Lekker Brekker Monday: Breakfast waffles with maple-glazed bacon

It’s all about maple syrup in this breakfast recipe. There’s maple syrup in the batter for these waffles, and fried rashers of back bacon are glazed in an air fryer (or under the grill) to be served with them.

Then, just to be sure you’re getting enough of a maple syrup hit, you drizzle some on the cooked waffles as well.

There are a couple of details to consider when making a batter for waffles. 

Very unusually, the batter should not be smooth. This isn’t necessarily because you want lumps in it — it’s because waffle batter contains both baking powder and bicarbonate of soda, which leaven the batter, creating tiny bubbles. 

Over-beating gets rid of these bubbles, and the resulting waffles may turn out heavy and dense. So a light hand with the whisk, even if there are lumps in the mixture, is a good thing.

There are plenty of eggs in this batter, so even though you cannot see them, you are having eggs with this breakfast.

Tony’s breakfast waffles with maple-glazed bacon

(Makes about 8)

Ingredients

For the glazed bacon:

8 rashers back bacon

2 Tbsp Canadian maple syrup

Cooking oil spray

For the waffles:

300g cake flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

80g salted butter

4 jumbo eggs

⅔ cup maple syrup

⅔ cup full cream milk

Extra maple syrup for drizzling over the waffles

Method

Fry the bacon rashers on both sides and set aside.

Sift flour into a bowl and add baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a small pan until it starts to brown.

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs well. Add the milk, maple syrup and melted butter and stir well. 

Now add this dairy mixture to the bowl with the flour and combine. It needs to be a bit lumpy.

Spray the waffle iron and the bottom of the air fryer basket with cooking oil spray.

When the iron is hot, spoon the mixture into it and cook each waffle for about 4 minutes until golden. But check it when it seems to be done or nearly done — you can always shut the iron again and cook a little longer.

Preheat your air fryer to 200°C or put it on the grill setting if it has one.

Brush a little maple syrup over the cooked bacon rashers, using a pastry brush, and cook for 3 to 5 minutes.

Serve the waffles with bacon piled on top and a generous drizzling of maple syrup. DM

Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the year award, in 2021 and 2023.

Order Tony’s book, foodSTUFF, here.

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.

This dish is photographed on a plate by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.