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123 of 124 found the following review helpful:
 The quick and painless way to make Belgian waffles Aug 15, 2005
By Debbie Lee Wesselmann
The Waring Pro Belgian Waffle Maker will look familiar to most people who have stayed at a hotel that offers a complimentary continental breakfast. The waffle maker is usually located next to the toaster, with cups of batter nearby. Those continental breakfasts are a huge reason why I now own this waffle maker: my husband fell in love with the idea of owning one ourselves.
The operation is simple. Plug it in and wait for the iron to preheat. Brush or spray a little oil on the surface (first waffle only.) Pour batter on the nonstick grid, close the top, rotate the handle, and wait for the machine to beep when the waffle is done. Rotate the iron back to the original position, lift the lid, and remove the waffle. The whole cooking process takes about five minutes. The only real trick to operating this waffle maker is finding a good recipe. I didn't bother trying Waring's selections and instead found my favorite recipe online.
If you use a cooking spray instead of brushing on oil, make sure that you use the kind for grilling and high heat cooking. The original Pam leaves a sticky residue since it is not meant for such temperatures. A good, flavorless oil works best.
The whole thing cleans up in minutes, if not seconds. The nonstick grids release the waffles so cleanly that I never have to clean it. Too much batter poured onto the surface might require some exterior clean-up, but the removable metal pan underneath the waffle iron can be easily hand-washed. A temperature control allows you to control the darkness/crispness of your waffles. The manufacturer suggests a setting of 4; I found that I had to set it to 5 before I got an adequately crisp result. (This may have to do with the recipe I use as well as my personal preference for a crisp exterior.)
For recipes, I suggest that cooks use those that require stiff egg white folded into the batter for the classic Belgian waffle. These recipes usually only take ten minutes or so to whip up, and are not as time-consuming as those that require yeast.
All in all, I like this waffle maker. Now, if only my husband would make waffles at home as he does in hotels, instead of waiting for me to do it.
140 of 142 found the following review helpful:
The "How To" for Excellent Waffles Nov 27, 2005
By Jack Beery
I can't say enough about the quality of the Waring Pro. It makes excellent waffles. The construction is everything the engineer in me wants in a waffle iron. A drawback to this unit is that it takes up quite a bit of room. As was suggested in another review, we store our Waring on the counter top where it looks great.
We have now used the waffle maker for almost a year and find we have waffles for lunch often. My review is slightly changed to reflect more of what we have learned over the last several months.
My wife and I are not accomplished chefs so we struggled with recipes. Thus I want to comment on three things: seasoning the grids, recipes and cook time.
Regarding seasoning:
The directions indicate seasoning with cooking spray or oil; we initially preheated the Waring and then sprayed the grids with Mazola Canola/sunflower spray. We were never happy with the way that worked (we may have been too generous with the spray). My wife finally used a spatula and paper toweling and wiped between the grids. The waffles are coming out fine.
It is important to re-season the Waring which we do about every three months. We found out the hard way what happens when you don't re-season; the waffle stuck to the grids and it wasn't fun getting it out. The directions in the manual tell you what to do if a waffle sticks. It is worth reading.
Regarding recipes:
We tried about four recipes before my wife went to the library and found the following recipe in a newer Betty Crocker cookbook. This is the only recipe we use.
WAFFLES
PREP: 10 MINUTES (MAKES FOUR BELGIAN WAFFLES)
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1-3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup cooking oil
1. In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center of dry mixture; set aside.
2. In another mixing bowl, beat whole eggs slightly. Beat in milk and oil.
3. Add egg mixture all at once to dry mixture. Stir just till moistened (batter should be lumpy).
When mixing this batter, my wife followed the above instructions. For the oil she used Canola oil. Using a whisk proved to be a better way to mix the batter. The recipe says the batter will have some lumps. It did, but they were not there at the eating.
We preheated the Waring Pro using a 4-1/2 setting and did not use any oil or spray to re-season. I use the measuring cup that comes with the machine and fill it with batter 1/16" over the fill line on the cup. I pour the batter in a circular motion about 3/4" from the outer edge of the grids.
By accident, I found out that the amount of batter you put in the Waring is sensitive to where the temperature knob is set. The knob was inadvertently shifted to 6; I didn't notice. I poured batter into the unit and it rose a whole lot! In the end no big deal but now I check the setting when I turn the unit on.
I can never get the whole base to fill when pouring in the batter so I gently move the handle back and forth so the batter can flow in one direction and then the other to fill all the grids. It takes me about 30 seconds to fill the grids, close the cover and turn the waffle iron over. I then bake the waffle an additional four minutes.
About cooking time:
I depend completely on the clock for the time to cook, 4-1/2 minutes total. The signal from the Waring Pro comes very early and even monitoring the steam from the batter is not adequate.
Using the above, you will have Belgian waffles with the looks and taste that will make you proud!
Extra Waffles:
When you have extra batter, bake the waffles, let them cool, wrap individually in aluminum foil and freeze. They keep for several weeks and reheat well.
255 of 267 found the following review helpful:
If you're a fan of Belgian waffles.... Oct 03, 2003
The previous reviewer pretty much said it best. Many thanks to Waring and Amazon for saving me about $650, cuz I was about to break down and buy a restaurant waffle baker! As far as I'm concerned, this is the only [home-use] waffle maker in existence. I only wish that it was available sooner! I've gone through about 4 wafflers (I'm really not that fond of wasting my time and money) trying to find one that could make a restaurant-style Belgian waffle. Well, this is IT! You would have to spend *AT LEAST* another $400 to get anything remotely like it - and even then, you'd likely never be able to use it in the average home. My grandmother took one of the rejects - in fact, she just called to tell me what a horrible job it did! This unit makes 1-inch thick, deep-pocket, restaurant-style Belgian waffles - and it makes 'em fast too! They even include a measuring cup so you can put in just the right amount of batter. And it looks pretty cool, as well. Anyway, do yourself and your Belgian waffle recipe a great service by buying this unit... this is the only *affordable* waffle maker that can do the job right!
80 of 80 found the following review helpful:
Doesn't get much better than this! Sep 14, 2003
My kitchen is littered with the remains of victims of my search for the perfect waffle maker (7 at last count). While on vacation last summer we stayed at several motels that offered free continental breakfasts. Three of them offered do-it-yourself waffles using wonderful commercial waffle makers by Heartland and Carbon. These make perfect waffles, crisp on the outside and steamy tender on the inside, and they all use that method whereby your pour the batter on the hot grid and then close the top and flip/rotate it over. This simple act separates the home waffles from the commercial restaurant-style waffles (try putting on oven mits and turning over your countertop waffler!).
Problem is these commercial flipover wafflers aren't available to the home consumer, only to restaurants and motels through some kind of franchise deal. Occasionally you can find used ones on eBay for pretty princely sums and they use 220 volt electrical outlets, not something the average kitchen has! I was surfing on the web and voila! I came across the Waring WMK300, which is a consumer version of these commercial wafflers. It hasn't sacrificed quality or build but the price is a lot less. It works exactly like the retaurant models and has non-stick grids, the flipover handles, and signal lights and beeps to tell you when the waffle is ready. It doesn't even take up that much space. And best of all, the waffles come out superbly, golden crispy on the outside and fluffy inside. The consistency is amazing (there is a browness control) and it takes common 120 volt electricity with 1200 watts of heating power (most home units are 650-1000 watts).
The only problem is they are in short supply, either out of stock or due shortly. Buy yours now, you couldn't make a wiser purchase.
166 of 178 found the following review helpful:
Almost Perfect Sep 13, 2004
By Griswel
Yet there is no 4&3/4 star rating, so 5 will have to do.
The other reviews sold me on this waffle maker, and I am glad they did. Buy it, and enjoy it.
However, what I did not see in the other reviews is the one minor flaw: the recipes included in the manual all require extensive time preparation and most require yeast. Now, I've tried these, and they're very good. However, I wish they'd included a simple recipe to whip up while the waffle iron is heating.
So try the recipes here, they're fine. But don't limit yourself to recipes that take at least an hour from the time you start until the time you're making waffles. I used a recipe from an old waffle iron, I tried the grocery store Belgian Waffle mix, and I tried Bisquick. They were all fine (hint: try adding 1 tablespoon of vanila extract per 2 cups of flour to an ordinary recipe).
Great waffle maker. The manual could use a slight upgrade.
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