Author: Tosh Lubek Published: 22nd March 2021
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Can You Freeze Waffle Batter?
If you’ve ever asked the question, can you freeze waffle batter, you’ve come to the right place! The quick answer is yes, you absolutely can. That’s great news, especially for those who like to batch cook and stock their freezers up in advance.
Waffle batter can be frozen for 1-2 months but the texture will not be as light and fluffy as with fresh batter due to the baking powder having lost its initial fizz. To ensure some raising of the batter during cooking, use double-acting baking powder.
There’s nothing like fresh, homemade waffles for making your home smell delicious. They’re a picture-book breakfast, extremely tasty with lashings of syrup, and simple to make. That said, we all know how chaotic life is, so being able to freeze the batter so you can whip up a batch quickly without needing to check if you have the ingredients, is a massive bonus.
This is ideal for households where waffles are a popular Saturday or Sunday morning treat, but the parents don’t want to have to pull out whisks, sieves, bowls, and measuring jugs on their day off. Save yourself some time and energy by making a big batch of waffle mix and then just getting what you need out on a Friday evening.
Can Waffle Batter Be Frozen?
So, the answer as you already know is yes, you can freeze waffle batter. However, some people do say that waffle batter loses some of its puffiness once frozen, and the waffles which you cook from it won’t be as fluffy as waffles from a freshly made batch.
That’s a bit annoying to learn, but many people say they’ve had success with freezing batter. For those who haven’t, it’s to do with the baking powder. The baking powder is what helps the batter to activate and rise, and if that’s been allowed to “fizz out” during the freezing and thawing process, there won’t be much left to give your waffles that lovely puff. Make sure you use double-acting baking powder and not the single-acting kind. With double-acting baking soda, which includes an ingredient that only activates at cooking temperatures, your batter will have the fizz to become fluffy.
Eggs also sometimes seem to struggle with being frozen, which contributes to the slightly odd texture of waffles made from thawed batter. However, if you’re not too fussed about the texture – or perhaps if you’re one of the lucky people who don’t seem to run into this problem – you can still freeze waffle batter, and the waffles will taste just fine anyway, so you can definitely still use the below techniques if you want to whip up some quick and easy breakfasts for the kids and you don’t want to freeze the ready-cooked waffles.
How Do You Freeze Waffle Batter?
Once you’ve got a nice big batch of your batter, you need some suitable containers. If you have a small freezer, you might decide that freezer bags are the way to go. They’ll squash to any size or shape, meaning you can slot them easily into gaps.
However, containers stack nicely, and you can get takeout containers for free. They’re also easier to pop on the side to thaw and have the benefit of being greener, as you can use them repeatedly. Easy to clean, easy to store, and very versatile, they’re perfect for waffles and other freezer needs.
Use a ladle to neatly portion out your batter so that you can grab the right amount from the freezer easily. Knowing how much is in a container will help you avoid wasting any later or ending up with too little defrosted – a disaster you definitely want to avoid if you’ve got a big family to feed! No kid wants to hear there won’t be enough waffles for them.
Once you’ve got your portions sorted, squeeze out the air (if bagging) and label and date them so you can easily find them in the freezer, and so you can keep rotating batches and avoid having any hang around in the freezer for too long.
How Long Will Waffle Batter Keep When Frozen?
The recommended amount of time is about 1-2 months in the freezer. There’s nothing to say that the batter will be unsafe if you leave it in the freezer for longer than that, but it’s likely that extended freezing could compromise its texture when you do take it out. The longer you freeze it, the less likely your waffles are to have a great texture.
Removing all the excess air from the container should help with this, reducing the chances of freezer burn. However, it’s probably best to use up your waffle batter within a couple of months and then freeze a fresh batch.
How to Defrost Waffle Batter
Defrosting waffle batter is nice and easy – just grab the bag or container from the freezer a few hours before you’ll be needing the batter and put it on the fridge. The amount of time it will take to defrost will depend heavily on how big the container is, so take this into account if defrosting large batches of batter.
Thawing it in the fridge means that the eggs in the batter won’t warm above a safe temperature, which will help prevent any bacteria growth, ensuring the waffles are safe to eat. If you don’t have space in the fridge, you can defrost the batter on the counter, but there is a marginally higher risk of bacteria developing in the batter.
If you want fresh waffles for the morning, you should make sure you get the batter out of the freezer the night before. If you really need to speed up the defrosting process, you can run the container of batter under a warm tap, but this won’t defrost it instantly, and does carry a slight risk of bacteria development.
Bear in mind that you can’t defrost waffle batter in the microwave. Because of the eggs in it, if you try to speed up the defrosting process with heat, you run the risk of cooking it or half-cooking it by mistake. Don’t try and defrost batter in the microwave unless you want to ruin the whole batch!
Alternatives to Freezing Waffle Batter
If freezing waffle batter isn’t going to work for you, there are quite a few other options! Many aren’t as long-lasting as the freezer, but they might be worth considering if you’re low on freezer space or you’re having difficulties with the texture, and you still need to pre-make your waffle mix.
You might want to try each of these methods by turn so you can determine which one works best for you and your family.
Keep it in the Fridge
You can store waffle batter in the fridge for a couple of days if necessary. Just pop it in an airtight container and mark it with the date to ensure you know exactly when it was made. It should only be kept for two days and shouldn’t be left out of the fridge during this time, to ensure there’s no opportunity for bacteria growth. If your recipe includes baking powder, you may find that mixing a little extra in when you’re ready to use the mix helps to ensure the waffles are still fluffy and fresh.
Create A Dry Mix for the Cupboard
Before adding the eggs and milk, you can safely store the dry ingredients pre-mixed in your pantry. This can save you time in weighing and measuring later, so if you’ve got enough time to mix but not for messing around with the different packets of sugar and flour, this might be a suitable option.
You could even create several stores of “instant” waffle mixes, all measured out to serve the exact number of people you’re cooking for. Pop them in the pantry, labelled and dated, and you’ve sped up your process without taking up freezer space! Just write the amount of milk and eggs needed on the packet, and you won’t even need your recipe book.
Freeze the Cooked Waffles
Even more convenient than freezing the batter, but less space-friendly, you can freeze the waffles once they’re cooked. To do this, allow them to fully cool, and then stack them with a sheet of greaseproof paper between each one.
You should then put them in a freezer bag or in a suitable tub and seal them before putting them in the freezer. They won’t taste quite as good as freshly-made waffles, but they are still a very acceptable substitute for having to get out bowls and whisks on a Saturday morning.
To defrost them, thaw them out as instructed above, and then lightly toast them to reheat and fluff them up. Nearly fresh waffles with minimal time expenditure! This is also great if you want to grab a quick snack for a single person; there couldn’t be much easier than whipping out a waffle and heating it up.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for a way to make waffles an easier and more accessible family treat, there are lots of ways to prep large batches in advance. Freezing ready-made waffles might be the best option if you’ve got plenty of space in your freezer, but freezing the batter is another great solution if space is a bit tight.
If you only need the batch to last for a day or two, consider putting it in a container in the fridge to reduce the demands on your freezer and get rid of the need to thaw the batter out.
Tosh learned how to cook while watching his Polish Mom at home. He also worked in a family-owned restaurant while a student and learned much from the chefs. Cooking has always interested him, especially the hearty Polish recipes he learned from his mother. He has helped create and appeared on cookery shows on radio stations in Scotland.
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