hong kong style waffle

I’m sure you’ve heard of bubble waffles/ egg waffles (雞蛋仔, gai dan jai in Cantonese). A lot of dessert shops that sell bubble waffles serve it with ice cream, syrups, fruit, chocolate, and anything you can think of. This classic, simple Hong Kong street food has gained popularity across the world. But have you heard of its less famous sidekick?

It may just look like a regular waffle at first and nothing seems special about it. But Hong Kong style waffle (格仔餅, gaak zai beng in Cantonese) is also a popular street food sold alongside bubble waffles. What makes it ‘Hong Kong style’ is that street vendors would typically drizzle the hot waffle in peanut butter, condensed milk and white sugar, fold it in half and wrap the waffle in a paper bag.

Peanut butter and condensed milk is a combination found in iconic Hong Kong foods, such as the Hong Kong style French toast. To me, the sweet, rich, milky and nutty flavour of this combination always brings me nostalgic memories. Hope you enjoy this recipe!

ingredients for making hong kong style waffle:

• 150g cake flour*
• 10g custard powder
• 2g baking powder
• 30g unsalted butter (melted)
• 150g milk (or plant-based milk, I used soya milk)
• 15g sugar
• 2 beaten eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

toppings (add according to preference):

• butter, peanut butter, condensed milk, sugar

do I need to use cake flour?

• You do not need to use cake flour. You can substitute it with regular plain flour. HOWEVER, the reason why I used it for this recipe is because cake flour creates a lighter and fluffier texture, which is the kind of texture we want when baking.
• As cake flour has less protein than regular all-purpose (plain) flour, less gluten is formed when mixing the batter together. This means that less gluten formation would lead to a lighter, fluffier and airy texture.
• If you cannot find cake flour in your local supermarket, you can make a substitute at home by measuring 1 cup all-purpose (plain) flour, removing 2 tbsp, and replacing it with 2 tbsp of cornstarch; then sift it together twice to aerate the flour mixture.

steps:

1. Add sugar into beaten eggs and whisk until sugar has dissolved.
2. Add milk, melted butter, vanilla extract, and whisk well.
3. Sift in flour along with custard powder and baking powder into the wet mixture. Whisk well until there are no more lumps. Refrigerate and let the batter rest for 30 mins.
4. Pour half a cup of batter into a preheated waffle maker and cook for 5-7 mins or until lightly brown.
5. Serve with some butter, a generous amount of peanut butter, condensed milk and sugar, however much you prefer. Enjoy!

more classic hong kong food recipes:

• Hong Kong style egg tart
• Fish siu mai
• Hong Kong style French toast

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