If you’ve purchased a vertical waffle maker, maybe you’ve already figured out the trick to making the perfect vertical waffles. Last year we were wandering around Costco, and my kids just HAD to have this Cuisinart vertical waffle maker when they saw it (and it was on sale). It was nearing Christmas, so I caved in and bought it for them, even though we have a perfectly good and functional waffle maker at home already. I figured that letting them have their own special waffle maker means that the OLD waffle maker is now free for me to experiment with, so I can make things like cheddar chive waffle hash browns (SO good!) without them complaining that I’ve “ruined the flavor” of our waffle maker (which really did happen, even though I cleaned the waffle maker after that experiment … my son is insanely sensitive to variations in flavor and even a hint of chive and cheese was NOT welcome in his waffle experience).
My daughter and I both love to pile on the fruit when we have waffles, but my son does NOT like fruit on his waffles. He likes his waffles a nice crunchy golden brown, no fruit, just butter and syrup. Today, he did consent to letting me butter and syrup his waffle so I could take some pics, since I was a little grumbly about making them waffles when our kitchen was a disaster and I hadn’t even finished my normal morning self-care rituals. Having to look up the recipe when I hadn’t ever posted it was a little extra grumble. I refer to my own recipes all the time, so I can reproduce them just like we like them and this one hadn’t bubbled to the top in priority until today.
Before we purchased this vertical waffle maker, we did our research and read lots of reviews. Some people were unhappy with the vertical waffle maker, but it appears they didn’t take care to alter their waffle batter recipe to make the batter thinner. Well, I wasn’t going to make THAT mistake! I was a little nervous that I wouldn’t get the batter right, but I didn’t like the recipes I found in the Cuisinart booklet they provided with the waffle maker. So I turned to our tried-and-true recipe and did a few adjustments and realized that I need not have worried. The waffles turned out perfect and the waffle maker worked beautifully and the kids loved their waffles. All I did to my original recipe was add an extra egg (because our eggs are kind of small and I wanted to make sure the waffles were nice and fluffy), an extra Tablespoon of butter (because we’re using Kerrygold grass-fed butter now, so I’m not scared to use butter anymore), and an extra 1/4 cup of milk.
The batter was nice and thin, closer to pancake batter in texture, but still fluffy. I noticed it worked best when I poured the batter in nice and slow, which gave the batter time to seep into the cracks and crevices of the vertical waffle maker.
A side-note for those of you who want to buy or already have the Cuisinart vertical waffle maker: my son and I have decided putting the waffle maker on setting 4 is the perfect setting for just the right touch of brown with a little bit of crisp, but not overly crunchy.
Buttery Belgian Waffles for a Vertical Waffle Maker
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
If you have a vertical waffle maker, you might have realized you need to adjust the recipe to make it work. This recipe provides perfect buttery waffles with just the right bit of buttery crunch, adjusted for the vertical waffle maker.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon sugar
- 3 medium eggs, separated
- 2 teaspoons real vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cup milk
- 5 Tablespoons butter, melted
Instructions
- Preheat your waffle iron. In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the dry ingredients.
- Separate the eggs, putting the whites in a separate small mixing bowl and the yolks into the flour mixture. Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until stiff and set them aside.
- Add the vanilla and milk to the flour mixture and beat until smooth with the same beaters. Stir in the butter, a bit at a time, then add the egg whites and fold them carefully into the batter until fully incorporated. Your batter should be relatively thin, thinner than a normal waffle batter.
- When the batter is ready and the waffle maker is hot, use the manufacturer’s cup to slowly pour the recommended amount of waffle batter into the vertical waffle maker. Pour slowly to give the batter time to spread and fill the waffle cavities.
- When the waffle maker beeps, remove the waffle with silicon tongs and close it fully before making the next waffle.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 waffle
My daughter likes her waffles on the light side, with lots of berries and real maple syrup. She also prefers mini chocolate chips in her waffles. I didn’t use any chocolate chips on our vertical waffle voyage, and she was still perfectly content.
33 comments
Finally, I found your recipe. Every other one has made the vertical waffle maker blow open 🤣 but also not cooked right.
This recipe came out perfectly, thank you for sharing.
★★★★★
Oh Mel, that makes me SO happy! I’m glad you liked the recipe … thanks for taking time to comment.
Thank you for the recipe! We just got a waffle maker from Santa and it kept blowing open! Not with this recipe. It was a bit more work but definitely worth it! We tried chocolate chips and it turned out still excellent! Very delicious and loved by our family of 5!
★★★★★
I love, love, love this recipe! I was gifted one of these makers for my birthday back in November. After being weirded out by every recipe in the handbook needing at least one strange ingredient (we just don’t keep yellow cornmeal around) this recipe was exactly what I was looking for!
We’ve made waffles pretty well every weekend since, and I always use this recipe. They come out perfectly crisp and fluffy every time, and it makes a nice base for modified recipes, like tonight’s orange waffles, where I threw in an orange’s worth of zest and subbed out some of the milk for fresh squeezed orange juice! So gooooood!
Thank you again!
★★★★★
You’re so welcome, Robin! We were in the same conundrum, so that’s why this recipe happened.
Thank you for your sweet comment.
~ Ann
I got my standing waffle maker yesterday and tried your recipe and it was such a success and hit with my family 🙂 lots of joy! Thank you for so graciously sharing your recipe!
This makes me SO happy! Thank you for your comment.
Yay!! A delicious Belgian waffle recipe for the vertical waffle maker!!! And normal ingredients!!! Thank you thank thank you!!! Soooooo good!
★★★★★
Hurrah, this makes me so happy!
Thanks for sharing your experience, Aryelle.
Hi Ann, I tried the recipe today. Love the taste. However, my waffle is not crispy on the outside, it’s limp. Would love to hear your thoughts on possible reasons for that & how I could improve it. I did not tweak the recipe at all – the only thing that I didn’t do was to whisk the egg white to hard peaks, I kept it at soft peaks. Any thoughts ..? Thanks
★★★★★
Hi Anna,
Try beating your eggs a little longer until the peaks are more stiff. That’s going to make a difference. Also, make sure you’re cooking the waffles long enough so they get golden brown and crispy on the outside.
Hope you have better luck next time!
Ann
Perfect waffles! Crispy but not crunchy, really light & fluffy, I’ve tried lots of waffle recipes so far but this is a keeper, thanks for sharing
★★★★★
You’re welcome, Hayley!
Hi Ann, I tried your recipe today and faced the same issue as Anna. I whisk the egg whites with the beaters until it does not fall off when I turned the bowl upside down. The waffle turned out soft on the outside. I followed the recipe without making any changes. What can I do to make it crispy on the outside?
Hi Esther,
I’m not sure if you have the same waffle iron as we do, but make sure you heat up the waffle iron so it’s nice and hot before you add the batter, and check the settings. To get a crisper edge, turn the dial up a bit, like you would adjust a toaster to get crisper toast.
I hope you have better luck next time!
Ann
Hi! I’m sorry, I have ZERO knowledge when it comes to cooking. But I do love waffles so I bought this vertical maker and managed to try this recipe this morning and it was wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing.
I just have a question, how long do you think the batter would keep when stored in a ref?
Hello Raf,
Thanks for asking! We have stored our batter in the fridge a few times when we had leftover batter. We’ve found that pancake batter lasts up to three days, but really the leftover waffle batter works best if used the next day.
Take care and happy waffle making,
Ann
Thank goodness for this recipe!!
I had just got a vertical waffle iron and the recipes in the guide were recipes I had none of the ingredients for! I love your recipe!!
Thanks for your sweet comment, Trudy! It means the world to me to know that my recipe made someone’s day a little bit brighter. 🙂
I have made this recipe several times and it is perfect! I have tried other recipes for waffles and they don’t come close to this one! Thank you very much for sharing it with us!
★★★★★
You are very welcome, Ken! I’m so glad it works well for you. 🙂
Ann
I just got my vertical waffle maker and didn’t have cornmeal so I searched for other recipes and came across yours! Thank you! Amazing first cupcake!!
Now I was wondering if you made a simpler / easier recipe where I won’t need to use an electric mixer and 2 bowls? 😂
★★★★★
I’m soo glad you like the recipe, Theresa!
LOL I think beating the egg whites until they are stiff is really a key part of a fluffy good waffle, so I can’t think of a way to do that without a separate bowl and an electric mixer. Unless you like beating egg whites by hand, but that sounds like a lot of work to me! 😂
Thanks for taking time to comment!
Ann
Can I make these ahead of time? How do you crisp them up so they won’t go soggy?
Hello Susan,
I do recommend making them fresh for the best crunch. You can toast the pre-made waffles in a toaster over or toaster, but it won’t be quite the same as freshly made. We have saved pancake batter in the fridge for 2 – 3 days and they still cooked up well, so I imagine that would work for these waffles too.
Thanks for asking! Enjoy your waffles.
Ann
This recipe is my go-to for waffles. The order and sequencing of ingredients are the secret to perfect waffles every time. Thanks so much, Anm, for adding joy to our day with this yummy recipe!
★★★★★
Hi Valerie,
You just added so much joy to MY day! Thank you so much for the review and kind words. It makes me so happy that you like the recipe. 🙂
~ Ann
Finally – the perfect recipe for my Cuisinart vertical waffle maker. I’ve tried 4 others w/ no success but this batter was thin enough to nicely fill the waffle maker. On setting 4 each waffle was beautifully browned. I crisped them by holding them in the warming oven until we ate. One tip I tried: when pouring in the batter slowly I moved the stream of batter slowly from one side of the batter funnel to the other. When all the batter had been added, I used a spoon to push the remaining batter in the funnel down into the griddle gently. The finished waffle had a nice texture and mouth fell, and the flavour was buttery and rich. These will be our Saturday morning favourites from now on.
★★★★★
I commented in October about how much I love these waffles but. Ow I love it even more! I boosted the sugar to 2 tablespoons for my sweet-lover family members, and changed the heat setting to 3. After I make the batter I had more milk until the batter is a little more fluid – 2-3 Tablespoons. Lately I’ve substituted 33% cream for 1/2 cup of the milk – OMG SOOOO GOOD! My family and I think this is better than any waffle that we have had in restaurants.
★★★★★
Thank you so much for the review … and for sharing your revisions. I am so happy it worked well for you. 🙂
Ann
Literal perfection. First time making these after getting the Cuisinart vertical waffle maker for Christmas. Didn’t even try the recipe in the box – I’m actually blown away by how well they worked! My only request would be to add metric measurements too.
Just made these this afternoon, to test out my fancy new waffle iron. They look lovely but they aren’t even close to crisp. What did I do wrong?
Hi Sue,
Check the settings on your waffle iron. You might have to turn up the brown-ness setting. On ours I use setting 4 for lightly crisp on the outside, but still soft on the inside. If you want it crisper, you might need to turn it up a bit.
Ann