Waffle Maker 101

Waffle makers give waffles their recognizable shape and without them waffles would be more or less pancakes. Browse through the website http://www.waffle-recipe.com/; you will find plenty of waffle recipes for waffle makers. But what about the makers themselves? What do you need to know about them before you buy one or start using one?

History of Waffle Makers. Waffle makers (also called waffle iron) go quite a long way back. Some even date them all the way back to ancient times and we guess waffles could be right there with them. First waffle makers Early waffle makers were designed by the blacksmiths and were manufactured of casted iron plates. When you wanted to make some waffles you had to fire up your wooden stove and make sure that both sides of the waffle maker were heated one after the other. Waffle makers came to US sometimes in 1790s from France and they came a long way since then.

Modern Waffle Makers. It’s a good thing these waffle makers are a thing of the past. Modern waffle makers are a technical thingies with auto timers and programs, thay run on electricity and tell you when the waffle is ready. One thing you should decide before you go and buy a waffle iron is the size of it. Do you want to make real Belgian waffles? In that case you need a Belgian waffle maker – it is bigger in size and has a deep grill to make that Belgian waffle pattern and size we all know. But don’t worry; Belgian waffles from a smaller waffle maker will taste just as good.

How to choose a waffle maker? As we said, first thing you need to decide on is the size and the shape of the waffles you want to make. Size and shape are determined by the size, shape and grid of the waffle maker since when you pour the batter in the waffle maker it will take shape of waffle maker grid. Waffle makers are available with many shapes like round, square, rectangular and so on, but this has no effect on the taste so it doesn’t really matter.

Next thing is how many waffles do you want to make at the same time? Most of the waffle makers are made to give you one or two waffles, but you can get waffle makers that can make or up to four waffles at a time. That can come handy if you have a really big waffle hungry family or you want to sell some waffles to you neighbors. If you decided on a Belgian waffle maker, then be aware that is usually comes with one big grill (without partitions) so you can only make one big waffle at a time.

Grill material. These days Brushed stainless steel is used to make most of the waffle makers. All waffle makers now also come with non stick coat that keeps waffles from sticking to the waffle maker (but you still need some oil to keep thing smooth). The quality of these coats can differ from waffle maker to waffle maker. Waffle maker should also be insulated so you don’t burn yourself when you are making waffles (like insulated handles etc…).

A nice feature that many waffle makers have is a trip tray that catches the overflowing batter and helps the kitchen and your stove to be clean and tidy. These would be the basics we guess, and then there are a few “advanced” features that are different from one waffle maker to another. Like programmable waffle maker, waffle maker with timer that tells you when the waffles are ready and makes a sound, flashes a light, calls you into the kitchen and makes the table 🙂 etc… It’s up to you how much of these do you need. Waffles in a waffle maker are baked in not more than two to three minutes.

Source: http://www.waffle-recipe.com/waffles/waffle-maker/