Waffles of Insane Greatness--Seriously!

When we got back to the States, I rediscovered that I have a waffle maker (!) and have been looking for a good waffle recipe ever since. I have recently been reading a great book, A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg (writer of Orangette) and, since it had been a while since I perused her food blog, decided to check it out. By coincidence, I found that she had recently been searching for a waffle recipe as well! She applied to her readers for help and narrowed it down to two recipes from the hundreds she received. This is one of those recipes--and you can bet that I'll be trying the other recipe some time in the future. I decided to try this one first because 1) it had an awesome name and 2) the other recipe required yeast, which I didn't have at hand. I made them for lunch and we loved them! They were light and airy, with a fantastic flavor. But were they "insanely great"? I wasn't sure.

So several days later I made them again (this time sprinkling some blueberries over the batter before closing the waffle maker--oh yum!) when we had guests over for a waffle dinner, but I also used a box mix for convenience and to see how the homemade recipe compared.

Let me tell you, there was no contest. The box waffles were so dense and heavy that my two-year old spit them out! Besides that, their flavor was just...gross. I wasn't sure if I could call this waffle recipe "insanely great" the first time I made them, but in comparison to that boxed stuff, oh yes, they were.

Waffles of Insane Greatness
(from Food Network)
Printable Recipe
serving size varies on type of waffle maker (it made 5 in mine)

Ingredients
¾ cup flour
¼ cup cornstarch
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoons sugar
1 cup whole milk or buttermilk, or a combination of both
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
¾ teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
1) In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Whisk well.
2) Add the milk and/or buttermilk, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla extract. Whisk to blend well, so that few (if any) lumps remain. Set aside to rest for 30 minutes. (This is plenty of time to slice up a carton of strawberries and toss them with a spoonful of sugar.)
3) Preheat a waffle iron to medium or medium-high. Do not grease waffle maker. Pour an appropriate amount of batter into your waffle maker. Cook until golden. Enjoy!