Pieday Friday – Treats to cook in a waffle maker

_{Some items have been gifted}

You can probably guess from the title of this Pieday Friday blog post that I’ve recently become the proud owner of a new waffle maker. Yes, this month decided to go for it and order my new kitchen appliance from MeinCupcake and I’m really pleased that I did. You see, I’ve not just been making waffles in my Bestron heart shape waffle maker. Oh no, that would be too easy. I have tried out a few sweet waffle recipes, of course, but you know me; I’m a savoury kinda girl who’d rather have a main meal than a pud. So I’ve been baking savoury treats in my new waffle maker too and here’s what I’ve come up with.So first of all, I tried a standard waffle recipe that I found on the BBC Good Food website. Ingredients: 250g plain flour, 7g baking powder, 20g caster sugar, 745ml milk, 5g salt, 2 eggs, 30ml vegetable oil. Mix the eggs with the milk before adding to the dry ingredients. Add the oil and mix all ingredients together until all the large lumps have been broken up.With my batter at the ready I heated up my pretty pink appliance and waited for the warming light to tell me that the waffle maker was ready to go. When the non-stick plates were up to temperature I poured the batter onto the bottom waffle grid and closed the lid. And then this happened:Yes, I think I poured too much of the batter in at once. And most of it came trickling right back out. Having learnt my lesson I tried again to make a second waffle and used much less batter. This time the heart-shaped waffles came out perfectly and were both crisp on the outside while soft in the centre. And incredibly moreish. I baked about batches of waffles with the amount of batter I’d mixed up and served them up with grilled cured bacon, egg and maple syrup.After wiping down the grill plates, an idea for lunch came into my mind (yes, one meal finishes and I’m immediately thinking about the next) so later that day I fired up the waffle maker again, but this time I made a cheese toastie.

Butter a slice of bread and on the un-buttered side spread some onion chutney (or cranberry sauce) and lay on slices of brie or cheddar. Put this slice of bread buttered-side-down on the waffle grill plate and put a second slice of bread on top, ensuring that the top of this piece is buttered too. This will stop the bread from sticking to the waffle plates. Ease the lid of the waffle machine down and clip into place. Cook for about 2 minutes, until the bread is toasted and the cheese is beginning to ooze out of the sides of the grilled sandwich. Yum! My final meal of the day was lasagne, which inspired me to make a homemade garlic bread in the waffle maker too. Again, spread butter on a slice of bread and this time spread more butter on the other side of the bread too. Sprinkle on herbs and spread garlic paste or crushed garlic over the butter. Lay the slice no-garlic-side down on the waffle grill and put a second slice, with buttered-side up, on top. I sprinkled a few more herbs on top just to make it look more ‘garlic-bready’. Again, I toasted this for a couple of minutes before breaking up and dipping into my lasagne sauce. Can you see why I like my new waffle maker so much? It’s quickly becoming one of the most useful appliances in my kitchen and I’ve got a whole stack of waffle recipes pinned on my Pinterest board, ready to try out. Watch this space for more recipes!

Some items in this blog post have been gifted to me and the pink links indicate a gifted product, affiliate link or information source. All thoughts and opinions in this post are based on my own experience and I am not responsible for your experience 🙂