Epicurious' 4 Levels video series captures amateur and advanced home cooks preparing classic comfort foods alongside professional chefs from the Institute of Culinary Education, with a food scientist's take on each preparation. This episode features Chef Tracy Wilk, a lead chef and recipe editor for our New York campus' recreational program, who walks us through her indulgent Belgian waffle dish.

"I've been making this yeast-raised dough recipe for a very long time: It's going to be super fluffy and light on the inside and caramelized and crunchy on the outside," Chef Tracy says. "This is basically a doughnut in waffle form."

She opts for an active dry yeast instead of baking powder to raise the dough, describes her homemade toffee sauce as "a darker, richer caramel," and uses an immersion blender to ensure a smooth speculoos spread.

The toffee sauce gives the waffle a maple flavor, "you get crunch from the pearl sugar, and the whipped cream balances it all," Chef Tracy concludes. Watch the Epicurious video for her demo and see the complete recipe below.

Ingredients

130 grams whole milk
28 grams dark brown sugar
10 grams active dry yeast
100 grams eggs
4 grams vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
230 grams all-purpose flour
230 grams high gluten flour
6 grams kosher salt
100 grams unsalted butter, cubed
100 grams Belgian pearl sugar

Directions

In a small saucepan, gently heat milk, until just warm, about 110 F. Remove from heat and pour the milk into a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.
Add dark brown sugar and yeast to the bowl of the stand mixer. Allow the mixture to sit for about 3 minutes, and then use a whisk to stir your ingredients together. Once whisked together, begin mixing the dough on slow speed.
Add the eggs, vanilla extract and vanilla seed and mix until combined on low-medium speed, about 2 minutes. Once combined, add your flour and salt and stir until the dough begins to come together.
Once the dough comes together, add your butter while the dough is mixing, adding one cube at a time. The dough should mix on medium speed, for about 5-8 minutes, or until the dough wraps around the dough hook and is pulling away from the sides of the bowl.
Place dough in a bowl that has been sprayed with non-stick spray and cover with plastic wrap. Let dough rest for about 1 hour, or until it doubles in size.
Place dough in the refrigerator to rest overnight (or at least 6 hours).
Once dough has rested overnight, prepare to make your waffles and heat up a Belgian waffle maker to about 360 F.
Gently knead the pearl sugar into the raw dough and portion dough into about 12 pieces, each piece should weigh about 80 grams. Place the portioned dough onto a sheet tray sprayed with non-stick spray, and allow the dough to rest covered before cooking.
Working one at a time, place each piece of dough into the center of the waffle iron, pressing down. Allow to cook for about 3-5 minutes, until golden brown and crispy.
Serve garnished with powdered sugar or with toppings of choice (assembly below).

Speculoos Cookies

Ingredients

375 grams all-purpose flour
2 grams baking soda
4 grams cinnamon
4 grams salt
334 grams butter, room temperature
130 grams dark brown sugar
112 grams sugar
10 grams honey

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 F. Line a full sheet tray with parchment paper and set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, cream together the butter, dark brown sugar and sugar. Mix on medium high until the butter is fluffy and there are no lumps. This will take about 5-10 minutes, depending on the temperature of the butter, making sure to stop and scrape the sides often.
Once the butter and sugar is creamed, add the honey and mix until combined.
Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
Turn the dough out onto the counter and divide in half. Roll each piece of dough into a log that is about 12 inches, using a piece of parchment (the shorter side) as reference. Roll each log onto a piece of parchment and allow the dough to chill for 30 minutes.
Slice logs into 1/2-inch rounds and place on a full sheet tray lined with parchment. Bake for 8-12 minutes, until cookies are golden brown. Cookies will be crushed into crumbs for speculoos spread and additional garnish for waffle assembly.

Speculoos Spread

Ingredients

100 grams speculoos cookies
100 grams water
2 grams ground cinnamon
30 grams light corn syrup
85 grams refined coconut oil

Directions

Place cookies in a food processor and process until they are finely ground.
In a small saucepan, combine cookie crumbs, water, ground cinnamon and light corn syrup. Warm over medium heat until cookies are dissolved into a smooth mixture.
Remove mixture from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Once cooled, add coconut oil and blend until smooth.
Allow mixture to cool in the refrigerator to set up. Recommended to serve at room temperature, once cookie butter has set.

Toffee Sauce

Ingredients

230 grams heavy cream
200 grams dark brown sugar
112 grams unsalted butter
4 grams salt
4 grams vanilla extract

Directions

In a medium saucepan, combine cream, brown sugar, butter and salt. Cook over medium heat for about 10-15 minutes, until sauce thickens and is a medium amber color. Remove from heat and add vanilla extract. Allow to cool slightly before serving.

Whipped Cream

Ingredients

230 grams heavy cream
36 grams confectioners’ sugar
2 grams vanilla extract

Directions

Place cream and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whip until it begins to hold soft peaks. Add vanilla extract and whip until the cream holds stiff peaks.
Place whipped cream in fridge until ready to serve.

To assemble: