by
Have you ever woke up from an afternoon nap and thought, “I would love a waffle”. I did the other day. I woke up and totally craved a waffle. Unfortunately my old roommate Mark, broke my waffle iron a couple of years back. (Yeah totally called you out on that Mark) So I decided to go to Target and grab a waffle iron. They had a few, I chose the cheapest one. Only $19.95. Not too shabby, but more on this in the post.  Then I went looking for a great recipe. I searched my recipe books and found a decent sounding one from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. I took this as a base and tweaked it for my own personal tastes.
I added a bit of sugar and vanilla to the recipe to give the waffle a little more depth.
Light and Fluffy Waffles – (adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook)
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tbs sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 3/4 cups milk
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 2 egg whites
In a medium mixing bowl whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
In a separate bowl beat egg yolks slightly. Stir in milk, vanilla and oil. Make sure to use a medium sized bowl. I made the mistake of trying to use a cereal bowl and it totally was not big enough.
Add the egg mixture to the dry mixture. Stir just till moistened.
In a small bowl beat egg whites until stiff peaks form (tips stand straight up). You can use a mixer, but if you are about to eat 3 waffles like I do, you may want to do it by hand. A little exercise can’t hurt, right?
Gently fold the egg whites into the mixed batter, leaving a few fluffs of egg white, Do not overmix.  The key to light and airy waffles is to not over-mix the batter.
Spoon waffle batter into your waffle iron, making sure not to overfill it. This is key, as you can see from the photos, I did not read the manufacturers suggested amount for batter. I went a tad over.
Serve with butter and syrup.
Tips to buying waffle irons. Make sure that your waffle iron locks. The cheap waffle iron that I purchased does not lock the lid. So the batter as it raised, opened the iron and caused the waffles to be deformed. I had to manually hold the lid down for 5 minutes to get the waffles to come out correctly. Doesn’t sound too hard, but making waffles causes a lot of steam to be formed. Totally burned my hands a couple of times. My tip – you get what you pay for. Spend the extra $5 for a waffle iron that locks.
Very lovely waffles. I bought my waffle maker at Wally Mart for 35$. There is no lock on it, but it does have a heavy iron so it keeps it shut. It works so well that I use it at work often. Don’t worry about going a tad over for the batter. It is way better than not having enough.
Now that you have your base down, try some savory versions, using pumpkin puree. You will be blown away!
I wish mine had a heavy iron. I swear the whole thing is made of plastic. As soon as I add batter the lid rises about 2 inches. Then it collapses and makes limp waffles. If you hold it down it makes perfect waffles. Maybe I should go MacGyver on it and make a lock out of something. Ooh, maybe a coat hanger could lock around the handles. I will have to try pumpkin waffles. I hear they are amazing. I also want to try chicken and waffles. I hear the savory sweet combo works.
Yummy! I love waffles. Sadly no waffle maker in my small kitchen.. but I would like to get one of those appliances that has the plates you change out to get the waffle iron, grill, quesadilla maker, panini press etc…
Our waffle maker died in May and I’ve yet to buy a replacement. It was just the Toastmaster basic model and it lasted 6+ years of heavy use so I might just get another of those. But I’d really like one of those big metal restaurant and buffet models that flip over half way though (if money and space were no object!).
Your hands must hate you, with all of the recent burns:)
My hands totally hate me. I would love one of the waffle irons that lock and flip, but they start at around $80 for a sturdy one. I might look into the the toastmaster. Did it have a lock on it?