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Remember to bring all your ingredients to room temperature before starting.
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Preheat oven to 250°F / 120°C / Gas Mark ½. Place a wire cooling rack in a sheet pan, then place the sheet pan in the oven to warm up.
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Measure the granulated sugar into a small dish and grate the orange zest over the sugar. Mix the sugar and zest with your fingers to combine and get the sugar coated with orange zest. Set aside.
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Melt the butter and set aside to cool.
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In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ground spices. Then whisk together until evenly combined. If using fresh ginger, mix that in with the wet ingredients.
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In a small bowl, mix the egg yolks, buttermilk, melted and cooled butter, orange sugar, and (if using fresh ginger.) Stir until combined.
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Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the wet ingredients. Fold in until just combined. Be careful not to overmix the batter. It is ok to have some lumps. Over-mixing the batter makes dense and tough waffles.
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Heat up the waffle maker.
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Whip the egg whites in a small bowl with a hand-held beater or wire whisk, until soft peaks form. Carefully fold in the egg whites into the batter.
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Lightly baste the waffle iron with vegetable oil or shortening.
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Cook the waffles. Follow the instructions given with your waffle iron. For my waffle iron I poured one cup of batter into the hot waffle iron. Other waffle makers will use less batter.
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Keep waffles warm in the oven while you cook the remaining batch.
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Serve immediately with maple syrup and fresh fruit.