Refrigerating cooked, gluten-free waffles

Question

I have a gluten free recipe to make waffles:

• 2 cups gluten-free all-purpose (plain) flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

Since I won't be able to eat them all in one sitting, I would like to make this once and have them last a few days to save time cooking every day. Would it be OK to refrigerate them for up to 2-3 days? Or maybe try to keep the batter?

Answer 1

It is certainly safe to keep them refrigerated for a few days, but you will probably get much better results by freezing them.

The cooked starches will re-crystalize if you refrigerate them, making them hard and unpalatable--this is one of the major modes of staling.

By freezing them, you reduce this effect.

You can then heat them directly from frozen in a warm oven to use the left overs.

Answer 2

Food safety wise, 2-3 days in the fridge will be OK, or even up to 5. Taste wise, they will not be very good. You will get better results if you refrigerate the batter (again, keep for 3-5 days, throw away earlier if it stars bubbling or smelling sour). But the batches after the first one will be rather flat/dense, because the leavening won't work.

For best taste, there is no way to keep the waffles. If you can live with the dense kind, refrigerating the batter is a reasonable compromise.