buckwheat waffles with roasted rhubarb {gluten free}

I’ve never really been one for collecting random bits of kitchen equipment. Sure, I have a reasonable number of cookbooks and my shelves are full with an odd assortment of ingredients but with the notable exception of my stand mixer (which I only bought because it was half price) and my much-loved food processor, my kitchen is relatively gadget-free.

I like making pasta at home, for example, but I’ve never really got round to buying a pasta machine.  Ditto ice cream.  For years, I didn’t even have the most basic of tools – like a frying pan – and we’ve no plans to replace the toaster that died nearly a year ago.

This is partly because I am used to having a very small kitchen with absolutely no storage and it’s hard to think any differently even now that I have the luxury of a bit more space.  But it’s also because I seem to have a strange (for me) inability to justify the expenditure.  I think nothing of spending £20 on a couple of steaks from the butcher but I balk at spending a similar amount of money on a stick blender.

A little before Christmas, I accidentally bought a waffle iron.  Admittedly, I had filled in my payment details and delivery address so it wasn’t that much of an accident but the button at the bottom of the page was badly labelled and I hadn’t quite realised that, by clicking it, I would actually be purchasing something.  Or at least, that’s my excuse.

In order to assuage my guilt, therefore, I am determined that I will get good use out of it.  Luckily, this is no real hardship.

Since it arrived, we’ve eaten waffles at least once a week, if not more. We’ve made proper Belgian yeasted waffles dotted with chunks of pearl sugar and we’ve made some particularly decadent chocolate chip waffles.  I have grand plans for some savoury waffles this weekend.

We’ve settled on these though as our ‘every day’ waffles.  Heart and not too sweet, they’re a good vessel for whatever you like and they’re nicely satisfying.  Here, I gently roasted some vivid pink forced rhubarb with a little sugar and vanilla and piled it on top of them.  A drizzle of the sweet, sticky, cooking syrup makes for a perfect little January breakfast/lunch.

If, like me, you’ve recently (and/or accidentally) bought a waffle iron, here are some waffle recipes that I’ve pinned and can’t wait wait to make:

Aged cheddar waffles from Flourishing Foodie

Overnight oat waffles with lemon zest and poppy seeds from Dolly and Oatmeal

Overnight yeasted waffles from Portuguese Girl Cooks

Belgian brownie waffles from Edible Perspective

Flax waffles from Love and Lemons

Banana bread waffles from Top with Cinnamon

Eggnog waffles from Brooklyn Supper

Sweet potato waffles with cacao nibs from Oh, Ladycakes

buckwheat waffles with roasted rhubarb

Yield: Serves 2

I would describe these as lazy waffles - mix your dry ingredients, fold in your wet and then chuck it all in a waffle iron. We have them at least once a week. The buckwheat makes them suitably hearty so that they feel like a substantial breakfast and, depending on what you put on top, can have as much or as little nutritional value as you want.

Ingredients

For the roasted rhubarb:
• 300g (2 stalks) rhubarb
• 1 - 2 tablespoons sugar (or more to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the waffles:
• 125g (1 cup) buckwheat flour
• 2 tablespoons cornflour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda/bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 240ml (1 cup) buttermilk
• 55g (1/2 stick) butter, melted and cooled
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. I like to start by making the roasted rhubarb so that it's lukewarm by the time I'm ready to eat. It's very simple: preheat your oven to 180C/350F, chop the rhubarb into bitesize chunks, mix with a little sugar and vanilla and roast for about 20 - 25 minutes until it's squidgy but still holds its shape.
2. While the rhubarb is cooling, make the waffles by whisking together all of your dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients and then fold into the dry. Leave the batter to stand for a couple of minutes while you pre-heat your waffle iron.
3. Spoon the batter into the waffle maker and cook for about 3 minutes each side - I find that these waffles take slightly longer than you might expect.
4. Top the waffles with the rhubarb mixture, including plenty of the juice, and syrup/yoghurt/whatever.

Notes

This is really a mash up of Simply Recipes' buckwheat waffles and Ashlae's buckwheat waffle for one. As Elise notes, you could make these waffles lighter by folding in a whipped egg white which is true but I'm not one of those people who has time for whipping up egg whites of a morning and I'm perfectly happy with the consistency of these.

3.1

http://londonbakes.com/2014/01/buckwheat-waffles-with-roasted-rhubarb.html