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Gaufre de Liège
gaufre de Liège
The Liège waffle: a rich, yeasted brioche dough studded with pearl sugar, baked in an iron with 24 cells until the sugar caramelises on the outside. The recipe is that of the Confrérie de la Gaufre Liégeoise, published by Visit Liège.
- Servings
- 18
- Preparation
- 40 min
- Cooking
- 1 h
- Resting
- 40 min
- Total
- 2 h 20
- Difficulty
- Moderate
Equipment
- Large bowl or mixer with a dough hook
- Liège waffle iron (24 cells, rounded ends)
- Fork to lift the waffles; wire rack
Ingredients
Levain dough
Main dough
To finish
Method
Make a levain dough with 800 g of flour, the yeast, the sugar and the eggs. Leave it 15 minutes.
Timer · 15 min15:00Add the butter, honey, milk and water, the remaining 200 g of flour, the salt, the vanillin or cinnamon and the bicarbonate.
Knead to a smooth, even dough and leave 10 minutes in a warm place.
Timer · 10 min10:00Work in the pearl sugar.
Why Added last so the grains stay whole; they melt partly in the iron and caramelise on the surface.
Divide into pieces of 90–140 g, depending on your iron, and leave to rise a little.
Timer · 15 min15:00Cook over a gentle heat for thick waffles, or a brisk heat for irons with shallow cells. Lift out with a fork and cool on a rack.
Timer · 3 min3:00
Substitutions
- Pearl sugar → There is no real substitute: crushed sugar cubes give a similar crunch but melt faster.
- Vanillin → Cinnamon: the brochure says the old Liège waffle was flavoured with cinnamon.
Common mistakes
- Adding the pearl sugar with the flour: it dissolves and the waffle loses its crunch.
- Too hot an iron for thick waffles: the sugar burns before the centre is cooked.
Storage & reheating
Good warm or cold the same day; they keep 2–3 days in a tin. Reheat briefly in the iron or oven. Wipe caramelised sugar from the iron while still warm.
Allergens
Gluten · Milk · Egg
Check labels: stock, bacon and sauces can contain further allergens.
Dietary
vegetarian
The prince-bishop's cook
Visit Liège, drawing on the Confrérie de la Gaufre Liégeoise, tells the city's legend: in the 18th century the cook of the prince-bishop of Liège, asked for something sweet, put pieces of sugar into a brioche dough, and the scent of vanilla from the iron won the prince over. The same text says that the true Liège waffle was once flavoured with cinnamon and that pearl sugar, made at first from the sugar beet of Hesbaye, came later. A Liège iron has 24 cells with rounded ends, 'no more, no less'.
A brioche in an iron
This is a dough, not a batter. The Confrérie starts with a yeasted pre-dough of most of the flour, then works in half the flour's weight of butter with honey and milk. Pearl sugar, 600 g to a kilo of flour, goes in at the end. Pieces of 90–140 g are pressed in the iron; the grains of sugar half melt and caramelise against the hot metal, so the outside is crisp and glazed and the inside soft.
How it connects
Place
- origin Liège In preparation
Recipe
- related Brussels waffles
- pairs with Café liégeois
