waffle my world: pandan waffles.

Many years back, I was obsessed with pandan waffles. I would buy them from a local bakery chain, freshly made, slathered with peanut butter then folded into half. Yep, that's right. I love the pairing of salty peanut butter with fragrant sweetened pandan waffles till this very day. Although, kaya is a very close second. But personally, nothing beats the ooze of peanut butter.

I've always wanted to try making my own. Not because I felt that by doing so I could save dollars spent on buying those waffles. Actually, it's more because of greed. Somehow, the waffles seem to "shrink" over the years and while they used to be fat and fluffy, now they are just simply thin and limp. Not to mention the measly amount of filling they spread on the waffle- what happened to the giant dollops? I wanted waffles that were thick and chock full of peanut butter, and what better way to customize my waffle by making it myself?

I did a little searching, and ultimately ended up with two potential winners. One of them, which is this recipe, requires less work because instead of using pandan juice, which I had to extract from the leaves themselves, it uses an artificial pandan extract. Don't scoff now, you'll be amazed how much work that tiny bottle can save you. The second recipe is the more laborious one which I think would do better than this recipe as the real pandan juice gives a stronger flavour.

I think this recipe could have done with a bit more pandan extract. The waffles didn't taste artificially flavoured, which was a good thing, but they were not as fragrant as the ones I would buy from the bakery. Apart from the pandan extract, I also added some pandan paste. Pandan paste is different from pandan extract because instead of adding flavour, its primary purpose is to add colour. Pandan extract is colourless you see, so I had to add in a bit of pandan paste to get my desired shade.

The pandan extract isn't the only extract I used. Because I didn't have any coconut milk, I substituted it with evaporated milk and coconut extract. It's a great lower-fat substitute for the real stuff! For every 1/3 cup of coconut milk, just use 1/3 cup of evaporated milk or just milk and 1/2 teaspoon of coconut extract. If you want a thicker version, add 1 teaspoon of cornstarch. You can click here for more instructions.

These waffles are meant to be soft, apart from the first few minutes fresh from the waffle maker. And don't be afraid of the large amount of sugar. I didn't find the waffles terribly sweet, in fact. And do give these a try with some peanut butter! Kaya too, if you can get some!

Pandan Waffles
recipe adapted from House of Annie
makes 3 to 4 waffles

1 cup plain 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, separated
1 cup coconut milk
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
3/4 tsp pandan extract
1/2 tsp pandan paste

Preheat your waffle iron.

Mix all the dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients except for the egg white. Add the wet to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Whisk the egg white until medium-stiff peaks and gently fold the egg white into the batter. Cook the waffles according your waffle maker's instructions.

Like all waffles, these freeze beautifully too.

Linked to These Chicks Cooked, Sweet Treats Thursday, Full Plate Thursday, Sweet Tooth Friday, Sweets for a Saturday, Strut Your Stuff Saturday and Sweet Indulgences Sunday.