Wafflelicious: The Chocolate Bar @ Auburn

It has been 3 weeks since my last post and I strongly apologise. BUT, don't worry, I have been eating. Furthermore, I haven't blogged recently due to university assessments and planning 21st birthday celebrations. Anyways, now to the actual post. Enjoy!

Everyday on my way to uni I would past this cardboard sized advertisement of 'Wafflelicious (CNR Pard Rd & Queen St, Auburn)'. I would then go to uni, and say to my friends we must go during one of our uni breaks or after uni. After more than a year, we still didn't go, and I forgot about it. Then the other day, a uni friend brought it up again, and we finally decided to go.

Wafflelicious is located in 2 areas, Auburn and Balmain. Depending which store you go to, there open and close times vary so it is best to check the website. Wafflelicious is a chocolate bar, which provides desserts and hot beverages. The Auburn restaurant is strange, where it is split into 2 areas (Wafflicious and Sauce - a sister restaurant). You can sit on the restaurant side to order from the chocolate bar, however, unable to sit on the waffle side to order from the restaurant.

The menu provides an array of options with pancakes, waffles and crepes with various sauces (caramel, white chocolate, chocoalte) and sides (fruit, ice cream, mashmallows) to accompany them. They further provide ice cream as individual scoops or as a sundae. There are also a variety of beverages to choose from.

Willy Wonka (This was shared between 2 people)

It is hard to see what the dish is with all the delicious chocolate smothered everywhere. There are 2 waffles (1 was cut in half) topped with bananas, strawberries, chocolate ice cream, vanilla ice cream, melted chocolate and whipped cream. The waffles are soft on the inside, and don't have the crunchy outside. However, I don't mind when waffles are like that. I like wafflelicious waffles more that Max Brenner as, I find that Max Brenner waffles are too sugary and grainy. These waffles are fluffy with the right balance of sweetness. The ice cream is also creamier than Max Brenner, as I find Max Brenner's ice cream icy.

Chocolate explosion with cookies & cream ice cream

The cookies and cream ice cream contained real cookies and it was very tasty. Inside the chocolate explosion were 'waffle balls'. They aren't exactly chunks of waffle, but are rather crispy balls covered in chocolate. They add an explosive element to anything without losing its crispiness.

 

Crunchy Hot Chocolate

The hot chocolate is 'crunchy' as it also contained the waffle balls. You would think that with the heat and the fact it is a drink that the waffle balls would become soggy, well it didn't! The waffle balls stayed crunchy and made the hot chocolate extra tasty.

Waffleliciuos is a great place to hang out to catch up with friends on those cold winter nights to indulge in lovely desserts and keep warm with hot beverages. Their service could do with some improvement, and some direction to how to order could be provided. However, I found the food experience to be better than Max Brenner.

Good food, good times!

Pandan Mania!

For those who do not know what Pandan is, it is a leaf that is generally used to add flavour to food, by either being wrapped around the food or infused with a cream or milk. I have a slight obsession with pandan, and along with my friends we constantly crave for some of the pandan waffles you can get from Cabramatta. With that little obsession inside of me, I decided to make pandan waffles and pandan  ice cream!

Pandan waffles (A recipe guided by vietworldkitchen)
Ingredients (original)
1 cup of plain flour
7 tablespoons sugar 
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate soda 
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg, separated
1 cup coconut milk 
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 teaspoon pandan extract


**NOTE: You can generally purchase pandan extract/essence from most Vietnamese grocery stores.


Method: (When I made this I doubled the recipe)
1. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, bicarbonate soda and baking powder.
2. In a jug combine coconut milk, egg yolk, butter and pandan extract.

3. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and gently stir using a rubber spatula. Set aside momentarily 
**NOTE: Expect the batter to be thick and somewhat lumpy. Avoid over stirring. 

4. Use an electric mixer to beat the egg white until a firm peak and use the rubber spatula to gently fold in the egg white into the mixture.

5. Heat up your waffle iron and spread a decent amount of batter onto the waffle iron, cooking as waffle iron instructions.
 **NOTE: Every waffle iron is different, but general rule is to stop the mixture about 1cm from the edge as when you close the lid the mixture spreads across. Cook the waffle until golden brown.
6. To remove the waffle, I would advise to use wooden chopsticks. This will allow you to lift up the waffle without tearing the waffle.

Pandan Ice-cream (guided by userealbutter)
Ingredients

1 cup whole milk

3/4 cup sugar

2 cups cream

pinch salt

5 pandan leaves, each tied in a knot

6 egg yolks

1/2 teaspoon pandan extract

Method:

1. In a medium saucepan, heat the milk, sugar, 1 cup of the cream, and salt over medium-high heat. Stir to dissolve the sugar.

2. When the milk begins to steam, remove from heat and place the pandan leaves in the cream. **NOTE: I used fresh pandan leaves, so I wet them a bit and then tied them into a knot.

3. Cover and steep for 30 minutes. (steep: means to leave in the liquid so the flavours becomes infused)

4. Whisk the egg yolks in a separate medium bowl.

5. Strain and slowly pour the cream mixture (with the pandan leaves) into the egg yolks while whisking (this is to temper so the eggs don’t curdle).

6. Scrape everything back into the saucepan and set over medium heat.

7. Constantly stir the custard, scraping the sides and bottom until it thickens.

8. Place remaining cup of cream in a large bowl and set aside.

9. Remove custard from heat and strain into the cream (cold cream).
10. Stir in the pandan extract until well-blended.

11. Let the custard cool and then refrigerate (covered) until it is completely chilled.

12. Churn using an ice cream maker, per the manufacturer’s instructions.

This was my first time making ice cream, and it was a great success! It had a natural taste, with a creamy smooth texture. This was definitely one of those moments in my life, where I felt that I have achieved something really great (may seem strange but the power of good food can do that sometimes). All the people who were lucky enough to try it enjoyed every spoonful, and some even said it was better then some restaurants (which was a huge compliment). From this success, I am very keen to try to make other ice cream flavours.


Good food, good times!