You are in luck today friends! I’m sharing with you a taste of family history. This is a fantastic sourdough waffle recipe from Mike’s Grandma Maxine. It has been a tradition for generations. Our generation loves them and our kids do too!
First of all, don’t be intimidated by the “sourdough” part. Some people think that sourdough is hard or intimidating, but this is super simple and impossible to ruin. You’ll get delicious waffles every time!
We keep our sourdough starter in the fridge and make waffles with it about once a week. There’s no “feeding” of the sourdough required and absolutely no waste.
I’ll walk you through the whole process in the short video below or feel free to keep reading. There’s a printable version at the bottom of the post!
If you have a sourdough start already, great! If not, I’ll explain more about that in a second.
Making sourdough waffles takes a little forethought since you have to start them the night before. The bonus is that it just takes 5 minutes the night before and then you have them half-made already when you wake up!
The night before:
Combine your sourdough starter, 2 cups of flour, 2 cups of milk, and 1 teaspoon of salt in a bowl. Mix until smooth. Cover with a dish towel and leave it on the counter overnight.
A few more details:
Use plastic or glass for your bowl and your mixing spoon. Some metals are reactive with sourdough.
Because we use it almost every week, our starter is fine in the fridge without any extra care. If you’re going to leave yours unused in the fridge for a month, you’ll need to learn some of the basics in the care and feeding of sourdough starter. I suggest having waffles often instead. They’re worth it.
This recipe is pretty forgiving. You can use wheat, white or a blend of flour. You can use any type of milk you’ve got on hand. We generally use non-iodized sea salt, but we’ve also used iodized table salt without any issues.
We keep about 1 cup of sourdough starter, but a little more or less is fine. You can double or triple this recipe using just the 1 cup of sourdough starter. We always triple it (adding 6 cups of flour, 6 cups of milk, and 3 teaspoons of salt) since we have a big family and we all love these waffles!
In the morning:
In the morning, you’ll notice your sponge got fluffier overnight.
Before you add anything, take a cup of the sponge out! Don’t forget! This will be the starter for your next batch of waffles or other sourdough endeavors! Unless you’re using it the next day, keep it in the fridge, in a plastic or glass container, with a lid set on top but not screwed down tightly.
Add the following ingredients to your sponge:
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
If you’re doubling or tripling the recipe, double or triple all those ingredients as well. Mix it until smooth. Remember to avoid metal utensils. You’ll see that it will start to get bubbly once the baking soda and baking powder get mixed in there. You don’t want to over-mix because those bubbles will make your waffles nice and fluffy.
Plug in your waffle iron (or irons in our case) to get it hot. If your waffle iron has a variable temperature, make sure it’s turned to “waffles” or they’ll stick to the iron and be a mess to clean up (ask me how I know!) We usually spray the irons with cooking spray just for the first waffle.
Cook according to your waffle iron’s instructions, whether that means setting a timer or watching for a light to turn off or on. If you like them crispier leave them in for longer.
We like eating ours with homemade applesauce or homemade berry syrup. We are eager for our raspberries and blackberries to grow so we can make more syrup. Right now we’re using some homemade syrup made of water, sugar and maple flavoring!
If you don’t have a sourdough starter
If you don’t have a sourdough starter, there are a few things you can do.
First, ask around in your social network. People LOVE sharing their sourdough starts with others. It’s always nice to have a “tried and true” starter. Plus, they get better with age.
If you can’t manage to get a sourdough starter from a friend, you can easily make your own. The leavening in a sourdough starter comes from the natural yeasts in the air. It just takes a few minutes each day for a week or so and then it’s ready to be used or stuck in the fridge. You can even freeze a spare cup in case something happens to your “active” starter. I won’t go into the details for making your own start here, but rest assured that you’ll find loads of tutorials around the internet.
Okay, go make some delicious sourdough waffles!
- 1 cup sourdough starter
- 2 cups flour
- 2 cups milk
- 1 teaspoon sea salt (non-iodized salt)
- -------
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3 tablespoons oil
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 eggs
- THE NIGHT BEFORE
- To one cup of starter add flour, milk, and salt. You can double or triple the batch with just one cup of sourdough starter.
- Mix until smooth, cover and let stand at room temperature overnight.
- NEXT MORNING
- First take out ONE CUP of sponge and put in the refrigerator for next time. Put it into a glass or plastic container and set the lid on it without screwing down the lid.
- To the remaining sponge add baking powder, baking soda, oil, sugar, and eggs. Be sure to double of triple the amounts listed if you are doubling or tripling the recipe.
- Mix until smooth, but don't overmix. Bake according to your waffle iron's instructions.
These waffles came out delicious! I like this sourdough waffle recipe in particular because it was easy to adapt for a milk allergy. I just subbed almond milk for milk. I didn’t remove a cup of starter because I was feeding some starter for sourdough bread at the same time. Without removing a cup of starter, the recipe made 9 8-in Belgian-style round waffles. Thanks for posting!
I was taught that salt kills the starter. But you added salt to yours. How does that work?
I’m not sure! I’m not a sourdough expert by any stretch, but this works for us. We usually use sea salt (which is supposed to react differently than iodized salt), but we have messed up before and used iodized salt without any ill effects. So 🤷
Those sound amazing! Did you know there’s a sourdough library? https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/sourdough-library Some of its sourdough starters are a couple hundred years old!