Pink, the 'Waffles of Insane Greatness' recipe that Joanm posted on the January New Recipe Review thread is a fantastic recipe.

Waffles of Insane Greatness
Recipe courtesy Aretha Frankensteins

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk or buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Butter and syrup, for serving

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; mix well. Add the milk, vegetable oil, egg, sugar and vanilla and mix well. Let the batter sit for 30 minutes.

Preheat a waffle iron. Do not use non-stick spray on the waffle iron; the oil in the batter will allow the waffle to release easily. Follow the directions on your waffle iron to cook the waffles. Serve immediately with butter and syrup.

This recipe was provided by professional chefs and has been scaled down from a bulk recipe provided by a restaurant. The Food Network Kitchens chefs have not tested this recipe, in the proportions indicated, and therefore, we cannot make any representation as to the results.

These are hands down THE best waffles I have ever eaten. Crisp & delicious. It's readily adaptable to what you're wanting to do. The only problem, for the impatient or time crunched, is that the batter has to sit for 30 minutes before baking.

Try this recipe & you won't want any other waffles. Guaranteed!!

Oh--I've made this recipe 3x already & have used buttermilk each time.

Pinky:
It's so easy to mix a batch and you can get what you want.
I use Cake mixes ecause of all the ingredients in some.
They are all pretty good.

Why don't you give yourself a real treat and try my Waffle Recipe.
I won't tell anyone.
LOU

Here's a recipe for a mix without using shortening.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Natural Mommy

I'm looking to make my own dry waffle mix that I can mix up a big batch of in advance and leave on the shelf for when I want waffles. A homeade version of the dry waffle mixes you buy in the store like Krusteez only better because mine won't contain hydrogenated fats and have lots of whole grains.

I don't want to mix up a wet batch of waffle mix and let it sit in the fridge overnight to do it the next day, (wonderful as that may be), because with the way my life and cooking go, somthing will happen, I won't be able to get to it, and it will end up spoiled and in the garbage, just like my current batch of potato salad that is sitting in my fridge waiting for trash day.

I don't have a shortage of waffle recipes or any qualms about trying them from scratch, I would just like to experiment with making my own dry mix ahead of time, to save a little bit of time and make things easier for the times when I'm in more of a hurry.

This weekend I am actually going to try the make ahead Belguim ones with yeast, which you DO make ahead and have sit in the fridge. I'm home from work today due to a snow day so I can do that. I found the recipes while searching around for a dry mix. The only thing I'm having trouble with is my yeast is in a big jar and I don't know how I'm going to figure out what the equivalent is of a package of yeast. One recipe I found says .25 oz. but my kitchen scale doesn't go that low.

A standard packet of dry yeast = 2 1/4 tsp. of yeast.

I remembered the yeast packet being a little over 2 teaspoons so I googled it. It seems to be 2 1/4 - 2 1/2 tsp

This is what I found.

about 2.5 teaspoons (1 scant tablespoon) in a 0.25 ounce packet
Source(s):
http://www.redstaryeast.com/products.htmÂ
A 1/4 -ounce packet of active dry yeast contains approximately 2-1/2 teaspoons

OR

... called the Fleischmann's people about a year ago with the same question, because I buy my yeast in jars. According to them, 2 1/4 teaspoons jarred (or bulk) yeast equals 1 package active dry yeast. Seems to work for me so far!

The only oils that are good for you are palm, coconut, olive and fish oils. Unfortunately, the rest are bad. If you don't eat very much vegetable oil, you would be fairly safe using it instead of shortening.

Also, you could experiment with adding the applesauce instead of an oil and see if that would taste good and have the moisture you want.

If you get the powdered eggs and use the powdered buttermilk etc in a dry mix to have on hand, then you'd just need the oil/applesauce. If you decided you liked the applesauce, then just freeze some in the amounts you need.

Would that work for you?

Beth

I think that you'd be happy and have a quicker quick breakfast if you make a large batch of waffles and freeze them. We actually like them better this way. We drop them in the toaster while still frozen.

Here's a recipe I found online I'm going to try.

Make-Ahead Buttermilk Mix for Pancakes, Waffles and Biscuits

Ingredients:

Buttermilk Mix:
1 cup Organic Valley Buttermilk Blend (dry buttermilk)
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
5 cups unbleached white flour
1/4 cup baking powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
2 teaspoons salt

For Pancakes:
2 cups Buttermilk Mix
1 1/2 cups Organic Valley Milk or water
2 tablespoon vegetable oil

For Waffles:
2 cups Buttermilk Mix
2 tablespoons Organic Valley Butter, melted
2 large or extra large Organic Valley Eggs
1 1/4 cups Organic Valley 2% Milk

For Biscuits:
3 cups Buttermilk Mix
6 tablespoons (3/4 of a stick) Organic Valley Butter, frozen
1 cup Organic Valley 1% or 2% milk

I may play around with it a little someday and try to get it to a point where all you have to add is water, or water and eggs. Would make nice Christmas gifts. I think I'll go half white and half wheat flour though.

Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Valley Recipes

I created the following mixes for the sailing trip my son is taking. I wanted to give them something they could make while on long passages when milk, eggs, butter, etc were unavailable. These are designed to use just oil and water. They are especially fond of the warm chocolate cake. :)

I placed them in ziplock bags with the directions on a slip of paper inside the bag.

Chocolate Buttermilk Chocolate Chip Cake Mix

1-2/3 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons buttermilk powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°

To this mix add:

 1 cup water
 1/2 cup vegetable oil
 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

Mix just until blended. Spread evenly in a greased and floured single layer baking pan, round or square. Bake for 25-35 minutes (adjust for pan size) until middle springs back when touched lighty.

When cooled, dust with powered sugar to serve.

Buttermilk Quick Bread

1-1/3 plus 1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoon buttermilk powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dry milk

Optional addition 1

2 teaspoons dry dill weed and
1 cup chopped walnuts

Optional addition 2

3 tablespoons dried minced onions and
2 tablespoons dried parsley

Preheat oven to 350°

To this mix add:

 1 cup water
 1/2 cup vegetable oil
 1 cup grated cheese (optional)

Quick bread: Mix just until blended. Spread evenly in a greased loaf pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes until middle springs back when touched lighty.

Biscuits: Drop by large spoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes.

I use coconut oil in my homemade mixes (LouAna brand - no coconut flavor or odor). Coconut oil won't oxidize and go rancid like shortening.

The link below will give you a plethora of mix recipes.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Saving Money with Homemade Convenience Mixes, Bulletin 4029

Here is one I had saved. I haven't tried it yet. It has vanilla powder which I don't think is found so easily, but I would just add vanilla sugar as part of the normal sugar or just leave it our alltogether.
Hope this helps,
Lisa

Multi-Grain Buttermilk Batch Pancake and Waffle Mix

Servings: 1 Servings
Total Time (median): 0 : 00 Active Time: 0 : 00

* 8 c Unbleached all purpose flour
* 1 1/2 c Buckwheat flour
* 1 c Corn flour
* 2 c White whole wheat flour
* 1/2 c Cornmeal, preferable stone
* 1/2 c Ground oatmeal
* 2 c Buttermilk powder
* 5 tb Baking powder
* 2 tb Baking soda
* 1/2 c Vanilla powder
* 1 1/4 c Sugar
* 3 tb Salt
* 2 tb Malt powder, optional

PANCAKES

* 1 c Pancake and waffle mix
* 1/2 c Water (up to 2/3)
* 1 Egg
* 2 tb Vegetable oil or unsalted butter

Preparation

(makes about 5 pounds) In a very large bowl, using a strong wire whisk, blend together all purpose, buckwheat, corn, white whole wheat flours, cornmeal, ground oatmeal, buttermilk powder, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla powder, sugar, salt and malt. Package in required amounts (e.g four to six cups) Pancakes: Stir pancake mix together with water, egg and vegetable oil or butter. Add more water if necessary to make a soft pourable batter. If using as waffle batter, double recipe and follow manufacturers suggestions. Make pancakes in usual fashion. NOTE: For a more convenient mix, you can cut in 1 1/2 cups shortening into the dry mix. Omit oil when reconstituting. You can use solid butter in the dry mix (same amount as shortening) but then the mix must be frozen. Posted to EAT-L Digest 28 Aug 96 From: Pat Belanger Date: Thu, 29 Aug 1996 10:23:31 -0700

Here is a link that might be useful: multigrain baking mix