Gluten-Free Whole Grain Waffle Recipe

Ali Segersten Aug 04, 2009 37 comments

Today I wanted to share with you a tasty little waffle recipe that I created a few days ago. I know many gluten-free recipes and packaged products usually contain large amount of not-so-nutritious starches and refined flours such as white rice flour. Well this one doesn't. I rely on flours from super nutritious grains such as teff, quinoa, and millet. These flours not only significantly boost the nutrition, they add loads of flavor.

This recipe does contain eggs, though I do use coconut oil and rice milk which makes the recipe dairy-free. For those of you who do milk and butter you could easily use these ingredients instead. You can also make this recipe corn-free by using the corn-free baking powder recipe in our cookbook.
Over the last few days I have made this recipe a couple of times. Each time sharing it with my extended family who we are visiting right now. My 5 year old nephew asks me every morning, "Auntie Ali, are you going to make those waffles again today?" I take that as a success!
I bought all of the flours needed, except the millet flour, here in my parents' Midwest town. I used Bob's Red Mill brand. I think I gave my mom a bag of millet flour a few months ago while she was out visiting so I didn't need to purchase that one. I buy Arrowhead Mills millet flour which can be purchased online here.

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About the Author

Ali Segersten

Alissa Segersten holds a Bachelor's of Science in Nutrition from Bastyr University and a Master’s of Science in Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine from the University of Western States. She is a Functional Nutritionist, the mother of five children, a whole foods cooking instructor, professional recipe developer, and cookbook author. She is passionate about helping others find a diet that will truly nourish them. Alissa is the author of two very popular gluten-free, whole foods cookbooks and guidebooks: The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook and Nourishing Meals. She is also the co-author of The Elimination Diet book. Alissa is the founder and owner of Nourishing Meals®.

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Comments

Hi Ali,

I love your blog!! Thank you soo much for sharing your priceless recipes and advice.
Today I tried out the waffles( and since I'm not a good cook at all),which looked good but they were crumbly, not crispy like a waffle should be.
I didnt have sorghum flour and brown rice flour so I used white rice flour instead of the brown, and used 3/4 each of quinoa and millet flour instead of 1/2 cup each of those as the recipe states.
Maybe i substituted wrongly??
could you kindly offer some tips to help me out with this.
I am trying to get my kids to eat gluten free and stay away from regular wheat flour,so any help you offer is greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
Take care

If you answer my question, please reply to this comment. I forgot to check the box that notifies me of a reply :)

This looks so delicious! I'm now ordering sorghum, millet, and brown rice flour. Can any of them be substituted for the teff and quinoa? Those are expensive grains.

I made these this morning and they were absolutely fantastic! The first few didn't even make it to the table... they were gobbled up by my boys (5 & 7) who were standing in the kitchen eating them as they came off the waffle iron... no syrup or toppings needed. I used flax and water in place of the eggs and it worked just fine. I also used a small waffle iron, rather than my belgian waffle iron, and oiled it generously with olive oil before making each waffle.... no sticking until the last waffle. Thanks for all of your great recipes!! I have your first book, use it almost every day, and can't wait for your next one. =)

Cheers,
Christy

Oops, make that 1/4 cup of the chia gel. Gotta love typos!

We've just joined the gluten-egg-dairy free crowd here. I make a third of a batch, since that's plenty for my daughter, who's the main (and enthusiastic) consumer of these. I do all the flours by weight, which does make dividing a recipe easier! Anyhow, I grind 1/2T of chia seeds (which makes about 1T of chia meal) and add warm water to make 1/2C. Whisk it well and add the rest of the wet ingredients. I do add a little bit more (non-dairy) milk than I used to have to do. But I've made three batches so far and they've all come out really well. And they still keep well in the fridge for later toasting.

I know this is an older recipe but I tried it for the first time today and thought I would share my experience. I used the ener-g egg replacer since my son has an egg allergy. Egg replacer DOES NOT work for waffles. I use egg replacer for all the pancake recipes on this site and they have always turned out great. I don't think egg replacer works because it takes so long to bake the entire batch of waffles. My first and second waffle were great, but the rest of them completely fell apart. I remembered reading on the box that when using egg replacer the food needs to go into a preheated oven right away, since the product looses its effectiveness as it sits. That makes sense why my first two turned out great and the rest flopped. I guess if you have 12 waffle irons you could do it!

I've made these waffles a lot with eggs and they're great. However, we found out our daughter is allergic to eggs (gluten and garlic), so I decided to attempt the egg free version today. I used the standard 1 Tbs. ground flax mixed with three Tbs. boiling water per egg. I experimented using half the recipe (the full recipe works great to have enough waffles left-over to freeze if one has a smaller than Ali's family to feed).

I do not eat flours right now, so I cannot personally describe how they taste, but everyone seemed to like them just fine. The first waffle came out rather well. The second one split and half stuck to the top and half stuck to the bottom of the waffle maker. This continued with the rest of the waffles, so most everyone had waffle crumbles. The color was lovely, even if the presentation was somewhat lacking! I used a non-stick this time and would not recommend attempting an egg free version with a cast-iron waffle skillet. Our waffle iron is a Belgian waffle maker, so perhaps a thinner waffle maker might work better to prevent it from sticking.

I ended the experiment with one whole waffle and two waffle crumbles. I decided against making the fourth since scraping waffle out of the waffle iron was becoming not so fun. All in all, it was a worthwhile attempt to show that they can indeed be made egg free and turn out yummy!

Hi,

My son was told to go on a yeast free egg free diet recently in addition to his gfcf diet. In search for a yeast free bread I foundyour site, baught your cookbook and have been enjoying using your recipes!

I made the teff pancakes , teff waffles and the gf flatbread. I realized that my son is sensitive to teff so I replaced teff with quinoa in all of the recipes and he loves all of it.

I also baked the cakes you have as well as few muffins. When teh recipe calls for eggs I just replace thme with felx meal and milk.

I got hooked to your cookbook and I am happy to report that I decided to do the elimination diet myself!

I also realized that my son shouldn't have vinegar so it would be great if the gf flatbread was made without the vinegar. I tried this morning to replace the vinegar with unbuffered vitamin C. I'll see how it is tonight. It seemed a bit dry this morning but was too hot to try.

Being that my son is a very picky eater and what he eats depends on the texture I am always in search for some dry textures. So, Ali would you know how to make a gluten free, dairy free, egg free, yeast free phyllo dough?

Thanks,
Nati

What would be a good sub for the millet flour here? Buckwheat flour, superfine brown rice flour, or sorghum? These look super! Thanks!

Yo... high five on these waffles, woman. I also can't stand the starchy bland store-bought mixes. Just made em for my sweetie and I for Valentine's day breakfast after a big run in the rain. Subbed Buckwheat for the teff, added some vanilla and cardamom and a bit of almond pulp from the almond milk I made as the batter liquid. Super good. My boyfriend's dad made us some epic raspberry jam that went perfectly slathered on top. I left out the maple syrup so that we can pile roasted garlic, goat cheese and spinach on top of the leftovers in the next few days for a savory treat. Thanks SO much.

Amy - not sure if anyone has tried the recipe using egg replacer. That might be an option. I don't use it so I have not tried. Please let us know if it works. :)

Any idea if I can make these without the eggs?

Diane - Yes sub in sorghum for the rice flour. I made a big batch of these not too long ago and froze what the kids didn't eat that morning. They ended up eating the rest of them over the next two mornings heated in the toaster! :)

Ariana - Thanks for sharing your adaptions to this recipe on your blog. I like to see how this can work different ways. :)

Hi there! I tried these with a few alterations and listed it here on my site. http://foodintolerancescook.blogspot.com/2009/08/recipe-review-4-gluten-free-whole-grain.html

They sure where delicious! Thanks!!! I love how you use whole grains!

We're going to be making a bunch of these to have in the freezer for mornings. I can't eat rice so could I just sub more sorghum flour for this? Thanks!

Linda - I often add buckwheat flour to pancakes/waffles (and just about everything else) too, it has such a nice binding quality. I grind my own in the vita-mix from the raw grain (well it's not technically a grain). :)

Amy - Thanks! I try to use a little starch as possible w/o sacfrificing taste and texture. :)

Gina - Thanks, teff is one of my favorite grains/flours! It really does add quite a bit of flavor to baked goods, not to mention the nutritional value. I am sure you will have fun with it. :)

Angie - Thanks so much for the sweet blogging award! I appreciate it :)

Deb - Thanks again for sharing your substitutions! I buy 4 packs of millet flour from amazon.com. I keep one out and freeze the rest, that way I usually don't run out. I am glad to hear that this recipe works well without the millet flour as well! :)

I love these waffles!!! I ran out of millet flour, so used 1 cup of sorghum flour this morning and they were still excellent. The texture and taste are really beyond compare.
Thanks again!!!
Deb

Ali, this looks so delicious. I love how you use Teff flour in lots of your baked goods, they look so nutrious and tasty (as I know they are!) I'm passing on a blog award to you - visit my blog to redeem it http://gluten-dairy-sugarfree.com. Thanks for all the great recipes!

These look beautiful! I haven't experimented with teff yet - I imagine that it tastes wonderful in waffles. Thanks for the recipe!

I'm working on decreasing the starch in my flour mix too for certain recipes. I love seeing how you mix different flours. :)

Just the other day I was trying to increase the amount of whole grain and decrease the amount of starch in my waffle recipe. I added buckwheat flour to it and liked it better.

Welcome to Twitter. I'm going to tweet this post. I found Tweetdeck to be a big help.

Jennifer - Thanks for the freezing feedback! Glad you like the new header! :)

These freeze extremely well! I made some straight from the freezer yesterday and they were, dare I say, almost better than the first day!

I like the new header (or whatever you call it!). The blueberries were nice too, though.

Jacqueline - Gee thanks, glad they were a hit for dinner! :)

Thank You! Thank You! I just made this waffle recipe for dinner. Hey, breakfast for dinner is fun! They were just perfect Ali and quite the hit. I served them with scrambled eggs and a summer fruit salad.

Thanks! ~J

FortheLoveofFood - I don't have any suggestions to make this recipe egg-free, however, their will be a multi-grain gluten-free pancake and waffle mix in my next book which uses a special egg substitute that I developed. I am saving all of those recipes for the new book though. Sorry, you'll need to wait a few more months. :)

This recipe looks awesome! Any chance you have a few suggestions for making these without eggs or egg replacer? Thanks.

T - Thanks, hope you enjoy! :)

Wow, wonderful! I have been looking for a gluten-free waffle recipe, so this is perfect! Thank you, Ali :-)

Katie - You know I have never used egg replacer before so I am not sure, you would probably need to experiment. But please let us know if it works out, I am sure others here would like to know. :)

bekkijo - Thanks :)

My Year Without - Teff can be heavy but in this recipe it seems to work very well. Your peanut butter teff cookies sound yummy! Glad you found us, I checked out your blog - looks great! :)

Jennifer - Great, feedback already! :) I am so glad to hear they turned out in the cast iron maker. I am visiting family right now and my mom has a very nice Belgian waffle maker (and a Micky Mouse one). I have had mixed results using the cast iron one with my other recipes too. We have been enjoying this summer, it is so much easier than last year now that the boys are a year and a half! What fun! :)

Kelly - Thanks! I will let you know when I figure out twitter, just not top priority now, playing hard is too much fun! Time to go water skiing now! :)

Momat32 - Thanks, I wish I could tell you how many this recipe makes. With 6 grandchildren and 5 adults eating these they have been eaten up before I have had time to count! Needless to say we feed the children first and the adults don't get much. I am guessing 8 large waffles? They freeze well which will save you the effort of making these on a busy morning. Sorry I can't be more clear here.

-Ali :)

These look delicious and nutritious. I'm glad to have the recipe to replace my old one based entirely on brown rice flour.
Question: It looks like it makes a huge amount of batter--what is the quantity of waffles that this recipe makes?

Oh my gosh, I have been craving this! Thanks for sharing!

I also need to learn Twitter. Let me know how it goes! And Woohoo for playing hard! ;-)

Oh Ali! These are so good. I was looking for the scone recipe this morning to make for my in-laws who are visiting and I came across the waffles and decided to make those instead. The first one just came out off the iron and they are great! I haven't shared them with anyone yet since most everyone is still asleep or getting dressed, but I am sure they'll have rave reviews too.

I toasted and ground the millet for the flour and it worked out fine (like the Morning Millet recipe) (in case there are folks out there without millet flour on hand).

I am using a hand-flipped cast-iron skillet and as long as I set a timer it works out good. I haven't had sticking yet with these ones. The oatmeal ones were a different story, but those were yummy too.

Thanks so much!! Enjoy your summer and don't stress too much about keeping up with all of your adoring fans. You've posted plenty to keep us happily busy in the kitchen for a while.

I am so excited to see a recipe that calls for teff flour. I bought teff flour months ago in an effort to make panjera bread (which was a total flop) and then I experimented making peanut butter teff flour cookies which were good...I like them but my taster friends did not. Teff is so heavy/hearty that it seems to really overpower.

Anyway, I just came across your blog for the first time and I am excited to see a blog dedicated to whole nutrition!

Hope to discover more interesting recipes/thoughts as I peruse your site!

Thanks!

looks delicious!! Makes me wish I owned a waffle maker now!

Would egg replacer work in this recipe?

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