Rainbow Waffles

Makes 8 waffles (approximately 16 perfect rainbows)

2¾      cups reduced-fat milk
12       tablespoons (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, cubed
3¼      cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
3         tablespoons yellow cornmeal
3         tablespoons granulated sugar
2¼      teaspoons active dry yeast
1         teaspoon kosher salt
3         large eggs, lightly beaten, room temperature
1½      teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple gel food coloring

Nutritional information per waffle (2 rainbows): Calories 429 (45% from fat) • carb. 47 g • pro. 10 g • fat 21 g • sat. fat 12 g • chol. 126 mg • sod. 207 mg • calc. 128 mg • fiber 2 g

1. Put the milk and butter in a small saucepan set over medium-low heat. Once butter has melted remove and cool until just warm.
2. While the milk and butter are heating, whisk the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Gradually add the warm milk/butter mixture and whisk until smooth. (Tip: Place the bowl on a damp towel to keep it stable while adding the milk/butter mixture.) Add the eggs and vanilla extract and whisk until combined. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 12 hours and up to 24 hours.
3. Gently whisk batter to combine again (batter will deflate). Arrange 6 bowls and assign a color (i.e., red, orange, yellow, blue, green, and purple) to each. Measure out 1¾ cups of batter into bowl red, 1½ cups into bowl orange, 1¼ cups into bowl yellow, a scant cup into bowl green, ½ cup into bowl blue, and the remainder, about ¼ cup, into bowl purple. Tint the batter in each bowl by color assignment, adding a few drops of gel color at a time, mixing well to incorporate with each addition, until the right vibrancy is achieved. Transfer each of the colored batters into a Ziploc bag and snip off the end to make a piping bag.
4. Preheat the waffle maker to desired setting. Keep in mind that lower settings will achieve rainbows with greater brilliance than higher settings where more browning occurs.
5. Pipe about a quarter-size amount of the purple into the center of the bottom waffle plate. Then in a quick manner, starting with blue, begin to pipe the colors of the rainbow (in reverse order) in circles outward, ending with red along the outer edge of the waffle plate.
6. Close the waffle maker and turn clockwise to flip. When the first waffle is ready, carefully open the waffle maker and remove baked waffle. Then turn and open the second waffle plate to remove the second waffle. Repeat with the remaining batter.
7. Cut each waffle in half to create 2 rainbows. Serve immediately with sweetened whipped cream for clouds, if desired.