Wafels van Moniek

On a recent visit to Belgium, I bought a wafel iron (also called, I believe, a waffle iron).

Having lived in Belgium from 1971 to 2006, I am partial to most things Belgian, such as my wife, chocolates, fine patisserie, chips, and wafels (amongst other things). I also enjoy baking, so the purchase of a wafel iron (wafelijzer) was hardly a great step for mankind.

Mind you, finding just the right wafel iron proved to be harder than I had imagined.

When we got married, we were given a wafel iron as a wedding-present, and in those days you had a choice of a Nova or a… well, there really wasn't anything else, at least not in the electrical ones. You could, of course, have the non-electrical ones, but then you also needed a Leuvense stoof with a special wafel-iron-holding lid, so that sort were rapidly becoming nothing more than quaint decorative items (heck we threw out several that we had managed to collect, but which were useless without that Leuvense stoof). Nowadays, however, the choice of electric wafel irons is overwhelming. Well, it's overwhelming in Belgium; here in Spain, we had the choice of a single model, which made only small wafels, with fixed plates and which was not reversible. In Belgium we must have had a couple of hundred candidates: removable plates, non-removable plates; duplicate as a croque monsieur machine; different patterns for the plates; different wattages; reversible or non-reversible; plastic covered or full metal; thermostatically controlled or fixed temperature…

In the end I plonked for a FriFri Wafelijzer WA106A 4x7, which seemed likely to produce a sort of happy-medium waffle of both the Brusselse and the Luikse variety and would allow me to install different shaped plates later on, should the urge arise. Strangely, it closely resembles the Nova we received 46 years ago as a wedding present. Good designs don't disappear…

I prepared the first wafels following a recipe from Laura Vitale. I had already tried this recipe with the Spanish wafel iron and wafels they are, and quite pleasant, too, but Belgian wafels…? No, nothing like either Brusselse or Luikse. They did, however, prove that the new iron worked, and worked well. The mission now, then, was to locate a decent recipe for real Belgian wafels of either the Brusselse or the Luikse variety.

Fortunately, when chatting to a neighbour in Belgium, Moniek, I mentioned the new wafel iron and asked if she knew any decent recipes. Moniek assured me that she had an excellent recipe for Brusselse wafels and that she would email it to me. This she did and, upon arriving back in Spain it was not long before Moniek's recipe was put to the test. I prepared just a half of the amount, and just as well! That was sufficient for no less than 17 wafels and they were as close to the genuine as-sold-in-the-Belgian-patisserie wafels as you can get with a non-professional iron. Of course, we could not eat anywhere near all of them at one sitting, so many were kept for the next day, and the next… Easy to store and re-heated in the wafel iron or toaster they are as good as or even better than freshly baked.

In case you don't know, wafels are eaten covered in butter and brown sugar, or with cream and fruit, or with chocolate sauce and… well, whatever.

Bedankt, Moniek!

Here's Moniek's recipe (I have halved her original quantities):

• 500g self-raising flour
• 0.5 litre sparkling water
• 125ml milk
• 2 eggs
• 50g brown sugar
• 2 packets vanilla sugar
• 250ml corn oil or groundnut oil (I used sunflower oil)
• pinch of salt (I did not use any)

Mix the beaten eggs with the flour, sugar, salt, and oil. Gradually add the milk and sparkling water. This results in a liquid dough that can be used immediately.

Now I have to find a really good recipe for Luikse wafels. Anyone?

Bake some sandwiches

Huh? Bake some sandwiches?

Surely you don't bake sandwiches? After all, they're just a couple of slices of bread (and that's already baked) with something edible stuck between them. Indeed, look up "sandwich" in Wikipedia and you'll come across a long article describing that item in just that way, and including the following explanation as to the origin of the use of that word:

It was named after John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, an 18th-century English aristocrat. It is said that he ordered his valet to bring him meat tucked between two pieces of bread, and others began to order "the same as Sandwich!" It is commonly said that Lord Sandwich was fond of this form of food because it allowed him to continue playing cards, particularly cribbage [an excellent game, incidentally] , while eating, without using a fork, and without getting his cards greasy from eating meat with his bare hands.

Well, that's not what a sandwich is in Belgium!

There, that type of sandwich is called a boterham, whereas the word "sandwich" (with the "ch" pronounced more like "sh") refers to a soft, elongated bread roll, made from an enriched dough.

A Belgian sandwich is something like a Spanish medianoche, though, from the recipes I have found, seems to be rather richer, incorporating more eggs.

It is quite difficult to find a decent recipe for sandwiches, even with the amazing search-and-find capabilities of the Internet. And even if you find a recipe, it is very likely to be written in Dutch (the majority of Belgians speak Dutch), which is a tad difficult to follow if you are not able to read that language.

I have, however, come across a couple of recipes, and by far the best is provided by a Belgian television chef by the name of Roger van Damme here. See what I mean about the Dutch?

But never fear! Here's a translation.

Ingredients for 15 sandwiches (I had a couple more)

500g strong flour
225g milk
35g fresh yeast (or 12g dried yeast)
3 egg yolks
50g sugar
10g salt (I used less, so suit your taste)
80g unsalted butter + a little extra in order to grease the baking tray

Method

(I prepared my dough in a mixer, so have adapted the method here). Place the flour in the mixing bowl and add the milk, yeast and 2 of the egg yolks. Mix with the dough attachment on a medium speed until everything is incorporated. Add the sugar and salt, followed by the butter, which should be cut into small cubes and added gradually.

Allow the machine to continue kneading at a medium speed until the dough is smooth and supple (the time will depend on your mixer, but reckon on about ten minutes).

Empty the dough out of the bowl and, if necessary, complete the kneading by hand. Make a ball of the dough, place in a bowl and cover with cling-film and a clean kitchen towel. Leave to rest for 35 minutes.

Knock the dough back and cut into portions of 50 grams, forming these into balls. Place these bottom-side up, cover with cling-film and allow to rest for ten minutes.

Press each ball flat and then roll the dough back onto itself to form the long sandwich shape. Grease a baking tray (I used two) with a little butter (I didn't do this, to no ill effect) and place the sandwiches on it, leaving sufficient space between them (they will rise a lot). Cover with cling-film (I used a clean kitchen towel) and allow to rise for 60 minutes.

Beat the remaining egg yolk (actually, I used a couple of quail eggs, including the whites) and carefully brush the tops of the sandwiches (this will provide the typical glazed finish).

Bake in an oven preheated to 230ºC for 8 minutes.


You should end up with some deliciously soft rolls, which are good to eat with either savoury or sweet fillings.

Enjoy them, or, as we say in Belgium, "Smakelijk!"

(If you wish to see Roger van Damme preparing the sandwiches by hand, a video is available here. Roger speaks Dutch, of course, but at least you can see what he does, and particularly how to roll the sandwiches.)

Here are the ones that I made:

Roscón de Reyes

In Belgium and the Netherlands we have Speculaaskoek, in the UK there’s Christmas cake (or, even worse, Christmas pudding), Germans like stollen for some inexplicable reason, and the Italians prefer panettone. Here in Spain, however, the preferred festive pastry is Roscón de Reyes, or Three Kings Cake.

As with many symbols of this period of the year, the Roscón de Reyes probably dates back to the good old days of paganism, before the Christians came along and changed everything to suit their own ideas. A couple of centuries BC already, the feast of Saturnalia was celebrated with candles, gift-giving, the welcoming of the birth of new light after the dark of winter (sound familiar…?) and all sorts of other festive indulgences. Part of these indulgences was a tart, prepared with dried fruits, in which was hidden a bean as the symbol of prosperity.

The idea of the tart survived through the centuries in various parts of the Roman Empire, During the reign of French king Louis XV, a baker decided to hide not just a bean in the tart, but also a golden coin. Since that time, the significance of the bean dwindled, but whoever discovered the coin (later substituted by a small figure) was crowned King of the Feast.

Nowadays, the person who finds the figure is still crowned King of the Feast, but the one who finds the bean must pay for the Roscón!

Roscóns can be bought in all bakers and supermarkets in Spain in the period leading up to and including Christmas (and Christmas here stretches to Epiphany). They come in all sorts of sizes, some cut in half like a sandwich and filled with cream, or some other sweet substance. But that’s the easy way. I thought it would be nice to make my own roscón…

There are many recipes for Roscón available on the Web, but here’s one I found in the book, Pan Casero by Ibán Yarza (a wonderful book, full of very good information as well as excellent step-by-step illustrated recipes for more than 30 sorts of bread). It is quite laborious, but the result is worth it.

Ingredients

   Starter dough
      Flour 90g
      Milk 50g
      Fresh yeast 2g (or 0.7g of dried yeast)

   Dough
      Starter dough 142g (as above)
       Strong flour 340g
       Milk 120g
       Eggs 2 large
       Sugar 80g
       Yeast 15g (or 5g dried yeast)
       Salt 5g (I didn’t use any)
       Butter 60g

   Flavourings
       Rum 20g
       Orange blossom water 14g
       Skin of half an orange and half a lemon (not the white part, as this becomes bitter)
       Half a cinnamon stick

   Decoration
       Crystallised fruits, almonds, sugar, etc.
       Beaten egg


The day before you wish to make the roscón, the starter dough and the milk infusion must be prepared. Dissolve 2g of fresh yeast (or .7g of dried yeast) in 50g of warm (not hot!), mix in 90g of flour and knead for a few minutes to achieve a nice even dough. Make a ball of this dough and place it in a covered container (sufficiently large to allow for expansion). Place this container in the fridge and leave it there for some 24 hours. As for the milk infusion, allow the orange and lemon peel and cinnamon stick to boil with the milk together for five minutes; remove from the heat and allow to stand for several hours (or the whole night through). During this process, some of the milk will evaporate. Just before you start kneading the dough (next paragraph) remove the cinnamon and the peels and top up the milk with the rum and the orange blossom water to reach about 120g (add a little more milk, if necessary).

On the second day, remove the starter dough from the fridge: it should be well risen and spongy (when I tried this with dried yeast, the effect was amazing: spongy and beautiful. With fresh yeast, however, the effect was less spectacular, so I allowed the mixture to stand in its container next to a radiator for several more hours and that did the trick). Mix together all of the ingredients for the dough, apart from the butter. It is best not to add all of the milk infusion at one time, otherwise the dough might become too wet. In fact, the dough should stick a little to the surface and to your hands. Allow the mixture to rest for some 10 minutes before kneading and notice how it then sticks less. Knead for 5 minutes, then add the butter, small pieces at a time (the butter should be soft, but not melting). Ensure that the butter is fully incorporated into the dough by squeezing the dough with the butter through your fingers: the idea is not to melt the butter, but to incorporate it through friction.

Allow the mixture to rest for a few minutes and then knead it for a further 8 to 10 minutes, until it becomes shiny and smooth (the sponginess of the dough will depend largely on how well this kneading is carried out). Allow the dough to rest in a large bowl until it doubles in volume (up to several hours, depending on the ambient conditions).

When the dough has risen sufficiently, empty it out onto the work surface and knock it back, using both hands to remove all of the gas. Make a ball of the dough, cover it and allow to rest for 15 minutes before shaping it. Trying to shape it without allowing it to relax will cause it to fall apart.

Rub a small amount of flour into your hands in order to shape the dough. Use one or two fingers to poke a hole into the centre of the ball of dough and through it, all the way to the work surface. Widen this hole progressively, until both hands can be used. Then start stretching the dough gently and equally; you can even lift it up, allowing gravity to stretch it further. Finally, place the roscón on a sheet of baking paper and form it into a circle. If the dough seems tense, allow it to rest for some 5 minutes, after which you can carry out any adjustments or corrections you might find necessary. Now is also the time to hide the bean and the figurine in the roscón: do so by pushing them here and there into the base, squeezing the holes tightly to make sure they are sealed (wrap the items in aluminium foil). Brush the surface of the roscón with a beaten egg and then allow to rise for an hour-and-a-half (90 minutes), during which time it should just about double in volume.

Now brush the roscón again with the beaten egg and decorate it with crystallised fruits, sugar, almonds, or whatever else takes your fancy (hint: if you can’t find very coarse sugar, add a teaspoon of water to two table-spoons of sugar, and stir well to obtain a good alternative). Bake in the middle of the oven at 19°C for about 25 minutes, keeping an eye on it that it does not become too brown.

I made my first roscón as a test a few weeks ago and it turned out quite well. I then used dried yeast.

Yesterday I made a second roscón, this time with fresh yeast.

If I can do it, so can you.

Happy New Year!