Liege-style caramel apple waffles

Years ago, I saw an episode of Rachael Ray's 30-minute meals where she made "Liége-style" waffles (pronounced lyehzh). Although they're named after the Belgian city and served all over the country, these are not to be confused with Belgian waffles!

Liége waffles have Belgian pearl sugar mixed the yeasted, buttery dough. The chunks of sugar melt and caramelize. Belgian pearl sugar being hard to come by on this side of the Atlantic, Rachael recommended using cube sugar that you've roughly crushed. I made these waffles a couple times, but cleaning up the iron afterwards was a pain!

Fast-forward seven years, and my family found a local food truck, Waffle Love. We finally got to try more authentic Liége waffles. And they were A. MAZE. ING.

So for Christmas, my husband got me a rotating waffle iron and two pounds of imported Belgian pearl sugar. And for his birthday, my son requested those special waffles, so my husband looked up a real recipe of the buttery, yeasted-dough goodness. We picked the Liége "sugar" waffles recipe from The Whipped Blog, which actually comes from this Liége waffle squidoo.

This is not a 30-minute meal.

After an hour, maybe more, the dough was finally ready. And it really is more of a dough than a batter, and like any good homemade waffle, it contains two sticks of melted butter. My dough was a little too wet to make 2" balls, so I scooped just over 1/4 cup into the iron. The new circular iron wasn't exactly a good fit: the quarter-circles weren't really big enough. But I could fit one waffle on each half (as opposed to one 4" waffle prepared on a square iron). But no matter!

Once they were finally cooking, I encountered a new problem: what to put on top. Although the pearl sugar is the only sweetener, Liége waffles are so sweet that you really don't need syrup. At our beloved waffle truck, they offer such amazing toppings as Nutella, fresh strawberries, fresh raspberries, fresh peaches, Biscoff spread, bananas and whipped cream.

We had none of that. This is really something we should've thought about before they came out of the iron. Or went in.

We quickly scanned our day-before-grocery-shopping kitchen and pantry and fridge. Finally, inspiration struck. I diced up an apple and sprinkled it with cinnamon & sugar, dug out some Reddi-Whip and caramel ice cream sauce (not as good as this caramel sauce!), and voila, as they'd say in Liége.

Caramel apple Liége waffles

I'm not sure what kind of waffle maker the testers used, but on mine, they did best for 3:30 at level 4.5 ish. At level 3, the sugar didn't melt enough and the waffle was kinda spongey.

And what's the verdict over the 30-minute version? These are so much better! However, I'm not sure the pearl sugar is worth the expense vs crushing your own sugar cubes.

But cleaning the iron? Still a pain.

Recipe (as I made it)

• 1 (1/4 ounce) package yeast (2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast)
• 1/3 cup lukewarm water (about 105 degF - too hot will kill the yeast)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated white sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup melted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
• 1 cup Belgian pearl sugar*

Mix the yeast, water and sugar in a small bowl and let it develop or sit for 15 minutes.

Place the flour in a separate mixing bowl and make a well in the center of the flour (I used the smaller bowl on my stand mixer). Sprinkle with salt.

Pour the yeast mixture into the well and mix until blended on medium speed. It will be VERY dry--in fact, it's like pie crust dough before you add the water.

Add the eggs (one at a time), melted butter a bit at a time, and the vanilla and cinnamon. Be sure to mix well after each addition to the batter. Keep in mind the batter will be thick and VERY sticky.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and let the dough rest until it doubles in volume inside the bowl.

Gently fold in the pearl sugar and let the dough rest for 15 more minutes.

While the dough is resting, heat the waffle iron.

Drop about 1/4 cup of dough into the center of the waffle iron. Waffles will take 3 to 5 minutes to bake. Mine were best for about 3:30 minutes on level 4.5 (out of ten).

Recipe makes 8 - 10 waffles.

Pumpkin Caramel Custard Pie

Just in time for Thanksgiving, this elegant twist on the Thanksgiving classic pumpkin pie was my first original pie recipe! I’ve had pumpkin pie lovers and haters try this—and we all liked it!

The difference is subtle: it’s slightly sweeter with a more caramel flavor, and since it’s based on a pumpkin-caramel custard recipe, that’s not super surprising. (You can read more about the original 1964 recipe here!)

When I made it, I had enough for a 9″ pie and two 5″ pies. I modified a few of the amounts to try to make it fit into just a 9″ pie better, and Jasmine graciously tested the recipe. The filling worked out perfectly for her!

Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 unbaked 9″ single pie crust
• 3/4 c sugar, divided
• 3 Tbsp water
• 1 1/4 c canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1/4 c brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp molasses
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp
• dash nutmeg
• 1 c cream (light or heavy)

1. Prick the pie crust with a fork. Lay a double layer of foil over the crust (I also weighted mine with rice) and bake according to recipe directions for a pre-baked pie.

2. Turn the oven to 325.

3. Once the crust is done, in a small sauce pan, combine 1/4 c + 2 Tbsp white sugar (half of the total amount) with 3 T water. Heat over medium high heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Let boil until it turns the color of brown sugar. Promptly remove from the heat and pour into the baked pie crust. You only have a few seconds before this stiffens up, so spread it around the bottom and sides quickly (I used a pastry brush, but be sure your brush is rated for high heat!). (This step can be considered optional, but if you skip it, add the sugar to the pie filling.)

4. Combine the rest of the white sugar, pumpkin, brown sugar, molasses and spices. Mix until well combined. Stir in cream. The batter will be thin. It’s okay.

5. Place the prepared pie crust on the oven rack and pour the filling into the crust. You may want to cover the edges of the crust with foil*, but mine didn’t burn.

6. Bake for about 1 hour, or until a knife inserted about 1″ from the center comes out clean.

7. Cool on a wire rack.

For the adventurous, you can take this to the next level by making it a more of a pumpkin “crème brûlée” pie with an optional sugar crust (option B pictured above, option A pictured below):

either A. sprinkle enough white sugar onto the top of the pie to coat it well. Cover the edges of the crust with foil*. Place under the broiler, watching constantly, until sugar bubbles and browns (or use a kitchen torch).

OR B. In a small sauce pan, combine 1/4 c sugar and 2 Tbsp water. As in step 3 above, heat over medium high heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Let boil until it turns the color of brown sugar. Promptly remove from the heat and pour over the cooled pie, keeping the pan moving constantly so it doesn’t pool too much in one place. (I recommend pouring in circles. When you cut the pie, crack the sugar crust first by tapping it with a sharp knife.)

Option A gives a subtle crunch to the top of the pie. Option B gives a solid sugar crust with significant crunch. I liked A better. Or you could do what I did: cover half (or you could do 3/4s) of the pie with foil, then sprinkle with sugar and broil (and you could do another quarter with the solid crust, if you want). All optional.

Happy Thanksgiving!

*Need to cover your crust with foil? Try this trick from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook: take a sheet of foil large enough to cover your pie. Fold it in quarters, then cut a circle from the middle of the foil sheet. Open and voila! Easy to apply crust protection!

What's your favorite Thanksgiving pie?

Pumpkin Caramel Custard Pie

UPDATE: Not long after I posted this, the LDW Magazine blog shut down. (I'm not sure when because I didn't notice until I tried to post another pie recipe!) The recipe has been unavailable—until now! I've posted the pumpkin caramel custard pie recipe here on Wayward Girls' Crafts!

For the last few months, I've been on a PieQuest over at the Latter-day Woman Magazine blog. Last week, I shared my first ever original pie recipe: a pumpkin caramel custard pie. My husband and I don't even like pumpkin pie all that much, but we liked this one!

 The story behind the pie
I like cookbooks. I can't resist them sometimes, especially at thrift stores. Vintage church cookbooks are especially exciting to me. I always hope to find some lost recipe gem—and this time I finally have! Unfortunately, it wasn't from the good sisters of the Coltman Ward Relief Society, who put the book together, but from the envelope in the back of the book:

Caramel-pumpkin custard from McCall's magazine. Do you see the date on the bottom? November 1964.

Unfortunately, the recipe only included the first two steps, because the clipping was actually of the pecan pie recipe on the back. So I looked at several other caramel custard recipes and decided to put it in a crust. Voila (with a little adaptation to fit in a pie crust): a pumpkin caramel custard pie.

The recipe includes steps to take it to the crème brûlée pumpkin pie level—oh yeah, I went there.

Add an elegant twist to the Thanksgiving classic for your house this year with a pumpkin caramel custard pie. Seriously. It's good.