CRAZY Good Waffles
LAFFlines #24
Maybe she’s born with it…maybe it’s mapelline.
The best thing about my birthday a few weeks back was that my curly-haired, ultra-marathon running brother and sister-in-law (the adjectives apply to both) came over for dinner. The second best thing was the waffles. Crazy good waffles. Not quite as crazy good as Jasmin Paris—the first woman to finish the legendarily mysterious Barkley Marathons,* an unmarked 100-mile race that starts when Lazarus Lake, the race mastermind, lights a cigarette in Frozen Head State Park, Tennessee, approximately one hour after blowing a conch shell anytime within a 12 hour window that the race might start (got that?!)—but crazy good. If you’re into ultra crazy good, there’s a new 46 minute documentary about Jasmin finishing the Barkley Marathons. It’s on YouTube. It’s free. It’s now my favorite movie. And these are my favorite waffles…
First, waffle irons (like each year’s Barkley course) are all different. Therefore, I can’t give you a guaranteed number of waffles that this recipe makes. What I can give you is the ratio of ingredients I use for one person. In other words, if I’m making a waffle on my big Belgian waffle maker for only myself, the ratio below is what I use. The ratio scales beautifully. When Fletcher and Rachel came over, I tripled it, and we each had a waffle.
These waffles can do it all—breakfast, brunch, lunch, snack, dinner, dessert. And they’re free of dairy, eggs, and wheat.
½ cup cashew milk (unsweetened) ½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant oats or steel cut oats) 1 ripe banana 2 teaspoons maple sugar ½ teaspoon baking powder ¼ teaspoon baking soda ¼ teaspoon vanilla
Pour ½ cup of cashew milk and 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar into a large blender. Let the milk-vinegar sit undisturbed for 10 minutes. (That is how you make vegan buttermilk.) Add 1 cup oats and blend until smooth. Add 1 ripe banana, 2 teaspoons maple sugar, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ¼ teaspoon baking soda, and ¼ teaspoon vanilla, and blend until smooth. Let the batter sit undisturbed for 5-10 minutes. While the batter is sitting, turn on the waffle maker. When the batter has finished resting, give it a gentle stir or two with a spoon. Oil your waffle iron (I use cooking spray). Pour the waffle batter directly from the blender onto the iron. Close the lid, and follow your iron’s instructions.
Making more than one waffle? Keep the prepared waffles warm by placing them on a wire cookie rack on a baking sheet in the oven at 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
Meal-prepping? Completely cool the prepared waffles on the counter. Once cooled, place the waffles in a single layer (not touching each other) in the freezer for 1-2 hours. (It can be tricky to find plates or baking sheets that’ll fit in your freezer, so dig deep into your creative well, my friends…) After 1-2 hours, remove the waffles from the freezer; stack them between pieces of parchment paper in an air-tight, freezer-safe container; seal the container and store them in the freezer.
Substitutions? You can omit or reduce the maple sugar, BUT the waffles will take a hit in taste and texture. Almond milk and pea milk (Ripple) work well with this recipe but I haven’t tried other milks. You can substitute the apple cider vinegar for lemon juice to make the buttermilk. However, apple cider vinegar gives me the most consistent, delicious results.
Salt? Ever noticed how much sodium is in most pancake/waffle mixes? Salt is a preservative and flavor enhancer. If you’re missing a certain something (or are a salty sweater needing to replace electrolytes), add a pinch or two of salt to the batter. However, I truly prefer the taste of these waffles without even a dash of salt.
*Links related to the Barkley Marathons:
No one completed the 2025 race. (Jasmin didn’t run it—she’s on to other challenges.)
“Everything you need to know about the Barkley Marathons”…or so Running World seems to think…
The Jasmin documentary (“The Finisher”) is my top movie recommendation. BUT if you don’t mind feeling guilty about sitting on a couch for a couple of hours instead of, let’s say, running up a mountain, in the middle of the night, with a compass and some Coke and the crunch of your feet over icy rocks splattered with your blood spilled from 50+ miles of brambles (yay, halfway! only another 50 miles to go…alone. in the dark. somewhere in East Tennessee), here’s another option: The Barkley Marathons—The Race That Eats Its Young.
Rose adores car adventures. The Kurgo Rover Dog Booster Seat is soft and sturdy with great sight lines for your pup.
Final note from Abby
Thanks to all of you who are testing the three flavors of nuggets! As of yesterday, we have a fourth flavor. I was experimenting with this and that and, boom, one batch came out with the “it” factor. I’ll hand it off to Virginia Tech Food Science for analysis this week. If you’d like to test the nuggets (for free), please email me at hello@laffkitchen.com. The nugget mix is shelf stable (no refrigeration required) which makes delivery (or drop-off) hassle-free.
For the record, we’re not going for “good” nuggets.
We’re going for CRAZY good.
Cheers,
Abby
hello@laffkitchen.com
