This recipe is designed to avoid the following allergens:
- Wheat (Gluten)
- Egg
- Dairy
These are the most prominent allergens normally found in waffles. As always, read the ingredient list yourself to determine if this recipe has anything you’re allergic to.
Waffles are like pancakes with syrup traps. A waffle says to the syrup, “Hold on, now. You ain’t going anywhere.”
Mitch Hedberg (RIP)
After perfecting our recipe for allergy-friendly cornmeal pancakes, it only seemed logical to move on to waffles. Aside from the shape and cooking method, they’re largely made up of the same stuff. But there are a few differences. Waffle batter is usually a little runnier, and has more oil incorporated.
UPDATE: Originally, we used cornmeal in this recipe, but we have since discovered that it’s not necessary. Simply using gluten-free 1-to-1 flour will get the job done, and with better results.
Another thing you’ll often find in waffle batter is whipped egg whites. That’s obviously a no-go for us. But whenever a recipe calls for egg whites, especially whipped ones, I know where to turn:
Aquafaba!
Perhaps you haven’t been introduced. What is aquafaba? Well, it’s just a fancy word for the liquid in a can of garbanzo beans. (It literally means “bean water”, but that doesn’t sound very appetizing.) I’ve heard that other beans work too; most likely, garbanzos are usually used due to the relatively neutral color and taste.
Amazingly, it not only has binding and rising properties similar to egg whites, but it even whips up like them. I won’t get into the science behind it… mostly because I don’t know… but for some reason, it works!
Like our pancake recipe, this recipe mostly consists of how to make the batter. Everything beyond that is going to depend on what equipment you’re using, but the goal here is that you won’t have to change however you normally do it. My only caution is that they might take slightly longer, which is often the case with gluten-free baking. If you have any waffle-making tips you’d like to share with us, please leave them in the comments section!
We’ve used two different waffle irons: a cast iron stovetop waffle iron (sounds redundant, I know) and more recently an electric Belgian waffle iron: the Presto 03510 Ceramic FlipSide Belgian Waffle Maker. This recipe should be easily adaptable to either type of device — you’ll just have to experiment a little to figure out what works best for yours. It should be noted that the cast iron one makes medium-sized waffles, about the size of a frozen toaster waffle. The electric one makes large Belgian-style waffles. But aside from the different amount of batter, the cooking time/instructions remain basically the same.
But again, the technique isn’t really the main thing we want to talk about here — it’s all about that batter!
Makes about 6-8 large (Belgian) waffles or about 10-12 medium (toaster-sized) waffles
Allergy-friendly Waffles
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 3 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour (440 g)
- 1 Tbsp Baking Powder (12g)
- ½ tsp Baking Soda (4g)
- 6 Tbsp Sugar (90 g, plain white cane sugar)
- 2 tsp Salt (14g, table salt)
Wet Ingredients
- 2½ cups Non-dairy milk
- ½ cup Oil or Vegan Butter
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- ½ Tbsp Apple cider vinegar
- ½ cup Aquafaba (160 g / liquid from one 14.5 oz can of garbanzo beans)
Other
- Oil spray (for greasing the waffle iron)
- Syrup (for topping)
- Vegan Butter (for topping)
Instructions
Making the Batter
- Whisk all the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
- Add all of the wet ingredients, except aquafaba. Whisk or stir to combine. It should be fairly wet at this point, a bit more runny than pancake batter. When you run the whisk through it, it should create streaks pretty easily.
- Using your favorite handheld beater or stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the aquafaba until it forms white peaks. This could take somewhere up to 10 minutes, but probably not any longer than that. (Don’t stress about getting it to meringue-like perfection; it just needs to be fluffy.)
- OPTIONAL: If your waffle iron requires pre-heating, start now. For the cast iron stovetop one, I put each half on a separate burner at heat level "7" (out of 10).Additionally, if desired, preheat your oven to its lowest setting (mine is 170 F) and put something in there that will be able to hold the waffles, to keep them warm and crisp after you cook them. (I use a wire rack that goes with one of my baking sheets.) This may not be necessary if you have something that can cook a lot of waffles at once, or 1 large waffle per person.
- Fold the whipped aquafaba into the batter until combined. (Try to be gentle, but don’t be afraid to get it all mixed, either — just make sure you’re not, like, getting an arm workout.) It should end up pretty bubbly and foamy.
Making the Waffles
- NOTE: The specifics of this process will vary depending on the size and type of waffle iron you use.
- Depending on how non-stick the waffle iron is, you may need to spray both sides before each waffle.
- Ladle batter onto iron and clamp down. Flip right away.(For the Presto FlipSide waffle iron, the right ladle size is about 1 cup / 8 oz.)
- Cook for about 4-5 minutes.(For stovetop waffle iron, flip once per minute.)
- Check for doneness. If not done, cook for an additional minute.
- Using a fork, gently stab the side of the waffle and pull it up out of the iron. If the surface was non-stick enough, and you used a high enough heat and gave it enough time, the waffle should come off the iron pretty easily. If it looks like the two halves of the waffle might separate, give it a little more time.
- After removing the waffle from the iron, either serve it or place it on a wire rack in the oven to maintain crispness.
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