Waffles were always very special treats for me. Maybe because as a child I liked its shape or the fact that it doesn’t come out from the oven, we use a special machine for that. Or maybe just because it is so tasty. I ate waffles the first time when we visited friends of my parents, aunt Zsuzsa and uncle Gyula and I immediately put them on the list of my favorites. I was 10 years old, ate one after the other one until I couldn’t eat more although my eyes were still hungry for them. Uncle Gyula suggested that I should run around the house two times and most surely I will be able to eat one more. He was joking but I took it seriously, stood up, ran two rounds around the house, set down again and had another waffle. One year after the cousin of my father visited us who was living in Western Germany. At that time it was not easy to travel especially between Western and Eastern Europe. He wanted to give us a present but didn’t know what we like so he gave us West German deutsche Mark. If you lived at that time in Europe you know very well how big treasure it was in the 1980’s! We kept it in the cupboard and were making plans with my sister what we were going to buy for this money. Actually I didn’t think a lot. I could have asked for a beautiful doll, or doll house, or for some clothes but at that time I was already interested in other things. So when friends of my parents could travel to Western Germany, we gave them my money and asked them to buy my heart’s desire: a waffle-maker. After that we were continuously making and eating waffles, spooned apricot jam or chocolate pudding and whisked cream over. But in the last years we completely forgot about waffles. In the meantime we had to replace the old waffle-maker but the “new” one is also almost 20 years old. To recall memories I borrow it from my mother and prepare the good old recipe. I make also some vanilla sauce as we had at uncle Gyula’s house long time ago. The kitchen is filled up by the scent of the baking dough and vanilla and I remember that if after the second one I cannot eat more, I can run two rounds around the house. Our garden is big enough…
Waffles with vanilla sauce
Ingredients:
250 g butter
120 g caster sugar
3 packages of vanilla sugar
4 eggs
400 g flour
1 tsp. baking powder
500 ml milk
To the vanilla sauce:
500 ml milk
2 egg yolks
1/4 vanilla bean
50 g sugar
1 tsp. flour
Mix butter, sugar and vanilla sugar and beat it with a hand mixer until foamy. Add eggs, mix flour and baking powder and add it to the dough alternately with the milk. Keep it refrigarated until you start baking waffles. In the meantime prepare the sauce. Mix the egg yolks, flour, sugar and 100 ml milk and set aside. Bring the rest of the milk to boil then add it to the egg mixture. Put it back to the stove and cook it slowly, stirring continuously until it thickens.
