The accidental recipe — waffles drenched in salted apricot jam butter

Oops. This sort of happened by accident. I had a slightly heavy hand when I added a bit of salt in this very easy-to-make apricot jam butter. Arrrgh, too much, I thought, but it was in, so I stirred it and let it simmer for a couple of minutes. 

I tasted and — yum! — it was so, so good. That extra salt made an amazing difference. It had just the right hint of salt that salted caramel has, while still remaining sweet. And that’s perfect for a waffle, which can go either way, sweet or savoury. With this buttery jam (or jammy butter), you get the best of both waffle worlds.

The waffles are made with evaporated milk, and this was the starting point for this recipe, as it happens. I had a can of Ideal evaporated milk in my pantry and did some googling to decide what to do with it. One thing that came up was a range of waffle recipes made with evaporated milk.

Enjoy Tony Jackman’s writing and way with food? Sign up to Tony’s weekly newsletter here. It’s free, and in your inbox every Friday afternoon. If it goes to promotions or spam at first, please drag it into your inbox.

The waffles are not overly sweet, just the right balance, I think, given the sweetness of the buttery jam/jammy butter.

When ladling the batter into the hot waffle maker, try not to overfill it. Not all waffle makers will have identical capacities, but a keen eye should be able to assess the right amount fairly accurately. Any overspill can easily be wiped off the edges.

Waffles with salted apricot jam butter

(Makes about 6 waffles)

Ingredients

For the waffles:

2 eggs

¼ cup sugar

½ cup canola oil

1 tsp vanilla essence

425ml evaporated milk

2 cups sifted flour

4 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

Cooking oil spray

For the apricot butter:

4 Tbsp apricot jam

½ cup butter

½ tsp salt or more (start with ½ and add until it tastes right to you)

Method

For the apricot jam butter:

Melt the butter in a small saucepan and stir the jam into it. Add ½ tsp salt. Stir and taste. Strengthen the saltiness a pinch at a time, stirring and tasting each time, until you’re happy with the level of saltiness in it.

For the waffles:

Whisk the eggs, sugar, canola oil and vanilla essence in a bowl.

Add the evaporated milk, followed by the flour, baking powder and salt, and mix.

Grease an electric waffle maker and preheat it.

Drop dollops of a generous ladleful of the batter at a time on to the hot waffle maker and cook until golden.

Serve a pile of waffles in the centre of the table for people to help themselves to, with a little bowl of the apricot butter each. DM

Tony Jackman is Galliova Food Writer 2023, jointly with TGIFood columnist Anna Trapido. Order his book, foodSTUFF, here.

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.

This dish is photographed on wares by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.