Here I briefly review some cool vegan waffle recipes and concepts that have appeared elsewhere in recent months. I’m sure there are many more than this; feel free to add in the comments.

First, thanks to VegNews for recently spreading the love of vegan waffles to other occasions. Their most recent newsletter featured some yummy-looking Mexican Hot Chocolate Waffles for Cinco de Mayo. They appear to provide a different texture and experience than the Hot Chocolate Molasses Waffles and South of the Border Dark Chocolate Syrup,* because they creatively incorporate the cocoa via the syrup blended right into the waffles, and also utilize egg replacer powder. Thanks to Pittsburgh Vegan Meetup Member Rachel Z. for the heads up!

VegNews’ November-December 2011 (print edition) “Wild Waffles” brought our beloved food to the winter holidays. Its waffle and topping recipes featured dill and beets respectively, both flavors I love. And the poetic description of a vegan waffle-topping event is plenty to get one amped up:

“Without the syrup, waffles’ complex, subtly sweet flavor begs for savory experimentation, limited only by your global culinary imagination. During the holiday, brunch offers a superb opportunity for a casual yet lavish affair, with guests mingling in the kitchen as one freshly made waffle after another gets served up.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself! And of course, the recipes would work just as well for a May or June waffle party.

SheKnows Miso Vegan’s Five-Spice Vegan Waffles recipe, also incorporating grated lemon zest, presents an interesting flavor for a waffle. And I imagine the kitchen smells quite nice while baking them. Given the amount of waffle I like to have at one sitting, I might question the “serves 8.” And I’d probably dump even more spice into it, as I like a good kick in the tastebuds.

Perhaps the most interestingly named vegan waffles posted recently are “Padgett Waffles with a Fullerton Twist.” Quite a noble-sounding waffle! I’d love to see all the suggested vegan modifications incorporated into an actual recipe, especially as posting the readable page photo of a cookbook, unless it’s in the public domain, may ruffle some feathers. I appreciate the author’s recognition that one can still publicly explore and support vegan and vegetarian cooking without proclaiming a fully vegan lifestyle—it’s indeed a continuum, not a dichotomy.

The First Mess’s Banana Coconut Waffles (or pancakes) recipe stood out for a few reasons. First, I like that it emphasizes oiling the grids between each waffle—I’ve seen a few people get turned off by vegan waffles right off the bat because they often do require more frequent oiling than non-vegan waffles. That, of course, doesn’t make the vegan waffles inferior; it’s just a simple fact. The other interesting point is the use of either ground chia or flax seeds. I’ve talked to a few runners over the years who swear by chia pancakes as a great energy source (per the discussion of chia in Born to Run), but haven’t yet tried it as a waffle binder.

The above led me to an earlier (May 2010) Pre-Race Pinole and Chia Waffles recipe on No Meat Athlete—which also has a cool Vegetarian Guide to Conquering Your First 26.2 Miles. Do you know how many additional waffles you can gobble down while training for a marathon? Yum!

Also in March, Vegansaurus featured a guest post for “the greatest vegan waffle recipe in the world!” The title made me chuckle, and I really loved some of the instructions, like, “When mixing all the ingredients, be gentle, as if you were stroking a tiny kitten’s head.” The only change I might make is that I tend to prefer a slightly lumpy batter over a smooth and consistent one. The author’s waffle maker review site, mentioned at the bottom of the post, could be a very helpful resource once it’s developed. This would include comments based on real-life experience with vegan waffles. Although the GVWC also includes a short guide to waffle makers, I’m unable to answer questions about specific models that I sometimes receive, outside of the Waring Pro WMK300 and a few others.

While it goes back a few years, Go Dairy Free posted a brief but useful list of Global Vegan Waffle Party Approved Recipes.

If you’re planning vegan pancakes rather than waffles, particularly fitting for this year’s theme are some of the delicious-looking recipes in Chocolate-Covered Katie’s “Pancake Pandemonium.” And she has plenty of recipes that would work as vegan chocolate waffle toppings as well. Some, but certainly not all, pancake recipes will work as waffles either as-is or with adjustments including a bit of extra oil; I’m unable to comment on any specific recipe I haven’t actually tried.

Hopefully this gives you some additional resources for your vegan waffle event!

*From The Global Vegan Waffle Cookbook and Vegan Chocolate Seduction

These are listed on page 39 of Vegan with a Vengeance, alongside the 3 other excellent waffle recipes Isa offers, and on the PPK site. We’ve made them twice now, and have been pleased with them both times.

What really sets this waffle recipe apart for us is the different texture, the slight crunchiness that they have. Also, the cornmeal does add a flavor very distinct from that of any other flour/grain we’ve used. It seems to take on a more “toasted” flavor. And the lemon and blueberry do go really well together.

The only downside is that we don’t always have soy yogurt in our fridge; I haven’t tried this but you could probably substitute  1/4 cup worth of banana and additional soy milk if absolutely necessary.

We have yet to make them with fresh lemons (including the zest) rather than just using lemon juice out of a bottle. As they’re already quite tasty, I can only imagine how much better they’ll be then! Also, for the blueberry sauce, we were “lazy” (and very hungry) the second time we made them, so we just microwaved syrup and frozen blueberries, leaving out the dissolved arrowroot and vanilla extract. It was still very good, but the arrowroot does thicken the sauce and slows the “waffle sogginess” process.

It would be interesting to try these with the fresh lemons and zest as the recipe suggests, and to experiment with blue cornmeal instead of regular cornmeal. Alongside the blueberries, that would make for some very blue waffles!

We’ve now made the pumpkin waffles from Vegan with a Vengeance (page 40, or also available at the PPK site) roughly 3 times, so I figured it’s time for a review.

These waffles have consistently ranked well on a number of dimensions. The combination of flavors/spices is great. They’re both moist and slightly fluffy on the inside, and the brown sugar alongside the pumpkin provides a slight carmelization to add the firmness on the outside. These are great for both breakfast or dessert, and the spice combination is aromatherapeutic (is that a word?).

I wasn’t quite as happy when we tried them at a friend’s house near Thanksgiving, but that was because their waffle iron doesn’t flip and isn’t as high-powered as what we’re accustomed to. They didn’t have the fluffiness on the inside and slight crispiness on the outside that I crave. I can’t emphasize this too much, though, because we’re the ones who bought that item for them from their wedding registry a few years ago!  However, the three other people present gobbled them right up, and I still enjoyed them.

I like them best with just a little bit of heated maple syrup, although we’ve also had them with some vanilla soy yogurt on top. I find that using freshly grated nutmeg makes a big difference over pre-grated. We do generally follow Isa’s suggestion for halving the recipe when baking them just for two of us, unless we want to freeze several for the upcoming week.

These are so tasty that you could almost eat them plain. I might try them with little or no brown sugar in the future, so that I can add a little more maple syrup without oversweetening them.

If you don’t already have Ener-G egg replacer in stock, try the below “wonderful vegan waffles” posted by Mercy for Animals , which also work as a pancake batter. As with the “healthful waffles” recipe on this site, add a tablespoon or two of canola oil if you prefer a slightly richer flavor. I usually replace at least half of the water with soymilk or almond milk. They have a slighly different texture that incorporates oatmeal with the flour and utilizes a banana base. Also, you can simply omit the cinnamon and nutmeg if you prefer a neutral waffle, or you can add a little ginger if you prefer additional “zing.” Others have posted the same recipe with additonal tips.

I find that these, like other banana-based waffles, need a slightly longer cook time so they’re not “mushy” in the center–but they’re still very tasty. Using a  potato masher to mash the bananas very well seems to help, and the oats help to provide additional structure and binding.

Mix together the mashed banana and water. Add dry ingredients and mix, leaving lumps in the batter. Cook on a waffle iron, according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

The batter also works well for pancakes, and is especially tasty when you add small berries (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, etc.) to the mix. To make pancakes, pour 1/2 cup of batter into a hot, lightly oiled frying pan. When bubbles rise through the middle of the pancake and break on the top, flip the pancake and cook until browned underneath. (Note: Test the pan before cooking the pancakes by throwing a few drops of water onto it. If the water jumps around and then disappears, the pan is at the correct temperature.)

Top with margarine, syrup, fruits, or preserves.

(Originally posted at fatfree.com by D. Lachman.)

For basic and relatively easy waffles, with a “neutral” flavor good for accommodating a range of toppings, I modified this “healthful vegan waffles” recipe slightly  by replacing a tablespoon of the water with canola oil to give it a slightly “richer” flavor (this optional substitution is noted below). When using a recipe with minimal oil, just don’t forget to coat your iron with some type of non-stick spray–we usually use some type of canola oil spray regardless–you can even put regular canola oil in a small spray bottle and use that, rather than purchasing disposable cans.

This isn’t quite as exciting on its own as some of the other vegan waffle recipes we’ll be reviewing here, such as the pumpkin waffles, but is probably the closest approximation to a non-vegan waffle with a “neutral” flavor. It works well as a “base” for a variety of toppings.

1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup unbleached white flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sweetener of choice
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon Ener-G egg replacer (or another binding alternative, as noted above)
1 1/2 cups fat free rice milk (or 3 tablespoons Ener-G soy quick + 1 1/2 cups water)
1/2 cup water (optional: replace 1-2 tablespoons of the water with canola oil)
1/3 cup applesauce

Combine all dry ingredients, add wet ingredients and mix well,
but do not over beat. Batter tends to thicken as it stands, so I
usually end up adding a bit of water to it between batches.
Serves 3-4.

Other variations we’ve tried on the above that have worked pretty well include utilizing 2 Tbsp blackstrap molasses as the sweetener, and replacing the entire 1 3/4 C flour with buckwheat flour.