Posted by Judy at My Freezer is Full
My family loves waffles. They’re a great thing to have in the freezer so the children can pop them into the toaster for a quick, nutritious breakfast before school. I’ll confess, in years gone by we had succumbed to the ease of purchasing pre-made waffles at the store.
A little over a year ago, I decided that buying waffles was a total waste of money (averaging 25-35 cents per waffle!) and not as nutritious as I had hoped. So I embarked on a quest to find a waffle iron… just a waffle iron, nothing fancy- not Belgian waffles, nothing that spins or flips, no interchangeable plates to convert it into a panini press- just a waffle iron. I struck out at our local thrift stores but eventually was able to find a basic 4-waffle iron. We’ve been waffling at our house ever since and haven’t looked back.
It took a while to find a recipe that everyone liked. I generally replace some of the regular flour with whole wheat or multi-grain flour and can add whatever other ingredients I like. I will make a double batch on a Saturday morning and – with 3 children- hope to have some left over to pop into the freezer for the following week.
I like that I know exactly what is in them- there are no questions of food safety here. I recently learned that Kellogg’s had a recall of Eggo waffles in September of this year due to contamination with Listeria. Yum, I’ll have a side order of meningitis with my breakfast. I don’t think so. I don’t remember hearing any press about it at the time though. Interestingly enough, the official Eggo website makes no mention of this recall, only citing ‘production problems’ in answer to a question about why there is a shortage of products on the shelves. Curiouser and curiouser….
I’m glad we were able to kick the store-bought habit. I can still make chocolate chip waffles for my children, if that’s what they want. But I know that they’re eating nutritious, safe food- now if only I could keep up with their appetites!
Care to share the winning recipe? I’m a huge fan of waffles!
My current favorite, in part because there’s no beating of egg whites:
Modified from Betty Crocker’s New Picture Cookbook
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 tsp. soda
2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup melted butter
Beat eggs. Beat in everything else until smooth.
The original recipe calls for less flour, but I like a thicker batter.
I totally agree with you! It is so easy to make waffles yourself and so much cheaper AND you know what you put in your children.
Same goes with a couple of other things, I don’t understand people are buying them at the store. Because it doesn’t take longer to make them yourself (pancake mixes is one example).
I think we’ll have some waffles this afternoon with tea (we only eat them in the afternoon, not for breakfast, being european)
More recipes, please.
Anyone have a recipe for buckwheat waffles that still come out light? I got more buckwheat flour than I may ever get through.
OK, Here’s our current favorite. I’ll give you the original recipe then tell you how I tweak it.
2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 eggs separated
1 2/3 cups milk
6 Tbsp butter melted.
Beat the egg whites until stiff. I put mine in my stand mixer and usually by the time I get the dry ingredients mixed together they’re ready.
Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Combine the milk, egg yolks and melted butter. Add these to the dry ingredients and mix well.
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Bake in waffle iron.
Here are my modifications. I substitute about 1/2 cup whole wheat flour for the regular. The waffles aren’t as light but still really good. Depending on the coarseness of the whole wheat I sometimes need to add a bit more flour to make the batter thick enough. Since my kids like them a bit sweeter I tend to increase the sugar a bit and add some vanilla in with the wet ingredients. I’ve also been known to stir in a handful of mini chocolate chips before I add the egg whites. With the extra sugar and vanilla they taste a bit like chocolate chip cookies! I’ve also got an oatmeal waffle recipe that is pretty tasty.
I’ve never tried buckwheat flour in waffles but I like it in pancakes. Maybe time to experiment….
A while back I bought a cheap waffle maker and it didn’t work. Like you I will start keeping my eyes open for a better one and will refer back to this post for your recipes. The kids will be pleased. Great post Judy!!
We do this too. I found a small two-waffle iron at Evil Big-Box Store for about $10 a while back. It makes waffles that fit in the toaster, very important. The recipe we use is the Joy of Cooking basic waffle recipe (no egg-white beating), though I use 2 eggs instead of 3, add 1/2 tsp vanilla, and half white and half whole wheat flour. Any extras from Sunday mornings are frozen for later use. This is one of the foods that my toddler will eat without fuss.
Good for you! I stopped buying store-bought sandwich bread 6 months ago (wouldn’t be psychologically possible for me w/o a bread machine to make the dough lol). Sadly, I’ve gotten out of the habit of making extra pancakes to freeze, and into the habit of buying store bought waffles! Ok, I promise to stop.