Chris Makes Chocolate Waffles

Andy's in a lot of trouble

cause he left and is away on a mystery vacation.

Nobody's heard from him all week,

and he's missing his halva recipe from his December story,

so all I'm saying is...

We'll send Brad after him

if we don't hear from him by Thursday.

I think the main thing with making waffles at home

is you just need the equipment.

You gotta have the will,

but you gotta have the equipment as well.

We came up with two toppings,

and the first is kind of like a buckwheat groat,

and this sort of seedy crunch topping.

First of all, you have buckwheat groats

which are not the coolest or sexiest thing,

but it turns out if you coat them in maple syrup

and bake them in the oven, they kind of

get super crunchy and ultra nutty,

and end up making kind of a great

loose, crumbly topping for this.

I'm gonna take some of these white sesame seeds,

flax seeds,

black sesame seeds,

certainly don't need to have all of these things,

but they sure as heck look cool.

I've got two teaspoons of maple syrup

and a pinch of salt.

The thing about these waffles is

they're super savory.

You know, when you add a lot of cocoa powder to something,

it really helps bring out the flavor

to have a good amount of salt in there.

So I'm just gonna dump this out

onto an unlined baking sheet

and I'm gonna put it in the oven at 300,

and it's gonna get kind of less sticky as it bakes

and as all that moisture gets sort of cooked out of it.

There's nothing wrong with just throwing

some maple syrup on these waffles

and calling it breakfast.

But instead we took some ricotta.

And ricotta is cool in this application

because it's super creamy, but when you whisk it really hard

and kind of break those curds down further,

it gets really creamy.

Kind of super dense, really, really nice.

I'm gonna put a pinch of salt in this too.

So as you can see, it's not quite cottage cheese

in terms of how curdy it is,

but it's kind of headed in that direction,

so by whisking it, we're just gonna break down those curds

and make it super, super, super silky smooth.

So it's not quite fully broken down,

but it's a good bit creamier.

I'm gonna whisk it one minute more

and then I think we should be there.

The food processor would just kind of blast this apart

and make it, like, almost like cream cheese.

But then you have to clean up your food processor.

I do not pull my food processor out for anything.

I'm sorry.

That thing is in the back of the closet.

All right, I'm just gonna set this aside

until we are ready to go.

The next step is we're gonna make our batter,

which is super simple.

This is the most important thing about this recipe, I'd say.

This is the flour of the buckwheat.

And buckwheat doesn't have any gluten in it,

so it's gonna make a super tender waffle.

So next we have half a cup of cocoa powder.

This is Dutch processed cocoa powder.

It's Guittard's Cocoa Rouge, in case anybody cares to know.

This is a quarter cup of flaxseed meal,

which is going to form kind of a gel

when it's exposed to water,

which is gonna help build some of the structure back

that we want, given that we're using

a gluten-free flour here.

And then I have a teaspoon of baking powder

and a teaspoon of baking soda.

And one and a quarter teaspoons of kosher salt.

It sounds like a lot.

It is a lot, but this is a super savory waffle

and it can definitely take it.

So in terms of our wet ingredients,

we have two cups of buttermilk

or you can make your own.

So next I have a half a cup of coconut oil

just melted so that it'll mix into this nicely.

So now I have a quarter cup of dark brown sugar,

and then this is two teaspoons of vanilla extract.

This is gluten-free, and if you use alt milk

and don't do the ricotta situation,

it can be dairy-free as well.

But egg-free was just kind of a bridge too far.

They add really great binding ability to this.

So I'm gonna put all these wet ingredients

in here, and then whisk.

So this is together.

Gonna check on those seeds.

Yeah.

So the color kind of darkened slightly.

It's gonna firm up and get super crunchy as it cools.

If you just scrape it off onto

a parchment lined baking sheet,

it won't stick to the parchment once it's as dry as it is.

Cool, done.

So that's gonna cool.

So we are ready to mix our wet ingredients

into our dry ingredients.

I feel like everybody has some task

they do in the kitchen that is kind of their demon task.

For me, it's chopping chocolate.

I find it so annoying.

You get, like, little bitty shards and stuff

melting onto your cutting board.

I mean, it stinks.

You kind of need to be on a clean cutting board.

Somebody probably used this to cut garlic earlier today,

so it's just like you never know.

Ooh, that's a good one.

So the reason we're putting chopped chocolate

into this mixture, it's gonna give us

a whole other layer of chocolate flavor

from having that melted chocolate in there.

This is our kitchen workforce All-Clad waffle maker.

We tested so many of them,

and this kind of came out on top.

To the waffler.

I err on the side of pre-heating a waffle iron

for a good, at least 15 minutes.

I just want to see how it behaves

with one waffle's worth of batter,

rather than using four and realizing

oh, it could have been a little bit hotter.

Just to make sure everything's cool.

So we're gonna wait a few minutes

and see what happens.

Because this batter is so dark,

you're not gonna have like,

that crystal clear moment of,

oh this went from being raw batter

to golden, crunchy, brown, delicious waffle.

So there's a few cues that we're gonna look for with this

just to kind of know where we're at.

See how it's a little bit darker around the edges.

It's filled out nicely

and it feels somewhat firm to the touch.

And again, because this is gluten-free,

it's a little bit tender.

So getting kind of under the crack

on the edge of the waffle

and just sort of prying it up,

they're gonna be a little bit tender in the beginning,

but they're gonna firm up slightly.

All right, I'm gonna do one more round,

then I think we can kind of move on with our lives.

These have a really, really distinct aroma

because you've got all that coconut oil in there.

Are you guys smelling chocolate down there?

Negative.

All right.

Well, we've got really strong hoods.

[Brad] It's not ready yet. Definitely

nothing wrong with the recipe.

Lauren, can you smell chocolate?

Mm. Yeah?

You don't have to fake it.

I can't really smell it.

Okay. (laughs)

Oh, it smells lovely now that I'm over here.

Oh, it smells like coconut.

Yeah.

Is there coconut in it?

There is, yeah. Coconut oil?

Mm-hmm.

Oh yeah, I think we're in business here.

That's just, like, 100% instinct.

I just feel like I know this waffle iron.

I just know when it's done.

Anna, are you ready to try waffles in a sec?

[Anna] Yes.

I'm gonna get you set up, Anna.

So this is my little buckwheat and seedy crumble.

I mean, it's good, right?

Mm-hmm, that's real good.

We've been waiting for this for months.

Ever since the recipe came out.

That is so fluffy.

It's really good.

[Anna] It's so good. The buckwheat.

I could eat four of these and it wouldn't be too sweet.

I love it. This is great.

I like the crunchy toppings.

The crunchy crunchy? Yeah.

The waffle doesn't have any crunchiness

and then the topping

It gives it back. Gives you that extra, yeah.

So when it comes to waffles, round or square?

(spacey music)

Oh, now I'm questioning-

You're gonna think that much?

I mean, come on, square!

I heard the gears grinding there for a second.

I'm trying to think

what my mom's waffle iron was growing up.

Mine was- It was square.

A weirdly big square.

One kind of big-ish square.

Square.

I think we cracked it.

I feel like we cracked the code

and it's hip to be square when it comes to waffles.

Maybe just in general.

Cool.

Do you make waffles for yourself at home?

No.

Feelings about waffles?

I don't have a waffle maker.

I don't have room for one.