A couple of months ago I was invited to dinner at the house of my friends Lavinia and Deni (you may remember them from this post here). Deni, who is Hungarian, made us a delicious Hungarian meal (a preview if you will for the trip we were to take to Budapest not long after, where we ate stupendously). He prepared a cauliflower and carrot soup, roast chicken and potatoes with a side of pickles, and a dessert made with chestnuts and whipped cream, plus offered us pálinka, Hungary's traditional fruit brandy, in all different flavors. But back to that first course -- when it came time to eat the cauliflower soup, Deni disappeared briefly in to the kitchen and reappeared, like magic, with a container in his hand. “Sour cream, to top the soup?”

I nearly gasped.

Sour cream is used quite a bit in American cuisine, as a topping for Tex Mex enchiladas, tacos, or chili, in dips, or, most importantly, in lots of American baking where it lends a certain tenderness, richness and tangy-ness, improving every baked good it touches. It can be used in cheesecakes, muffins, cakes, pie crusts, pie fillings, and even scones and biscuits. And sour cream, you see, was supposed to be one of those ingredients like buttermilk, cheddar cheese, okra, sweetened shredded coconut, Graham crackers, and (not mini) milk chocolate chips, or rather, things I had never seen in Italy and had always known to be unavailable here. Sighting sour cream in Rome was the culinary equivalent of spotting a comet that passes once every 100-something years, or an animal that was thought to have been extinct for ages, but had reappeared. What was it doing here?!

“Where’d you get that?!” I demanded.

“What, the sour cream? Pam, the supermarket,” they answered. “Not all of the Pams have them, but some do. So do you want some?”

Yes, yes I did, thank you very much.

A couple of months after that, in a small supermarket not even close to where I live, I, like magic, stumbled upon sour cream (panna acida in Italian) again in the dairy aisle, hidden among the heavy cream and butter. It was the same brand that Deni and Lavinia had found at Pam. I seized the occasion – who knows when it would arise again?! – and grabbed two containers, hurried home, and subsequently made these Blackberry Sour Cream Waffles.

Even in the heat of the Roman summer I still find breakfast doable – the morning is the time before the heat has really sunk its teeth in, and before the thought of eating anything above room temperature is unbearable. Plus the waffle iron, unlike the oven or the stove, doesn't heat the kitchen up, and having procured my beloved sour cream and picked up some lovely looking blackberries, I decided to strike while the (waffle) iron was hot and whip up these waffles. These are tender and fluffy thanks to all the sour cream, cinnamon scented to boot, studded with tart sapphire-like blackberries and scrumptious when served with maple syrup and extra berries on top. I loved them and I think you will too.

A couple of notes: You could substitute blueberries or raspberries for the blackberries here if you'd like. If you don't have whole wheat flour, you can use just all-purpose flour no problem. If you can't find sour cream where you are, I'm sorry! but you can substitute plain full-fat yogurt with good results. The amount of blackberries may seem relatively small, but as I learned, too many blackberries that get subsequently squished in the waffle iron and make the waffles tricky to remove from the waffle iron in one whole waffle piece. If you don't care about presentation, and want your waffles extra blackberry-y, then go ahead and add more. You can keep the waffles warm on a baking sheet in a 200 degree oven as you cook the others. Finally, feel free to add a little lemon zest here instead of the cinnamon, if you want Blackberry Lemon Waffles.

For more breakfast recipes, click here, and for more brunch recipes, click here.

BLACKBERRY SOUR CREAM WAFFLES

Recipe adapted from www.food.com. Makes 4 large waffles.

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons (42 grams) butter, melted and cooled
3/4 cup (140 grams) blackberries
5 tablespoons (50 grams) sugar, divided
1 cup (130 grams) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (98 grams) whole wheat flour (see comment in Notes)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 eggs
3/4 cup (180 grams) milk
1 cup (224 grams) sour cream

Directions:
Place the blackberries in a small bowl and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of the sugar; mix together and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, sour cream, melted butter, and vanilla. In another separate medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar.

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined. Add the blackberries and stir once or twice to incorporate them. Preheat the waffle iron according to the manufacturer's instructions (mine only takes a few minutes to heat up).

Once the waffle iron is hot brush with extra melted butter so your waffles don't stick. Using a ladle, distribute the batter evenly over the waffle iron surface, keeping in mind that the batter will spread a little when you close the waffle iron. Close the iron and let the waffles cook for about 4-5 minutes, or until golden brown. Use a fork to carefully remove the waffle from the oven and slide it on to a plate. Repeat with the remaining batter to make more waffles. Serve your Blackberry Sour Cream Waffles with maple syrup, extra blackberries, and if you want to do as I did, a glass of blood orange juice.