Every so often, Dustin and I get caught up discussing how we would love to own and run our very own restaurant.
It usually happens after we eat somewhere and feel disappointed with the food. Man, I hate that.
We get to thinking, “Hey, if they can run a successful restaurant, we could totally do this.”
And then it starts.
The brainstorming. The excitement. The planning. The menu. The decor. The name. The …
The kids. The itty-bitty kiddos. The soccer games we’d miss. The weekend future baseball tournaments and ballet recitals we’d miss. And sleep-overs. The evenings. The early mornings. The sleep we’d miss.
How on earth could we run a restaurant with lil’ kiddos?
Isn’t that the whole reason why I’m staying home? To be around them MORE? How do families with small children run restaurants?
And that about stops our excitement and brings us back to reality. For the time being, at least.
One day. We’ll have our restaurant and it will be awesome. But not today. And that’s ok.
Now that my tangent is over, these waffles came about for three very specific reasons:
- Because I got sick of trying chicken and waffles at restaurant after restaurant and being disappointed.
- Because Dustin got me an amazing belgian waffle maker for Mother’s Day.
- Because waffles.
We went out to breakfast for Mother’s Day and I got Chicken and Waffles. Because it was Mother’s Day and that sounded amazing and calories don’t exist on Mother’s Day. And because we went to a place that has supposedly the best chicken and waffles in Austin.
Not so much, sadly.
So I went home and made myself some waffles. And they were yummy.
One day, you guys, I’ll be serving perfect Chicken and Waffles in my breakfast place.
One day.
- 1 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour or buckwheat flour
- 1 1/4 cups course cornmeal
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp coconut sugar
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 2 cups unsweetened almond milk or milk of choice
- 3 tbsp coconut oil
- 2 eggs beaten
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
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Preheat the waffle maker.
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In a medium mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients (flour, cornmeal, baking powder, coconut sugar, and sea salt) and mix well.
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In another medium mixing bowl, whisk the milk, coconut oil, eggs and vanilla (AKA the "wet ingredients").
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Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
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There is no need to grease the waffle maker since there is already oil in the batter.
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Pour 3/4 cup - 1 cup (depending on the size of your waffle maker) into the center of the grid.
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Cook the waffle according to your waffle maker directions. Bake until golden brown, approximately 3-4 minutes.
DON’T TRY THIS RECIPE WITH BUCKWHEAT!!!!! I tried this recipe with the buckwheat and corn meal as suggested and they were unedible, solid, heavy and super dry! LIKE SUPER DRY! The batter looked like glue and didn’t taste any better. I really wanted to like these as I am a fan of buckwheat crepes and breads. I’m curious if the recipe creator tried making them with buckwheat flour or if it was just offered up as a GF alternative because they are truly horrid that way!
Stumbled across this recipe while looking for a cornmeal waffle recipe using Saco Buttermilk Blend. Any thoughts on that would be appreciated!
Good flavor, but way too dry.
Yikes. Good flavor, but really dry. Will be looking for another recipe.
i must have done something wrong. The waffles were very dry. The coconut oil i used was solid, so I melted it first but it re-solidified when I added it to the wet ingredients. Perhaps that was the problem? Also, I used oat milk. Not sure what the problem was.
The waffles were delicious! Thank you!
Your recipe sounds wonderful. I can’t wait to try it. I was wondering, instead of using all purpose flour, can I substitute another type of Flour? It seems I am gluten intolerant, and am trying hard to stick to a diet without wheat . I’d appreciate any help you can give me.
Thanks
Annette, You can try half Oat flour, and half cornmeal.
Great recipe. Turned out perfect. I used bread flour because that is all I had on hand but seemed to work as well as all purpose flour. I did use the alternative to milk since we are allergic to dairy. Overall perfect. Crisp tasty waffles with that corn hint. We served them with maple syrup.
Made these… they’re too dry… recommend using less flour and heating cornmeal with milk to soften the meal a little
I agree, my entire family only at part of one. The flavor was nice but too dry and crunchy. I want to try to alter recipe to make them savory, to serve with chili. Think cheese, chives and perhaps some chili powder or cayenne!
Delish! The first time I made them, I followed the recipe exactly. This morning I made them, eliminating the vanilla & brown sugar… they were just as good, and I didn’t feel quite as guilty pouring on a serving of syrup. Both times I used Quaker yellow cornmeal. My husband has always turned up his nose at the suggestion of cornmeal waffles, but he loves these. Of course, I didn’t tell him they had cornmeal in them until he had eaten half of them & commented on how good they were. I serve them for brunch around here, so the calorie count is for two meals (we’re both counting calories), and we don’t get hungry again until dinner time! Excellent recipe!
One more thing… This recipe makes 4 waffles in my waffle maker, and uses 1 cup of batter. (Mine look just like those pictured.) At 4 waffles per batch as written, they are 531 calories per waffle before adding syrup or butter. I subbed melted butter for the oil (fewer calories), and, as I said above, left out the brown sugar & vanilla, which brought them down to 502 calories each.
We had these for breakfast this morning and we loved them! One thing I always do with any waffle recipe is replace some of the all-purpose flour with cornstarch. This gives them a nice little crisp on the outside that stays even if there’s leftovers. For the record, I used 1/4 cup cornstarch in this recipe. I’m keeping this recipe handy so we can enjoy it often. Thanks so much!
Love this waffle recipe! I used fine ground cornmeal & they were perfect. Crispy outside, fluffy inside. I usually serve them with fresh berries of some kind. And I’ve never had the problem of them expanding & spilling over he edge of the waffle iron. I’ve made these several times & they will continue to be my “go to” waffle recipe. Thanks so much!
Not a bad recipe but not corny enough for me.
Thank you! After trying quite a few other recipes, I can say yours is a keeper. Breakfast food should be delicious, comfortable, and easy enough to manage while you’re still waking up. I made these in a novelty shaped waffle iron (Captain America’s shield) and topped them with meatless chili, sunny-side-up eggs, cheddar, fresh avocado, and sriracha. Breakfast-for-dinner slingers.
I love sweet cornbread, but as this was going into a savory dish, vanilla seemed too dessert-like. Instead I used some lemon & lime zest and a bit of juice. The recipe halved with no trouble and was very forgiving of my sloppiness in actually measuring everything. With this iron, a half-batch made 2 waffles with a little left over.
btw: if you’re ever in St Louis, check out Melt. All sorts of waffles and beverages and not much else. It’s my favorite restaurant.
Last weekend my husband and I had the best waffles we’ve ever tasted at Commune in Virginia Beach – cornmeal waffles with local sausage and a fried egg – yum! I wanted to try to replicate them and tried your recipe on a five of hearts waffle iron (only thing i had). We halved the recipe and used Bob’s Redmill stone ground whole grain cornmeal. I loved the recipe but needed to add some oil to the waffle iron to ensure the waffles wouldn’t stick. I am curious where you get your cornmeal? Do you buy it whole grain and then grind it yourself? I would like to get a little more of the gritty and more of the corn flavor into the waffles. Thanks so much for your suggestions in advance if you have any!
This recipe was so delicious! We made some adjustments for what we had at the house, so we used whole wheat pastry flour (instead of all purpose), a coconut/almond milk blend (instead of 2% milk), grapeseed oil, and organic raw sugar. We cut up some strawberries for the top and it was delicious! Thanks for the recipe!
Yum! So glad it turned out well for ya
Hi Lacey! I tried a different recipe and was disappointed in the soggy, heavy waffles that resulted : (
What grind cornmeal did you use? I’m wondering if mine were a flop because of using stone ground corn meal. I’m want to try your recipe but want to use the correct type of cornmeal : )
Mine is more coarse for sure so that may be the issue? Sorry it was soggy 🙁
Hi Lacey! I made a version of your waffles with cheddar and apples and just posted it on my blog, Chasing Bagels! Thanks so much for the wonderful recipe; they turned out so great. I’ll have to try them with fried chicken next…soon. Wow.
Hope you get a chance to check it out–I made sure to link to your post 🙂
Awesome! Love tour additions in the recipe. Thanks so much for linking back – your waffles look super tasty 🙂
LOVE LOVE LOVE
So good and just basic ingredients, went from reading reciepie to making it in 5 minutes and perfect waffels !!!!
YAY! Love it, Jen 🙂
Can you use corn flour instead of yellow corn meal?
I’ve never tried, but you can typically substitute corn flour for cornmeal, assuming you use the same quantity and cook it a little less time (since corn flour will make the batter thinner and the waffles not as dense as they would be with corn meal. Good luck!
I am with you on disappointing restaurant meals. Every time we think we have found the one then they start cutting corners or the service turns terrible. And you are right about missing out on your children’s lives if you own your own. A friend of ours owned a very successful place and realized exactly what you are thinking and put the place up for sale. He is glad that he did since the kids are now grown and he did not miss it. He tells tales of getting into work at 4 AM to prep breakfast and getting home late every night.
Hi Lana. Thanks for the validation and sharing your friend’s story. As much as Dustin and I would love to start a restaurant, it just isn’t in the cards for us at the moment. But, hopefully, we will find ourselves able to later in life 🙂
Yum and YUM! Adding this to my dinner menu for the week. Looking forward to having non-saggy waffles (which seems to be a continuing problem for me and waffle recipes). Also, am on the hunt for a new Belgium waffle maker.. so please share your husband’s find!
Hi Meg! These waffles will definately not be saggy 🙂 The waffle maker Dustin got me is this one
and I’m loving it. Enjoy!