Waffle Brownie Sundaes

We are big fans of brownies. We especially love deep dark fudgey brownies that are crisp and sugary on the outside and sqwoodgy and chocolatey in the middle.

Peef likes his brownies served up with a scoop of ice cream.  I love mine straight up, still warm from the oven, with a nice cold glass of milk.

Unfortunately, we never seem to think about making up a batch until a craving hits (at, say, 8pm on a weeknight) -- which often means it's too late to act upon the impulse.

Luckily, we think we may have found a palatable solution.

Don't laugh, but you can make a pretty good "brownie" in the waffle iron.  Yup. We've done it.

It took us a few tries, but we finally hit upon a recipe that gives you just enough chocolate flavor without gunking up your waffle iron.

All it takes is a bit of cocoa powder, some espresso powder to boost the chocolate flavor, and a few mini chocolate chips to bolster the chocolate quotient and give you a little bit of melty chocolate on the inside of the brownie....er... waffle.

These unique brownies take just minutes to prepare in your waffle iron, and they’re perfect served up fresh and warm with a dollop of ice cream and any number of your favorite sundae toppings.

They're not exactly the fudgey brownies of our dreams, but they TOTALLY work in a pinch (especially when you cover them with hot fudge sauce). And they're pretty perfect for a last minute Valentine's Day dessert.

Serve warm with love.
Waffle Brownie Sundaes

©BURP!

The Best of 2011

Difficult to believe we're coming to the end of another great year.  As it gets to be this time, we always find ourselves looking back, reflecting, and planning for what's ahead -- and that includes content for the blog.

We were overwhelmed this year as we looked over our blog stats for the year and realized how much we've grown. Despite the fact that we've been busier than ever (and that has been reflected in the frequency of our posts, particularly lately), we've more than doubled our readership from 2010 to 2011.

We'd like to thank you for your readership, your comments, and your feedback.  Burp! wouldn't couldn't exist without you!

As a thanks to all of you, we figured we'd share the top 11 posts on Burp! from 2011 (in order of popularity) ... just in case you missed them.

Top 11 Posts of 2011
These are in order of popularity, # 1 being the most popular post.

1. Stout Ice Cream with Irish Whiskey Caramel Sauce: Pure Guinness, er, Genius
2. Nettle & Garlic Ravioli with Rosemary Browned Butter
3. Stinging Nettle & Garlic Puree: Putting Up a Bit of Spring
4. Wisconsin State Fair: Door County Cherry Chutney
5. Pickled Red Onions: Summer's Prize & Winter's Bounty
6. Soul Food Fusion: Fried Chicken & Waffle Sandwich
7. Milwaukee Mardi Gras, Part II: Bananas Foster Bread Pudding
8. Spring Scallop Tacos with Strawberry Salsa
9. Going Whole Hog: Our Experience in Pig Butchering Class
10. Brown Butter Rhubarb Bars - the best & last of spring
11. You're Not Too Old for Crispy Rice Bars with Browned Butter & Rosemary

Share in the Comments

As always, we're always listening and open to your feedback.  What was YOUR favorite post? What would you like to see more of in 2012?

©BURP! Where Food Happens

Soul Food Fusion: Fried Chicken & Waffle Sandwich

It all started with a trip to Roots, one of our favorite Milwaukee restaurants.  We love Roots for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it's got a gorgeous patio, surrounded with herbs and other edible plants, that overlooks one of the best views of the city.  It had been a long week, and we decided to meet a friend of ours for drinks.  While we were chatting, Peef picked up the menu and spied something that would change his (and thereby my) life forever:

Smoky Fried Chicken
Frank's Red Hot waffle, dill ranch, dressed kale

I'll pretty much guarantee that it was the Frank's Red Hot waffle that caught his eye first.  Being a man obsessed with condiments, particularly spicy ones, he automatically has a visceral reaction to words like "grainy mustard," "siracha," and "hot sauce."    And the man's pretty fond of waffles. 

Once he got over the intriguing idea of putting hot sauce into a waffle, I'm quite sure he quickly glossed over the part about the dill ranch and kale, but he definitely saw the fried chicken part.  And then it was all over.

We both ended up ordering the Smoky Fried Chicken.  And it was pretty incredible.

Since, as I've said many times before, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, we decided to recreate this delicious sandwich for ourselves at home.  So, a few months later (fast forward to this past weekend), we pulled together a cadre of all the necessary ingredients.

Since we're in the midst of the Milwaukee Eat Local Challenge, we opted for Wisconsin grown Cornish Cross chicken breasts from Angel Acres and a nice bunch of locally grown lacinato kale.  We also subbed out the Frank's Red Hot for a more local option, Off Road Camp Fire Pepper Sauce.

After pounding our chicken breasts flat and dredging them in kefir, and then in a mixture of cornmeal, flour, and seasonings, we fried them up to a golden brown in a bit of oil.  While I was frying the chicken, Peef made up a batch of cornmeal waffles (our favorite pairing with fried chicken).

The best part about making these particular waffles was, of course, the fact that he got to sub in hot sauce for 1/4 cup of the buttermilk.  But, a close second was the fact that he got to make the waffles in our brand new West Bend Belgian waffle maker.

Our former waffle maker was a fancy blue FiestaWare model that I bought Peef for Christmas a number of years back.  Unfortunately, we had some restoration work done on our house this past year, and the poor waffle iron got knocked off of its shelf, shattering into about 5 different pieces.  So, we had been without waffles for quite a while before this handy dandy gadget arrived at our doorstep.

And I do mean handy dandy.  This waffle maker turns out perfectly golden waffles with very little skill needed. Just by gripping the handle, it twists 180 degrees so your waffles bake and brown evenly every time.  I've also been told this rotating action ensures that the batter is more evenly distributed leading to waffles that are are crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside.
But, I'm no waffle expert.  All I know is that our waffles came out beautifully golden, perfectly tender, and -- whoo! -- just a little spicy from that cayenne pepper sauce we added.

We took those lovely waffles and sidled them up right against pieces of fried chicken, which we then topped with finely shredded kale tossed with a deliciously refreshing dill ranch dressing.  Another waffle on top, and all of a sudden we had a pretty spectacular waffle sandwich.

Just like they make at Roots. And probably even better.

Cornmeal Waffles
Dill Ranch Salad Dressing

And now for the fun part!  We get to give one of our lucky readers the chance to win a West Bend Waffle Maker of his or her very own!!  

For your chance to win, just leave us a comment letting us know about your favorite way to eat waffles.

Rules:  All comments must be received by Monday evening, September 19th, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. CST  Winners will be announced on Facebook before the end of the day on Tuesday, September 13th.  Entrants must provide a working email address in their comment or blogger profile to win.  Limited to citizens of the U.S. and Canada.

Alright, ready...set... go!

Full Disclosure:  Although we were given West Bend Company products free of charge for the purpose of this review and giveaway, all opinions expressed in this review are our own.  

©BURP! Where Food Happens

Weekend Bits: Cornmeal Waffles with Fried Chicken & Mushroom Milk Gravy

While the rest of you were enjoying your leisurely weekend activities, we were busy throwing our New Year's resolutions to the wayside, our caution to the wind, and our healthy eating habits to the dogs. And it was SO much fun.

First, Peef wandered over to Bunzel's Old Fashioned Meat Market to pick up a bit of their double-smoked slab bacon. What he DID expect was the usual Saturday morning crowd. What he didn't expect was for the butcher to hand him a package of bacon that was... unexpectedly fresh. Oh, yeah baby. This smoked piggy had just made its way to the butcher case from the smoker -- and it was still warm. He was seriously giddy when he brought the bacon home and pushed it into my hands. As the smoky bits warmed my palms and permeated my nostrils, I decided that this was going to be a Very Good Day indeed. And it turns out I was right.

I cooked up a batch of good old fashioned southern greens with that bacon. And my, oh my, were they good. Also made some delicious smashed potatoes with garlic and smoked gouda.

And then... the crowning moment... we fried up some chicken. What you should know about us is that we fry chicken... oh, maybe once every couple of years. So, this was a very special day. And you can imagine that hopes were particularly high.
Fortunately for us, all possibility of myocardial infarctions aside, this fried chicken was Seriously Good. And we enjoyed our southern dinner with particular gusto.

But, the best was yet to come. Now there was LEFTOVER fried chicken. We were almost too giddy for words. We popped straight out of bed the next morning in anticipation of what came next -- waffles with fried chicken and gravy.
This was a special occasion, so we didn't make just any old waffles. Nope. We hauled out the big guns and manufactured some of the best cornmeal waffles that you've ever laid eyes upon. They were light. And crisp. And flavorful. And the cornmeal gave them just the right amount of "oomph" to push them right past "good" and so far into "fabulous" that we have to just take a moment, right now, to reflect.
And yeah -- I'm going to give you a little bit more time with this photograph. Cuz it was seriously That Good.
If you've got somewhere to be, then I'll let you go. But, please -- take a couple of recipes along. After all, you might be frying up some chicken real soon.

Milk gravy with mushrooms

Cornmeal waffles with buttermilk



©BURP! Where Food Happens