Midnight Cookies and Cream with Cookie Waffles

Doesn't Midnight Cookies and Cream

Ice Cream from Haagen-Dazs just sound

like it should be the perfect ice cream

for this time of year?  

A Chocolate Cookie Waffle is

the perfect base for the rich

ice cream.  Then I topped it off 

with some homemade 

Chocolate Hard Shell,

some black Wilton Sprinkles

(aren't they just fabulous?)

and a cute molded candy

Witch Hat.

Anyone would love this for

their Halloween Dinner.

After we finished making these and 

my four grandkids dived in

the eight year old boy said,

"This ice cream is incredible!!"

Now I thought that had to be the 

perfect compliment.  As a matter of

fact, they were gobbling the ice

cream and ignoring the waffles!

I have to agree. This ice cream is 

so smooth and silky with chunks

of soft chocolate cookie!  Definitely

a new favorite chocolate ice cream.

There aren't

many good commercial chocolate

ice creams out there (speaking 

from a chocolate lover's perspective)

and this one is pure silk on the

tongue.  

Chocolate Cookie Waffle Recipe

(This is a quick and easy version.)

1 Betty Crocker Triple Chocolate Cake Mix

1/2 C. butter, melted

1 egg

Place all three in a bowl and stir

until blended.

Heat waffle maker.  Roll about

1/4 C. dough into a ball and flatten 

out slightly.  Bake in the waffle maker.  

These are going to be super soft so
I like to turn the waffle maker to

the side and let it flip out rather

than crumble trying to lift out.  Do

not overbake.  You want these soft

not crispy.  

Serve immediately as the outside

does crisp up quickly.

Makes 6-8 waffles.

(I usually make these with a homemade

brownie recipe but for a quick and easy

one, I was pleased with these.)

Chocolate Hard Shell Recipe

1 C. semi-sweet chocolate chips

(I used Hersheys)

3 T. coconut oil 

Place the chocolate chips and

coconut oil in a microwave safe bowl.

Heat on high for one minute.  Stir and

heat an additional ten to fifteen seconds

or until the chocolate is almost melted.

Stir until smooth.

Candy Witch Hats

1 C. Wilton Candy Melts, Black

Black gel food coloring

Coconut oil

Silver Lustre

Witch hat candy mold

(off Amazon)

So here is my little disclaimer first:  I melted

the Black Wilton Candy Melts and they were

more gray than black so I stirred in just the

tip of the knife blade of black gel food coloring

and stirred it in and it congealed.  You need the

melts thin enough to spoon into the molds.  I thought

I might have done something wrong, so I did it again,

this time adding the food coloring before melting

the candy in the microwave so it would be the same

temperature.  I ended up 

with the same results, so I had to add about 2-3 teaspoons

of liquid coconut oil to make it pourable.

If yours appear more black than gray after

melting, skip the food coloring which seemed

to cause the candy to congeal.  Otherwise,

add enough coconut oil to make it spoonable.

Place a spoonful into each of the molds.  Tap gently

to remove air bubbles or use a toothpick to pop any

air bubbles.  Place in freezer for about 15 minutes

or until hard enough to pop out of the molds.

I painted the buckle and band on with 

Silver luster made liquid with clear vanilla.

Makes 12-18 candy witch hats.

Beaulah was a little 

GREEN WITH ENVY

when all she found was an

empty carton in the trash.

Sorry, the grandkids were hogs!

Thanks to the folks at 

Haagen-Dazs for inviting me

to try out three fabulous new flavors

of their ice cream and gelato,

this one and

Pistachio Gelato

and

Pomegranate Swirl Gelato.

(It still amazes me that you can mail 

ice cream!!)

What a world, what a world!!

The Wilton Black Pearl Sprinkles

were found this time of year at

Wal Mart.  Get them before they

are gone!

I will be posting this with

Inspire Me Tuesday

Foodie Friday

Classic Belgian Waffles

Classic Belgian waffles are crisp on the outside

and soft and moist on the inside.  

They make a special breakfast food.

We were in California last summer and

they had a restaurant that all their sandwiches

including hamburgers were placed inside a

waffle.  

Today we are serving it with fruit and cream

but these would be good with a savory filling

and served folded up like a sandwich too.

Hubby got this new Waring Pro

Double Waffle Maker and

we took it up to the cabin at Sundance

for a ski weekend.  

Everyone gets up and going so early that

we made them for lunch instead of breakfast.

These use yeast and also beaten egg whites.  

I followed the recipe in their enclosed booklet

Classic Belgian Waffles

1 1/2 C. warm water, divided

2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (one packet)

3 C. flour

1/4 tsp. salt

3 large eggs, separated and 1 egg white

1/3 C. sugar

1 1/2 C. milk

8 T. butter, melted and cooled

2 tsp. vegetable oil

2 tsp. vanilla extract.

Measure 1 C. warm water and dissolve the yeast

in it with a pinch of the sugar from the recipe.  Mix and

let stand for 5 minutes or until bubbly.

Place the flour and salt in a large bowl.  

Mix and set aside.  In another 

bowl mix the egg yolks, one of the

egg whites, remaining sugar 

and the yeast mix.  Add

the additional 1/2 C. water, 

milk, melted butter, oil and

vanilla.  Stir together then stir

 into the flour mixture and

beat until smooth.

In a clean bowl beat the remaining

 egg whites until stiff peaks form.  

Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the

batter to lighten the batter, then fold the remaining egg whites in.  

Let the batter stand for 1 hour, 

stirring every 15 minutes.

Preheat your Belgian waffle maker.  

Pour the batter into the waffle maker and spread

out to the edges.  Close the waffle maker and

wait until the light indicates they are done.

Remove and serve while warm as desired.

This is to make 10 waffles.

We had leftover batter and made

more the next morning.  They were crisp on

the outside and light and moist in the center.

Hubby has been craving them again!

We love waffles and are always trying

new recipes.  When our oldest son was

in high school we would make his football

buddies crepes and we couldn't keep up

with their appetites.  We finally hit on

waffles as even the biggest, toughest guys

could usually just eat two.  Waffles have

been a hit ever since at

Purple Chocolat Home!!

I can't wait to try some savory ones.

Thanks so much for visiting

and spending time with me.

A couple of times I have been

out and about and someone has

come up and recognized me and

told me that they read my blog and

make my recipes.  That just makes

my day!

The Awful Waffle and Liege Waffles - With Recipes

We have really been into waffles lately.  This yummy concoction comes 

from a little hole in the wall place called

The Awful Waffle.

Don't let that name fool you, the Awful Waffle just on the south end

of BYU campus in Provo, Utah is unbelievable.  

This waffle is not only beautiful, it is tasty. This one is their regular waffle (with a 

slight amount of cinnamon in it) served with

a cream cheese frosting type topping and fresh raspberries.  Hubby created

this one (the waffles come for about $2.50 without toppings and 

you create your own by adding toppings - $.85 for all of those

luscious ripe raspberries and another $.85 for the topping.)

I chose their Liege waffle with nutella and strawberries.  I have to say

that hubby beat me out by a mile.  The combination of the cream

cheese topping and the raspberries was out of this world.

I love all of the little whole in the wall places that serve great

food around a university campus and this qualifies as one of them.

Then my friend Katie talked me into going to Salt Lake City to try

her favorite waffle stand - Bruges Waffles.

They specialize in Liege waffles (pronounced - lee-age - with  a

soft g and the accent on the age.) 

Definitely another hole in the wall, but more upscale.

We were so anxious to try them that this was the only picture I got

of three different kinds.  This one was filled with dark 

Belgian chocolate.

Liege waffles can be eaten plain or Bruges serves them with other options.

We also had a plain one and one with fresh strawberries and vanilla bean 

ice cream.  I think that was the favorite because it went first!

 I told Katie that I had a recipe

for Liege waffles that I have made and loved that was given to

me by my friend Paula.  Paula and her husband Craig had invited

us over for Liege waffles after they had spent time in Belgium.

The secret to Liege waffles, besides being a yeast waffle is that you

have little surprise pearls of sugar 

inside the warm moist waffles that

are melted where they meet up with the waffle iron but

still crunchy on the inside.  

We left the Bruges restaurant and went around the corner to 

Sur La Table to buy the sugar pearls, because that was where I had

bought them before, but they no longer sell them 

  Too bad because online they are double

the price I had paid.

You can buy them online (the imported Lars brand)

if you don't have a place you can buy them. 

I had some in my food storage, so I gave Katie

a box so she could try making her favorite waffle at home. 

 If you don't want to use pearl sugar you can crush sugar cubes, 

but I prefer the pearl sugar's texture (but maybe with the

price increase, I will go back to sugar cubes once I use

up the few boxes I have left.

The Lars box has a recipe on the back but I haven't tried it. 

The Liege Waffles I have made come from a recipe my

friend Paula gave me.

Sugar Waffles from Liege

(The recipe was a photocopy and appears to be from

a book entitled Waffles, Pancakes and Breads.)

Batter 1:

1 T. instant yeast

1/4 C. warm water

1 C. all purpose flour

1 T. granulated sugar

1 large egg, beaten

1/3 C. milk, warmed to 100 degrees F

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water with 1 T. 

of the flour and sugar.  Let stand for 5 minutes until foamy.  

Place the remaining ingredients in a large bowl and add the yeast

mixture.  Mix well until smooth.  Cover and let rise until doubled.

Meanwhile prepare Batter 2.

Batter 2:

9 T. unsalted butter at room temperature

6 T. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. ground cinnamon (optional) We made ours without.

pinch of salt

1 T. granulated sugar

1/2 C. pearl sugar or 3/4 C. crushed sugar cubes

In a medium bowl mix the butter, flour, salt, vanilla,baking

powder, cinnamon (if using), granulated sugar and pearl sugar into a paste.

With your hands work Batter 2 into Batter 1 until well mixed.

Shape the dough into 10 balls.  Flatten each ball and dust lightly with

flour.  

Heat your Belgian waffle iron to medium hot.  Don't let it

become too hot or the sugar will burn.  Bake until the waffles are

golden brown but still slightly soft, 3-4 minutes.  Serve them warm.

Definitely worth trying.  They are so yummy with the taste

of yeast and sugar and the crunch of the sugar pearls.  Be

careful if you eat them hot out of the oven as the sugar can

burn you.

Lars Belgian Sugar Waffles

(taken from the back of their box - this obviously makes more.)

3 1/2 C. flour

1 packet dry yeast

3/4 C. lukewarm milk

8 oz. softened butter (2 sticks)

2 eggs

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp vanilla (optional)

cinnamon (optional) (no amount given)

1- 8 oz. bag Lar's Own Belgian Pearl Sugar

Dissolve yeast in lukewarm milk.  Gradually add all

ingredients to the flour except the pearl sugar.  Let the

dough rise until it doubles in size (about 30 minutes).

Add Belgian Pearl Sugar.  Divide dough into small

patties about 3 to 4 oz. each.  Baked in heated and

greased waffle iron.

I am not a breakfast person, but I LOVE

breakfast foods.  Try these any time of day.  We love

breakfast for dinner too.