Lemon Waffle Rolls - Zitronenwaffelröllchen

We have had a lot of sunshine this past week, flowers and colors everywhere. My favorite being all those bright and light, yellow and orange daffodils. The harbinger of spring, warm weather, and, these days, a lot of time spent in the garden.

Unto this lovely spring recipe which comes together in no time and will fill your kitchen with wonderful lemony waffle aroma – that certainly always manages to lift all those culinary spirits around here.

The dough requires only a few ingredients that I usually find in my cupboard and fridge. I enjoy the lemony flavor with a bit of vanilla but you could omit the vanilla sugar or substitute it with anis for example which is also nice, and you could, of course, use any other citrus here that you happen to have on hand. But the one thing you will need is a specialty waffle maker - the one I use is a so-called 'Eiserkuchen Waffeleisen' that I inherited a while ago. 'Eiserkuchen' aka 'Neujährchen' or 'Hippen' are quite popular around here, so normally these waffle makers are easy to come by. You could use an ice cream cone waffle maker instead or, alternatively, line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a baking mat and spread out the batter to a very thin round and then bake as you would bake your cookies - all the while watching very carefully so the waffles will not get too dark. And remember to roll them up while they are still hot and bendable.

Lemon Waffle Rolls - Zitronenwaffelröllchen
(yields about 16 waffle rolls, depending on the size of your waffle iron)

Ingredients

• 100g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 100g superfine baking sugar
• finely grated zest from 2 to 3 untreated/organic lemons (depending on the size, 2 large or 3 small ones)
• 2 eggs (L), free-range or organic
• 8g pure vanilla sugar 
• 200g plain (AP) flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• a pinch of fine sea salt
• 125ml lukewarm water
• 2 tbsps freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preparation

1. In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the butter, sugar and lemon zest until light and fluffy.
2. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition.
3. Add the vanilla sugar and mix again.
4. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
5. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in 3 additions, alterating with the water and mix well.
6. Then at the end add the lemon juice and mix one last time until the batter is smooth.
7. In the meantime, pre-heat your waffle iron and bake the waffle rolls immediately.
8. Make sure to trasnfer each roll onto a cooling rack and then roll the dough while the waffle ist still piping hot – I highly recommend using gloves here.

Notes

• Serve the waffle rolls the day they were made or store them for a day or two in a cookie tin with a tight fitting lid, as these rolls will turn soft if they attract moisture.
• Just before serving, dust liberally with icing sugar, or serve plain, or fill with whipped (lemon) cream, or serve fresh fruit and whipped cream alongside (which is the way I usually go).

Sunny spring days just call for bright lemony, pretty, and preferably crunchy, desserts it seems.