At Home Buttermilk Waffles

My son could be like Buddy from the movie Elf pouring maple syrup on all things edible if we let him. He likes to use pancakes as spoons to scoop up the syrup, then drinks the syrup off without even consuming the pancake.

I get it. Real maple syrup is so good.

We happily and gratefully receive a big jug of real maple syrup as an annual Christmas gift from a beloved aunt that can last us anywhere from a few months to almost a year. YUM.

I don’t normally enjoy pancakes (I have been known to enjoy pancakes littered or covered with blueberries or strawberries though), so besides baking (things like maple donuts), sometimes using a splash of syrup as a coffee sweetener,  or licking it off the plates or cheeks or my children, I use waffles as my vehicle for maple syrup ingestion.

I’ve always been a waffle fan. I asked for (and received) a waffle iron for Christmas in elementary school. I also received one on my wedding registry and this past year I happily received a waffle iron for my birthday.

Here are my current waffle irons:

The old one is like this one: Cuisinart WAF-100 4-Slice Belgian Waffle Maker only smaller. The new one is this girl: Chef’s Choice 830 WafflePro Heart Waffle Iron. (Those are Amazon Affiliate links.)

The wedding gift makes a Belgian waffle and the new iron makes thinner waffles. We are enjoying the new iron waffles. The waffles cook very quickly in the new iron, which is awesome. Only a couple minutes per batch and then a little buzzer goes off instead of what seemed like forever for the Belgian waffles to stop steaming as the signal they are done (then requiring a peak and perhaps a few more minutes cooking time). But the heart waffle leftovers have to be ripped in half to fit into our toaster to be reheated, which isn’t ideal, while the Belgian waffles just pop nice and neat from freezer to toaster.

I’ve found a nice buttermilk waffle batter recipe I wanted to share. I’ve only used it in the new heart shaped waffle iron.

These waffles cook nice, taste nice, reheat nice, and freeze nice. They would be great to roll up scrambled eggs,  peanut butter and jelly, or cream cheese and fruit into something of a roll/wrap, but I haven’t tried that yet. They have been sent cold along with yogurt in my kids lunchboxes with no complaints. Mostly they have been well received and enjoyed straight up as breakfast, brunch and dinner in this house.

Enjoy!

Buttermilk Waffles
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients:

• 2 large eggs
• 1 3/4 cups buttermilk (sometimes I use Sarah’s favorite Saco Powdered Buttermilk, whisk the powder and water as much as I can and then scoop out/remove all of the clumps that didn’t stir in nicely before pouring it into the mixture, you don’t want those lumps in your batter)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (the original recipe calls for butter, melted and slightly cooled, 1/2 cup melted butter or a combination of butter/oil to total 1/2 cup of fats is an option)
• 3 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 – 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp sugar (optional)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 – 1/2 tsp salt (the original recipe calls for 1 tsp, but I can taste the salt using that much and lowered it with no noticeable effect on the waffle texture)

Directions:

1. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium mixing bowl.
2. Whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, oil and vanilla in a separate bowl. Add in the dry ingredients and stir until combined. There may still be some lumps.
3. Let the batter rest for a few minutes.
4. Cook as directed by your waffle iron instructions.