HOMER: "The perfect chance to make my patented Space-Age Out-Of-This-World Moon Waffles!"
"Let's see here...
Caramels,
Waffle batter,
Liquid smoke...
...mmm, fattening."
Hey, what's up guys, welcome back to Binging with Babish, where this week,
we are utterly destroying a waffle iron using these caramels.
Now, I haven't had these things since I was a kid, so let's see, before we turn these into sugary molten burnt lava...
...yeah, those are pretty good.
So we're going to go ahead and dump a handful of these directly onto the waffle grate.
Top that with some store-bought waffle batter.
I'd say, don't use too much or it will overflow, but it's going to overflow no matter what.
Gently close up your waffle iron, grab a taste of some delicious waffle run–
Ugh, no,
that's, that's, disgusting.
Whoops, almost forgot a healthy pour of liquid smoke, one of the three most important parts of this three ingredient recipe,
that results in a burnt waffle that is extremely sticky, and very difficult to get out of your waffle iron,
and leaves it completely destroyed. And what's a waffle without butter, so why not use an entire stick?
Wrap it up like a burrito from hell and secure it with a wooden skewer,
and be sure to burn both your mouth and hands while attempting to take a bite.
Now if you can't tell, I don't like this thing very much, so we're going to take a crack at making a slightly better version.
We're going to start by making some brown butter.
We're going to heat a stick of butter over medium-low heat,
Swirling and shaking constantly until the milk fats begin to brown. You can see those little brown particles at the bottom there.
Then we're going to set it aside so it can solidify for ideal waffle application.
Next up, the issue of cara-mel...car-mel...c-caramel--
How are you supposed to say it? "Caramel".
We're going to combine ½ cup of water and 1 cup of sugar, and bring it to a boil in a large saucepan.
Stir gently, making sure not to allow the sugar to stick to the sides of the pan.
Pour yourself a scotch for color reference and bring the mixture to 350°F
before adding, a quarter cup at a time, 1 cup of heavy cream, heated to almost boiling.
Wait for the bubbling to subside before adding the rest of the cream,
Whisking over a very low heat until well combined, and optionally flavoring with a half teaspoon of vanilla extract.
This stuff might look pretty thin, but it's going to get nice and sticky and gooey, as we set it aside to cool at room temperature.
Last but certainly not least, the waffle batter.
We're going to combine 1¾ cups all-purpose flour with one tablespoon of cornmeal,
a teaspoon of baking powder, and a teaspoon of kosher salt.
Whisk well to combine before separating two egg whites from their yolks,
and whisking the yolks together with 1¾ cups of buttermilk.
We're also going to add ¼ cup of our brown butter; you could also optionally use vegetable oil.
Mix until homogenous and add to our dry ingredients and whisk vigorously until no lumps remain.
Now we're going to use a hand mixer to whip our egg whites to stiff peaks to ensure a light fluffy batter.
Make sure that there are absolutely no lumps in our initial mixture-thing,
and add the egg whites and gently fold in until completely incorporated.
Be sure not to overmix this, because we don't want to lose all that air we introduced to the egg whites.
Generously spray the replacement waffle iron that you had to buy with nonstick spray,
before adding about 3/4 of a cup of our waffle batter.
Jam it down,
crack it open,
and arrange decoratively to impress any brunch guests or just yourself.
Hit it with a dollop of brown butter and a generous drizzle of our caramel sauce,
and to make sure that we're staying true to form, we're going to add some smoked sea salt.
That's going to add some flavor and texture.
Now, while I do not think that you should make Homer's Moon Waffles at home --
they are a mess and they're pretty disgusting --
I do think that you should go and make a batch of these like, right now.
Like, even if it's midnight on Tuesday.
That's when I made these.
ANDREW: "Thank you, Patreon."