HALEY BAAS

STAFF REPORTER

National Waffle Week was the first week of September, and the entire month is dedicated to honoring National Breakfast Month. In recognition of these notable dates, I decided to try out a few different waffle recipes and shares the best.

The first recipe I made was for cinnamon roll waffles. I found the recipe on Pinterest on a blog called Recipe Girl.

The recipe called for the following ingredients:

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons granulated white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

2 cups buttermilk

½ cup canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To make these waffles, first mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt and then set the mixture aside.

Next, mix the eggs, buttermilk, oil and vanilla and then combine into the dry ingredients. The mix should be slightly lumpy.

Spray a hot waffle iron with non-stick spray and pour the batter in. Cook your waffle based on the instructions from your waffle iron or gauge the steam rising from the iron. When the steam is at about one-fourth its original strength, the waffles are done. Remove using a fork.

Two different toppings are also necessary.

The first is a cinnamon topping:

½ cup melted butter

¾ cup packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

Mix all these together and set aside.

The second topping requires the following:

4 tablespoons butter

2 ounces cream cheese

¾ cup powdered sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat up the butter and cream cheese in a microwave for about a minute, or until you can mix them together until smooth. After that, beat in the powdered sugar and vanilla and combine the mixture until there are no lumps and apply toppings to taste.

I thought the cinnamon roll waffles were delicious. Senior Katie Califano described them as “a less sweet cinnamon roll-but in a really good way.”

These waffles were easy to make and took between three and five minutes each. Once they were done, they were completely worth all the effort it took to make them, which wasn’t much. I would give these a five-star rating.

Photo by Haley Baas

The next waffle recipe I tried was a banana bread waffle recipe. I once again turned to Pinterest for this one and found it at the blog I Love Eating, ihearteating.com.

This called for:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

⅓ cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1 ½ cups buttermilk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about two or three large bananas)

2 tablespoons melted butter

Similar to the first recipe, begin by combining the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set the mixture aside.

Next, in a separate bowl mix together the buttermilk, vanilla, bananas and butter.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients and stir until combined. This mixture will also have some lumps in it.

Follow the same cooking instructions as the cinnamon roll waffle recipe, keeping them in the waffle iron for five to seven minutes. The only difference I found was that these waffles could be harder to take out than the cinnamon roll waffles. Because of the bananas, these are slightly softer and may require grabbing the waffle on both sides with forks.

These waffles tasted exactly like banana bread in waffle form. Personally, I would rather have banana bread in bread form, but if you are a fan of both waffles and bananas, I would say this is the recipe for you.

Because of the less-crispy nature of the waffles and the extra time it took to make them, I would rate these waffles three stars.

Photo by Haley Baas

Finally, I decided to take a step back from the different varieties and make plain Belgian waffles. I used a family recipe which called for the following ingredients:

1 ¾ cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 ¾ cups milk

½ cup oil or ½ cup melted butter

To achieve an even lighter waffle than usual, first separate the eggs and whip the whites until they are stiff, then set these aside. If you would rather not spend the time to do this, using the egg whole works well too.

Next, combine the flour, baking powder and salt and mix together thoroughly before setting aside.

Then, combine the egg yolks with the milk and oil. I used buttermilk for mine but regular milk will also work.

Stir in the flour mixture with the egg, milk and oil and combine well. There should not be many lumps in this batter. After that, if you decided to whip the egg whites, fold them into the mixture until just combined.

Cook them in a waffle iron, as mentioned in the other recipes, and enjoy! These waffles turned out very light. Califano took one bite of them and pronounced them “delicious!”

These waffles took about three to five minutes to make and turned out crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. I would give them a five-star rating.

Each of these recipes makes about six waffles.  You can use either a Belgian waffle maker or a regular maker and achieve the same results.

The ingredients for all of them were all common baking supplies, besides buttermilk and, perhaps, items such as powdered sugar and cream cheese. I found the waffles inexpensive to make and worth the effort.

Good luck, and have fun celebrating Breakfast Food Month.