Feeding My Family

are for special breakfasts! Ryan loves helping me make pancakes or waffles, so I try to make them once a week or so. My favorite waffle recipe includes whole wheat and pecans (very yummy with sliced bananas or peaches on top), but recently we tried a new recipe from Cook's Illustrated that was quite tasty.

I can always count on Cook's Illustrated to come up with a novel way to make familiar foods. A few years back I tried their vodka pie dough (yes, you read that right, vodka pie dough) and I may never use another pie crust recipe. It's super-easy to work with and turns out a flavorful, flaky crust (and you don't taste the vodka). Well, today's waffle recipe had a surprise ingredient too: seltzer. Many waffle recipes call for separating the eggs and then beating the whites and folding them in to the batter; this gives you nice light waffles. While doing their usual tinkering with ingredients and techniques to come up with the "best" waffle recipe, the folks at Cook's Illustrated discovered that seltzer would provide that same lightness in the batter without the extra effort of separating the eggs and whipping the whites.

And whaddaya know? The waffles baked up nicely, had a great tang from both sour cream and buttermilk powder, and were light and fluffy as promised with a crisp exterior. A bonus for Mr. H.: they are less eggy than our usual waffles (in addition to being anti-condiment, Mr. H. is also anti-egg). They were a great backdrop for some sliced berries from the CSA farm.

Oh happy morning!