I posted in this thread in 2014 and said pancakes are better than waffles.
LOL I had no idea this thread was from 2010!
It took me a good 5 years to perfect my pancake recipe:
Dave's Famous Pancakes:
* 2 cups Bisquick (yellow box in the baking aisle
* 1 cup Sour Cream
* 1/2 cup Milk (I use whole cow's milk)
* 2 eggs
Mix until combined (don’t overstir…it’s going to be a thick batter) & drop on hot greased griddle (ex. Teflon pan with PAM spray) to cook until browned to your liking, then flip until finished. Note that they won't bubble up like regular pancakes, so you have to check the brownness periodically. These pancakes are so good that I don't even bother adding butter to them, just syrup & done! Although they ARE good with either chocolate chips or blueberries in them.
As far as restaurant pancakes go, I think Cracker Barrel has really fantastic pancakes, as does McDonalds ("hotcakes"), with their really great faux syrup. As far as waffles go, I'm about 95% there on my "perfect" recipe. It's pretty dang good, just not exactly where I want it yet.
WIP Waffle Recipe:
Dry stuff:
* 1 & 1/3 cup All-purpose flour
* 1/4 cup & 2 Tablespoons Powdered sugar (not granulated)
* 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt (not table salt)
* 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
* 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
Wet stuff:
* 1 & 3/4 cup Cultured Lowfat Buttermilk (it's the standard bottle sold at most grocery stores)
* 3 tablespoons Butter, melted (just microwave in a bowl for 30 seconds)
* 2 large Egg Whites (no yolks!!)
* 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
Instructions:
1. Preheat waffle iron to MEDIUM (the notch halfway between 3 & 4). This is not a high-heat-friendly recipe!
2. Mix the dry stuff.
3. Whisk in the wet stuff until nice & smooth (regular whisk or Danish dough hook, both work fine).
4. Spray Pam onto waffle maker & pour mixture in. I don't have an exact measurement, but you should be able to get 3 waffles and maybe a 4th partial out of the mix. Just eyeball it.
5. Cook for around 3 minutes per side. It should beep when it's ready to flip, and then beep again when it's done. Mine took around 6-7 minutes.
This is a pretty great waffle in my book. It really depends on what you like personally. It's like chocolate-chip cookies...there's a million ways to make it; it depends on what you're looking for. With waffles, you can do crispy, or light, or sweet, or cakey, or dense, etc. This is light, slightly sweet, and slightly crispy. In short, (almost) the perfect waffle. I use a flip unit like this, which does two waffles at a time:
I also have a dual-square waffle maker & mini Eggo-style waffle maker. The mini unit is by Dash & only costs $15:
It's one of my FAVORITE cooking appliances because it's small & cute and actually does a really terrific job making mini waffles! I have several waffle projects going on at the moment:
1. Perfecting my recipe above for full-sized Belgian waffles
2. Replicating
Batter Blaster using my ISI Whip
3. Perfecting the mini-waffle; this week I'm going to try making them coated with glaze, kind of like those packaged gas-station mini hand pies
Also, I have had really good luck freezing both pancakes & waffles:
1. Let them cool on a cooling rack
2. Wrap them individually in Press N' Seal tightly
3. Put the wrapped food into a Ziploc freezer gallon bag & throw in the freezer
Then you can put them in a toaster, toaster oven, microwave, etc. to reheat, for when you want "fast food" without having to cook!