Eat, Drink, Savor: Wafflz & Pearlz with a touch of elegance

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Bre Belaski describes herself as a “dessert-first kinda girl” and, with her husband Nick, has brought her own brand of sweetness, Wafflz & Pearlz, to the Hollister Farmers’ Market for the first time this year.

“I love desserts,” she said. “I love anything sugar. I have a thing for going to coffee shops and bakeries and seeing what cool delectable items they have.”

Bre began cooking for fun while working in management for a San Jose Cheesecake factory. Totally self-taught, she started making decorated cakes and cookies for friends and family.

“She has always been very artistic,” Nick said. “She draws extremely well and was able to express herself with her beautiful designs.”

Her baked goods proved very popular, and what started as a hobby quickly grew into her own home-based business.

“I kept getting referral after referral,” Bre said. “For nine years, I was busy every weekend with baking, and it just became something I was doing. It took a lot of energy and a lot of my sleep.”

Everything changed when she had her first Belgian Liège waffle, and decided to focus on them as the mainstay of her business.

“The first time I tried one,” she said, “I really didn’t understand the difference between an American one and what I was eating. It was more dense, had more body, and I was loving it.”

A Liège waffle is made with a yeast-based brioche dough rather than a standard waffle batter. It includes a special kind of sugar nib called “pearls” that caramelize during the cooking, giving it a rich and distinctive taste.

“The first time I tried cooking one,” Bre said, “I got really excited. The first round was great, but about 15 recipes later I think I really perfected it and made it my own.”

Becoming exhausted with custom baking and decorating, the waffle offered Bre a chance to simplify while still offering a unique product.

“My dessert line was all over the place,” she said. “I wanted to streamline and keep it to something I was passionate about. The waffle could be the base, and I could express my creativity through the different flavors and styles of toppings.”

The Belaskis moved to Hollister in 2019, with Nick becoming the lead pastor of the Christian Worship Center. Bre decided the commute to San Jose was much less interesting and decided to go all in, with the help of Nick and their three children, on her new business venture. 

“She had it in her heart to do this for a while,” Nick said. “She wanted to start on November 11—11/11/23—and one or two days before she said, ‘I don’t know if I can do it.’ I told her, ‘No, you are going to do it’ and we did.”

They started by sending out an email blast to the people in their neighborhood, offering a day when neighbors could come and help them taste test. For two hours, they handed out samples and feedback sheets soliciting opinions on the taste and preparation.

“The original idea for the business was larger waffles,” Bre said, “but we made smaller ones for the taste test to cut costs. They were around the size of a cookie, and people just loved them.”

Those smaller waffles became the core of their current business. Marketed as mini-waffles, they are available in grab-and-go boxes of six, one each of the styles they are offering that day. They are also available as larger waffles and dipped and decorated waffles on a stick called Wafflpops.

Bre bakes all of her waffles fresh that morning, whether for private catering or the Farmers’ Market. She gets up at 4 a.m. to bake them, having prepared the batter the evening before.

“Since the waffles are made with brioche dough,” she said, “it has to rise and develop, which takes about nine hours. It is much denser and made with much more butter and love.”

Marketing the waffles was initially a challenge because people were so unfamiliar with this traditional version of a classic breakfast favorite.

“For some,” Nick said, “Their idea of a Belgian waffle is what you get at Denny’s. It is really airy; you throw some strawberries and whipped cream on it, and there you go. Part of the fear of launching this business was realizing that the product was really unknown.”

Nick is the frontman for the business, standing on the street with a tray filled with samples, urging passersby to give their waffles a chance.

“Once people taste them, they understand the difference,” he said. “That’s my pitch. I tell them, ‘Try them before you buy them—if you think you’ve had a real Belgian waffle, you probably haven’t!’”

While the Belaskis also sell their waffles online, it is worth seeking them out at the Farmers’ Market because they are allowed to use fresh fruits and creams there, which home licensing does not permit. 

That allows them to offer truly unique variations of the Wafflpop, like the lemon meringue, with sweet lemon topping and toasted marshmallow cream, or the guava coconut with coconut cream and guava jam.

Since opening the business last year, the response has been enthusiastic enough that they are considering opening their own shop, reflecting their approach to creating their own home business.

“You just have to get out there every day and do it,” Bre said. “One step is going to lead to another. It takes time and patience, but every day I remind myself of the saying, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

Baked Delights from Wafflz & Pearlz

The Classic Belgian – The basic Liège waffle is served with only a sprinkling of sugar. Trying this unadorned version is perhaps the best introduction to this style of the waffle. The sugar pearls give the waffle a bit of a crunch through the otherwise dense texture of the dough, and they also caramelize the bottom of the waffle for another layer of flavor. They are simple but great on their own and even better when matched with one of the optional dipping sauces like Nutella or Speculoos cookie butter, with its rich gingerbread flavor. 

The Chocolatier – Dipped in rich Belgian Callebaut milk chocolate, made from three different kinds of cocoa beans with a recipe dating back to 1910, there is a compelling dark edge to the flavor of this waffle. It is not the typical over-sugared milk chocolate you find in candy counters, but is more refined with a deeper flavored. Pro tip: get some of the guava jam dip for this one.

Biscoff White Chocolate – The famous caramelized taste of the crumbled bits of Biscoff cookie harmonizes beautifully with the Belgian white chocolate, adding a little crunch and a little extra sweetness.  

Strawberries and Cream – One of my favorites, this waffle is dipped in white Belgian chocolate and sprinkled with dried strawberry bits. It is a perfect combination of flavors; for me, it is a must-try.

Cookies and Cream – Belgian white chocolate dusted with Oreo crumbs, again the crunch from the cookies is the thing here. 

Dark Chocolate Raspberry – This one was my favorite. It uses a darker chocolate than the Chocolatier and has a sprinkling of raspberry dust, giving the whole thing an intense and very adult taste.

Wafflz & Pearlz can be found on their website, Instagram, and Facebook as well as from 3-7 p.m. every Wednesday at the Hollister Downtown Association Farmers’ Market. 

Recommendations for future Eat, Drink, Savor articles can be emailed to roberteliason@benitolink.com.

BenitoLink thanks our underwriters, Hollister Super and Windmill Market, for helping to expand the Eat, Drink, Savor series and give our readers the stories that interest them. Hollister Super (two stores in Hollister) and Windmill Market (in San Juan Bautista) support reporting on the inspired and creative people behind the many delicious food and drink products made in San Benito County. All editorial decisions are made by BenitoLink.