Waffle Recipe - Gluten, Dairy, Soy, Dye, and so much more free

My kids like waffles. In our pre-special diet days, they would scarf them down like rabid wolves. However, with our special diets and the fact that waffle irons seem to either have teflon, aluminum or some other unsafe coating they weren't a part of our day (or they are cast iron and, well, GF bread on cast iron, yeah, that's a sticky situation waiting to happen).

My kids longed for waffles.

They begged for waffles.

They even tried bargaining for waffles.

Frozen waffles might be your thought. Yeah, just look at the label and find one that has no gluten, no soy, no dairy, no apples (apple juice is a big thing in gluten free foods), and so on. You won't find one, at least not at any Kroger, Walmart, local natural food store, Target, Whole Foods, Sprouts, and so on near us. I have read so many frozen waffle labels it's not even funny.

Enter this little beauty.

I never thought I would purchase an Oster kitchen appliance. They are not known for being high quality or very safe. But, I received so many recommendations on this exact model I decided to give it a try. It's the Oster Duraceramic Waffle Iron. There were two models. One is a basic one where you open the lid, pour in the batter, close the lid, and wait. The one in the picture was a bit nicer. It was similar to the irons you see in the dining areas of hotels with continental breakfasts. The picture above is in cook mode. If you flip it over you will see two lights (power and ready) and a temperature dial.

To use it you simply open the top lid, pour in your batter and spread it out (just helps for uniformity), close the lid and turn it clockwise. You wait until the light turns on, flip it back over, open it up, and you have a perfectly cooked waffle. No guessing on time or anything.

But, what about a recipe? That's the kicker here, isn't it. I have one. I tweaked a traditional waffle recipe for this and it worked beautifully.

This starts with the right flour. It used to be, in gluten-free cooking, that you had to get just the right mix of flours. You still do, but now the work has been done for us. I picked up one of the cup-for-cup flours for this recipe. I used Domata Gluten Free Recipe Ready Flour. You can use other cup-for-cup brands, but make sure it either has the corn starch in it or that you add it in this recipe (which I will show as optional assuming you are using this type of flour).

From here

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 Cups all-purpose gluten-free flour (see picture above for description of exactly what I used)
• 1/2 Cup cornstarch (you don't need this if you use a flour that already contains it, so read your label carefully)
• 2 Tbsp cornmeal (I didn't use it in this recipe but the original did call for it. That's just a lot of corn product for my liking)
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 large eggs, separated
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 3/4 Cup almond milk (you can use rice but I like the thickness of Almond)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 Cup dairy, soy, gluten free butter, melted (Earth Balance in the red container is excellent)

Directions

1. In a large bowl, sift or whisk together flour, cornstarch, corn meal, baking powder, and salt to blend thoroughly; set aside.
2. In a mixer bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. 
3. Add sugar; continue beating just until stiff peaks form; set aside.
4. Whisk together egg yolks, milk, and vanilla. 
5. Using spatula, stir milk mixture into flour mixture, blending just until dry ingredients are moistened (there should be small lumps, do not overmix - gluten free flour doesn't like too much mixing).
6. Stir in melted butter. 
7. FOLD in beaten egg whites until combined, Folding gives you that fluffy texture, don't overdo it.
8. Pour batter onto a hot, greased (I use a little oil even though it's non-stick) waffle iron heated on Medium - Medium high heat.

Makes about 5 1/2 Cups and our average waffle took about 3/4 - 1 cup. 

If you like your waffles a bit crispier, put them on a wire cooling rack (make sure it's not teflon coated or an unsafe metal) and let it sit for a minute. 

Serve with warm organic maple syrup and watch your family eat them quickly. My husband, who doesn't have to eat allergy safe, said he would gladly eat those even if we didn't need to be gluten free. That's a big testament to the recipe. He's picky. 

Talk soon.