I have a habit of reading cookbooks while I eat- especially if I'm eating alone. I always find that I learn something new- no matter how many times I have read the book. Part of this is because I am tuning into certain ingredients depending on the seasons. I have flipped through Deb Perelman's The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook numerous times. Her recipes in the book and on her blog are always honest, and I can trust that they have been well-tested. Her little notes about why she did this and why she did that are so helpful for people like me who like mixing recipes, creating my own concoctions in the kitchen.
The other day, while eating lunch, I stumbled upon her Peach and Sour Cream Pancakes recipe in her cookbook. Armed with fresh peaches from the farmers' market, I had an incredible desire to test out this magical sounding combination. Peaches and cream and peaches and yogurt have been done before, but I knew Deb was on to something with combining the rich, but lightly tangy sour cream with peaches. You could think of sour cream as behaving like buttermilk, which you often see in pancake and waffle batter, but the extra body it gives the batter a silky smoothness and pillowy texture that is unreal.
Instead of making pancakes like Deb did, however, I made waffles. My waffle iron has been staring at me for a while and only getting sadder and sadder with each day of neglect. Plus, I was in the mood for a crispy outside, and little wedges I could eat as a snack. I modified ingredients to reflect my change from pancake to waffle and substituted all-purpose flour for oat flour and spelt flour, but I kept many of the basic pancake/ waffle ingredients the same. I also diced up some peaches to add to the batter so you could get a little bit of summer in every bite. Topped with a drizzle of REAL maple syrup and some sliced peaches, these made for one delicious August breakfast.
Peach and Sour Cream Waffles
1/2 cup oat flour*
1/2 cup spelt flour*
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
1 cup whole milk sour cream
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons melted butter, plus more for waffle iron
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 ripe peach, halved with pit removed
Preheat your waffle iron.
In one bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flours through baking soda). In another bowl, whisk egg, sour cream, maple syrup, 2 tablespoons melted butter, and vanilla extract. Slowly add the wet ingredients into the dry and stir just until combined.
Dice half of the peach and stir into the batter. Slice the remaining half in thin slices.
Make sure waffle iron is well-greased and hot. I used a little butter to do this, making sure it sizzled when I rubbed it over the griddle. Add about 1/3- 1/2 cup of batter to the center of the waffle iron, add a few peach slices to the top if you wish, and carefully close. Cook for 4-5 minutes or until done. Remove waffle to cooling rack. Repeat with remaining batter, greasing waffle iron as needed.
Serve waffles warm with maple syrup and fresh peach slices. Alternatively, you can cut into wedges and eat as delicious snacks. Makes about 4 whole waffles.
*You can use unbleached all-purpose, whole wheat, or a mix of unbleached all-purpose and whole wheat flour instead of oat flour and spelt flour.
