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Gauffres, Flemish
Beat the yolks of six eggs with one pound of fine flour, mix thoroughly, and add rather more than a pint of milk, a quarter of a pound of butter, a small pinch of salt, and a tea-spoonful of yeast. Mix with a wooden spoon until the flour is quite smooth, and leave it three-quarters of an hour to rise; then add a glass of brandy, and the whites of the eggs beaten to a firm froth. Heat the gauffre-irons over or in a clear slow fire. When sufficiently hot, rub the inside with a little clarified butter or fresh lard, and fill one side of the irons with a little of the batter. Bake a few minutes, and when the gauffre is brightly browned on one side, turn the irons over to brown it on the other. The irons may be opened a little, to see if it is done. Turn the gauffre out, rub the inside of the iron with a little more butter, and repeat this with each gauffre. Set the gauffres in a cool oven or before the fire. Serve quite hot, and dust a little sugar over before serving. If any are left, they may be warmed again before the fire or in the oven. Before attempting to make gauffres it is well to see them made. Probable cost, 1s. 3d. for this quantity. Sufficient, twelve or eighteen for a dish.
A yeast-raised waffle batter of the Flemish type, thicker and richer than an American breakfast batter. The instructions assume hinged cast-iron irons held in a fire, but the batter transfers well to an electric waffle iron.
- Quantities in modern termsOne pound of fine flour is about 3 1/2 cups; the pint is an imperial pint, so "rather more than a pint" of milk is roughly 2 1/2 to 2 3/4 cups. A quarter pound of butter is one stick (4 oz); the recipe does not specify whether it goes in melted or softened.
- A glass of brandyIn Cassell's day this means a wine or liqueur glass rather than a tumbler; a wineglassful was usually reckoned at about 2 fl oz, so anything from 2 to 4 tablespoons. It is there for flavour and for crispness, and can be left out without harming the structure.
- The yeastA teaspoonful of yeast in Cassell's day would have meant soft brewer's or compressed yeast, weaker by volume than modern dried yeast. Use about 1/2 teaspoon instant dried yeast, or 1 teaspoon of fresh, whisked into the warm milk.
- Three-quarters of an hour is optional-ishForty-five minutes in a warm kitchen gives a barely-risen, faintly tangy batter. A longer rest, up to two hours at room temperature or overnight in the refrigerator, gives markedly more flavour and a lacier interior. Fold in the beaten whites only at the last moment, after the rise.
- Mixing order mattersBeating the yolks into the dry flour first, then letting down with milk, is the old method for a lump-free batter and it works. Do it in that order rather than dumping everything together.
- Heat, not "a clear slow fire"Cast-iron gauffre irons were heated slowly over a clear fire, probably so the plates warmed through evenly. On an electric iron, use a medium-high setting and let it come fully up to temperature; a cool plate steams the batter instead of setting a crust.
- GreasingClarified butter or lard, brushed on between each waffle, is what keeps these releasing cleanly from bare iron. A modern non-stick plate needs it only for the first one, if at all.
- Holding and servingA "cool oven" in period usage is a low one, somewhere in the region of 200-250F; a rack in a low oven keeps them crisp, while stacking them on a plate makes them limp. Dust with sugar at the table. The stated yield of twelve to eighteen is realistic, and is a large batch by modern standards -- it can be halved.
Gauffre is the French form of a word cognate with Dutch wafel, which gave English "waffle"; the derivation of English "gopher" (in the sense of honeycombed ground) from the same word is sometimes proposed but is not established. The root is generally traced to a word for honeycomb, the pattern the hinged irons pressed into the batter. Waffle irons of this kind were made in the Low Countries and northern France from the medieval period onward, often engraved with coats of arms or religious devices, and the yeast-raised, brandy-scented batter here belongs to a Flemish and Brussels tradition distinct from the thin, unleavened wafers baked for church use. Cassell's prints it among continental sweet batters, and the compiler adds the unusually candid line that it is well to see gauffres made before attempting them: the knack lies in judging the heat of the iron, which no written instruction of the period could supply.