These Belgian biscuits have always been a part of the family. They age like good wine and last forever. You require a unique waffle maker (referred to as a
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr |
| Additional Time: | 8 hrs |
| Total Time: | 9 hrs 15 mins |
| Servings: | 60 |
| Yield: | 10 dozen |
Ingredients
- 5 pounds all-purpose flour
- 4 ½ cups brown sugar
- 12 large eggs
- 2 cups butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons whiskey
Instructions
- Beat butter and sugar together. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla, salt, and whiskey.
- Add flour in small batches and mix by hand after each addition.
- Cover and refrigerate dough overnight.
- Lightly grease and heat the cookie iron over a gas burner set to medium heat. Roll about 1 tablespoon of dough into a small cigar-like shape. Place dough on the preheated iron and press together. Cook until golden, about 30 seconds per side. Remove cookie from the iron and let cool.
- This is a family holiday tradition for us. We spend a whole day making cookies with lots of testing to make sure they’re as good as last year’s. We put the cookies in tins and store them till next Christmas when we eat the last year’s cookies. The cast iron cookie irons work best, but I have seen people make them with the aluminum pizzelle irons. Ask for a krumkake iron at a gourmet cooking shop.
- It is a trial and error process at first till you get a handle on the temperature of the gas burner and the heat-retaining capabilities of your iron. A properly cooked cookie will be golden and crisp when cooled.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 249 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 40 g |
| Cholesterol | 54 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 5 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 100 mg |
| Sugars | 11 g |
| Fat | 8 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
These cookies were crispy with a delicious, rich, buttery flavor–very quick and easy to make. I scaled the recipe down to 10 servings and increased the vanilla extract to 1/4 tsp instead of 1/8. I used dark rum, because I didn’t have any whiskey in the house. Then I whipped up the ingredients in the food processor, and there was no need to refrigerate the dough. After following the rest of the directions in the recipe, I baked the cookies to perfection in a waffle cone griddle. They tasted very similar to the authentic Belgium Buttery Waffle Cookies that my co-worker brought back to the office from her trip abroad. This recipe is definitely a keeper and I will be making them regularly.
Here’s my faimily’s (Pierson) version. I use the giant mixer in my church’s kitchen and make at least 3 batches every Christmas. I use clean 2 or 5 gallon buckets with lids and store them in the garage (it’s definitely cold in there.) until I have time to make them. We rarely get any – I give them all away. I also used the antique version for many years, but now am quite happy with the electic version (Palmer Mfg.). It cooks two at a time and both sides at once! Gullets – makes 13 dozen 2 lbs. Butter 4 lbs. Brown sugar 1 dz. Eggs ½ C. Rum 5 lbs. Flour
My Belgian family mother-in-law made this cookie and called them galettes with the emphasis on ga’lettes. This year I ordered an electric iron from Palmer Mfg. and made my first batch. I cut the recipe in half and used 1 oz vanilla, 1 oz rum extract and 1 oz whiskey and 2 lbs dark brown sugar. Very Good.
My Belgian mother used to make something similar. She used an electric waffle iron with extra small squares. It was imported from Belgium and Dad had to rewire a plug in the kitchen to use it. The special iron runs at a higher wattage – Mom says it makes a difference. Maybe you can find an extra small grid waffle iron at a kitchen gadget shop.
I tried this with a pizelle iron, but it didn’t work out well because the dough is so thick. I couldn’t get the insides of the cookies cooked without burning the outsides. I guess the gas burner method is the only good way.