Tartine Leavened Waffles

I find a lot of bread recipes call for using a small amount of starter, then ditch the rest. I think this is wasteful, so I've been trying to find ways to use excess starter. I ended up using all the starter I had and all the poolish, even though it calls for 2 tablespoons of poolish and you end up with over a cup. I also thought it made enough for 10-12 people, I was eating waffles for days.

Ingredients

4 cups leaven
2 tablespoons poolish
2 cups whole milk
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 pastry flour
2/3 cup cornstarch
7 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
6 eggs, separated
3 tablespoons vanilla extract

4 to 6 servings

Directions

Leaven:

The night before you plan on making waffles, feed 1 tablespoon of your mature starter with 200 grams warm water (78ºF) and 200 grams of a 50/50 mix of white bread flour and wheat bread flour. Cover with a kitchen towel and let the starter rise overnight at a cool room temperature (65ºF).

Even though this is what the book says, I think I added a lot more water, white bread flour, and wheat bread flour to try and get close to 4 cups. I kind of eyeballed it and used a scale to guess. I ended up up throwing all the poolish in to make up the difference.

Poolish:
200 grams all-purpose flour
200 grams water (75ºF)
3 grams active dry yeast

To make the poolish, mix the flour, water, and yeast. Let stand for 3 to 4 hours at a warm room temperature (75º to 80ºF) or overnight in the refrigerator.

Place leaven and poolish in a large bowl. In a saucepan over low heat, warm the milk until just warm. Pour over the leaven and poolish and stir to combine.

Sift the flours and cornstarch into a bowl. Stir in 5 tablespoons of the sugar and the salt. Add the 1/2 cup melted butter and the egg yolks to the milk mixture. Gradually add the dry ingredients while mixing to incorporate. Cover and let ferment in a warm place (80º to 85ºF) for 3 to 5 hours.

Just before making waffles, in a bowl, beat the egg whites until medium peaks form. Add the vanilla to the batter, stirring to incorporate, and then fold in the whipped egg whites.

Heat a waffle iron or waffle maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. Ladle the batter onto the waffle iron and cook until golden brown and crispy, 3 to 5 minutes, depending on the thickness of the waffles and the type of waffle iron or maker. Serve.