Champagne Waffles, Chocolate Butter and Blood Orange Syrup

By jdwooten

Here’s the game plan: Make the syrup first (or even the night before) and set it aside; it’ll thicken to a properly syrupy consistency as it cools. Whip up the butter while the syrup simmers and pull the waffles together at the last minute. From the time you start juicing oranges to the moment you realize Valentine’s Day ain’t so bad? About 30 minutes.

Ingredients

• Blood Orange Syrup:
• 4 ounces blood orange juice (from 3 or 4 oranges)
• 8 ounces sugar
• pinch of salt
• If you cannot locate the blood organes, add a splash of cranberry juice to plain OJ.
• Chocolate Butter:
• 2 ounces butter, softened
• 3/4 ounce cocoa powder, sifted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Champagne Waffles:
• 4 ounces all purpose flour
• 1/2 ounce sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 ounce melted butter or neutral flavored oil
• 1 egg
• 3/4 teaspoon rose flower water (optional, but don’t you want to feed your love roses?)
• 4 ounces champagne (Lest I suck all the romance right out, any sparkling beverage will work)

Preparation

Step 1

Blood Orange Syrup:
Combine the juice and sugar together in a small saucepan over medium low heat. Simmer, stirring occasionally, just until the sugar has dissolved. Add a pinch of salt, or more to taste. The syrup will thicken considerably once it cools, exponentially if refrigerated overnight.

Chocolate Butter:
1. Mix the ingredients together vigorously until they come together. You can mix this up with a hand or stand mixer, but a rubber spatula gets the job done a lot more quietly. No matter which method of mixing you choose, the butter and cocoa will seem dry and hesitant to incorporate at first, but don’t fret. In a minute, you’ll have an inky black paste.

2. Serve in a tiny dish with a butter knife alongside or make little pats of butter as follows:

Transfer the soft chocolate butter to a sheet of wax paper. Fold the paper in half over the lump of butter. Rub the paper against the butter until it spreads into a thin, even layer. Freeze until cold. By the time you have the waffles on the iron, the butter will have firmed up enough to cut into squares. If you have a heart shaped cookie cutter laying about, go ahead: hit that home run.

Champagne Waffles:
1. Plug in the waffle iron and give it time to preheat before mixing up the waffle batter. It comes together fast and needs to go on the iron straight away. This batter absolutely cannot be made in advance.

2. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter, egg, rose flower water and champagne. Whisk in the dry ingredients and continue whisking until no lumps remain, just a few seconds. Immediately pour the batter into the iron and cook until the machine has stopped steaming, or according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

4. Serve the waffles as soon as possible, with plenty of chocolate butter and blood orange syrup. Since you have blood orange juice and champagne laying around, you’d be remiss to not make up some mimosas too.