Belgian waffles

• ½ cup infused butter

  Set your infusion strength above and this splits into infused and plain butter to hit whatever dose you want.

• 2 cupsall-purpose flour
• 2 tbspgranulated sugar
• 1 tbspbaking powder
• ¾ tspfine salt
• 2 cupsbuttermilk
• 2large eggs — separated
• 1 tspvanilla extract
• neutral oil — for the iron

Method

1. 01

   Melt the infused butter over low heat or in short bursts in the microwave, then set it aside to cool to body temperature. Hot butter will cook the yolks when you combine them.

2. 02

   Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl.

3. 03

   In a second bowl, whisk the buttermilk, egg yolks and vanilla, then whisk in the cooled infused butter until the mixture looks uniform rather than beaded with fat.

4. 04

   Whip the egg whites to soft peaks. They should slump when you lift the whisk, not stand up stiff — stiff whites break into lumps instead of folding in.

5. 05

   Pour the wet mixture into the dry and stir until the flour just disappears, then fold in the whites in two additions. Let the batter rest 10 minutes so the flour hydrates.

   10 min

6. 06

   Heat the waffle iron all the way through and brush it with neutral oil. An iron that is not fully hot steams the batter instead of crisping it.

7. 07

   Stir the batter with a spoon before every single waffle, then ladle with the same measuring cup each time. Melted butter drifts upward in a resting batter, so an unstirred bowl gives you strong first waffles and weak last ones — and equal ladles are what make equal doses.

   375 °F

8. 08

   Close the lid and leave it closed. Open it only once the steam coming out the sides has thinned to a trickle, usually two to three minutes; the crust sets at the end, and lifting early collapses it.

   3 min

9. 09

   Hold finished waffles in a single layer on a rack in a 200 °F oven. Stacking them traps steam and softens the grid you just built.

   200 °F