Cuisinart Belgian Waffle Maker

Cuisinart Waffle Maker

Apparently waffles are the not-so-secret brunch love of many of my friends and family, so much so that I decided to finally start making them at home. In paying close attention to the quality and taste of waffles in restaurants, I found most of them to be tasteless, either too crunchy or too soggy and most importantly, of questionable ingredients.

If we’re going to indulge, sure, we realize they’re empty calories but even with empty calories, some are better than others.

In search of the perfect waffle, (at least in the United States; I’ll update once I’m doing searching through other parts of the world), I found the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco has the best buttermilk waffle stateside. You could taste the tartness of the fresh buttermilk with the sweetness of Vanilla extract. Its’ perfectly crunchy, golden exterior gave way to the moist, hot center, and with a light swipe through Maple syrup, it was a heavenly bite from beginning to end. I’m not even a fan of waffles but that one turned me on to the virtues my family and friends had been singing about all these years.

In search of the best waffle maker, I turned to Cuisinart, makers of my favorite home Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt Maker. They have a variety of waffle makers but I chose the Belgian Waffle Maker with Pancake Plates. With a brushed stainless steel exterior and non-stick interior, cleanup takes seconds and is so easy I can’t come up with excuses not to make waffles at home. The non-stick plates are easily removable at the touch of a button and dishwasher safe (though so far, I’ve just wiped them down with a wet cloth once the appliance has completely cooled down).

This Cuisinart Waffle Maker has six browning settings (I love Setting 2-3 for a light golden brown), indicator lights to show you it’s cooking or it’s done, and a clear beeping sound to let you know it’s time to take those gorgeous pillows of perfection out.

I don’t know what Waffle Makers I had years ago that turned me off of making waffles at home but this Cuisinart version is simply fantastic. It’s intuitively easy to use, I barely glanced at a few sentences of instructions before diving right in. What makes this even more fantastic is that its non-stick feature and the multiple browning options allow for all types of waffles, not just the traditional plain, sweet ones.

I’ve experimented with savory waffles and pancakes, including all kinds of herbs (sage, basil, rosemary), even adding finely minced garlic, grated cheeses. If you prefer the sweeter varieties, you can add berries to the waffle/pancake batter. Speaking of the batter, here’s where you have the greatest control to ensure that you and your loved ones are using high quality ingredients like organic, unbleached flour, non-injected eggs, organic milk and non-hormone butter. Or if you’re vegan, you can definitely substitute all these standard ingredients with those you prefer. All these options would not be available in the majority of restaurants serving waffles and pancakes.

Moving beyond waffles and pancakes, the Cuisinart Waffle Maker can even be used to make potato hash, cheese crisps and, get this- grilled sandwiches (as long as they’re not super thick). So if you’ve ever wanted one of those cool panini presses AND a waffle/pancake maker, go for this Cuisinart multi-functional baby and save counter/kitchen space.

This is one nifty kitchen gadget I’ve fallen head over heels in love with. Especially if you have kids (or parents who are like kids), who love waffles and pancakes, this makes home eating so much fun without a huge cleanup, with a lower price tag than eating out but much healthier and tastier! A huge win!

Available at US $99.95 with a 3 year warranty.

Learn more about the Cuisinart Waffle Maker.