BELGIAN WAFFLES AND MATCHA-CHA-CHA

Happy Monday folks, 

I hope you had a delicious weekend....Today I bring you a recipe for Matcha-tea Belgian waffles. So, I don't know if you remember some time ago I told you about an awesome restaurant called IBAJIwhere I had tasted black-sesame waffles, it's like out-of-this-world good, tied for first place with ice cream mochis on my taste scale. I wanted to find a recipe that came close so you non-Parisians out there, and those of you who don't feel like waiting hours to be seated in a restaurant, could make it yourselves. Well you know what? I combed the rue Sainte-Anne, the "Paris Stores" and other Asian grocery shops in the 3^rd, 1^st and 9^th districts, to no avail, there seems to be a shortage of black sesame in Paris, at least in the east of Paris, since I didn't make it all the way to the 13^th district. Maybe Tang Frères has some left, but the fact remains that I was gutted. And since I often get fixated on things in my life, I decided to forego the black sesame, and say oh well, and decided to make them with Matcha tea...And wouldn't you know, it's exponentially better! With a bit of vanilla whipped cream on top and BINGO, a perfect snack, or maybe an alternative breakfast dish...

For approximately 6 people (makes 2 waffles per person):

• - 500g of flour
• - 2 pinches of salt
• - 4 eggs
• - 42g fresh baking powder, a small packet
• - 20 cl milk + 1 tablespoon superfine sugar
• - 1 full tablespoon of matcha tea
• - 250g slightly-salted butter, melted
• - 250g sparkling sugar
• - 1 packet of vanilla sugar 

This recipe is very simple, you just need to have patience between steps, allow time for the dough to rest and rise ... Start by melting the fresh yeast in the 20cl of warm milk with the superfine sugar. Meanwhile, put the flour in a large bowl, make a well and slowly add the diluted yeast, butter and 2 egg yolks (save the whites on the side), mix well, you must knead the dough for at least 5 min. After obtaining homogeneous dough, cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let rise 30 minutes. After the elapsed time, beat the egg whites until stiff with a pinch of salt. In a small bowl, mix the Matcha tea, sparkling sugar and vanilla sugar all together, and stir this colored powder until it becomes a batter, mix well then add the whites gently Take the wet cloth and cover the batter for 30 minutes. Patience, patience. Heat your waffle iron and drop a big tablespoon of batter on each side of the iron, cook your waffles for about 2 minutes. Let them cool on a rack and enjoy!

Translated by Ida Driscoll.