Jensen Family Gluten Free Waffles

We have had a number of requests to share our waffle recipe.  Seeing that we make them every week, it surprised me that they weren't already up.  I think these are the BEST waffles, even compared to the gluten ones that I can still order and eat when we are out.

The wet ingredients

Beat together flax, water, egg yolks, milk, and pumpkin.

The dry ingredients

Add flours, baking powder, salt and xanthan gum. Mix to become a batter.

Meringue!

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff. Add sugar, and beat until the whites form soft peaks. Fold into batter.

The workstation set up.

This is my system to bake the waffles.  When both ready lights are on, I spray the plates and plop an almost 1/4 cup of batter into each square.  There is a lot left in/on the measuring cup (hence the "almost 1/4 cup") so I have a plate to catch all the extra batter.  Then I fill the second (black) iron.  While they are baking I wash out the dishes.  When the first (white iron's) ready light comes on again, I move the finished waffles to the cooling rack, spray and fill, and then remove the second iron's waffles.  Stacking the cooled waffles to make room for the hot ones.  Repeating again, and again and . . .

I regularly scrape the sides of the bowl down and scrape the batter from the plate back into the bowl.  Then I give the batter a little "fold" to ensure that the heavier ingredients don't settle at the bottom.  If the children are not "helping" I am able to make a weeks worth of sandwiches in an hour, start to finish.

My favourite waffle iron

We have had this (white) waffle iron for forever, possibly a wedding gift in 1998.  Before going gluten free we never used it, but it managed to stay with us thru 3 moves.  We always thought it was easier to make french toast or pancakes.  When 18 month old Alayna needed to begin a gluten free diet, and I could not master gluten free bread, we began to make waffles for her sandwiches.

This waffle iron has been used, roughly, once a week for 7 years!  It is irreplaceable.  See, it is a true "regular" waffle iron.  Rectangular waffles with small, shallow pockets.  All irons on the market today are "Belgian" waffle irons.  Even the non-round ones have these wide, deep pockets.  While our other/newer waffle iron works, to use the same amount of batter I have to spread it around to fill out the square.  Then, it doesn't rise as well and you don't get the deep pocket anyway.

This is 8 days of sandwiches for 3 children (aka 48 waffles)

Can you see the difference in the new vs old irons' waffles?  The front row has older on the left, newer on the right.  Because I like the old iron's waffles better, when I get to the end I will make the last batch (sometimes only 1 or 2 waffles worth) on it.  That's why there is an old iron waffle on the right side.

Jensen Family Gluten Free Waffles
adapted from Eating Gluten Free

2 Tbs Ground Flax
1/2 Cup Water
3 Egg Yolks
2 Cups Milk *
2 Cups Water *
1 Cup Pumpkin Puree **

1 Cup Sorghum Flour***
1 Cup Buckwheat Flour
1 Cup Brown Rice Flour
1 Cup Tapioca Starch ****
2 Tbs Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Xanthun Gum, rounded

6 Egg Whites
1/4 Cup Sugar*****

Beat together flax, water, egg yolks, milk, and pumpkin. Add flours, baking powder, salt and xanthan gum. Mix to become a batter.

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff. Slowly add sugar, until the whites form soft peaks. Fold into batter.

Bake on a hot waffle iron.

Keep waffles in a warm oven (with the door cracked open) until you are ready to eat. Any leftover waffles may be placed in Ziploc bags and frozen. They may then be reheated in the toaster, or made into sandwiches in the morning, to defrost in time for lunch.

* Really it's just 4 cups of liquid.  If I have leftover coconut milk I will add that, if I am at the end of the milk jug, I will just finish it.  I do try to have at least 2 cups be something other than water though.

** You can also use applesauce.  If I want to get fancy, for eating waffles not sandwich waffles, I will add pumpkin spice with the pumpkin: 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ground ginger, 1/2 tsp ground clove or allspice.

*** Our supplier of Sorghum flour stopped stocking it, we now use white rice flour, but preferred the sorghum.

**** You can substitute another starch, perhaps potato or corn.

***** When we are doing the "fancy" waffles, we will sometimes use brown sugar in place of the regular and then add 1 tsp of vanilla extract.

And those 3 extra egg yolks?  With a can of coconut milk and a 1/3 cup of sugar I make an ice cream base.