Doesn’t your family deserve made-from-scratch waffles?

(Top left, my normal waffles from Belgian waffle maker. Lower right, waffles from my daughter’s waffle maker.)

Several years ago for Christmas one of my daughters got me a waffle maker (which is another story I’ll tell sometime).

I had never particularly wanted one in my old kitchen because “where would I put it?” was always my question of the day when looking at some gadgety single-use kitchen item. Like who needs a grilled cheese maker, really.

But after we moved to a new home in 2007, I hinted I might enjoy a waffle maker now that I had more room in our kitchen.

The recipe book that came with the waffle maker had this basic recipe—that looked way complicated at first. Who whips egg whites anymore, when you can just whip out a pancake mix and have (sort of) waffles in your waffle maker?

I do. Now. Especially when the kids and sons-in-law are home for the weekend or a holiday. It is our special treat, and we usually eat until they are gone (the recipe makes probably 9 or 10 rounds of waffles–that’s 4 little sections in one round, and sometimes we share rounds).

This is an awesome recipe and well worth the time to beat the whites and sift the flour. They come out airy and fluffy and thick—when you use a Belgian type “flip” waffle maker, as shown here.

For this batch, I was at my daughter’s house helping with Sam and they just had the thin waffle maker kind, and the waffles were still great, just not as tall or airy.

(Check out this telling why 1/2 cup of cornstarch, and separating the egg whites and yolks, makes the important difference in outcome.)

Waffles – adapted from Oster Waffle Maker recipe book

1 ½ cups flour
½ cup cornstarch
1 Table. baking powder
1 tea. salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter melted
4 large eggs, separated**
2 Table. sugar
1 3/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla

In large bowl, sift or whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt to blend thoroughly; set aside.

In mixer bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form.

(Soft peaks, add sugar now.)

Add sugar; continue beating until stiff peaks form; set aside.

(This is stiff.)

Separately, whisk together egg yolks, milk, and vanilla (not pictured).

Take your flour mixture (shown above) …

… and blend flour mixture with egg/milk/vanilla mixture until dry ingredients are moistened (there should still be small lumps; do not over mix).

Stir in melted butter.

Fold in beaten egg whites until all combined to make your batter.

Pour batter onto hot, greased waffle iron and cook using instructions from the waffle iron. Makes about 5 ½ c. batter.

**This is where I’ve adapted the recipe. I use 4 eggs because my Kitchen Aid mixer bowl is so deep that the beater barely dips into the egg white using only 3.

But using 4 eggs, the beater/whisk attachment tip reaches into the egg whites enough (after you raise the bowl) that it begins the connection to the liquid and then gradually brings along more and more of the whites and soon you have a glorious bowl of stiff egg whites. (Adding the sugar at the “almost there” stage as described above.)

P.S. I wasn’t sure if I could beat egg whites with my daughter’s little old hand held mixer (that we bought her when she moved to an apartment in college).

But sure enough, they beat up just fine, perhaps took a little longer. So way to go, little old apartment mixer.

P.S.P.S. These freeze well, if you have leftovers. Just put a layer of wax paper between rounds in a freezer bag. Pop in toaster or microwave on a busy work/school morning.

***

What is your favorite Saturday or Sunday morning breakfast? Who cooks it? Dad? Mom? Kids? IHOP?

Alas, this waffle recipe did not make it into my Whatever Happened to Dinner recipe book but 100 some others did (not nearly all mine, and the recipe editors/testers did a great job), and here’s the scoop.