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Belgium is a small country, but big enough it seeems, to have more than one traditional recipe for Belgian waffles. In fact there are two, the Liege and the Brussels. Whilst they might happily co-exist on the streets of Belgium, some might argue the Liege is the superior of the two. And we'd tend to agree, hence we've opted to concentrate on the smaller, richer, tastier waffle cousin; the Liege.
The Liege waffle is all together denser, sweeter and chewier than the Brussels thanks to a buttery rich dough similar to that of a brioche. And if that weren’t enough, it also comes with chunks of pearl sugar that caramelize on the crust when cooked in the iron giving a richly coloured crispy crust.
Getting hungry yet?
When we looked into a recipe for an authentic Liege Belgian waffle we found a number of people had tried to perfect the Liege, but stuck with Ashlee Maire's traditional waffle recipe. Seems she is a stickler for the real deal having opted for the slower and tastier overnight version of the recipe. And at 14 hours resting time for 4 minutes of cooking, we hear what you’re saying, these better be really good waffles. And don't worry, she's even looked into that crucial 4 minutes in order to perfect the crispy browned crust.
NB. In order to achieve the authentic Liege, Belgian pearl sugar is absolutely key and will probably need to be sourced from a specialist in advance.
We think you'll agee the finished results look worth it:
Photo courtesy of Ashlee Marie
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If you want to check out a Brussels waffle see Belgium Chef Joly in the kitchen with some handy tips:
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