While there’s still a majority of folks who can tolerate gluten, there’s quite a handful of you that are experimenting with removing it from your daily diet – a great way to truly find what’s working for you.
The challenge with most gluten-free recipes, is that they use a whole boat load of flours. Sometimes up to 4 flours and starches to reach a similar consistency to the regular versions. Unfortunately, I don’t have the money or the space to create a bulk-bin collection in my cupboards. I choose the best of the basics and work from there. My two favorites are almond flour and coconut flour, but I decided to explore millet flour (in combination with almond flour) to work with a few other brunch favorites. I’m calling ’em “Fluffy Almond-Millet Waffles.”
Most gluten-free flours require a lot of liquid and oil, otherwise the end-product can turn out dense and dry. For the past week, I’ve been massaging this recipe to get it just right so it is light, fluffy, slightly sweet, and not loaded with the extras that will weigh you down. The BIG SECRET with this recipe is separating the egg whites from the egg yolks (a trick I picked up when I interned under executive chef Maxine Siu at Plow restaurant when prepping her infamous lemon ricotta pancakes.
When you go through the recipe below, you’ll see that you need to beat the egg whites to a soft peak. If you aren’t familiar with that term OR if you don’t have an electric mixer, it’s quite simple to nail it with 5 spare minutes and a strong arm. Take a look at the photos below to guide you. Super simple and delish.
- 1 ¼ cup millet flour
- ¾ cup almond flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup milk (preferably whole milk or almond milk)
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons butter (or coconut oil), melted
- 2 tablespoons honey, melted
- 3 egg whites
Instructions
- Preheat the waffle iron to a medium setting. You want a slightly crisp exterior with a soft interior.
- In a large bowl, combine the millet flour, almond flour, baking powder and salt. Stir until well combined. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form a soft peak. You can use an electric mixer or use a fork and beat quickly with your hand for about 5 minutes. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks, vanilla extract, and milk. Add this liquid mixture to the dry ingredients. Then pour in the melted honey and butter. Mix until well combined.
- Fold in the beaten egg whites.
- Pour onto the waffle iron. Serve immediately with Blueberry Maple Syrup and fresh berries.
Notes
Make extra and freeze in ziplocks for busy mornings. Be sure to separate each waffle with a piece of parchment or wax paper to avoid sticking. When you are ready to eat, simply take a few out and throw them in your toaster. Forget “leggo my eggo”...you have these instead.
More Healthy Brunch Recipes
Kale. All Day. Err Day.
I love the step by step photos of the whisked egg whites. I was always curious how long it took.
These waffles were VERY good! thanks for the recipe. I will certainly be making them regularly. The recipe yielded for me 4.5 belgian waffles and it only took 2 minutes to cook one of them.
Hi Jalice! So happy to hear that you enjoyed the waffles as much as we did. I’d love to taste the recipe in a thinner waffle maker one of these days.
Oh and thanks for the time and quantity notes. I think every waffle maker will be slightly different, so this helps a ton for our other readers/recipe makers!
Made these this morning and they were delicious! The whole house smelled lovely. I’ll be enjoying these from the freezer for a few weeks. 🙂 Thanks!
So glad you enjoyed the recipe. They definitely make the house smell sweet, don’t they? Kind of like those crepe shops!!! COZY!!!
Is there a possible substitute for egg yolks?
Hi again Jenn – Although I’ve never tried this, you could see what it would be like to blend flax seeds with warm water to make an egg-like substitute. Have you heard of that before? I’ve never done it, but you could give it a go to see what happens. Here’s a random link I found. Jump to step #4: http://www.wikihow.com/Replace-Eggs-in-Your-Cooking — Do let us know how it works out if you try it!
I LOVE these waffles. They are amazing. so light and fluffy. I love gf baking. Its whole grain without tasting like cardboard like it would with whole wheat flour. I am sugar free so I eat them with almond butter and leave out the honey.
They are best out of the freezer and toasted in the toaster! So crispy on the outside but fluffy and soft on the inside. such a find! Thank you!!
Hi Ashley! Wooohoooo!!! So happy you love the waffles. It’s such an interesting, simple mix of gluten-free flours, but I think folding those egg whites in really does the “fluffy” trick, don’t you think? And soo…loving the honey removal and adding a bit of almond butter on top instead. I’ve been experimenting with dropping as much sugar from my eating habits as possible too, and notice that when it’s completely out of my system, I don’t even miss it. Great stuff and THANK YOU for trying the recipe…and sharing you success story (and almond butter tip:).
Awesome recipe! If I can’t find millet flour is there a substitute I can use? thanks!
Hi Arianna,
Thanks for the question. Millet is light, fluffy, and naturally gluten-free. You could try swapping it with CHICKPEA (garbanzo) bean flour. It’s similar in color, high in protein, but it might turn out to be a bit more dense and dry. Hope that helps…a bit 🙂 -steph
YAY! Visuals are SOOOOO helpful for us too. I swear I can’t understand anything without a napkin-sketch or a photo.
Oh and for your swaps, NO…don’t swap it with coconut flour. It will make the waffles dry because it requires more liquid/moisture with the wet ingredients. Trust me…I’ve tried, and the end-result was like eating super dry donuts. If you can, swap it with walnut meal! That’s a great idea. The millet flour is more like coconut flour, so the combo of that WITH a flour that has more moisture/oil (like a nut flour) is what makes the nooks and crannies so moist and fluffy 🙂
Sorry this is so late? How did it go btw?