Traditional Belgian Liege Waffle Recipe (2024)

Published: August 6, 2013 | Updated: February 2, 2021 | By Ashlee

Jump to Recipe

Letting this yeast waffle dough rest overnight gives the dough a chance to develop better. Start it the night before and enjoy fresh waffles in the morning. With a crunchy melted sugar crust and soft on the inside these belgian waffles are one of the most popular items I make!

Traditional Belgian Liege Waffle Recipe (1)

How I created this Liege waffle Recipe

Over the past few years Belgian Liege waffle trucks and restaurants have showed up everywhere. My Dad was obsessed with them and asked me to figure out how to make them!

It’s so rare that he really LOVES a food item enough to request it that I got RIGHT on it! I scoured the internet and found quite a few recipes.

It seems like there were two camps, the traditional overnight 2nd rise recipe (developing flavor and texture) and the quicker few hour version.

You guys KNOW I’m all about getting the best possible flavor and not cutting corners when it comes to… well anything, but esp GOOD food. So I went for the authentic overnight version and WOW sooooo good.

I’m all about preping the night before for a big meal anyway, then the day of everything is ready to go and serve to my guests! So the time it takes doesn’t bother me at all.

I’ve TRIED quicker versions and they are OKAY, but still lacking the flavor that the overnight rise gives these waffles.

Just take me to the Belgian Waffle Recipe already!

If you’d rather skip the tips and tricks and tools to make these Liege Waffles, and more Belgium waffle recipe ideas – and get straight to this delicious Liege waffle recipe – simply scroll to the bottom of the page where you can find the printable recipe card.

Traditional Belgian Liege Waffle Recipe (2)

How to make Belgian Waffles – tips for cooking

Sugar burns at 375, so you want to cook your waffles at 365-370 degrees (you don’t want those big sugar chunks to start burning, trust me, nasty to eat and nasty to clean).

Regular home waffle irons heat anywhere from 420-550, which is a problem. So to make what I had work what I did was heat it up, put the dough in for 1 min then unplug the machine for 3 mins.

Depending on how hot your machine gets you might have to play with the time a bit (make an extra large batch the first time so you have extra dough to play with).

The professional liege waffle irons are cast iron, weigh over 20 pounds and cook at exactly 365-370 degrees. But I DOUBT any of you have one at home, I don’t.

So being annoyed with my regular electric waffle iron I bought thisstove top waffle iron to see if I could control the temperature better on the stove top.

Stove top temperate range from 200 – 500, so I went just above the middle, trying to achieve 360. I found mine cooked best 1 1/2 min on the first side (where the side was already hot) and then 2 1/2 on the other side (started cooler).

Can you freeze Liege waffles?

YES there are a few times you can freeze them.

After the first rise you can freeze the dough ball – wrap it in plastic a few times and use 2 freeze bags as well. When you’re ready to make them place the dough in the fridge for 12-24 hour then go on from there.

The second good time for freezing is AFTER the overnight refrigerator time – you can place the dough in two layers of freeze bags and freeze. when your ready to make the waffles leave out on the counter until soft enough to knead in the pearl sugar.

The third place is after you have kneaded in the pearl sugar and divided the dough into balls – leave out what your going to cook and wrap each of the extra balls in plastic, place the wrapped balls in two layers of freezer bags and freeze. Pull out the balls a few at a time – let come to room temp and cook. This is great when you want just a few at a time.

Finally you can freeze the already cooked waffles – this is my LEAST favorite way as they never are as good as they are fresh.

To make Liege Waffles you’ll need:

Sugar Pearls
Stove top waffle iron
Waffle Iron with temperature controls and removable plates for cleaning
a good non stick spray

Traditional Belgian Liege Waffles

If you love this liege waffle recipe as much as I do, I’d love a 5 star review. Be sure to share on social media and tag me if you make it @ashleemariecakes! If you want to stay updated on new recipes sign up for my newsletter and join my Facebook Group!

Traditional Belgian Liege Waffle Recipe (4)

If you love this Belgian Waffle recipe you’ll love these other Liege Waffle recipes!

Traditional Belgian Liege Waffle Recipe (5)

Traditional Belgian Liege Waffle Recipe (6)

Coconut Liege Waffles | Pumpkin Liege Waffles | Lemon Raspberry Liege Waffles

Connect with Ashlee Marie Online!

Traditional Belgian Liege Waffle Recipe (8)

Traditional Belgian Liege Waffle Recipe (9)

Traditional Belgian Liege Waffle Recipe (10)

Traditional Belgian Liege Waffle Recipe (11)

Traditional Belgian Liege Waffle Recipe (12)

Traditional Belgian Liege Waffle Recipe (13)

To watch me make these liege waffles play the video in the recipe card. You can find all my cooking show style recipe videos on YouTube, or my short recipe videos on Facebook Watch, or my Facebook Page, or right here on our website with their corresponding recipes.

Traditional Belgian Waffles aka Liege Waffle recipe

Ingredients

1 Tbsp active dry yeast
1 tsp granulated sugar
3/4 C whole milk warmed, 110-115 degrees
2 lrg eggs room temperature, lightly beaten
1 Tbsp vanilla
3 Tbsp packed light brown sugar
3 1/2 C Bread flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp honey
1 C butter softened
1 1/2 C belgian pearl sugar not Swedish pearl sugar

US Customary – Metric

Instructions

Place yeast, sugar and milk into your mixer and proof yeast 5-10 mins
Add the egg, vanilla, honey, 2 1/2 C flour, brown sugar and salt and mix until cohesive
add butter 4 Tbsp at a time kneading until totally incorporated
Add the rest of the flour and knead 5-10 mins
Cover and let rise until doubled in size, around 2 hours.
Then knock the dough down and wrap the dough in plastic wrap, 2-3 times around
refrigerate the dough overnight, 8-24 hours.
The next day, let the dough come to room temp, about an hour and knead in all the pearl sugar
Once mixed, divide the dough into 12-13 pieces of equal size.
Cook in a waffle iron for about 4 mins at 360 degrees (see note for regular waffle iron)
Give each waffle a few minutes to cool slightly before eating. that sugar melted on the outside is HOT!!!! I serve mine with fresh whipped cream and strawberries, but they are also good stuffed with dark chocolate, or served with with bananas, blue berries, nutella, cookie butter, ice cream, or plain with some powdered sugar!
you can keep the cooked waffles warm in an oven at 200 degrees while you cook them all so they will all be ready to serve at the same time

Video

Notes

Sugar burns at 375, so you want to cook your waffles at 365-370 degrees! Use a waffle iron with a temperature gage or a stove-top one like mine.

Stove top waffle iron – Stove top temperates range from 200 – 500, so I went just above the middle, trying to achieve 360. I found mine cooked best 1 1/2 min on the first side (where the side was already hot) and then 2 1/2 on the other side (started cooler). OR I would put the dough in and immediately flip, cook 2 mins, flip again and cook another 2 mins.

Traditional home waffle irons – because they tend to be so hot they will burn the sugar without some tweaking – when they are at full heat put the waffle dough ball in the iron, leave for 1 min, then turn off the waffle iron for the last 3. Then plug it back and and bring back to full heat for the next batch.

Nutrition

Did you make this recipe?Mention @ashleemariecakes or tag #makesomeawesome and I’ll share your image in my Instagram stories!

Traditional Belgian Liege Waffle Recipe (15)

Homemade Rainbow Bagel Recipe
Coconut Liege Waffle Recipe
Homemade Raised Donuts with Glaze recipes and video