Gluten-Free Tuesday: Waffles
A great pancake-waffle divide exists in my home. I'm a pancake person. My husband? He loves waffles.
For years I made waffles that I adored. They were delicate, with a slightly crisp exterior and a soufflé-like interior, and, thanks to a bit of buttermilk, they had a mild tang.
One morning my husband looked down at his plate and said, "You know, I don't love these. They're too soft, too pancake-like. I like waffles to be more, I don't know, waffley." You know you're in trouble when someone needs to make up a word like "waffley" to describe what they don't like about your cooking.
Looking at the recipe, I noticed that it contained a high percentage of wet ingredients. I decided to tighten the batter by increasing the amount of dry ingredients. This worked: the resulting waffles were crisp and no longer pancake-like. I made one more change. I swapped the buttermilk for milk in order to lose the buttermilk pancake-flavor. Now the waffles tasted, well, waffley!
These waffles are fantastically easy to prepare. Unlike some recipes, you don't need to whip the egg whites to lighten the batter. A generous amount of baking powder provides the lift, giving you a light, crispy waffle.
To make preparing the waffles even easier, measure the dry ingredients the night before you plan on making waffles. In the morning, you'll only need to add the milk, eggs, oil and vanilla.
Dry Ingredients
1 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup sweet rice flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
Wet Ingredients
1 1/4 cups milk
2 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
non-stick cooking spray
1. In medium mixing bowl, whisk together white rice flour, cornstarch, sweet rice flour, baking powder, granulated sugar, salt, and xanthan gum. In small bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, oil, and vanilla extract until smooth.
2. Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients. Using balloon whisk or handheld mixer, blend until batter is smooth. No lumps should remain.
3. Heat waffle iron according to manufacturer's directions. Spray iron generously with non-stick cooking spray. Spoon batter onto hot iron (amount of batter will vary depending on your iron) and bake until golden brown and crisp.
This piece first ran at SeriousEats.com as part of Elizabeth's ongoing Gluten-Free Tuesday column.
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