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We have made too much waffle batter. The recipe includes flour, baking powder, salt, eggs and milk (no fat), and part of the instructions are to beat the eggs until frothy - we're assuming this is to encorporate air into the mixture.
Can we freeze half of the batter, and if so, will we need to do anything to it when we come to use it (i.e. beating it to re-encorporate air)?
StillTasty says you can safely store waffle batter for 3 months, but I've had bad luck freezing it as far as quality goes. After thawing and cooking the batter, the waffles didn't really "rise" enough to be worthwhile. They tasted ok, but the texture wasn't nearly what I wanted.
Waffles are essentially a quick bread, and I believe the baking powder doesn't have the same effect after freezing. I do know that you lose the frothy goodness that you get from the whisking/beating, which is important in achieving the light, fluffy lift inside the crispy exterior. I was told that if you use a yeast recipe instead of a baking powder recipe, you can thaw it overnight and it will give the yeast time to activate by morning - unfortunately I haven't tried it so I'm only passing it on as a suggestion.
What I've found works:
As a side note, you probably have about 3 days in the fridge.
I would suggest freezing the waffles instead. Baking soda/powder–based batters don't thaw too well, and there's the issue of the egg whites collapsing. Whisking the batter after thawing it would be more likely to result in gluten formation than in light, fluffy waffles. Frozen waffles, on the other hand, are a lovely convenience food - just stick 'em in the toaster to thaw.
Baking powder typically contains two rising agents, one water-activated and one heat activated. The water-activated agent is usually sodium bicarbonate which will start reacting with the liquid in the waffle batter, start releasing CO2-gas which makes the batter start to get small bubbles. (Sodium bicarbonate is usually sold as baking soda, for making English Scones.
If you freeze the batter, and then re-thaw it that gas will probably escape from the batter.
I'm guessing that you can add some more baking soda to replace the lost gas-bubbles, but I havn't tried it.
See wikipedia for details on baking powder.
/Leif
I make classic belgian waffle batter with yeast and have tried it fresh, kept in the frig overnight and frozen then thawed. All the waffles turned out crispy, fluffy and good although I always love the fresh waffles - might just be in my mind tho.
