Ingredients

• 260 g plain flour
• 25 g caster sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 420 ml buttermilk
• 90 g unsalted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla

Finish

• 120 g pecanshalves toast more evenly than pieces, even though you will break them up
• 120 ml maple syrup
• 60 g softened salted butter

Method

1. 01

   Brown the butter first

   Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat and keep swirling. It will foam, go quiet, and then the milk solids on the base will turn deep golden and smell nutty, 4-6 minutes. Pour it immediately into a cold bowl, scraping in every brown speck, and leave it for 10 minutes. Hot butter would scramble the eggs.

   90 g unsalted butter

   Cool the brown butterStraight from the pan it scrambles the eggs. Ten minutes in a cold bowl.

2. 02

   Toast the pecans

   Spread the pecans on a tray and toast at 180 C for 7-9 minutes, until fragrant and one shade darker. Cool, then roughly break them up.

   120 g pecans

3. 03

   Whisk the dry ingredients

   Whisk the flour, caster sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a large bowl.

   260 g plain flour · 25 g caster sugar · 2 tsp baking powder · 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda · 1/2 tsp salt

4. 04

   Combine and rest

   Whisk the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla and the cooled brown butter together, pour into the dry ingredients and fold just until no dry flour remains. Lumps are fine. Rest the batter for 10 minutes while the iron heats; it thickens and the bubbles it forms are what make the inside light.

   2 eggs · 420 ml buttermilk · 1 tsp vanilla

5. 05

   Cook until crisp

   Preheat the waffle iron fully. Most machines need 5 minutes and will tell you when they are ready. Cook each waffle until the steam coming from the sides has almost stopped and the outside is deeply golden and crisp, usually 4-6 minutes depending on the machine. Underdone waffles go soft within a minute of coming out.

   Watch the steam, not the clockWhen the cloud at the sides thins to almost nothing, the inside is dry enough to crisp.

6. 06

   Serve straight from the iron

   Serve each waffle as it is ready, with the softened salted butter, the toasted pecans and the maple syrup, warmed. If you must hold them, keep them in a single layer on a rack in a 120 C oven. Stacking traps steam and softens the crust.

   60 g softened salted butter · 120 ml maple syrup