time and refrigerate it for up to 2-3 days, before folding in the pearl sugar and cooing them up! Enjoy! xx, Jenny
Ingredients: 1 cup chopped dark chocolate Directions:
Salted Chocolate Dipped Liege Waffles
Makes 12
1/3 cup lukewarm, whole milk (water is fine)
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 to 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2/3 cup Belgium pearl sugar
1 tablespoon sea salt flakes
1. Combine sugar, yeast and milk and allow mixture to sit for 4 to 6 minutes or until mixture is bubbling and foamy.
2. Combine flour and salt in a stand mixer bowl and whisk together. Create a well in the center of flour mixture and add yeast mixture.
3. Mix together with paddle attachment until a ‘shaggy’ dough forms.
4. With the mixer on medium speed, add eggs, one at a time, followed by vanilla.
5. Add butter, in a slow and steady stream, until fully combined and a sticky, wet dough has formed.
6. Cover and store in a in a warm area to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour 30 minutes.
7. Uncover, fold in pearl sugar, re-cover, and allow dough to rise again for about 30 minutes.
8. Heat waffle iron and scoop 1/3 cup batter into each well and press until each waffle has nicely browned and caramelized.
9. Carefully remove from waffle iron and transfer to a cooling rack.
10. Repeat steps 8 and 9 until all batter has been used.
11. Allow waffles to cool completely and melt chocolate over a double boiler.
12. Dip top of each waffle with melted chocolate, shaking off any excess.
13. Place dipped waffles, bare side down back onto the cool rack and sprinkle with sea salt flakes.
14. Allow chocolate to cool and harden. Serve.
This looks amazing! Do you need a special waffle iron? The squares look extra large and the overall shape looks more round than a regular waffle.
really nice recipe, thank you for this Belgian inspired import, have been to Bruge at Christmas, wonderful to visit but never sampled any of their waffles