food
- 2 (10 ounce) cans chunk chicken, drained - I prefer to boil a couple of chicken breasts and shred those in place of the canned chicken
- 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup Ranch dressing
- 3/4 cup pepper sauce, such as Franks® Red Hot®
- 1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
Liège Waffles!
On my work trip to Brussels last week I was introduced to the liège waffle, a type of waffle that is denser and sweeter than the common “Belgian waffle” that I’m used to in the States. They were delicious! So when I got home there was no possible option but to find a recipe and try making them myself.
When you go search through the multitude of online recipies for liège waffles, you find that the secret ingredient for these things is pearl sugar — a compressed form of sugar bits smaller than sugar cubes, roughly the size of mini M&Ms. So, I ordered some from Amazon, printed off this recipe, and got to work.
With liège waffles you don’t really have a waffle batter - it’s more a waffle dough. It’s sort of a brioche, more similar to cinnamon roll dough that I’ve made than to pancake batter. Threw it all in to the KitchenAid mixer with the dough hook and kneaded it for 5 minutes, then threw it into a warm oven to let it rise for an hour.
Once the dough has risen you knead in the pearl sugar, which gives you a strange mound of dough that crunches when you cut it up into pieces.
Throw these guys into the waffle maker and they cook up very nicely! I used a medium heat that turned out to be just right to caramelize the sugar, giving the waffles a nice shine and a nice crisp surface.
The caramelization is, of course, a little more work to clean up…
Might scale the pearl sugar back by about 20% next time but otherwise this recipe was great! Not quite to the level I got from the pros in Belgium but for sure a good Saturday morning breakfast. These were a hit with the family and we will definitely be making them again.
Buffalo Chicken Dip recipe
Lydia asked for it, so here it is…
Ingredients
Instructions Heat chicken and hot sauce in a skillet over medium heat, until heated through. Stir in cream cheese and ranch dressing. Cook, stirring until well blended and warm.
Mix in half of the shredded cheese, and transfer the mixture to a slow cooker. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top, cover, and cook on Low setting until hot and bubbly. Serve with celery sticks and crackers or tortilla chips or, my favorite: Fritos Scoops.