Good thing I tried them in the middle of the afternoon just as an experiment.
The recipe with one cup of grain (I tried half pot barley, half steel cut oats) filled our four-waffle iron three times. The first two times, they were so fragile that they came apart when I opened the iron, so I had to scrape the tops off the top and the bottoms off the bottom. One plateful of waffle scraps. The third time I let it bake a bit longer, and got proper-looking waffles. The texture was good, and there were no problems at all doing the whole grains in the blender (even though the blender and I have had a love/hate/hate relationship for a long time). I can see why Mrs. Gregg says that this is the answer for all the too hard/too expensive/too time-consuming complaints about baking with whole grains.
But...the taste of baking soda was so bitter that we couldn't eat them. At least not straight up, and I thought that was the only way to properly taste-test them. After all, you can eat just about anything if you dump syrup all over it, but that's not a fair test. There isn't any sweetener in the recipe (Sue Gregg says that sugar makes waffles stick to the iron), so that might not help disguise the bitterness either; but either way, they did not taste good.
I went back to the recipe I'd printed out from the preview to Introducing Whole Foods Cooking, and it said:
2. Stir through small strainer into a small bowl; set aside:
1 teaspoon baking soda (or 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
+ 1/2 teaspoon baking powder) (p. 29)
1/2 teaspoon salt, to taste (p. 28)
But the very thorough online tutorial for Blender Batter Waffles/Pancakes says:
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt, to taste (Believe it or not, a little salt enhances a sense of sweetness in whole grain baking It overcomes the "flat" taste feeling.)
1 teaspoon baking powder (Optional: With the Two Stage Process the baking powder can be omitted and the baking soda increased to 1/2 to 1 teaspoon as needed).
Aha.
So if I tried it again, maybe I should cut the baking soda in half?
Also, I'd double the ingredients--we all like waffles here (when they don't taste like baking soda), and the 1 cup of grain recipe wouldn't be nearly enough for five people.
We're going to have the opportunity to try more of Sue Gregg's recipes over the summer (her cookbooks are on the TOS Review Crew list, so stay tuned for an overall review). In the meantime, I'd be interested in hearing from any of you who have made this recipe and didn't have a problem with the soda taste--Meredith?
A followup post is here--we did have a better batch on the second try.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Hmmm! I suppose if you are used to making sugary waffles, these might taste a bit off. I can't remember if the original recipe calls for vanilla, but I always add a teaspoon.
Also I think soaking the batter overnight does a better job blending the tastes than a quick soak--when I have done it both ways.
I'm sorry you were disappointed with this recipe! Sue Gregg rarely fails me.
Well, they did soak for five hours--not overnight, but certainly long enough to blend the grains well. And you don't add the baking soda until just before you bake them, so I don't think the soaking time would affect the strong soda taste.
And yes, the recipe does call for a tsp. of vanilla, and I included it.
I'm going to try it again with only half the baking soda.
I forget the exact proportion, but I read in Cook's Illustrated that there is a good section of people who cannot taste baking soda at all, which to me explains some of the baked goods at church where that is all I can taste. The salt often is used to cover the baking soda flavor - but of course, your family has a challenge there.
I wonder what other leveners might do?
-Christine in Massachusetts
Fascinating--I had never heard that before. Maybe we're just hypersensitive to soda?
I make these waffles from time to time and never taste the baking soda. I usually use brown rice as my grain, plain yogurt thinned to buttermilk consistency, and I've always let the batter sit overnight.
I do detect the taste of aluminum in baking powder, so I always buy aluminum-free baking powder and I've always left it in the recipe for the waffles even though they sit overnight. I'm hyper-sensitive to zinc as well.
I see in a later post that you've now had success--glad you figured it out!
~Sarah
Post a Comment