Recipe: Waffled hash browns

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I had made waffles for breakfast. (Yeast-risen. 3/4 white flour, 1/8 whole wheat flour, 1/8 cornmeal. But that is enough waffle talk.) 

Now it was time for lunch.

Would hash browns waffle?

As it turns out, yes and no. 

Here is the key: Don't slice the potatoes, shred them.

Slicing produced limp potatoes with inadequate waffleization. The sliced potatoes did not cohere and showed few signs of being waffled. This was the case whether the potatoes were raw or parboiled.

But shredding produced waffled hash browns with a fantastic amount of crunch on the outside and tiny pockets of silky smoothness inside.

And it couldn't be easier. 

Ingredients:

• Potatoes
• Salt
• Pepper
• Butter

Directions:

1. Wash and peel the potatoes. Shred them and squeeze them dry with a towel. (This ensures that your potatoes brown nicely.)

2. In a mixing bowl, add the potatoes, followed by salt and pepper to taste.

3. Spread about a teaspoon of butter on the waffle iron. (A silicone pastry brush works well; neither you nor the brush will melt while you spread the butter around the extremely hot waffle iron, and any nonstick finish on your waffle iron will be spared.)

4. Pile the shredded potatoes into the waffle iron and close the lid.

5. After a few minutes, you may wish to squeeze down the lid a bit. Check the potatoes after 10 minutes. In my waffle iron on the medium heat setting, the potatoes showed golden-brown highlights after about 15 minutes. But yours will vary, possibly by quite a bit.

6. Carefully remove the potatoes from the waffle iron.

Serve them with grated cheese or sour cream.

You could also serve waffled hash browns with ketchup, alongside a waffleburger. But that takes serious commitment to the concept. And I would worry about you a little.

I used mine as the base for a fried egg, topped with shavings of three-year Gouda.

It took me about two minutes to clean my plate.

And, no, I did not waffle the egg. Not that one, anyway.

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Comments

[liz]

i really, really like this blog.

[ViVi]

I look forward to the waffleized creamy potato pancake which must surely follow. SURELY.

[kellypea]

My guys would snarf this down in two seconds. Yum.

[Deardeedle]

I'm with ViVi! Humor the German ancestors in us and give us the mashed potato version of the starchy pancake of love!

[somesortoffemalemadman]

Yum! I am now going to make a slightly varied version of this for lunch ;). Thank you!!

[c]

Please give more info about your yeast risen waffles. They sound yummy.

[Daniel]

The master recipe for the yeast-risen waffles I make comes from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" (http://bit.ly/4FYGgb) That recipe is online here: http://www.bigoven.com/161156-Overnight-Waffles-recipe.html

[J]

Dan, I've been experimenting with a wafflemaker and pretty much anything I can think of for the past month. So excited to read your ideas!

Good luck!

[jasi]

as a minimalist who has struggled with keeping her waffle iron, i must say i love this site. thanks for the recipes and laughs. keep the mad ideas coming.

[leslie]

yum! I'm a huge fan of waffles. Now I am excited about trying hashbrowns and other recipes in my waffle maker. Thanks!

[chris]

Oh, my: I got a waffle iron for christmas and I thought my bourbon eggnog waffles, turkey-pepper bacon waffles, and roasted banana and burbon waffles were creative. you have opened my eyes, man. I kept saying the waffle iron was my medium. no, sir, it is surely yours. all yours.

[jennyg]

This is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

Perhaps waffled falafel? Waffled sweet pea cakes?

You have opened my mind. Found you via unclutterer.

[Carla D'Anna]

Another unclutterer send over.

This looks great. I HATE making hash browns normally and my husband loves them.

For future...how about a pasta or rice eggy thing

or fried grits, or polenta

Mamaliga in a waffle iron....mmmm (http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=mamaliga&lastnode_id=1140332)

[John]

what about using potato pancake batter? That would solve the problem of the potatoes not sticking together so much, and you'd get a much more waffly form. I think I'm going to try some waffelized potato pancakes tonight.

[Spade Head]

could u focus on a vegetarian section? how about onion bahjis?

[missbhavens]

Oh! I was just lamenting my lack of bread for my morning eggs! POTATOES, I got! Waffle iron I got! Thanks!

[Bryen]

Waffled these this morning.. after one failed attempt, the second and third batches into the iron came out a lot better. I suspect these would also be good with some finely chopped bell peppers, onions, etc.. but not too much.

+1 for originality, and +1,000,000 for stuff the kids asked for seconds on.

[Connie]

My daughter wanted a panini maker and I thought our waffle iron would work, however it has the deep "belgian" style design and I thought that might break the bread. After reading the Waffleizer, I am recommited to a waffleini! I'll let you know.

[Patti]

So, that egg was not waffled... have you thought about waffled eggs? I'm thinking of those folding Omelette pans and can't help but wonder if a waffled omelette is possible.

[Daniel]

I think I am not revealing too much of what's to come if I say that an egg will waffle.

[NMPatricia]

OK, I think this blog has become one of my new favorites. I found it via the Unclutter when she had to admit that the waffle iron might have to be taken off her one-use-only list.

I tried these hashbrowns and they were terrific! Not only were they easy, but a lot less greasy than frying them. I have made a lot of hash browns this way. I think you could make latkes this way too. They also "cooked" while I was doing something else ont the stove. I can't wait to try some others.

[Don Odiorne]

This looks really easy. Here is another two potato waffle recipes to try:
http://www.idahopotato.com/recipes/id-671/
http://foodservice.idahopotato.com/recipes/id-721

[Siouyx]

I have missed visiting here - you have been busy!

my waffle iron lives on my tiny counter - when it is hot outside anything that would ordinarily fry in oil goes in there...I just whip up some egg/flour/baking powder batter and mix in some chopped up meat/veg/cheese and toss it in there. Keeps me from heating up the whole house and keeps my boyfriend laughing.

Viva la Wafflucion!

[Sherri Irvin]

I'm Southern. It's not an excuse, it's an explanation. Ergo...Shrimp and Grits Waffles. Sweet Potato Waffles with Smokey Collard Greens and Black Eyed Peas. Waffled Banana Pudding. With Bacon (The Elvis). Pimento Cheese Waffles. Crawfish Etouffee Waffles. Red Beans and Rice Waffles.

[devon]

Oh my goodness. Yum.
I tried waffling sliced apples, though. Oh, man, those are amazing! Top them with a little butter and cinnamon sugar, mmm.

[David Shewmaker]

Hash Browns by definition are grated. Home fries are chunky and par boiled first. Cottage fries are chunky and not par boiled, Pommes Anna are sliced circles and laid out concentrically, and Pommes Lyonnaise are sliced and finished with onions. So to my mind, grated should work best, but if you did a parboiled high starch sliced potato, it should also work well. I am going to browse around on this site because it is absolutely fantastic for being so silly. I just got back from Belgium where I ate from the last operating gas fired waffle iron in the whole country in the town of Ghent -- and had a pretty amazing waffle as well. I am curious if you have done work with thin and crispy waffles made on an iron waffle iron as opposed to a thick one that is coated with Teflon... I will poke around.

[George]

Dude... waffle latkes...!