If you just made some perfectly crispy, golden-brown waffles, but you need to keep them warm for a while while you cook other food items, or you need to keep them fresh for your guests, you are likely wondering what options you have to do so.
There happen to be several methods for keeping waffles and other foods warm for extended periods of time, and some of these techniques will be detailed throughout this article.
If you need to keep waffles fresh and warm, continue reading to find out how. You will also find recipes for fluffy homemade Belgian waffles and easy blackberry syrup at the end of this article.
Methods for Keeping Waffles Warm
When you are trying to keep waffles and other food warm, there are a few ways you can go about doing it. Check these out below.
1 – Preheated Cooler
Most people are so focused on the fact that coolers are mainly utilized for keeping food cold that they overlook the fact that they can also be used to keep food warm for quite some time. This is because coolers are insulated.
You can simply throw your waffles into a cooler after wrapping them in aluminum foil, or you can preheat your cooler to keep them warm for six or more hours.
To preheat a cooler, you can either line the bottom with hot bricks or bottles of hot water over a towel prior to putting the waffles on top with another towel between them. You can heat the bricks by placing them in your oven covered with aluminum foil for 15 minutes or so with the temperature set to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
2 – Thermal Bags
If you happen to have one or several thermal bags that are big enough to fit your waffles into, you can easily utilize them to keep the food warm and fresh. You can also wrap them with aluminum foil prior to placing them into the bag or bags.
Thermal bags are super effective at keeping food both hot and cold, making them ideal for maintaining warm waffles.
3 – Chafing Dishes
Chafing dishes use heat from a fuel-burning flame to keep a variety of types of food warm, and you can use them to keep your waffles hot and fresh. These are ideal for maintaining warm food as they do not cause food to overcook.
4 – Oven
You can easily warm up or maintain hot waffles by using your oven or toaster oven. You can put it on the “warm” setting, if your oven has the option, or set the temperature to between 200 and 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
This will sufficiently keep your waffles heated and edible, but keep in mind that after an hour or so, your food may start to become chewy and less delicious. You can also utilize a microwave to warm up your waffles, but this will, of course, lead to a somewhat soggy and soft result rather than the crispy waffles everyone knows and loves.
5 – Aluminum Foil
If you are trying to keep your waffles warm for a half hour or less, you should be able to effectively use aluminum foil to do so. The material works to both trap heat in while also reflecting the radiation back toward the waffles.
All you need to do is wrap the food tightly in the foil, and it should stay nice and warm for up to 30 minutes. You can also add a layer of insulation by wrapping the foiled waffles with a towel.
6 – Warmed Plates
A very effective method that you can take advantage of for keeping waffles and other food warm is heating up ceramic dinner plates, then placing the waffles onto them. Simply stack however many plates you need in your oven with the temperature set to between 150 and 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
It should take about 15 minutes for the plates to get sufficiently warm. You can also use a toaster oven or microwave to accomplish the same thing, which is good news for those who do not have an oven in their home.
If you do use a microwave to heat up the plates, you can stack them in there, and warm them up for two to three minutes on high prior to placing the waffles onto them.
7 – Electric Plate Warmer
Similar to the above method where you utilize your oven or microwave to heat up plates and use them to keep your waffles warm, you can utilize an electric plate warmer for the same effect.
The nice thing about this method is that the plates stay warm for as long as you have them on the electric warmer, whereas with the technique preceding this one, the plate starts to cool down as soon as it leaves the oven or microwave.
This is obviously not an option for everyone as not many people own an electric plate warmer, but if you have guests at your home often, it might be something worth investing in.
8 – Toaster
Another option you have is to reheat your waffles in the toaster immediately before serving them to your family or guests. A trick is to slightly undercook them the first time around so that you can avoid burning them upon re-toasting your waffles.
Other Tips
There are a couple of other things you can do in addition to one of the methods above to help keep your waffles warm.
One action you can take is to cook several waffles and have them surround each other while they are staying warm. This will assist in keeping the heat from escaping as easily.
Another thing you can do is to make your waffles super hot before setting them aside, such as by heating them in the microwave for a bit. This will ensure that they take longer to cool off.
Homemade Belgian Waffles
Belgian waffles are fluffy and scrumptious, and they taste absolutely amazing when made from scratch. Try out this homemade Belgian waffle recipe, and use one of the techniques outlined above to keep them warm for as long as you need. Then pour some of the freshly made blackberry syrup that you can whip up using the recipe instructions that follow this one.
Here are the ingredients this recipe requires:
- 2 eggs
- 2¼ cups flour
- 2 cups milk or milk alternative
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
The first step is to preheat your waffle iron and use a non-stick spray or butter on the iron to keep the waffles from sticking to it. Next, in a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, sugar, and salt.
Now, separate the yolks from the whites of the two eggs, and in another bowl, beat the egg whites using a mixer until they form into stiff peaks. Then in a different bowl, combine the milk, vegetable oil, egg yolks, and vanilla extract.
Following that, pour the wet mixture into the flour mixture, and combine all the ingredients together. Afterward, incorporate the egg whites by gently folding them into the mixture, and pour the appropriate amount of batter into your waffle iron.
Top your Belgian waffles with some sweet, fresh blackberry syrup while they are still warm off the iron.
Quick and Easy Blackberry Syrup
Many people do not realize how easy it is to make their own fruit-based syrups. After you try out this blackberry syrup on your waffles that you made from scratch, you may never want to use maple syrup again.
All this recipe requires is five ingredients, though you can technically leave out the lemon juice and vanilla extract if you do not have them on hand. Here is everything you will need:
- 1 cup blackberries
- ¾ cup sugar
- ½ cup water
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
First, combine the water, sugar, and blackberries in a pan over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a simmer, mashing the berries continuously as it heats.
Once the mixture begins to simmer, let it cook for 10 to 20 minutes, still mashing up the blackberries to release the juices. Next, remove the mixture from the heat, and strain as much of the pulp from the hot syrup as you would like.
Finally, stir in the vanilla extract and lemon juice, and then either cool it off before storing it or pour the fresh blackberry syrup onto your warm, homemade Belgian waffles.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, there is no reason why you should not be able to keep your waffles nice and hot for a lengthy amount of time. Even if you are outside and camping without access to electricity, and you have made waffles from scratch over an open fire, you can still keep them warm by utilizing a cooler, for example, or aluminum foil.
So, fire up that waffle iron or plug in your toaster, and get to making dozens of waffles to feed the whole neighborhood, if you so wish, as you should be able to keep them fresh and warm for as long as necessary.
Sarah is the founder of Baking Kneads, LLC, a blog sharing guides, tips, and recipes for those learning how to bake. Growing up as the daughter of a baker, she spent much of her childhood learning the basics in a local bakery.