Vegan Sourdough Waffles
Before we get into this yummy vegan sourdough waffle recipe, let me give you a quick rundown on the story of my sourdough starter.
One of my goals for this year was to create and maintain my very own sourdough starter, so that I could bake my own bread at home for years and years, and have something to hand down to my kids and grandkids besides the two pennies I'm rubbing together. After a couple of stops and starts, my sourdough starter finally became lively after about three weeks of feeding. (For the uninitiated, making a sourdough starter is super easy: you just mix water and flour together in a bowl and keep adding more flour and water until the wild yeasts in the flour ferment to the point when it's good for baking).
I was planning to make my sourdough bread for the first time this weekend because my starter finally became nice and bubbly. But it didn't pass the water test (which is when you drop a spoonful of starter in a glass of water to see if it floats, which indicates a lively and ripe starter), so I decided to use this starter for waffles instead. Hence where this sourdough waffle recipe comes in. But that's not the end of the story.
Y'all, I somehow managed to completely destroy my starter 🤦🏾♀️. The starter I have been babying for three weeks. See, I've been keeping my starter in my turned-off oven because it's the warmest place in my otherwise freezing kitchen. Yesterday I toasted some bread in the oven, and when I thought the oven was cool again I put my starter back in its home. Well, I guess it was still pretty hot in there because I just checked on my starter to feed it, and it was totally orange and moldy. Total fail on my part. Back to scratch...
Although my sourdough starter is currently in heaven, at least I did get one recipe out of it, these yummy sourdough waffles. These are, without a doubt, the best waffles I've ever made at home. I was quite wary about this recipe at first because although I don't mind eating sour bread, the idea of sour waffles did not jive with me. After doing some reading though I learned that these waffles are not meant to be sour at all, and that the addition of baking soda helps to neutralize any sour taste in the sourdough starter. So, I went for it. And I am thankful.
If you have sourdough starter at your disposal I highly recommend diving right into this vegan sourdough recipe, because it's awesome. The bubbly and active starter makes these waffles custardy on the inside and nice and crisp on the outside. You can't ask for a better waffle consistency than that, and even though I only got to use my original sourdough starter for just one recipe, I'm glad it was this one.
Dig in!
Vegan Sourdough Waffles
Ingredients
- 1/2 c "unfed" sourdough starter
- 1/2 c vegan "buttermilk" (non-dairy milk + 1/2 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar)
- 1/2 c grams all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tbsp light brown sugar
- 1 flax egg (1 tbsp flax meal + 3 tbsp water)
- 2 tbsp melted vegan butter
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp baking soda
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Add the sourdough starter, vegan "buttermilk", flour and sugar to a large bowl and stir to combine.
- Next, whisk in the flax egg, melted vegan butter and the vanilla extract. Add the salt and the baking soda to the batter and mix to combine.
- Let batter sit at room temperature for at least 1 hr, or up to 8 hrs.
- Preheat your waffle iron. Ladle some of the batter into the waffle iron and cook until the waffle is brown and crisp, then repeat.
Notes
Adapted From: NYT Cooking