No-Fuss Belgian Waffle Batter Plus Strawberry WOW Factor

My mother-in-law bought me a waffle maker as a Christmas gift somewhere in the neighborhood of eighteen years ago. While I love food, I’m not really a waffle fan, and I feel the same way about pancakes. Meh. On the Take It or Leave It Scale, these both fall way down on the Leave It side. My twelve-year-old twins, however, feel differently. As a result, sometime in the last year, we dug out Grandma’s trusty waffle maker and started using the heck out of it. That’s why this morning I decided to mess around with creating a new waffle recipe, and that’s where the No-Fuss Belgian Waffle Batter Plus a Strawberry WOW Factor was borne.

The No-Fuss Belgian Waffle Batter

The No-Fuss Belgian Waffle Batter is a breeze, which is what you want when you’re trying to get this stuff done so that you can drink your coffee in peace. This basic recipe has been my go-to for a while. No messing with separating out egg whites, tons of easy ways you can substitute ingredients to make a variation that you’re interested on any particular morning, and just the right amount of fluffiness in the finished waffles. Here’s all you need:

Ingredients for No-Fuss Belgian Waffle Batter (makes 4 to 6 waffles)

2 eggs
2/3 cups milk (you can substitute evaporated milk if you don’t have any milk on hand)
1/3 cup avocado oil (you can use coconut oil, vegetable oil or any substitute you prefer)
2 cups flour (substitute gluten-free flour as an option)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
2 Tbs coconut sugar (you can use regular refined sugar if you prefer)
1 Tbs baking powder

Mix all the dry ingredients, then add the wet ingredients. I said “no-fuss” and I wasn’t lying. As I mentioned in the ingredient list above, you can make this gluten free by using gluten free flour, you can use whole wheat flour, you can mix a couple of tablespoons of ground flaxseed in there, you can substitute something like wheat germ for ¼ cup of the flour. There are a ton of easy ways to modify this basic no-fuss Belgian waffle batter, or you can roll with it as is. And of course if you want to add the Strawberry WOW Factor, there’s always that option.

Adding the Strawberry WOW Factor to the No-Fuss Belgian Waffle Batter

Once I got to this point, I already knew I was going to add strawberries to the no-fuss Belgian waffle batter, and I had them prepped and ready to go. You don’t need a ton, just a handful will do.

Even after I added the diced strawberries, I thought the batter looked boring. Freak that I am, boring just won’t do. Here is the poor, sad, boring batter.

So, I decided to jazz it up with some strawberry puree in the batter itself. I grabbed the mini-Cuisinart and tossed some strawberries in there, and voilá, it was so much better. WOW factor added.

Oh, and I forgot to add that in my daughters’ world, no breakfast meal that includes Belgian waffles or pancakes is complete without the addition of chocolate chips, which you’ll see present here. I am sure these No-Fuss Belgian Waffles would be just as tasty without them, but my children don’t seem to be very interested in my opinions on this front.

Adding Strawberry WOW Factor?

Handful of strawberries, small dice
4-5 large strawberries, pureed
Handful of chocolate chips

There you have it. The whole shebang will take you about six minutes to throw together and, according to my children, they are pretty doggone delicious. If you like Belgian waffles, that is. If you want to be super fancy, make a double batch of this recipe, let them cool completely so they don’t squash, wrap up and pop in the freezer. When you’re ready to eat them again, reheat for about 10 minutes in a 400 degree oven and they taste like you just made them that day!

As an aside, if you like waffles, and pancakes chances are good you also like french toast. I don’t care for that either —something is definitely wrong with me, right? However, I’m going to point out right here that if these things are your jam, you definitely need to try this Eggnog Challah French Toast recipe. Me? I’ll just be over here eating my two fried eggs over easy, happy as can be.