Fluffy Belgian Waffles

So you're enjoying yourself on your family vacation. Having a great time with your loved ones. The hotel you're staying at serves breakfast or a restaurant nearby does. You see it on the menu. "Belgian Waffles." If you're anything like me, that immediately draws your attention. You can smell them from a mile away. The server brings you your plate and all you see are stacks of crispy, fluffy waffles dripping with the dark amber syrup. You take your first bite and you know, nothing else matters right now. Great memories and great food. If only you could capture it somehow. I had this experience on a trip I went on recently. My hotel served breakfast and every morning, I would get eggs or waffles. It was a great experience. When I came back home, I wanted to re-create that.

See how I do it with the video tutorial below. Don't forget to subscribe for more great recipe tutorials. The full written recipe is below.

To make legit waffles, you need a very good waffle iron and a very good waffle recipe. It's that simple. Those $20 cheap ceramic waffle makers won't cut it. They'll never be able to get you that golden color or that crispiness that we all know and love on waffles. My mom lucked into the one below. She bought it brand new at a garage sale. Waring is a great brand, but any Belgian waffle maker that has an interior that is non stick and can handle high levels of heat will work great.

So, my mom did her part. I now had a REAL waffle maker. Now, all I needed was a great waffle recipe. I've tried a bunch, but by far, this gives me the best tasting waffles consistently.

First, sift all the dry ingredients together. Remember sugar is considered a wet ingredient so leave that to the side for now. We'll be using that for the meringue.

Now, combine all the wet ingredients. The yolks, vanilla, oil and milk. Stir until combined.

Now, add in the wet ingredients to the dry.

Fold in the dry ingredients until most lumps are gone. Some lumps and flour should be visible. That's fine. Let the batter sit for about five minutes.

Next, whip the egg whites to a stiff peak to make a meringue. It's best to use a stand mixer, but a hand mixer will work too. I start on high and end on high. When you start to see tracks, that's when you should gradually add in the sugar that we put aside earlier. It should look something like this when finished. You want stiff, moist peaks. Don't overbeat! Set the meringue aside.

Preheat your waffle iron to medium-high to high heat according to manufacturers instructions. Spray the inside well with cooking spray.

While the iron is preheating, you can add in the meringue you made and fold into the batter gently.

The proper way to fold in a meringue is to go from the bottom to the top in a circular motion while turning the bowl. Fold in until the meringue is well blended with the batter.

According your machine's manufacturer instructions, set everything to the settings you think will work. Pour in ¾-1 cup of batter at a time. Cook for a few minutes on the first side, flip and cook for a few minutes on the next side. The waffle should be golden brown and crispy. My waffle iron takes about 5-10 minutes total to cook each waffle. Play with your heat setting and timing. Once you nail that, you'll get golden crisp waffles every time.

What's important is practice. Your first waffle won't turn out that good. You really have to know the settings of your machine to get a perfectly golden waffle. My Waring model is perfect when it's set to 5 heat setting. I cook the first side for about five minutes then flip it. When it beeps, I flip it and let it cook for another two minutes. This gets me perfectly golden waffles every time. Remember to play with your timing and machine's heat settings.

These waffles are perfect! Everything a waffle should be. Slightly crispy/crunchy, yet fluffy on the inside.

You can of course put some chocolate chips in the batter, put some butter on top, whip cream, cinnamon, etc. I decided to put a pinch of cinnamon and drizzle it with a homemade strawberry sauce.

I also topped it of course with some maple syrup. These are so freakin' good.