My wife ran across a recipe for some breakfast muffins by Martha Stewart. The idea seemed brilliant. Bacon, eggs, and toast all in one easy to eat muffin-sized device. So I made some, but there’s no way I was going to make these things like Martha – all prissy and proper. Heck no, the ones that I made are rustic and have real character.. yeah, they’re ugly. It’s a really simple recipe and my method is approximately 3 x’s easier than Martha’s.

Figure 1

Ingredients
1 Egg
1 piece of Bread
1 slice of Bacon
1 tsp Butter
salt and pepper

Directions
-Preheat oven to 400°F and roll your bread flat.
-Cut the bread three times, into thirds, but still leaving the center intact. See figure one.

Figure 2

-Place the bread in a greased muffin tin with the sides overlapping like in the next photo.
-Cook your bacon and then cut it in half.
-Melt the butter and brush over the bread.
-Place your bacon in the cup and then crack the egg into the cup
-Season with salt and pepper and bake for 16-22 minutes, depending on how you like your eggs.

I enjoyed mine with some cheese, of course. If you cook them the full length, you could easily eat this on the go because the egg will have set completely. Closer to the 16-17 minute mark and you’ve got yourself an over-easy egg waiting to be enjoyed. On final review, I really do like the way these look.. kind of like popovers.

Do you not agree? Waffles just make sense on so many levels. Their shape is perfect for holding more butter and syrup. I personally don’t stop pouring until each indent is chock-full of the sweet sugary wonderfulness that is syrup. Even the process by which they are cooked has been cloned by so many others for their own personal gain (ahem.. George Foreman). When you cook them you are, essentially, frying the dough – not baking them – and that is yet another plus: fried food for breakfast.

I don’t have any waffle recipes of my own but I do have some tips to help you make your waffles better.

1) Don’t over-mix your batter. Alton Brown goes into explicit detail on what’s known as the “Muffin Method.” It involves mixing your dry goods together and separately mixing your wet works together and then combining the two by pouring the wet onto the dry. Stirring is to be done sparingly. The more you stir, the tougher the end result will be and that means leaving a lot of dry lumps. Need a visual? This photo is from our last waffle night and you can easily see all the lumps. The trick is to let the batter sit for 5 minutes after combining – that helps a lot with the mixing.

2) Stop using Bisquick or whatever Pancake mix you think is a waffle/pancake mix. I don’t care what the label says, it’s not waffle mix. Waffles have an insanely easy dry mix that you can easily make on your own.. so stop torturing your waffle iron with those wannabe waffle mixes.

3) Use a proper waffle iron or make yours proper. The best waffle irons weigh more than you want to carry so do what I did. I got the heaviest one I could find (which reall is not that heavy). No gimmicks, just a simple sliding lever to choose the doneness and an easy open-close lid. No spinning or flipping needed, no digital timer, no buttons, no removable plates, not even a retractable cord. Now, what I did to make my waffle iron work really well is place weight on the top of it. It’s a silicone pot holder and a sauce pan with water and it cooks waffles like your mom never could.

4) Don’t lift that lid until the “done” light is on. Once you open the lid, it’s all over. It’s better to get one that’s a little too crispy than one that’s full of uncooked flour and dough. If your waffle iron doesn’t have a “done” light, get a new one. If you do get some waffles a little to crispy, don’t worry. They’ll still go great with ice cream.

5) Making a lot of waffles? Store the finished waffles in a 250°F oven. They’ll stay warm and the dry heat will help make them just a little bit crispier.

Like I said, I don’t have a waffle recipe that is my own. I make the Luft waffles from Alton Brown’s book “I’m Just Here for More Food.” The recipe is really simple and good enough that it warrants having its place among our dinner nights – Waffle Night! Here’s his recipe, if you’re interested.

Dry ingredients:
9.5 oz (2 cups) all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Wet ingredients:
2 oz (4 tbsp/ 1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
3 large eggs, beaten
16 oz (2 cups) buttermilk
3 tbsp sugar

Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Whisk the melted butter and eggs well then combine with the rest of the wet ingredients and whisk well.

Add the wet to the dry and mix just until the batter comes together. Do NOT overmix. This is very, very important!

Set the batter aside for 5 minutes (or refrigerate for up to an hour). In the mean time, preheat the waffle iron according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Ladle the batter onto the waffle iron and spread lightly with the back of the ladle. Close the waffle iron and bake until the waffles are golden and crisp on both sides and can be easily removed from the iron; 3 to 4 minutes.

Serve immediately or keep warm in a 250°F oven or by swaddling in a clean kitchen towel and nuzzling under a heating pad set to high until ready to serve.