One of my favourite outings when my siblings and I were children was to the milky lane. I remember reading through the menu like it was the greatest thing my eyes had ever set upon and all the amazing toppings and varieties made choosing what to eat very difficult.
Although many of the Milky Lane branches have disappeared over the years (you can still find them in a few places) the memory of magical waffles has not and so when I was trying to decide on what to bake with my children this week I suddenly had the idea to make our own waffles at home.
What better way to unleash my children’s creativity than to let them loose with syrup, sprinkles and chocolate chips, yum!
The recipe that I used is actually a recipe for scotch pancakes (or crumpets) that I have adapted over the years and is a very popular weekend breakfast choice in our house. As it is sweet and contains a raising agent I figured that it would probably work in the waffle machine and the best part is that it is quick and easy (no separating eggs, hurrah).
What you need:
• 300g plain flour
• 60g caster sugar
• 2tsp baking powder
• 3 large eggs
• 5ml vanilla essence
• 250ml milk
• A few drops of food colouring (optional, my daughter wanted pink waffles)
Method
1. Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and make a well in the centre.
2. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well (the mixture is quite thick and while you can mix it by hand with a whisk I would recommend using a hand beater as it works out the lumps much quicker).
3. Put a spoonful of the mixture in your waffle machine and wait until done.
Once all the waffles are cooked you can let your children loose with their toppings of choice. Usually I would say add in some fruit or yoghurt or something like that but this was a huge treat for my little ones and so this time I didn’t even bother. Surprisingly they elected not to have ice cream however they made up for it with chocolate chips.
As I mentioned this is a recipe for crumpets and so if you don’t have a waffle machine you can simply make a batch of crumpets for them to decorate instead (you can make them as big or as small as you like). And then if you don’t feel like baking at all you can do what my children’s granny did instead and give them some icing, marie biscuits and sprinkles to decorate instead.
Giving your children the freedom to decorate their creations as they want is a really fun way to encourage their creativity in their kitchen, and who knows, your child might even be a masterchef in the making.