Pear & Passionfruit Waffles

So what did we do with our first batch of vegan yeasted waffles? Why, just what any person who had impulse-bought a strange array of fruit during a late-night supermarket run would do: top them with thinly sliced pears and impossibly delicious passionfruit! And then a nice little drizzle of maple syrup, of course.

Laura was kind enough to photograph the process & results:

Recommended serving: with a hot mug of tea, on the makeshift "bed"/blanket nest on which you have just had a very lovely sleepover.

Passionfruit is my new...well, passion (sorry), and has been since I visited Costa Rica in March. The passionfruit there is big, maybe mango-sized, with yellow-orange skin. During our one supermarket trip, our host suggested we scoop up every last passionfruit in the place. "There's no way we'll eat that many," I said, stupidly, "I don't even like them." This statement was based on my one previous experience, during which a friend and I had appreciated the incomparable flavor but been put off by the bizarre texture and vomit-like appearance of the fruit we'd purchased (it was years ago but looking back on it I think we simply got a bad fruit). So, tragically, we did not buy out the passionfruit supply in that little market in Lanas, and I regretted it deeply for the rest of the trip, because that fruit turned out to be everyone's favorite snack. Sweet but tangy, the juice ran down our chins as we crunched the seeds and delighted in the strange little pockets of flesh surrounding them. I can't imagine I'll ever taste that again without feeling like I'm right back in the jungle, lying in a hammock & laughing.

Of course, the passionfruit I bought on a late-night supermarket run here in Michigan last night is not quite the same. From New Zealand, it is much smaller, maybe the size of a typical lime, and purple on the outside. I would not ordinarily buy produce from the other side of the planet, but the hope of tasting a little bit of Costa Rica here at home was too strong to deny. Indeed, the flavor is reminiscent of the fruits I enjoyed there, though the texture is not as enjoyable -- it is quite apparent that these specimens were bred to be shipped around the world and stored, not for superior flavor and mouthfeel.

Of all the delectable tropical fruits I adore, passionfruit may just be my favorite. If you see it around it's worth picking up -- the flavor certainly deserves to be experienced. If you can't find the fruits where you live I do recommend the Haagen-Dazs passionfruit ice cream or the incredible CocoaBella passionfruit chocolates. These are the things tiding me over until I can return to Costa Rica.

Yeasted Vegan Waffles

We made these not so much because we are vegans as because we didn't have eggs or enough butter or any cow's milk (we are sometimes not so good at grocery shopping, and by "we" I prety much mean "I"). They turned out delicious nonetheless -- they may in fact be the best waffles I have ever personally made! They've certainly set the bar high for future posts here at the waffle blawg.

The recipe is adapted from Carmen Cooks, where it is hyped as producing amazingly crispy and light waffles. Our iteration of it, even with all the changes we made, lived up very well to the description. I will undoubtedly use this recipe again & again, and I can't wait to expand on it with sweet and savory varieties.

Vegan Yeasted Waffles

• 1/2 cup warm water
• 2 1/4 teaspoons dry yeast
• 2 cups oat milk (or non-dairy milk of choice), warmed
• 1/2 cup non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening (we used Earth Balance), melted
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• scant 1/2 cup flax egg replacer*, or other equivalent of 2 large eggs
  
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

The night before serving your waffles, in a large mixing bowl, stir the yeast into the water and let dissolve for about 5 minutes.

Next, add the oat milk, shortening, salt, sugar, and flour to the yeast mixture. Beat until smooth. Cover loosely and let rise overnight at room temperature.

In the morning, admire the risen batter and then add your egg replacer and baking soda. Fire up the waffle iron, grease it thoroughly, and go to town. Top with your favorite things and enjoy.

Leftovers, if you somehow have any, seem to toast up well -- freeze them after a day or so in the fridge.

* See here and here for ideas on how to make this. Our procedure was...spontaneous and confused, to say the least (not to mention unmeasured), and it's kind of miraculous that it worked at all. Once you make some of this it will keep in the fridge for maybe a couple weeks, and you will have an easy, cholesterol-free and omega-3-rich egg replacer on hand for baking!

Pretty waffle photo taken by Laura.