I’m sorry.

And you’re welcome.

You know how sometimes you run across a picture of a beautifully plated dish and think, “Man! I just have to make that!” And then other times, you run across a picture of a beautifully plated dish and think, “Man! I just have to make that RIGHT NOW!”

And then you have Praline Waffles for lunch? Yeah, I know you can relate 🙂

The Foodie Groom got a waffle maker for Christmas so we’ve been making a lightened version of Mark Bittman’s Overnight Yeasted Waffles for breakfast quite a bit over the last few weeks. You know, half the butter, half whole wheat flour, fat-free milk… it’s a delicious but responsible way to start the day. And then I saw this incredibly indulgent stack of waffles, with a sweet, sticky praline sauce running down the sides in the latest Williams-Sonoma mailer. Responsible choices could wait a couple of days because I’d just found a new delicious way to start they day.

The batter produces a waffle that is crispy on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside. Translation: perfect. I did cut the butter down by 25% and reduced the sugar by 66% in the waffle batter. Because I fully intended to go all-out on the praline sauce. We made the full, sinful batch of the sweet and sticky sauce and then threw in some Southern Comfort for a little punch – if you’ve ever had a bite of this pie, you know that SoCo and praline were meant to be together.

Kinda like us and these waffles.

Oh, and to “healthify” the waffles, try topping with sliced bananas before drizzling on the praline sauce. It’s makes a magical praline-bananas foster-ish breakfast-dessert hybrid.

I’m going to go run and have a bowl of plain lettuce now.

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Waffles with Southern Comfort Praline Sauce

Light and fluffy Belgian waffles topped with an indulgent Southern Comfort Praline sauce.

Ingredients

• For the waffles:
• 3 eggs, separated
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• For the Praline sauce:
• 1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 8 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 2 Tbsp Southern Comfort (optional)
• 1 cup roughly chopped toasted pecans
• 1/8 tsp salt

Instructions

1. Preheat your waffle maker according to its directions.
2. Whisk the egg whites with a mixer to stiff peaks.
3. Whisk together egg yolks, buttermilk, melted butter, and vanilla extract in a large bowl.
4. In a smaller bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar together.
5. Add to the wet ingredients, stirring until smooth.
6. Add the egg whites to the batter and gently fold in until well distributed.
7. Pour waffle batter into the waffle maker and spread toward the edges and cook until done (My 4-square waffle maker takes 2-2.5 cups of batter at a time.)
8. Make the sauce while the waffles are cooking: heat brown sugar, maple syrup, butter, Southern Comfort, and salt over medium heat.
9. Stir until the butter is melted, the sugar is dissolved, and the sauce is smooth.
10. Stir in the pecans and remove from heat. Serve immediately.
11. Store leftover waffles in a gallon zipper bag and the sauce in a small bowl. To reheat the leftover sauce, scrape it out into a small sauce pan and heat on medium until smooth and pourable again.

Notes

Yields: 8 servings

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma

Estimated time: 30 minutes