Pandan Waffles

I'm a huge fan of those green coloured bakery waffles - the semi-circular ones that are most often found at neighborhood bakeries. I've recently gotten a dual function sandwich maker/toaster and waffle maker/griller.

So I decided to try making some pandan waffles for myself. It's pretty easy, once you've gotten down to getting all the ingredients, including pandan paste, which I never knew existed till I tried hunting for it. It can be easily bought from NTUC, from the baking section with all the little glass bottles of artificial flavourings. Of course, pandan paste gives the pandan waffles their distinct green colour. Mine are pretty green cos I like the pandan flavour and add double the amount of pandan paste recommended;)

Recipe from House of Annie

Pandan Waffles

1 cup bleached, all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1-1/2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda + 1/2 tsp cream of tartar (OR 1 tsp baking powder + 1/4 tsp baking soda)
1 egg, whites separated from the yolk
1 cup coconut milk (or substitute with milk)
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted (I prefer to omit this step, the waffle just isn't as buttery. Can substitute with oil)
1/2 tsp pandan extract / pandan paste
Notes:
*If you double the recipe, most cans of coconut milk will be less than 2 cups, just add water to get correct liquid amount.
*Sugar can be halved for less sweet waffles.
*Self-raising flour can be used in place of flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.

1. Put dry ingredients into mixing bowl.

2. Mix all wet ingredients except egg whites in another bowl.

3. Mix 1 and 2 together, but don't stir too much because the waffles will become hard and chewy (which is partly the reason why I ended up with badly mixed waffles the first time).

3. Beat egg whites in a completely dry bowl until stiff white peaks form. (make sure the bowl's dry or it won't become foamy)

4. Gently fold the egg whites into the mixture.

5. Turn on waffle iron. When hot, grease the waffle iron well.

6. Scoop waffle mixture over waffle iron. Wait till lots of steam appears, and keep checking to see if they're cooked. Takes about 5 minutes for my waffle iron. I like mine less brown, so I tend to undercook them.

It was my first time making waffles, so the mistakes I made were not mixing the dry ingredients well in the mixing bowl. Please make sure you stir them well because I didn't and ended up with horribly salty waffles (at certain parts only) because the salt was all concentrated in some places. Also, I realized that you have to put enough sugar or the waffles just won't taste like the bakery ones. Scary how much sugar's in there!