Steel Cut Oats

Week: 14
Ingredient: Steel Cut Oats
From: Martin's, Harrisonburg, VA
Recipe: Oatmeal

I am not in to health food. At least, not in the I’m going to eat this food that doesn’t taste good because it provides such and such health benefit sense. That’s why I was a little skeptical of steel cut oats at first. My impression was that they were just another health food fad. However, several of my friends have told me how great steel cut oats are, so I figured it was time to give them a try. An oatmeal taste test, steel cut versus rolled oats, seemed appropriate.

I bought some steel cut oats, and to my surprise, the nutritional information was identical to the nutritional information for the rolled oats I already had at home. Health food? Ha! At least not any more than regular rolled oats (which really are quite good for you). Wikipedia did say that “steel-cut oats may have a lower glycemic index than instant oatmeal,” but I was comparing them to old fashioned oats, not instant, so I’m not sure if that still holds true or not.

I made both oatmeals according to package directions. The only notable difference in the cooking directions was that the steel cut oats needed 10-20 minutes to cook while the rolled oats needed only 5. (Do old fashioned oats really only take 5 minutes to cook? Or is it possible my oats were mislabeled and really were quick oats? Sometimes you can’t be sure when you buy the store brand ...)

Conclusion: It seems to me that the differences between steel cut oats and rolled oats are kind of like the differences between brown rice and white rice: nutrition, cooking time, flavor, and texture. Only, with the oats the variations are smaller than with brown and white rice. The one exception is the texture. While I didn’t note much difference in flavor between the steel cut and rolled oats, the difference in texture was significant. The rolled oats made oatmeal that was ... like oatmeal. (How else can I describe it?) The steel cut oatmeal had a little more bite to it; it could almost be called chewy. It kind of reminded me of buckwheat. Anyway, I liked it. I won’t be replacing all my rolled oats with steel cut oats, but they will find a place in my pantry. And, like brown and white rice, I will find uses for both kinds of oats at different times.

Pearl Sugar

Week: 13
Ingredient: Swedish Pearl Sugar
From: King Arthur Flour
Recipe: Liège Waffles¹

Until about a year ago, I liked waffles. Then I had a life-changing experience. It was one of those fateful days, when a series of circumstances were laid out in front of me such that there were no decisions to be made. All I could do was follow the single course of action as it was revealed. Unaware of the magnitude of the events taking place, I followed that course to its inevitable conclusion: I love waffles.

It was bound to happen sooner or later. I was not going to let the waffle iron Danny gave me for Christmas (or was it my birthday?) go to waste. Or was I? In fact, that waffle iron sat untouched for years (no more than three) in my pantry. Then it finally saw the light of day ... when I removed it from the pantry to pack up for the move to my new house. Once unpacked, the waffle iron found a new home in a new closet ... where it sat for a few more years (no less than three).

I still remember the Saturday morning when it happened. I was watching Food Network (as I often do on Saturday mornings), and I was hungry (as I often am when I am watching Food Network). Sometimes all the shows on Saturday morning follow a theme, and the theme that day was breakfast. As I watched the Food Network chefs cook bacon and French toast and hash and eggs and so much more, I lamented the fact that my own kitchen was so poorly stocked—no meat, no potatoes, no bread, no cheese, no fresh fruit—no way to make any of the delicious things I was seeing on TV. I resorted to perusing Joy of Cooking² (another frequent pastime) in the hopes of finding some breakfast food that could be made with only the barest essentials from my pantry and refrigerator. That’s when I discovered waffles.

Maybe “discovered” is not the right word. It is not like this was the first time I had ever eaten a waffle. But this time was different. Somehow the simplest ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, eggs, butter, and milk) combined into a masterpiece. It was love at first bite. I didn’t even bother with a plate. Or a fork. The only reason I did not eat straight out of the iron was that I put one waffle on a cooling rack just long enough to get the next waffle started. After three waffles, I realized I had eaten the equivalent of half a stick of butter. That almost didn’t stop me, but in the end, prudence won out, and I saved the rest of the waffles for later.

For a few months after that, waffles became regular fare at my house. I experimented with other flours, different recipes, and I even used a plate and fork when I experimented with different fruit toppings.

Of course my waffle pursuits also included some internet research. That is how I learned about Gaufres de Liège (Liège waffles). Liège waffles are yeast-raised waffles with added pearl sugar which caramelizes as the waffles bake. I have never been to Belgium for the real thing, but they pretty much had me at “caramelized sugar.” I had to try them.

Pearl sugar was not the easiest thing to find, but that is only because I did not try the internet first. I ordered some from King Arthur Flour (along with a bunch of other fabulous ingredients), and when it arrived I was surprised at how small the “pearls” were. I do not know where I got this idea, but I was expecting something approximately the size of a peppercorn. It was actually a little smaller and looked a lot like pretzel salt.

Well, I made Liège waffles. As with most yeast-raised dough, they took a while to make, but they were not difficult. I did make a sticky mess because I tried to work the dough by hand. In hindsight, I should have spooned the dough into the waffle iron. Nonetheless, the waffles came out nice and golden-brown. However, I was quite disappointed that the sugar did not caramelize. (That was, after all, the selling point for me to try Liège waffles!) Without the caramelization, they were essentially really sweet waffles. They had a slightly yeasty flavor and a chewy texture—kind of like a soft pretzel but sweet instead of salty. Not quite what I was hoping for, but far from terrible.

Conclusion: Pearl sugar probably needs a higher temperature to caramelize properly. I might be out of luck when it comes to Liège waffles because my waffle iron does not have an adjustable temperature. On the other hand, sugar that does not melt so easily is perfect for sprinkling on top of baked goods. I might try to make Liège waffles again, but if I have similar results, I will save the rest of the pearl sugar for other uses.

¹I found the recipe for Liège Waffles months ago somewhere on the internet and printed it out. I never imagined that I would have cause to use the link again, and, Google as I may, now I cannot find the same recipe. So, my apologies for not citing my source correctly. Thank you, unknown sharer of recipes on the internet.

²Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, & Ethan Becker, Joy of Cooking, 75th Anniversary ed. (New York: Scribner, 2006), 71, 646-647.