Monday, March 29, 2010

Pistachio Waffles


It’s been a long time since my last post. I can’t claim I haven’t been cooking or baking, but there just hasn’t been anything really inspired lately, and I didn’t want to waste time writing it up. I was at Trader Joes a while ago, and discovered they’d started selling shelled pistachios, and so I bought some (usually buying them shelled is overly expensive). Since then I’ve been looking for a good way to use them, and this weekend I found one. I had some folks over for brunch and I decided to make some pistachio waffles. I used a recipe for hazelnut waffles I got off of culinate, but I swapped the hazelnuts out for pistachios. I thought these waffles were really good, the flavor of the nuts came through subtly. The waffles themselves are not overly sweet, and so are well complimented by sliced bananas, or maple syrup.

Pistachio Waffles

1¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1¾ cups milk
3 eggs, separated
6 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla extract (I used Fiori di Sicilia, if you want the same citrus undertone, add a little orange zest)
¼ tsp. cream of tartar 1 cup chopped pistachios

1. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt

2. In a separate bowl, Whisk together the milk, egg yolks, melted butter, and vanilla

3. In the bowl of a mixer, combine the egg whites and cream of tartar, and beat until soft peaks form

4. Mix together the flour and milk mixtures until just combined. Stir in the chopped nuts. Add the egg whites, and fold until just mixed, you should still see streaks of egg white.

5. Cook according to your waffle makers directions. These are best made crispy. Serve with bananas, maple syrup, and chopped pistachios