I'm back with another vegan waffle recipe. This time it's gluten-free too! I guess all of you might be thinking that I'm not making anything else at home. My sons (the 1 and ½ year old too) are still excited about these more than anything else I make/bake. Recently I tried using idli batter too and we got crunchy on the outside and soft in the inside dosa-waffle. It looked perfect and tasted great.
Now coming to this gluten-free waffle recipe, this recipe too was inspired by one of the recipes from Isa's Vegan Brunch. She had used equal parts buckwheat flour and all-purpose flour in the recipe, which I decided to make it gluten-free by omitting the all-purpose flour and including some cornmeal for a better texture. But this simple switch did not work like I expected it to. So I had to experiment with different ratios and combinations to finally arrived at this one. I think I'm going to work further on this one to get the crunchy exterior I'm expecting, but until then here is the recipe for a basic vegan and gluten-free waffles recipe.
Recipe
Vegan & Gluten-Free Buckwheat Waffles Recipe
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients:
- 1 cup almond milk (any non-dairy milk)
- 1 cup water
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup oil
Dry Ingredients:
- 1 and ½ cups buckwheat flour
- ½ cup cornmeal (I used yellow)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoons white sugar
Instructions
- In a liquid measuring mug, combine milk, water and vinegar; set it aside to curdle.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix together the dry ingredients and make a well in the center.
- Add the milk mixture, oil and vanilla extract to the well. Use whisk to mix the batter until smooth.
- Let batter rest for 10 minutes, while the waffle iron is preheating.
- Spray the iron with cooking spray. Use a ⅓rd measuring cup to scoop out the batter for each waffle and prepare waffles according to manufacturer's directions.
My Notes
- The original recipe was not gluten-free. The author had used ¾th cups each of buckwheat flour and all-purpose flour. So if you want to do that then reduce the quantity of baking powder to 1 teaspoon and sugar to 3 tablespoons or even much less if you are making savory waffles.
- While pouring the waffle batter to the iron, it does spread but some of the squares especially around the corners do not get covered with the batter. In that case take some more batter and cover the squares which are not covered already. This ensures you that you get whole waffles instead of holes in the waffles.
- If you are not a fan of soft and chewy waffles, pop it in your bread toaster and get the crispy texture you are looking for.
- I'm assuming that any other gluten-free flour would work in place of the buckwheat flour.
- Omit the vanilla extract if you are planning to make it as savory waffles. In that case you can also reduce the sugar to 3 tablespoons.
Taste & Texture
- This is my first time using buckwheat flour. So I didn't know what to expect of it, taste-wise or texture-wise. The batter by itself was gooey/slimy; like a flax seed egg mixture kind of thing or simply like beaten eggs. But the waffles did turn out pretty good, especially the last two. So do test one or two and proceed from there. These buckwheat waffles were sort of chewy. I was hoping that the cornmeal would make it crispy around the edges like Isa had mentioned in her original vegan waffle recipe. It didn't. But I should say that it did not bother me. I liked this texture so much better than the ones made with all purpose flour and so did my husband. My son devoured them, topped with bananas, chopped walnuts and a touch of maple syrup.
Caitlin says
I just made these waffles today and I must have done something differently because they were not soft at all, they came out perfectly crispy, just like a regular waffle. I will be making these regularly! They were delicious! I used coconut milk instead of almond, white vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar and 1/3 cup of sugar. Also, I used an antique Belgium waffle iron with three heat settings and I'm pretty sure that the higher than normal temp contributed to the crispiness as well. Thank you for the recipe!
Madhuram says
That's great to know Caitlin. Thanks for the feedback.
Paula says
Hi Madhuram: I love buckwheat and can't wait to try these: why do I need to add any sugar if I want to use a syrup or honey or fruit on top? You mention if making savory can reduce sugar, so I wondered if it a cooking requirement?
Madhuram says
It's not a requirement Paula, but the waffles would be quite bland and you would be using more syrup if the waffles aren't already sweet.
Arlene says
These were very good! With some chopped walnuts, bananas and a drizzle of peanut butter... I was in heaven! Thank you 🙂
Madhuram says
You're welcome Arlene.
Noelle says
Nice recipe! Actually my waffle maker wouldn't cooperate this morning so I made pancakes with it instead and it worked very well. For the oil I used coconut, and for the flour I didn't have enough buckwheat so I used 1 and 1/4 cup buckwheat, 1/4 cup chickpea, and 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal. Coconut oil sometimes gives thing a dry texture, so I think that with the cornmeal did give it a nice sort of crunchy texture when cooked. Thanks for the recipe!
Madhuram says
You're welcome Noelle.
Farzana says
Quinoa would give it a little crunch!
Farzana says
Good job girl! I am really happy to see this recipe 🙂 I also made my first GF vegan waffles last weekend and my family loved 'em! Unfortunately, I am allergic to corn but I am sure I could substitute . . I am thinking almond meal. I will let you know how they turn out if I try this !
Madhuram says
Ya, any flour should work in place of the cornmeal. I added it thinking that it would give a crispy/crunchy exterior but it did not.
n?khet kuzuo?lu says
i didnt understand, why we are curdling vegan milk.
Madhuram says
It's a vegan substitute for buttermilk.