Yesterday I looked out of my living room window and saw tiny snowflakes flutter down from the sky. Nothing new this week, but this time they didn’t melt away the nanosecond they hit the ground. I was so excited. For weeks now I have been daydreaming about the idea of being snowed in. But not a snowflake in sight. Not that I really want to be snowed in. I’d rather go make a long walk and make photographs.
My favourite piece of nature isn’t easy to reach by public transport, I don’t cycle when there is any chance of icy roads, and Matthijs was going to meet a friend, in short: there was no way I was going to get there. Fortunately, I was able to convince my husband to wake up early today and go there for a sunrise walk if the snow would still be there. So today we woke up at 6.45 AM, checked if there was snow, put on the warmest clothes we have, shoved a quick breakfast in our mouths, and of we went to Amelisweerd. When we arrived, almost no one was there, and many paths were still unspoiled, covered with fresh snow so deep our feet sank in it. It was a happy early Sunday morning.
After about an hour and a half, we were cold, done ruining the pristine trails, and it was getting crowded. Therefore we went back home, and I made these cardamom waffles with vanilla honey poached pears to warm up a bit at second breakfast. I hope you enjoy them as well.
Recipe
- Peel the pears and place them in a small pan with the vanilla seeds, the empty vanilla pod, 2tbsp honey, and 500ml water. There is no need to stir, the bubbles of the boiling water will do that for you. Cover the pan with a lid, bring the water to a boil, turn down the heat, and let the pears simmer for one hour.
- Grind 75g oatmeal to a fine flour. Mix 1tsp baking powder, 1/4tsp salt, 3/4tsp cardamom, and a pinch of nutmeg into the flour.
- Combine one egg yolk with 225ml milk, 60g melted butter, and 1tsp vanilla extract.*
- Mix the flour mixture into the wet ingredients. Put them aside. This will allow the oat flour to soak up some moisture.
- Beat the egg white until stiff peaks form.
- Heat the waffle iron to medium-high.
- Carefully fold the egg white into the batter. Make sure not to deflate it.
- When the waffle iron is heated, pour half of the mixture in. The batter is runny, so keep an eye on it. Otherwise, you might cover half of your kitchen in waffle batter.
- Take the pears from the poaching liquid, cut them in half, and remove the core. Serve them with the waffles.
*If the butter is a little warm from melting, the fats will solidify when mixed into the milk. No problem there. You won’t notice it in the final product.
Ingredients
4 cooking pears
1 vanilla pod, scraped
2tbsp honey
500ml water
75g rolled oats
1tsp baking powder
1/4tsp salt
3/4tsp ground cardamom
a pinch of nutmeg
225ml milk
60g butter, melted
1 egg, separated
1tsp vanilla extract
2 SERVINGS
A small impression from our
snow adventure
