Directions

1. Warm milk and water together to lukewarm, and place in the bottom of a large mixer bowl. Add sugar and yeast and stir to combine. Set aside for 5 minutes; the yeast should look foamy.
   
2. Whisk in eggs and vanilla, then stir in all but 1 cup flour. Add the salt and mix to combine. Using the dough hook of a stand mixer, add the butter, a spoonful at a time, thoroughly kneading in each addition and scraping down the bowl as needed before adding the next until all of the butter has been mixed in. Add remaining flour and knead with dough hook on low speed for 5 minutes, or until glossy.
   
3. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 2 hours; dough should double. Stir with a spatula to deflate into a mound, re-cover with plastic wrap and let chill in the fridge overnight, or up to 24 hours.
   
4. On the day you’re ready to make the waffles, knead in the pearl sugar. Divide dough into 16 mounds. If it’s rather warm and greasy, you can return these balls of dough to the fridge while you cook them off, one or a few at a time.
   
5. Heat your waffle iron. Place first ball of waffle dough on grid and cook according to waffle maker’s instructions. Cook until deeply golden all over, which will take approximately 5 minutes, then carefully transfer with tongs or a fork to a cooling rack. Repeat with remaining balls of dough, adjusting temperature of waffle iron as needed to get the color you want. You’ll likely find that the waffles look more caramelized and glossy as you go on, as bits of melted sugar stay behind and gloss the next waffles.
   
6. Keep waffles warm in a 200 degree oven if you plan to eat them right away. As the waffles cool, they will harden but the hardness comes from that melted sugar firming up, and will soften again when you rewarm them. These waffles should always be eaten warm.
   
7. Keep leftover waffles in the freezer. If your intent is on freezing them cook them to half-a-shade lighter, so that when they’re reheated they won’t get too dark.