Veganized waffles

It's Saturday morning in my house, and that means one thing:  something super special for breakfast!!

Today's experiment: veganizing waffles.

I've had this waffle maker for eons (and it still works!). It was a gift from my godmother, though I can't remember for what - birthday? Christmas? For the most part I use the recipe that came with the machine. It's a very standard, basic recipe that gives you a classic waffle. You can then take it to whatever level you want with fruit, nuts, flavorings, chocolate chips, or whatever else you want.

The standard recipe (to be veganized) is as follows:

INGREDIENTS
1 3/4 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
3 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3 egg yolks, beaten
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 1/2 c. milk
3 egg whites, beaten stiff

PROCEDURE
Measure dry ingredients into mixing bowl. Blend. Combine egg yolks and milk. Sir into dry ingredients. Stir in cooking oil. Carefully fold in egg whites. Do not overmix. Pour approximately 1/2 cup batter onto the preheated grid. Close and bake. 

OK, so that's what I'm starting with.  Right away there's one glaring challenge: 3 egg whites beaten stiff. I doubt that Ener-G's Egg Replacer product grows and whips stiff. Hmmm..... what to do....

Basically a source of starchiness, leavening, and gumminess.

I know that beaten egg whites impart fluffiness, airyness, and a more delicate texture. So one thing I thought to do was to substitute some of the all-purpose (AP) flour with cake flour instead, to get a more delicate texture.

So veganization #1:

• 1 c. unbleached AP flour
• 3/4 c. cake flour

The remaining veganizations are pretty straightforward:

• 3 tsp. evaporated cane juice
• 3 egg equivalents of egg replacer
• 1 1/2c. plain soy milk

I mixed in the same order and cooked spraying canola oil cooking spray to prevent sticking, as usual. Well, OK, maybe not quite "as usual". My usual would be the butter spray.

Voila! Vegan waffles!

The very first batch left a lot to be desired as far as flavor goes. This was a real lesson on the importance of eggs in that classic waffle scent and flavor. They also didn't seem to brown as much, despite leaving them in for longer. The waffle iron could be smoking and the things still wouldn't brown any more than this. Texture-wise, though, it was right on. I loved the texture. There's plenty of leavening in this batter both from the baking powder and the egg replacer, so there should be no reason why they wouldn't rise. And they were nicely delicate. I think the cake flour made a nice difference.

So after tasting the first batch and finding it rather bland, while I still had batter in the bowl I added 1/2 tsp. of vanilla.

Vanilla Voodoo!! Magic! Oh what a difference!

So I'm going to go with one more veganization:

• 1 tsp. vanilla

This is for the whole recipe. I had already cooked about 1 cup's worth of batter without it, so that's why I just added 1/2 tsp. to my remaining batter. It made a difference for the better but I felt it could have used a little more. So my next batch will contain vanilla. I thought it was weird that the standard recipe didn't call for at least a little vanilla in the first place. I mean, hello, it's vanilla!

This is one recipe where I would like to try applesauce and see what contribution it would make, now that I know what they're like without it. 

With maple-flavored agave nectar, I can live with these as my 'vegan waffles'.  Another success story. :-)