Belgian Waffles!

Hooray!  The day has finally come!  Dan made Belgian waffles for breakfast!

Let me back up a bit.  Remember when I ate my way through Belgium this winter? One of my favorite things to eat were the waffles. They weren't like anything I've had before--whatever it is that Americans call Belgian waffles are not what I actually found in Belgium. These waffles are really sweet, a little crunchy, and sticky from melted caramel.  They're delightful.

When Dan and I got back to England, we decided we had to make these waffles for ourselves. The only problem was that we couldn't find the critical ingredient: pearl sugar. This is the waffle's secret weapon.

I'll spare you the drama of my fruitless search in town and my desperate online hunt, and I'll skip to the part where my friends John and Jess rescued the day. They were planning a trip to Belgium and were awesome enough to stop in a grocery store to snag us a couple of boxes of sugar. I think they were just sick of me whining about it!

The home-made version didn't quite live up to the waffle vans in Brussels, but it was a delicious start.  We'll continue playing with the recipe until we get it right.  It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it :)