How Long To Cook Waffle In Belgian Waffle Maker

How Long Do I Cook Waffles on a Waffle Maker?

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Homemade waffles can be a little tricky. When you make pancakes, you simply have to wait until you see a bubble or two, flip them, wait a few seconds, and poof ‒ they're done ‒ but much more can go wrong when you make waffles. Myriad problems ‒ they stick to your waffle iron, are overdone or underdone, limp instead of crisp, too heavy and dense inside ‒ can happen in the waffle world. But taking a few steps ensures your waffles are fluffy inside but crisp outside, perfectly brown but not burned, and release like magic at just the right time from your waffle iron. Just how long that takes depends on several factors.

Determining How Long to Cook

Cooking waffles is an art that requires a gentle hand and a flexible approach. It's difficult to say how long to cook a waffle, because it depends on several factors:

The thickness of your batter
The amount of batter you pour onto the waffle iron grid
How your specific waffle iron works

Just like baking in the oven, you can use the same recipe every time, follow it the same way every time, and cook it at the same temperature every time, but still have different results with each waffle. Rather than focus on a specific amount of time, learn the signals that your waffle iron gives when a waffle is done.

Know Your Waffle Iron

Every waffle iron is different. So first read the manual that comes with it, or, if you can't find it, you should be able to find directions online. Have your manufacturer's name and model number handy to get precise directions.

Some waffle irons have indicator lights or make audible sounds that tell you when the griddle is hot, when to flip the waffle or the iron, and when it's done. If yours doesn't, the directions will advise you as to how to know when to flip the waffle and how to check if it's done. If you can't find directions for your specific waffle iron, scan others until you find some that could apply to yours and experiment according to those instructions.

Transform Your Waffle Mix

Some of the factors that determine how to make a crispy waffle that's fluffy inside ‒ and how long that takes ‒ lie within your batter. Cooks who consistently bake crispy and/or fluffy waffles offer tips to help you achieve the same results to fix a variety of the problems and solutions you may encounter:

Sticking to the grid: Increase the amount of fat ‒ butter or oil ‒ in your mix.
Too dense: Overmixing and using a heavy technique can cause dense waffles.
Not fluffy enough: Separate your eggs. Beat the yolks with a fork and add to wet ingredients. Beat the whites until stiff peaks form. Fold whites gently into the batter until they are just incorporated with no white streaks.
Not crispy enough: Use oil instead of butter in your batter. Oil makes the batter thinner, which usually makes a crispier waffle. Adding a bit of cornstarch to your mix also helps them crisp up.
Undercooked or burnt: Don't lift the lid too soon or, of course, too late. As the waffle cooks, the waffle iron emits steam. As soon as the steam stops, the waffle is done.

Mix With a Light Touch

Always remember one tip when cooking waffles: "be gentle." You can't have light, airy, fluffy waffles if you are heavy-handed. Dense batter will take longer to cook and result in a heavy waffle. Whether you whip the egg whites separately or not, treat the batter as if it will break and be ruined if you don't.

References

Writer Bio

Barbara Bean-Mellinger is a freelance writer who lives in the Washington, D.C. area and writes about food for eHow.com and leaf.tv. She started baking on her own at age nine, creating appetizers at 10, and making family meals by 14. Barbara holds a B.S. from the University of Pittsburgh, where she often cooked elaborate meals and desserts for friends.