Waffle Bar Day 4.05 The Fundamental Things Apply

“Oh, my God! Paris, breakfast is over in five minutes!” “I know. It's Tuesday, too. That's waffle bar day.” “Why didn't you wake me?” “Oh, sure, blame me. I'm the victim here, remember?”

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs

• 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

• 1 ½ tbsp baking powder

• 2 tbsp granulated sugar

• 1 ½ tsp salt

• 2 cups milk

• 1 tsp vanilla

• Food coloring in red, blue, green, and yellow

• Waffle bar toppings of your choice (some suggestions: whipped cream, sprinkles, sliced fruit, maple syrup, chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, chocolate chips)

Directions:

1. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and set aside. In a small mixing bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, mix together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.

3. Gradually pour in the milk and stir until fully combined. Stir in the egg yolks and vanilla until fully combined.

4. Gently fold in the egg whites. Be careful not to overmix and knock the air out of the batter.

5. Separate the waffle batter evenly into 6 small bowls (about ¾ cup each)

6. Add a few drops of food coloring to each bowl to make red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Again, be careful not to overmix.

7. Grease your waffle iron, but don’t turn it on yet. Working quickly, use a spoon to drop different colors of the waffle batter onto the iron in a random pattern. See photo below.

8. Close the waffle iron and turn it on. Allow to cook for about 1-3 minutes.

9. Use a knife or spatula to remove the waffle. Turn the iron off in between making waffles so as not to overcook the colors you add first.

10. Serve your waffles with your favorite toppings.

I dyed my waffle batter 6 different colors, but you can make as few or as many colors as you'd like.

You might be wondering, why did I make tie-dye waffles? They definitely didn’t have these in the Yale cafeteria. Well I was inspired by our favorite Gilmore Girls neighbor, Babette Dell. In the cold open of this episode, Lorelai is finally getting around to planting the bulbs Babette gave her. Babette tells her to wait until spring because “pow - color coming out of your yin-yang!” So I wanted to make waffles that would have color coming out of my yin-yang. Whatever that’s supposed to mean.

Arrange your batter into random blobs to create the tie-dye pattern.

I decided to go with a rainbow of colors for these tie-dye waffles because if you’re going to do color, you might as well do color (catch that reference?). They are actually surprisingly easy to make. You have to work quickly but carefully. My waffle iron heats up really quickly, so I had it turned off while I added the blobs of colorful batter so that it wouldn’t overcook in some areas.

This technique will reveal a beautiful tie-dye pattern once cooked!

Because it’s waffle bar day, make sure you have plenty of toppings to go with your waffles. I served mine with whipped cream, sprinkles, and sliced strawberries, with maple syrup on the side. You could add any of your favorite toppings, but if you need some more suggestions: your favorite sliced fruit, fruity candy, chocolate chips, caramel sauce, really the possibilities are endless!

Happy cooking from the hollow!

If you missed what I made last episode, catch up here!

Enjoy your tie-dye waffles for waffle bar day!