Inspired by Money Saving Mom, McFrug Jr. and I decided it was time to try making homemade waffles. Not that these are that difficult or anything, I suppose it didn't cross my mind since I've never had a waffle maker. Whelp, this is was our week.
On a whim, we headed to Walmart to pick out our machine. I was looking for a cool round one but they offered two choices: a 2 square maker for $9.98 and a 2 square maker for $19.98. Being Cheapo McFrugalpants, you're expecting me to buy the cheaper of the two, right? Well, I hemmed and hawed for a while comparing the two machines. They both had about the same features except one was white, the other was stainless. One was an off brand; one was GE. Going through my head, "If I get the cheaper one, will I regret it when my waffles come out half cooked or half burnt? Am I being suckered into buying the "name brand" one? Crap, I don't have a coupon."
I picked up the stainless, GE machine. It does come with a 2 yr. warranty (because I can totally see myself burning this one up with my mad breakfast making skills. Whateveh.) It does have a little sliding temperature gauge. It has a blue AND green light on it! Okay, okay - I probably could've gotten away with the lowly white model. Anyway, if you have the cheaper one, and it works really good, do me a favor and don't tell me about it.
With a cheesy smile, I carried my new friend out of Walmart - envisioning a plethera of waffle tastiness. "Oh, I'm going to do all sorts of new things. Whole grain ones. Pumpkins ones. Savory ones...yeah, THOSE! I can stock up and freeze them! We'll have waffles whenEVER we want! Screw you low carb."
We ended up making one batch of Classic Buttermilk Waffles (in which I had to go buy buttermilk since it's not something I have regularly on hand.) By the way, if you don't have any of the King Arthur Flour cookbooks, you need to invest.
The waffle process is not a difficult venture. Though, it does take some quick trial and error to get them *just* right. After reading the direction booklet and recipe, we were ready to whip up some batter.
It said to put 1/3 cup of batter in the center of EACH non-stick sprayed square...rectangle...grid. And of course, like most people (I think), I added some extra because it just didn't seem like enough. I failed to remember that baked items usually like to expand and rise when they are cooked.
The next thing we knew, steam was shooting out all sides along with oozing vanilla lava and blow out fart sounds. Wow. What a show! McFrug Jr. and I sort of looked at each other and nervously laughed, hoping it was all going to stop soon. We knew we had to let it cook through for the whole 4 minutes the recipe called for. Seven...yes SEVEN minutes later, we had a couple of over baked man hole covers. We ate them anyway. Jr. says, "They're...um...good. But, they don't taste like the store ones." Me: "Um..yeah...no, they are yummy! They aren't supPOSED to taste like those nasty things. Well, maybe they aren't so good. Let's try again."
Waffle Lesson #1: Don't overfill.
Maybe we should follow the directions. This time, we put a LEVEL 1/3 cup on each side.
A bit scant, don't you think? Although, these were MUCH tastier.
Let's try again.
Waffle Lesson #2: Only cook until the steam stops - about 4 minutes for ours.
Here is the batch that was made using 1/3 cup along with scraping out the ENTIRE cup onto the griddle plate. So far, these were the best I think.
Waffle Lesson #3: Just follow the directions in the first place.
We ended up with 9 waffles - though we would've had 10 had we not wasted the batter on the first attempt. We ate a few and wrapped the rest to freeze.
Guess how many are left today?
None.
Now that I'm a pro, it's time for another batch!
What are others baking today?
And now, purely for your viewing pleasure (and maybe a few giggles), I present to you...Nannerpuss.
On a whim, we headed to Walmart to pick out our machine. I was looking for a cool round one but they offered two choices: a 2 square maker for $9.98 and a 2 square maker for $19.98. Being Cheapo McFrugalpants, you're expecting me to buy the cheaper of the two, right? Well, I hemmed and hawed for a while comparing the two machines. They both had about the same features except one was white, the other was stainless. One was an off brand; one was GE. Going through my head, "If I get the cheaper one, will I regret it when my waffles come out half cooked or half burnt? Am I being suckered into buying the "name brand" one? Crap, I don't have a coupon."
I picked up the stainless, GE machine. It does come with a 2 yr. warranty (because I can totally see myself burning this one up with my mad breakfast making skills. Whateveh.) It does have a little sliding temperature gauge. It has a blue AND green light on it! Okay, okay - I probably could've gotten away with the lowly white model. Anyway, if you have the cheaper one, and it works really good, do me a favor and don't tell me about it.
With a cheesy smile, I carried my new friend out of Walmart - envisioning a plethera of waffle tastiness. "Oh, I'm going to do all sorts of new things. Whole grain ones. Pumpkins ones. Savory ones...yeah, THOSE! I can stock up and freeze them! We'll have waffles whenEVER we want! Screw you low carb."
We ended up making one batch of Classic Buttermilk Waffles (in which I had to go buy buttermilk since it's not something I have regularly on hand.) By the way, if you don't have any of the King Arthur Flour cookbooks, you need to invest.
The waffle process is not a difficult venture. Though, it does take some quick trial and error to get them *just* right. After reading the direction booklet and recipe, we were ready to whip up some batter.
It said to put 1/3 cup of batter in the center of EACH non-stick sprayed square...rectangle...grid. And of course, like most people (I think), I added some extra because it just didn't seem like enough. I failed to remember that baked items usually like to expand and rise when they are cooked.
The next thing we knew, steam was shooting out all sides along with oozing vanilla lava and blow out fart sounds. Wow. What a show! McFrug Jr. and I sort of looked at each other and nervously laughed, hoping it was all going to stop soon. We knew we had to let it cook through for the whole 4 minutes the recipe called for. Seven...yes SEVEN minutes later, we had a couple of over baked man hole covers. We ate them anyway. Jr. says, "They're...um...good. But, they don't taste like the store ones." Me: "Um..yeah...no, they are yummy! They aren't supPOSED to taste like those nasty things. Well, maybe they aren't so good. Let's try again."
Waffle Lesson #1: Don't overfill.
Maybe we should follow the directions. This time, we put a LEVEL 1/3 cup on each side.
A bit scant, don't you think? Although, these were MUCH tastier.
Let's try again.
Waffle Lesson #2: Only cook until the steam stops - about 4 minutes for ours.
Here is the batch that was made using 1/3 cup along with scraping out the ENTIRE cup onto the griddle plate. So far, these were the best I think.Waffle Lesson #3: Just follow the directions in the first place.
We ended up with 9 waffles - though we would've had 10 had we not wasted the batter on the first attempt. We ate a few and wrapped the rest to freeze.
Guess how many are left today?
None.
Now that I'm a pro, it's time for another batch!
What are others baking today?
And now, purely for your viewing pleasure (and maybe a few giggles), I present to you...Nannerpuss.
2 comments:
OMgosh those look sooo yummy! You bought the more expensive one *GASP* I don't cook breakfast-my kids usually get toast, poptarts, cold cereal. If they want HOT it's gotta be toasted or microwaved LOL Mark cooks AWESOME pancakes, but usually for supper! That video is funny-everytime Emma sees it, she says "I want Nannercakes!" ;~) TFS!!!
I love me some homemade waffles. They are a special treat around our house. :)
Thanks for sharing your pictures.
We had pancakes this morning. Yum.
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