Waffles are another one of Belgium’s national dishes. As with Germany and its Sausages, Belgian waffles have a highly regional character. One of the more famous Waffle Recipes from Belgium is of the Liege Waffle from the city of Liege. According to legend, it was invented in the late 18th century by the court Chef of the Prince-Bishop of Liege. However, this is probably a mythical origin story, and the first known recipe appears in the 1920s.
The Liege Waffle differs in two ways from its counterpart in Brussels. It uses a richer brioche bread recipe and includes sugar beads/crystals, which do not dissolve into the dough. These add a crunchy sugar bite to the final waffle and make it the objectively superior waffle.
Below is the recipe provided by the definitive source on the Liege Waffle:
La Strème Liège Waffle Brotherhood.
Gaufre de Liège
Course: MainCuisine: Belgium – LiègeDifficulty: Easy20
Waffles30
minutes10
minutesA delicious brioche waffle from the city of Liege.
Ingredients
1 kg of flour
75 g of yeast
5 dL of lukewarm milk and water
50 g of ultra-fine sugar
2 eggs
500 g of butter
50 g of honey, vanillin or cinnamon
3 g of baking soda
600 g of beaded sugar
Directions
- Make a yeast dough with 800 g of flour, the yeast, the ultra-fine sugar and the eggs.
- Allow the dough to rise for 15 minutes. Next, add the butter, the honey, 200 g of flour, the salt, the vanillin and the baking soda.
- Knead the mixture to obtain a smooth dough and allow to rise again for 10 minutes in a temperate place.
- Next, add the beaded sugar and divide the dough into pieces of 90 to 140 g, depending on the size of the waffle iron, and allow it to rise.
- Cook over low heat for large waffles and use high temperatures for waffle irons with a shallow pattern.
Notes
- There are endless variations to the recipe. This is based on my own experiments to get the most out of the sauce, which otherwise looses much of its flavor through boiling. Traditionally though, the meatballs are seared rather than baked, and then finished by boiling them in the sauce. The issue though, is that these meatballs are traditionally quite large, so you have to boil them for a long time to cook through, which removes most of the flavor from the sauce.
- I prefer the flavors added by the caramelized onions, but this part can be skipped without missing anything.
Learn more about the regional foods of the Region
Traditional Foods of the Mosan Valley
From Belgian cuisine, the many regional specialties of Wallonia are less well-known. The Maas Valley merges the well-known traditions of Belgium with the realities of the landscape and the traditions of its aristocratic court.