4 Must-Try Waffle Maker Recipes That Aren’t Waffles

Take your waffle iron beyond waffles — with waffled banana bread, cookies and more.

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May 21, 2020
By: Frances Kim

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We love waffles every which way here at Food Network — doused with maple syrup, served alongside fried chicken, enriched with chocolate and creme anglaise, flavored with pumpkin, made with polenta, you name it. But all that time spent perfecting our fluffy interiors and crispy edges got us thinking: what else can you make with a waffle iron? There’s got to be other ways to put the appliance to work and have it earn its keep on the kitchen counter. A quick search in the Food Network Kitchen app showed that yes, there are so many other things you can waffle! Learn how to level-up your waffle maker with the four classes below.

“Baking” banana bread in the waffle iron means your “loaf” is ready in a fraction of the usual time — we’re talking just 4 to 6 minutes. Vegetable oil and sour cream (or Greek yogurt) keep the bread uber-moist, while chopped walnuts add just the right amount of crunch. Kids will adore helping mix up the batter — almost as much as they’ll love devouring the bread straight out of the waffle maker.

Skip the oven for another kid-approved classic: chocolate chip cookies. The dough couldn’t be easier to make and also “bakes” in mere minutes in the waffle iron. While a little time in the fridge will help the dough come together, it can also go straight into the waffle maker no worse for wear, which is great news for those of us with urgent cookie cravings. Like their oven-baked counterpart, these cookies are heavenly warm, washed down with a glass of cold milk.

Ch 2, Drizzle/dunk/enrobe cookie process (glazed waffle cookies)

Ch 2, Drizzle/dunk/enrobe cookie process (glazed waffle cookies)

Photo by: Jennifer May

Jennifer May

If you're not feeling chocolate chip, might we suggest pastry chef and cookbook author Erin McDowell's waffled vanilla sugar cookies? Crisp on the outside and soft on the inside, these irresistible treats are finished with a bright fruit glaze, which is just the thing for using up some of those juicy summer berries. Erin also encourages you to experiment with other fruits to tint your cookies with different colors and flavors.

Take your waffle maker to savory territory with this brilliant falafel and save yourself the hassle of deep-frying. Here, canned chickpeas are mashed and flavored with garlic, cumin, coriander and plenty of fresh herbs, then cooked in a waffle iron until golden brown. Not only is the resulting falafel lower in fat, but its shape also means there’s no searching for those elusive falafel balls in your pita — you’ll be sure to get some of the waffled patty in every bite.

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