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The other day, I made waffles for the first time in a long, long time. I had no recipe to use, so I found one online, and used it almost verbatim. When fresh, the waffles were very nice, however, the day after they were cardboard-like and lacking in flavour.

I made a double batch. The original recipe calls for:

  • 2 eggs
  • 1 dl sugar
  • 2 dl skim soured milk
  • 1½ dl low fat milk
  • 1 dl water
  • 350 g plain flour
  • 1 ts baking powder
  • ½ ts baking soda
  • 1 ts vanilla sugar
  • ½ ts cardamom
  • 125 g butter

The original recipe told me to mix all the wet ingredients except the butter, then mix the dry ingredients separately before mixing them together to form a smooth batter. It then called for leavening for 15 minutes, before melting and mixing in the butter and cooking.

As I said, I made two changes. One was that I left it to leaven for three hours, in the fridge. The other is that I kept a little of the melted butter - approximately 20 grams - outside of the batter to grease the waffle iron.

In scaling the recipe, I simply doubled all proportions.

Any ideas?

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    What is exactly the problem? If you mean that the waffles were not tasty after staying a day, this is normal for waffles. If you have had a recipe which produces waffles which are, after a day, still acceptable to your standards, what was the texture of these waffles on the next day?
    – rumtscho ♦
    Feb 16, 2014 at 18:23
  • It may be normal for you, however, the waffles my mother usually makes are highly delicious the day after. The problem is that she does not have an actual recipe, instead cooks by the "a little bit of this, a little bit of that"-method. These were, as I said, lacking in flavour, and had much the same taste and texture of cardboard.
    – razumny
    Feb 16, 2014 at 18:31
  • The standard waffle texture is: creamy on the inside, crisp on the outside. This is irreversibly lost in maybe 30 minutes after baking. Different recipes will cool into different textures. Without describing what texture you want to achieve, there is no way to help you. "Not like cardboard" covers a lot of territory, and we don't know what part of it you like and what part you don't. And as there is no standard texture for "old waffles" (because they are not commonly eaten), we can't tell you a recipe which achieves a standard texture.
    – rumtscho ♦
    Feb 16, 2014 at 18:46
  • The texture is not the problem, the flavour is. I am fine with the waffle being chewy after it has gone cold, but it should have some residual flavour.
    – razumny
    Feb 16, 2014 at 18:48
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    There is not much in the recipe above to provide flavor, other than the cardamom. 1 tsp of vanilla powder is not going to have a very aggressive flavor.
    – SAJ14SAJ
    Feb 16, 2014 at 23:31

2 Answers 2

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May I also suggest replacing the water with club soda? The carbon dioxide imparts no flavor but forces additional fluffy-ness to the recipe. I've done this successfully with both waffles and pancakes.

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  • Interesting suggestion, I may very well try that at some point. Thanks!
    – razumny
    Feb 17, 2014 at 17:42
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I think you have chosen a recipe which is rather high in flour and low in fat. Flour doesn't have much taste on its own. Fat enhances all tastes. These waffles might taste good while they are still crispy-browned-hot, but after the cooling, the effect is lost.

I normally make this waffle recipe. You will notice that it has the same amount of butter - 125 g - to 270 g flour, not 350. And it uses normal buttermilk, not low-fat milk watered down. The greasing of the waffle iron is done with additional fat too, not with fat taken out of the recipe.

More fat will not only improve the flavor, it will also make the waffles softer after cooling, which is more pleasant to eat than the tougher style. Reducing the flour while keeping the same proportion of eggs and liquid will also help. You can generally try the other recipe, adding cardamom and vanilla sugar to make it suit your taste better. You will probably also want to increase the sugar to make it better aligned with European tastes.

Another thing you might want to experiment with are Liege waffles. They are made with yeast dough, and so somewhat bread-like.

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  • I discussed it with my mother, and she suggested pretty much the same thing; replace low-fat ingredients with non-reduced fat ingredients, and reducing the flour. Sounds like this might be the ticket. I'll test it the next time I make waffles, and will report results as soon as I do. If it works, I'll give you the accept credit.
    – razumny
    Feb 17, 2014 at 17:40

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