Will it Waffle?

One Salad Pundit's Healthy Obsession with the World's Finest Breakfast Food

You probably wouldn’t peg me for a woman who eats pancakes and waffles for breakfast most mornings, but then you probably didn’t know that my ideal Sunday night involves a low-dose edible and a box of Puffins. My obsession with American griddled quick breads began when I was pregnant with my first child. All I could imagine eating were waffles and pancakes, so I developed a healthy batter that could sustain the baby’s life, and mine, for 9 months. Five years later, that recipe remains the cornerstone of our family diet. 

Buckwheat groat pancakes from my last book, Arty Parties.

The base of my basic batter is soaked, drained buckwheat groats, blended with yogurt, eggs, and banana. Buckwheat groats are not to be confused with buckwheat flour, which  has a much earthier, slightly acrid aftertaste (not throwing shade on classic buckwheat, it’s indispensable for a French galette, but I had my eye on a classic flapjack). Buckwheat is distinct because it’s not a grain, it’s a berry. It is naturally gluten-free and it doesn’t spike your blood sugar like wheat-based flours (I learned this from a diabetic friend). It does require an overnight soak, which means you have to be the kind of sick-o who envisions tomorrow’s breakfast while doing tonight’s dinner dishes. But if you’re reading this Substack, I am willing to bet that description fits. 

Hulled buckwheat groats are different than Kasha, which has the dark outer germ intact and makes it bitter and difficult to blend.

Having a pre-loaded blender in the fridge means all I have to do is add the groats and blend before cooking. I can do this no matter how cranky I am that a toddler woke me up with an elbow to the boob before sunrise. 

Last summer we rented a remote Airbnb in Maine; everything in the cabin was blueberry or lobster themed, and covered in an inch of dust. I directed my energy towards a 20 year old electric waffle maker I found in the kitchen, and did my best to ignore the decor. We threw everything on there一my classic buckwheat batter, but also grilled cheese, grated potatoes, French toast, and sticky rice! (The sticky rice waffle is the perfect addition to soups too).

As Dorie Greenspan so eloquently put it in the introduction to her 1993 cookbook, Waffles From Morning to Midnight, “Each waffle idea instantly begets another. How deliciously without limits the possibilities [are] for inventing great-tasting waffles.” (You will recall, this book was part of my fav cookbooks article). I ordered my very own Breville iron so it would be waiting for me when we returned home, and not a day too soon. 

4 chamber Breville waffle iron. I use ghee to grease the surface.

Waffle-head that I had become, I proposed to the furniture brand Sundays that we host a (Sunday) waffle brunch at my home to celebrate their Los Angeles pop-up. I built the menu around Dorie’s whole wheat sourdough waffle (recipe below for paid subscribers). Again, you make the batter the night before using commercial yeast and let it ferment overnight, yielding an airy texture, crispy crust, and a notable tang. I treated the waffle as a host for a bevy of toppings -- New Zealand Regal salmon gravlax, whipped cream cheese with garlic chives, fried capers, and pickled red onions. We had North Country Smokehouse bacon and tons of salads.

Whole Grain Sourdough Waffles from Dorie Greenspan's book, Waffles from Morning to Midnight. Photos by Anais Wade.

Photo by Anais Wade.

There’s something inherently childlike about a bunch of grown women eating waffles and kibitzing on the floor. The guests were accomplished women in the food, hospitality and media — hotelier Kenny Osehan, artist Hopie Stockman of Blockshop, and restaurateurs like Emily Fiffer of Botanica, and Kacie Carter of Honey-Hi. To add to the Pre-K cozy time vibes, I programmed a literary reading with Mother Tongue, and we all sat back and reveled in story hour as Priyanka Matoo read from her forthcoming memoir, I shared the intro to Laurie Colwin’s, Home Cooking, and Melissa Goldstein read from the last issue of Mother Tongue.

Guests at Waffle Brunch for Sundays furniture, enjoying a reading curated by Mother Tongue Magazine. Photos by Anais Wade

The last, and maybe most groundbreaking intel I will offer on the topic of waffles is what to do with leftovers. I love seeing people working to change the stigma around leftovers, most notably, Tamar Adler and her newish book, The Everlasting Meal.

Today’s leftover waffle is tomorrow’s granola gold. You heard me 一 tear or cut that waffle up and add it to the dry ingredients of your granola. Bake until the pieces are completely dry (you can always leave your baking sheet in the oven once it’s turned off to dehydrate. It’s important to remove all the moisture so it is shelf-stable).

Leftover waffle cubed and added to the dry ingredients of my granola.

Done right, the result yields ultra crispy, satisfying bites that integrate into an “everything but the kitchen sink” granola. It’s fun, it’s unexpected, it may have become my primary motivation for making waffles at all? 

To get the recipes for Dorie Greenspan’s sourdough waffle, my perfect buckwheat groat waffle, and my waffled coconut rice cakes, upgrade to paid subscription.