01 Oct Rocky Road Waffles with Salted Caramel Sauce

Let me tell you a little bit about Zola Nene. Not only is she an extremely talented chef, TV show host and cookbook author, she is also one of the friendliest and bubbliest people I have ever met! To add to her incredible achievements, recently Zola featured on Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted where she teaches the multi-Michelin starred chef how to cook authentic Zulu cuisine!

A few weeks ago I bought Zola’s second book – Simply Zola. It is absolutely packed with a wide range of delicious, approachable recipes. The chapter that really caught my eye (apart from the desserts, of course) is called “It’s 5 o’Clock Somewhere” and includes recipes for creative cocktails and scrumptious nibbles to go along with them – genius!

As you know, I’m rather partial to eating dessert for breakfast, so I asked Zola if could share the recipe for her Rocky Road Waffles with Salted Caramel Sauce with you – she generously agreed! I made them for Brett and my 7th wedding anniversary brekkie and we both agreed it was quite possibly the BEST breakfast we’d ever had. Seriously!! I’m talking about crispy chocolate waffles crammed with mini mallows and choc chips, topped with ice cream, salted caramel sauce and crunchy toasted almonds. Hint – toss a few toasted mini mallows on top while you’re at it, pure heaven!

The recipe makes a lot of waffles but they freeze really well – simply pop them in the toaster until crispy when you want to defrost them.

Recipe reprinted with permission of the author.

Ingredients:

Makes 6

For the waffles:
500ml cake flour (2 cups)
125ml cocoa powder (½ cup)
60ml brown sugar (¼ cup)
2.5ml bicarbonate of soda (½ tsp)
a pinch of salt
3 large eggs, separated
500ml buttermilk (2 cups)
125ml canola oil (½ cup)
5ml vanilla extract ( 1 tsp)
100g milk chocolate, finely chopped
250ml mini marshmallows (1 cup)

For the salted caramel sauce:
125ml unsalted butter (½ cup)
250ml brown sugar (1 cup)
60ml golden syrup (¼cup)
100ml whipping cream
2.5ml salt (½ tsp)

To serve:
100g toasted almonds, chopped
ice cream

Directions:

• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, brown sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Make a well in the centre and add the egg yolks, buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Mix until just combined (do not overmix). Fold in the chocolate and marshmallows.
• In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, then fold into the waffle batter. Pour the batter into a heated, greased waffle iron and cook until done.
• To prepare the sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the sugar, syrup and cream then whisk continuously over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil and cook for 2 minutes.
• Serve the waffles topped with ice cream, then drizzle with the sauce and scatter over the nuts.