flipWaffle Filled with Brown Sugar
Waffle Filled with Brown Sugar
Why this dish? The ducasses — patronal festivals of villages in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais — marked the year in Pétain's native land. At the stall you bought the thin waffle filled with melting vergeoise: the festive sweet of an entire terroir, eaten in the street.
Two thin, buttery waffles enclosing a melting heart of vanilla-scented brown sugar. The street treat of Northern fairs, both crisp and runny.
Ah, here is a sweet that smells of my childhood festivals! At the village ducasse, you handed over a few coins and took away, piping hot, this little flat bread filled with melted vergeoise. The dough was thin as a leaf, the heart ran with brown sugar. I am not a man to dwell on sweets, but this one, eaten standing in the street on a feast day, I confess I never forgot it. Bite into it while it's still warm, that's the whole secret.
- •Flour — enough to knead (dough)
- •Butter — generously (softness)
- •Sourdough or yeast — a little (lightness)
- •Milk, eggs — as needed (binder)
- •Brown sugar (vergeoise) — for the filling (melting heart)
- •Melted butter, vanilla — for the filling (filling binder)
Waffle Filled with Brown Sugar
Two thin, buttery waffles enclosing a melting heart of vanilla-scented brown sugar. The street treat of Northern fairs, both crisp and runny.
Why this dish? The ducasses — patronal festivals of villages in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais — marked the year in Pétain's native land. At the stall you bought the thin waffle filled with melting vergeoise: the festive sweet of an entire terroir, eaten in the street.
Ah, here is a sweet that smells of my childhood festivals! At the village ducasse, you handed over a few coins and took away, piping hot, this little flat bread filled with melted vergeoise. The dough was thin as a leaf, the heart ran with brown sugar. I am not a man to dwell on sweets, but this one, eaten standing in the street on a feast day, I confess I never forgot it. Bite into it while it's still warm, that's the whole secret.
Ingredients (period version)
- Flour — enough to knead (dough)
- Butter — generously (softness)
- Sourdough or yeast — a little (lightness)
- Milk, eggs — as needed (binder)
- Brown sugar (vergeoise) — for the filling (melting heart)
- Melted butter, vanilla — for the filling (filling binder)
Ingredients
- Flour — 250 g (dough)
- Soft butter — 80 g (dough)
- Baker's yeast — 10 g (leavening)
- Warm milk — 10 cl (hydration)
- Egg — 1 (binder)
- Brown sugar (vergeoise) — 120 g (filling)
- Melted butter — 60 g (filling)
- Vanilla (pod or extract) — 1 pinch (filling flavor)
Method
- Prepare a fine brioche dough: mix flour, yeast dissolved in warm milk, egg, and soft butter. Knead and let rise for 1 hour.
- Cook thin oval waffles in a waffle iron (roll dough thin).
- While they cool slightly, mix vergeoise, melted butter, and vanilla into a soft paste.
- Split each waffle horizontally and fill generously with the brown sugar mixture.
- Press lightly, let the heart melt for a few minutes. Eat warm.
How it was made : The Northern filled waffle (called 'Lille waffle' or 'vergeoise waffle') was sold at markets and ducasses. Itinerant makers pressed very thin waffles and filled them on the spot. The vergeoise, a brown sugar from regional beets, gives it all its typicity.
The contemporary twist : Slip a lick of crushed speculoos into the filling: the marriage of two iconic Northern sweets in one bite.
Philippe Pétain · Charactorium
