Waffle Toast - How to get your kid to eat

LTH sometimes wants waffles during the week but there's no time to make them.  One day, I decided to put some toast in the waffle iron to make "waffle toast".  It is now his go to breakfast almost everyone morning.  The downside is he isn't eating as much oatmeal as before but at least it's whole wheat bread.

Multigrain Waffles

These days when I make things with flour, I like to experiment with different types of flours and whole grains.  My cookbook, good to the grain, has a nice multi grain mix that can be used in the place of some or all of the flour called for in other recipes.  I did just that in my old standby waffle recipe.  This recipe comes from my very first cookbook, The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook (copyright 1980).  It was given to me by my mother in 1988. A nice way to describe its appearance is well worn.  Not only did I learn to cook from my mother but also from this cookbook.  Every recipe in this cookbook has a picture to go with it.  That enabled me to envision what I was trying to make.  Anyway, that's a different story and maybe I should write about that in another post.  Below is my go to recipe for waffles these days.  One thing to note is that almost no published waffle or pancake recipes call for vanilla but in my book that is the secret ingredient that makes them taste so good!

Dry Ingredients:
1 cup multigrain flour mix (see below or click here)
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Wet Ingredients:
2 cups buttermilk (you can also use plain yogurt thinned with some milk)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil (make sure it is a neutral oil)
3 tablespoons milled flaxseed
2 eggs

Multigrain Flour Mix:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup oat flour
1 cup barley flour
1/2 cup millet flour
1/2 cup rye flour

Instructions:
Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another.  Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just incorporated. I usually let the batter sit for a few minutes in order to let the flours absorb some of the moisture.  For the waffle iron, I only spray with a little oil before putting in the first waffle.  For me at least, I don't have any issues with sticking for the rest of that batch.

Also, if we don't use all of the batter, I put the leftover batter in the refrigerator.  When I use it the next day, I whisk in a little more vanilla as it seems to evaporate while sitting in the refrigerator.

Homemade Cereal - Graham Nuts

I loved the idea of making my own cereal at home.  It had never occurred to me that I could do such a thing until I saw it in the cookbook Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce.  In her description of the recipe, she mentions that she found the recipe that inspired this one in an Amish cookbook.  The only thing I changed this time around was to use table salt instead of kosher salt.  I've tried using coarse kosher salt as she recommends in every other recipe but they've all turned out too salty.  MTH refused to eat the pancakes due to the saltiness.  I don't actually think they are saltier than other things I've made.  I just thing the big grains of salt give more of the salty flavor.  Next time I make these, I'll be using cane syrup (homemade in my hometown) instead of the honey

Ingredients:
1 cup graham flour
1/3 cup whole-wheat flour
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt (she calls for 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt)
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions:
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350.  Spray a little oil on to a baking sheet and line with parchment paper.

Whisk the dry ingredients into a large bowl and set aside.

In a small bowl, mix together the buttermilk, honey and vanilla.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix together to form a batter.

Scrape the batter onto the baking sheet and, using a metal offset spatula, spread the batter evenly across the entire surface of the sheet.

Bake for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through.  Remove the baking sheet from the oven and break off any areas of the cracker that are getting dark or dry, and set them on a rack to cool.  I didn't have any pieces to break off at that point.

Turn the oven down to 250, return the baking sheet to the oven, and bake for 55 to 60 minutes more.  Every 20 minutes, break off any more dry sections and put them on the cooking rack.  While you are doing this, break up the rest of the dough into smaller pieces to encourage the dough to the dry out faster, and return the baking sheet to the oven for the remaining time.

Remove the sheet from the oven when the cracker is mahogany brown and entirely dry.  The all the pieces of the crack cook on a rack.

Set up a food processor with a large hole grate attachment.  Feed pieces of the cracker through the tube at the top and grind into nuts.  Serve with cold milk.  They will store in an airtight jar for one month.

Whole Grain Waffles

I like to add as much healthy as I can to breakfast. When DS decided he didn't want to eat oatmeal for breakfast anymore, we started doing waffles instead. These have whole wheat flour, wheat germ and milled flax seed. They may not be as light as regular waffles but I think they're pretty good and Logan has consistently eaten them for breakfast for about 3 months now! Adapted from The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook (1980 edition)

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons milled flax seed
2 tablespoons wheat germ
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup yogurt ( in a 2 cup or bigger Pyrex)
enough milk to make 2 cups in the Pyrex mention above (your making buttermilk so you could also used buttermilk)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions:
Whisk together dry ingredients. Whisk together wet ingredients. Whisk wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Follow your waffle iron's instructions.

Corn Pancakes

I had some corn cakes (or so they called them) at Cafe Gutenberg. When I googled corncakes, I got recipes that didn't match what I had eaten. So, I googled corn pancakes instead. Then, it seemed to match more closely to what I thought I had eaten. The first time I made them, I just used a recipe I found online. But, they weren't corny enough. The next time, I modified my normal pancake recipe by substituting 3/4 cup of flour with 3/4 cup of corn meal (and didn't add the milled flax seed or wheat germ). These still weren't corny enough. I had been told that I should probably try adding pureed corn. I really didn't want to go to that trouble. So, for my third try, I used masa. It worked! They're very corny. Here's the recipe. It's very similar to my normal pancake recipe but since I expect to make this one again, I want to write it down fully.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup plain flour
3/4 cup masa
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 3/4 cup milk
1 egg
3 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions:
Stir dry ingredients together. Stir wet ingredients together. Add liquid to dry ingredients. Cook and enjoy with maple syrup or as a savory side dish at dinner.

Banana Nut Whole Wheat Pancakes

I love banana nut bread so I decided to make banana nut pancakes. Really, it's just my normal pancake recipe with additions. I've also added blueberries.

1/2 cup plain flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 T wheat germ (optional)
2 t baking powder
3/4 t salt
1 1/4 cup milk (you may want to use more to make a thinner batter)
1 egg
2 t vanilla
2 T oil
mashed banana
chopped pecans

Mix the dry ingredients. Mix the wet ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix well but do not overstir. When making the pancakes, add the mashed banana and chopped pecans. Then, when you turn the pancake, you'll have nice caramelization of the banana and toasting of the pecans.

Christmas French Toast (About 20 minutes)

We had lots and lots of bread that had been sliced up for our Christmas Eve dinner. So, I decided to take a page from Alton Brown's book and leave it out overnight so that we could make perfect French toast. The batter was simple:

3 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla

Mix thoroughly.

Add a dot of butter to a preheated frying pan. Place the bread into the batter for a few seconds, flip and repeat. Place in the frying pan and brown on both sides.

I like a little sugar or jam. My Mom had brought some of her homemade strawberry and blueberry jams. Some people put syrup on it instead.

It was the best homemade French toast I've ever had. Using stale bread is the key! The day after Christmas we had some challah bread left over. It makes awesome French toast as well.