Moffles, maffles and waffles

From left to right: moffle, maffle, waffle

Croissant and donut? Forget it. The hybrid I love best: waffles and mochi.

Making of a moffle

First, there was the moffle, as discovered in this post on Serious Eats: blocks of plain mochi heated in a waffle iron until crispy and chewy, liked grilled mochi with waffle benefits. The squares can hold nutella, red bean, kinako powder, or even ham and cheese, the cheese melting in the grooves.

Making of a maffle (clockwise from top left): maffles mix, rolling the dough in sugar, maffle on the iron, maffles

But the maffle recently showed up on Don Quijote's shelves, inviting a moffle-off. Maffles, a locally-made mochi waffle mix, is essentially mochiko flour with sugar. You add milk, oil and an egg, mix it, and then scoop it into balls—it's like a really soft cookie dough. Roll it around in sugar, then press it in the waffle iron. The result: butter mochi meets liege waffle: the sugar on the outside caramelizes into a crisp, sweet exterior, and the inside is soft and gooey.

In a moffle versus maffle tasting, the maffle won hands down. (Though mochi addicts—me!—still love the moffle as a blank canvas for toppings.)

From left: Liliha Bakery waffle at the counter, Liliha Bakery at home

And, just because the waffle iron was already out, I also made a batch of regular waffles from the Liliha Bakery grab-and-go batter. They taste just like the waffles made at the counter: crisp and light, yet ridiculously buttery. This will tide us over as we wait for Liliha's new location to open closer to downtown.

Maffles, $5.39 for an 8 oz. mix at Don Quijote