You’ve probably fallen in love with them at a favorite cafe or a popular food truck. Golden in color and delectable in taste, Liège waffles are out of this world. Here’s how to bake them at home with a surprisingly simple recipe. Your family and friends will swoon!
INGREDIENTS
Serving Size: 12 Liège Waffles
- 1 cup milk (lukewarm)
- 2 1/2 teaspoons instant dry yeast
(6 teaspoons of fresh yeast or 2 1/2 teaspoons of active dry yeast) - 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 cups of pastry flour
- 6 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon (optional)
- 1 generous pinch of salt
- 10 ounces butter (room temperature)
- 1 cup Waffle Pantry Belgian pearl sugar
DIRECTIONS
1. Gently heat the milk to lukewarm temperature. Pour milk into a bowl and add yeast. Allow several minutes for the yeast to dissolve.
2. Next, add eggs and vanilla extract to the yeast mixture. Then add flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in large bowl. Mix gently.
3. Bring butter to room temperature and add to dough. The dough should have a sticky texture.
4. Cover the dough and let it rest for 2 to 3 hours. This will allow the dough’s volume to double.
5. Once risen, gently mix to allow the air to be released from within the dough. Add Belgian pearl sugar to the dough.
6. Divide the dough into 12 roughly palm-sized balls and allow them to rest for 15 minutes.
7. Pre-heat waffle iron. Once heated, place each individual dough ball in its baking area and close lid. Bake time should be approximately 4 minutes. Monitor for doneness and preferred golden color.
Voila! Your waffles are ready! The optimal time to serve your waffles is straight from the waffle iron. If you decide to make a large batch or two, the Liege waffles keep well in the freezer for a few months. (Though, we doubt the waffles will last that long before they’re gobbled up!) Enjoy!
Belgian Liege Waffles
Equipment
- waffle iron
- stand mixer
Ingredients
Instructions
- Gently heat the milk to lukewarm temperature. Pour milk into a bowl and add yeast. Allow several minutes for the yeast to dissolve.
- Next, add eggs and vanilla extract to the yeast mixture. Then add flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in large bowl. Mix gently.
- Bring butter to room temperature and add to dough. The dough should have a sticky texture.
- Cover the dough and let it rest for 2 to 3 hours. This will allow the dough’s volume to double.
- Once risen, gently mix to allow the air to be released from within the dough. Add Belgian pearl sugar to the dough.
- Divide the dough into 12 roughly palm-sized balls and allow them to rest for 15 minutes.
- Pre-heat waffle iron. Once heated, place each individual dough ball in its baking area and close lid. Bake time should be approximately 4 minutes. Monitor for doneness and preferred golden color.
Hi,
The recipe looks very good and I love to try it out.
I do have a question. The Liege waffles that I’ve been making come out to hard in my opinion. I’m from The Netherlands and when I go to Liege of Belgium I always get a Liege Waffle but the ones I get there are always soft.
Does anyone know how to get a more soft waffle instead of a slithy firm waffle?
Hi Maickel,
One thing to keep in mind is that the caramelized pearl sugar hardens up as it cools down. Hence, it is best to enjoy your Liege waffles whilst they’re warm and fresh. If you intend to bake them and eat them at a later time, we recommend that you par-bake your waffles first. When you are ready to eat them, just pop them back into your waffle iron or a toaster and reheat them back up.
A couple of other tips in regards to preparing your dough… we suggest that you use pastry or cake flour (or the combination of French T45 & T55 flour). Pastry or cake flour is relatively airy and will help your waffles to be softer. When you are ready to bake your waffles, place the dough into the iron and use the back of a spoon to spread the dough out a bit before closing the iron. This gives the dough room to expand easier during the baking process.
We hope this helps in your next attempt in making the perfect Liege waffles. Please let us know if you have any further questions.
Your Waffle Pantry team
I tried this recipe and I must have done some things(s) wrong. There wasn’t nearly enough gluten development I’m hoping you can help me troubleshoot. There are 2 things I think were most likely the culprits.
FIrst, I keep kosher, and I cannot find flour labled T45 or T55 that I can use, so I thought mixing 1:1 pastry flour and all purpose flour would be a good substitute. Do you have a better suggestion?
Secondly, “mix gently” is very vague. I think I must have mixed way too gently, especially before the I added the butter. Can you be more descriptive? What speed and for how long before and after the butter is added?
Thank you.
Hi Renee,
The French T45 and T55 flour have very unique properties that are difficult to match with other types of American flour. However, if you are unable to use French flour, we recommend using just pastry flour.
When mixing the ingredients, we recommend using a dough hook and mixing it at medium speed for about 3 minutes. The gentle folding of the dough is only in reference to the last step where you add the pearl sugar to the risen dough.
Please refer to the provided video for a visual guidance on what you want to the dough to appear and feel like. You should expect a very sticky and stretchy dough.
Please let us know if you have any further questions.
Your Waffle Pantry team
Hello
if you can’t find a brown sugar and you will make it at home with regular sugar and molasses combination, will it work for a classic traditional liege waffles? or you will get another taste?
thanks : )
Hello Luka,
If you don’t have brown sugar on hand, you can substitute the 1/3 cup of brown sugar with 1/3 cup of white sugar and 2 teaspoons of molasses. The taste will be comparable. Let us know how your waffles turn out!
Best,
Lisa
Hi, thanks for the recipe and easy to understand instructions.
If I were to make a big batch of dough to use throughout the day, would it be okay to keep this out at room temperature and use as needed or would I need to keep it in the fridge?
Thanks.
Hello Shas,
Great question! Due to the presence of yeast in the dough, we recommend leaving the dough in the fridge after it has risen. Chilling the dough will help slow down the activity of the yeast. (At room temperature, the dough will keep expanding and alter the taste and texture of the waffles. In addition, it is always smart to refrigerate dough once eggs have been mixed in.) When the waffle dough has cooled thoroughly, be sure to punch it down once every 24 hours. The dough will last for about 3 days in the refrigerator but we recommend using the dough within 2 days.
We also recommend baking waffle dough when it is at room temperature. If possible, keep a large portion of the waffle dough in the refrigerator and reserve smaller portions of waffle dough at room temperature in an airtight container for baking. Keep individual servings of dough in balls and reserve the Belgian pearl sugar for incorporation right before baking for superb Liege waffles.
Please let us know how your waffles turn out! Happy baking!
If frozen how do you thaw?
Hello Barret!
To thaw frozen dough, we recommend placing the dough on a baking sheet, covering with a towel or saran wrap and allowing it to come to room temperature over time. You can do this on a countertop or in an oven that isn’t in use. We also recommend freezing the dough in balls or a thin layer for quicker thawing.
Hope you enjoy our recipe and let us know if you have additional questions. We’re happy to help!