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Best Ever Whole Wheat Waffles

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Pop quiz for your Monday morning – pancakes or waffles? Tough question, huh? I’m firmly planted in the middle as I love them both, but B is overwhelmingly a waffle guy. So in the interest of preparing one meal instead of two, 90% of the time waffles win the weekend breakfast games.

Poor pancakes. 🙁

Best Ever Whole Wheat Waffles | www.mysequinedlife.com

For awhile now I’ve been itching to tweak our standard waffle recipe to be 100% whole wheat. Let’s just say that some of my attempts were…less than great. Too dense, not crispy enough, too whole-wheaty. They were edible, sure, but not that airy and crisp perfect waffle we’ve come to love. Until these. Fluffy, light, crisp, perfectly spiced, 100% whole wheat waffles.

Can it just be Saturday morning already? Geez.

Best Ever Whole Wheat Waffles | www.mysequinedlife.com

Mmmm waffles. These definitely passed the test – waffle connoisseur B wasn’t aware that these waffles were even any percentage whole wheat until we were doing the dishes after breakfast and he noticed the white whole wheat flour out on the counter. Cha-chiiing! That’s how I knew these whole wheat waffles were a winner.

I used white whole wheat flour in these waffles, which provides the deceptive lighter color and minimizes the whole wheat-y taste. How’s that for technical? I love using white whole wheat flour in my whole wheat baking for this reason. It flies under the radar! You sneaky flour, you.

Best Ever Whole Wheat Waffles | www.mysequinedlife.com

These waffles are SO incredibly fluffy thanks to an extra step I took with the recipe. I separated the egg yolks and whites, and reserved the whites until the very end. After all of the other ingredients were mixed together, I whipped up the egg whites in the food processor until they were super foamy and folded them into the batter right before pouring it onto the waffle maker. This made *such* a difference! I know this creates extra kitchen gear to clean, but I found processing the whites worked much better than simply hand whisking . You want the whites to be as light and as fully-integrated into the batter as possible without over-mixing in order to avoid having visible cooked egg white pieces in your waffles. If you prefer to hand whisk and that happens to you, I’ll tell you from experience that it’ll still taste great but it’s a little unnerving (this was experiment #3 for me).

Best Ever Whole Wheat Waffles | www.mysequinedlife.com

One last tip! This recipe makes 12 waffle squares, so depending on the size of your breakfast crowd (and your appetites!) you may have extras. I froze leftover waffle squares in twos for easy defrosting and toasting so you can actually enjoy them on weekdays. It’s super simple – I stuck the frozen waffles in the microwave for a few seconds to take the chill off and then popped them in the toaster. The result was a pair of crispy, just-out-of-the-waffle-iron waffles, in just a few seconds longer than if you were making toast.

Weekend waffles on a pre-work weekday? I am iiinnnnn!

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Best Ever Whole Wheat Waffles

Servings 12 4"x4" squares

Ingredients

  • 3 eggs yolks and whites separated
  • 1 1/2 cups low-fat buttermilk*
  • 3/4 cup canola oil
  • 3 tbsp granulated sugar
  • '1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
  • 2 tbsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Instructions

  • Separate egg yolks and whites into two separate bowls.
  • In bowl with the yolks, add buttermilk, canola oil, sugar, and vanilla extract. Mix on medium-high speed or until all ingredients are combined and creamy.
  • Add flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg and mix until dry ingredients are just combined.
  • In a food processor, process egg whites until they are very fluffy and light. Stir egg whites into waffle batter until fully incorporated, but do not overmix.
  • Pour batter onto preheated waffle iron and cook to preferred doneness.

Notes

*To make homemade buttermilk, I added 1 1/2 tbsp of white vinegar to 1 1/2 cups of 1% milk and let sit for a few minutes before adding to the recipe.
Wrap excess waffles (if there are any!) with aluminum foil and refrigerate/freeze. To reheat, pop individual waffles in the toaster so they're crispy.
Waffle recipe adapted from Allrecipes.

Comments

  3. I love both pancakes and waffles but if I had to choose I think waffles would win by a tad 🙂 I love that you made ones with whole wheat that are fluffy, light and crisp! They look fantastic and can’t wait to whip some up for our next batch!

    Reply

  4. We got rid of our waffle maker when we moved from Austin to Colorado. Bad mistake! All I want to right now is make a big batch of these pancakes!

    Reply

    • Oh no! We left some kitchen gear behind when we moved from San Diego to Nashville – I know the feeling! This recipe will be waiting for ya if another waffle maker finds its way home with you in the future! 🙂

      Reply

  5. You’re going all Leslie Knope on us, Alyssa! Waffles for the win! 🙂 And these photos are fantastic!

    Freezing leftover waffles is totally the way to go. It makes get-outta-the-house-quickly mornings so much better!

    Reply

  7. I love whole grain and whole wheat flour but some recipes just don’t taste as good. Like you said too wheaty. White whole wheat is fantastic and it is still a whole grain. I use it for lots of my recipes. I love all of your tips! These look delicious! Pinning

    Reply

    • Thanks Cindy! So many lightbulbs went off in my head when I started experimenting with white whole wheat. It’s so sneaky (in a good way)! 🙂

      Reply

    • Thanks Helen! Gahh that is one of my favorite kitchen tips EVER. Most waffle/pancake recipes make way more than the two of us could eat in one sitting so we’re always faced with extra batter. These crisp up so nicely in the toaster!

      Reply

    • Thanks Annie! I was sort of surprised that these waffles came out as ‘regular’ as they did. I’ve made some pretty awful messes with the waffle iron overflowing before, and then overcompensated with round waffles that went nowhere near the edges – haha!

      Reply

    • Thanks Christine!! I finally took the plunge and upgraded my camera. I still have SO much to learn but it’s been fun playing around with it so far!

      Reply

  12. It’s hard to choose between waffles and pancakes, I’m definitely in the middle too. But after seeing these, I’m leaning more towards waffles! These pictures are absolutely beautiful too.

    Reply

    • I love the spices in here too, Deb. Cinnamon and nutmeg are a fab combination. They definitely add little nuances of fall!

      Reply

  15. White whole wheat flour is like the ace in the hole — you know you can go whole wheat without things being too heavy. I’m a big waffle person, so these are calling my name! I need to whip these up one weekend soon!

    Reply

    • I so agree, Marcie. White whole wheat has been sneaking its way into more and more of our baked goods, lately. With a positive response, too! I bet you would enjoy these waffles! 🙂

      Reply

  16. Oh my goodness perfect whole wheat waffles indeed. The extra step with the egg whites was genius! Love the photo with the perfect syrup stream. Great post Alyssa!

    Reply

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