This is the last recipe in the "Fruit, Nut, and Not-So-Plain Waffles" chapter of the book! (Unless you count the bacon and beer variant of this recipe as a separate thing, which I'm not.) So, I guess that means I'll be onto the savoury waffle chapter next time.

I know there've been an awful lot of waffles lately. And most of them look, at least superficially, the same. But I've been having fun working my way through this book and trying as many of the recipes as possible. Hopefully I'll be able to try them all eventually! (Although I think I'll skip the clam dip one until we have some more conclusive information on the Kidlet's potential shellfish allergies. And I may have to skip the malt waffles entirely if I continue to be unable to find the right kind of malt flour. We'll see...)

Anyway, ale waffles! These are ideally meant to be made with an amber ale. I ended up with a Belgian dark ale, which, I think, is not quite the same. I assume that amber ales fall somewhere between dark and pale on the ale scale, but I couldn't find anything specifically labelled as an amber ale, so I just went with the dark. This seems to have done the trick and imparted a noticeable beer flavour without the chemical alcohol taste.

The batter mixes up surprisingly thick and light. It's an interesting texture that cooks up into beautifully crisp waffles that I think work well as a sort of sweet-and-savoury breakfast. I topped mine with a combination of baked beans, scrambled eggs, and maple syrup. And I can definitely see why the author suggested a bacon variant as a bit of bacon or sausage would have been perfect to go along with the waffles and eggs. Alas, I was all out so I had to make do without the meat.

Amber Ale Waffles

Slightly adapted from Waffles: Sweet, Savory, Simple by Dawn Yanagihara

Ingredients

• 280g all-purpose flour
• 2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 2 large eggs
• 330mL dark or amber ale¹
• 6 Tbsp. milk
• 2 1/2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Directions

1. Preheat waffle iron.
2. Sift baking powder into flour.
3. Mix in salt and nutmeg.
4. In a large measuring cup, beat eggs and mix in ale, milk, and sugar.
5. Wisk the butter into the wet ingredients.
6. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk until just combined.
7. Scoop a portion of batter into the preheated waffle iron and cook according to manufacturer directions. Repeat until all batter has been used.
8. Serve with scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, beans, and/or maple syrup.

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Variations

Bacon and Beer Waffles

Ingredients

• 280g all-purpose flour
• 2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 2 large eggs
• 330mL dark or amber ale¹
• 6 Tbsp. milk
• 2 1/2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
• 3 Tbsp. bacon grease
• 225g bacon, cooked and crumbled

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¹ The original recipe calls for 360mL of ale and 1/4 c. of milk, but the bottles I got were only 330mL, so I just used one bottle of ale and bumped the milk up to 6 Tbsp. to compensate. ^Back