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Gemma's Bold Baking Breakfast Bacon & Cheddar Cornmeal Waffles
Hi Bold Bakers! This is the second week of our breakfast series where I'm showing you
how to create an entire breakfast menu leading up to Mother's Day. I'm sharing with you some
of my favorite sweet & savory breakfast recipes to fuel you and start your day off right.
And this week we are making Bacon & Cheddar Cornmeal Waffles. So let's get started!
When I used to have my breakfast catering business, Friday used to be a big blowout
day where I'd create over-the-top pancakes and waffles. And that's where this recipe
came from. Everybody used to love it and that's why I wanted to share it with you today.
We're going start out in a large bowl. Add in your flour, cornmeal. Don't worry, if you
don't have cornmeal you can use all white flour. Sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
And then mix them all together.
In a separate jug, add in your milk and your eggs and then whisk them both well together.
We're going to set these aside and prepare our savory ingredients to go into our waffles.
What you choose to add in your waffles is what really makes them shine and go over the
top. I'm adding in scallions, or spring onions. They have a nice mild onion flavor and they
also have really good color.
I'm also adding in bacon because let's face it, bacon makes everything taste better. But
if you don't like bacon and want to keep this vegetarian you can totally leave that out and maybe
bump up some of the other ingredients.
I like to add in sharp red cheddar. I really love the flavor of this cheese, you can add
any that you like. I also like red cheddar because it gives a nice pop of color as well. I also
like to add in corn. You can use fresh or frozen. It gives a really nice sweetness to
your waffles and it works really well with the other flavors.
Now that we have everything ready, we're going to add all of our ingredients into the dry
mix. Add your milk and your eggs, and follow that will all of your savory ingredients.
Now you simply want to mix all of these ingredients really gently together. The less you mix this
batter, the softer and lighter your waffles will be. So just mix until combined.
Once your waffle batter is mixed, we're going to drizzle in some cooled melted butter. Now
all you want to do is gently fold it into your batter. You add your butter last so you
can evenly distribute it throughout your batter.
At this stage, we're going to pop our waffle batter in the fridge and let it set for around
15-20 minutes and our next step is to cook these guys off.
If you don't have a waffle machine, don't worry about it. You can always cook this batter
off as savory pancakes and they will be just as good.
Before I use my griddle, I like to brush it with a little bit of oil to get a nice crisp
coating on my waffles. Once your batter is nice and chilled it's ready to be cooked off.
I like to add in around a cup of batter for my machine but it might vary in the one that
you use. Spread the batter all the way to the edges. Just in case you were worried that
your waffle isn't loaded with lots of flavor, I like to add a little bit of extra stuff on top.
Nobody said that waffles have to be sweet and I think this is a great variation.
I have a double waffle maker so I can make two at once.
Cook it until it's beautiful and golden brown. I can already smell the cheese melting. These
waffles look amazing. I can't wait to try them. If you have any baked waffles left over
then keep them for the next day and pop them in the oven and they will be gorgeous again.
To serve your waffles, I like to go really BIG & BOLD and serve some corn on top and even some
extra bacon and onions.
I just love the combination of the salty bacon, the sweet corn and the sharp red cheddar.
This is my first savory addition to my breakfast series so I really hope you like it.
I know I do.
And of course, my dog Waffles loves them too.
Stay tuned for next Monday's recipe of Italian Baked Eggs and of course, come back every
Thursday for Bigger Bolder Baking. Thank you so much for subscribing and I'll see you next week.