I love waffles as much as my kids do. But knowing exactly the ingredients and their proportions makes me think twice about eating them very often. I have this recipe for waffles from Pam Anderson, which results in perfect waffles every time. They are light with a mild sweetness and every bite is crisp. I love to eat this sprinkled with icing sugar only. Of course some maple or chocolate syrup tastes fantastic but this is not a recipe I eat very often. I also don't feel like giving it to my family very often - its processed flour, with cornstarch and a lot of oil going into every batch to make sure the taste and texture is perfect. My favorite way of enjoying them is with mixed berries that have been cut and lightly sprinkled with icing sugar to release the juices in the fruit.

My kids really like waffles and look forward to having them often, so I decided to find a way to make them healthy. My trusted recipe is really good so I decided to use it as a starting point. I decided to first inspect the ingredients which made it unhealthy. The ones which immediately came to light were all purpose flour, cornstarch and oil. I tried to make these with whole wheat flour and with whole wheat mixed with all purpose also. The whole wheat ones were quite good. It did depend on the quality of the whole wheat flour. My favorite is Bob's Red Mill series of whole wheat flours. They do yeild better whole wheat based products than some of the other brands I have. If you prefer, you can use part whole wheat and part all purpose flour. I also wanted to look into the amount of cornstarch used in the recipe. I tried multiple iterations of reducing those and finally was able to cut it in half without drastically impacting the texture of the waffles.

The final change was the oil. I realized that I did not really need the 6 tablespoons of oil per batch. Actually 2 tablespoons per batch yielded results which were good. Using whole wheat flour also meant that I needed to increase the amount of leavening I used. This is the same principle I use for all baked goods made where I transition the recipe from using all purpose flour to whole wheat. The rest of the recipe and technique is exactly the same as my previous recipe. I am very happy with this version and the kids enjoy it also. And its healthy enough for me to give to them without any guilt.

Ingredients

3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup milk

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 large egg, separated

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Heat oven to 200F. Mix flour, cornstarch, salt, baking powder, baking soda in a medium bowl. Put buttermilk, milk and vegetable oil in a bowl, mix in yolk and set aside.

2. Beat egg white almost to soft peaks. sprinkle in sugar and continue until whites are firm and glossy. Beat in vanilla.

3. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and whisk until just mixed.

4. Add egg whites to batter in dollops and fold it in with a spatula until just incorporated.

5. Add batter to hot waffle iron (approx 2/3 cup) and cook until crisp and nutty brown. Set waffle on oven rack for at least 5 minutes and upto 20 minutes to keep it warm and crisp. Repeat with remaining batter.

6. Serve with chocolate or maple syrup or freshly cut fruits sprinkled with icing sugar (berries are perfect for this!).