• Written by Rich McNabb • Proofread & Edited by Claude AI
Years of finding gluten-free waffles or dairy-free waffles, never both in the same place. This 4-ingredient waffle recipe solves both problems at once, no substitutes, no compromise, just one recipe that actually works.
Driving around Canada, we kept running into the same problem. A place would have gluten-free waffles, not dairy-free ones. Somewhere else had dairy-free, never gluten-free. Every single time, it was one or the other. Never both.
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Back home, still thinking about it, I went looking online to see if anyone had actually solved both at once. That’s when I found Becky Excell of Gluten Free Cuppa Tea, a Sunday Times bestselling author dubbed “the Queen of gluten-free” by Nigella Lawson herself.
Her four-ingredient waffle recipe is gluten-free, dairy-free and low-FODMAP, solving a problem that had taken us right across Canada without an answer.
Next the search was on to find the perfect waffle maker to bring this dream to life.
This is unchanged from Becky Excell’s original recipe. No substitutes, swaps or deals with the devil required, which almost never happens.
Step 1: Combine
Combine the flour and baking powder in a large mixing bowl.
Step 2: Whisk
Crack in the eggs, pour in the milk, and whisk by hand until smooth with no lumps.
Step 3: Heat
Heat up your waffle maker.
Step 4: Pour
Pour in the batter, not so much that it overflows, and close the lid.
Step 5: Cook
Cook until golden, following your own waffle maker’s settings.
Step 6: Repeat
Remove and repeat until the batter’s used up.
Part of what we were chasing with waffles goes back to Homer’s Coffee Shop in Port Jervis, New York, where all the camp counsellors would meet for breakfast before heading out for the day. Diner booths, coffee and all day breakfast.
Thanks to Becky, we had the recipe sorted, yet we still needed waffle maker. After trawling through reviews, we landed on the Breville Smart Waffle. It was getting amazing reviews, and it lives up to the hype.
Belgian-style iron, technically, square with deep pockets, the shape most people picture when they hear “Belgian waffle.” The batter itself is pure American technique though, baking powder rather than yeast. A Moccamaster runs quietly alongside the espresso machine here now, so filtered coffee next to a stack of waffles is about as close as we get to recreating that here, minus the bottomless refills.
Going in, we didn’t expect much. First attempt with a new machine, gluten-free and dairy-free on top of that, felt like it was stacking the odds against us even before we’d cracked an egg. Years of one or the other, never both, does that to your expectations. Then Ali opened the lid, and the waffles looked like something off a Hollywood movie. Real Walter White level chemistry, minus the RV and the questionable life choices.
We must have had waffles for a week solid after that first batch, the same way that baked chicken recipe took over dinner for a week once we cracked that one. They store well too, a couple of minutes in the toaster and they’re a proper snack, not just a breakfast thing. Blueberries and maple syrup became the go-to, though there’s nothing stopping you going savoury if that’s more your thing.
Gluten-free or dairy-free, never both, that was the pattern for years, same as it was with banana protein pancakes. Now it’s neither problem at all, just a waffle maker, four ingredients, and a good cup of filter coffee on the side.
Turns out the fix isn’t more, it’s less, same thinking behind a minimally designed banking app I worked on, stripping back everything getting in the way until what’s left just works.
These also turn into a proper build-your-own-waffle station whenever people are over, especially with kids around. Pile the pre-cut fruit in the middle of the table and let everyone customise their own to taste.
And if we’re calling a spade a spade, recipes like this one owe a fair bit of their traction to keto, and keto owes a fair bit of its love of waffles to bacon. Credit where it’s due.