Waffles. I think they’re pretty much the best invention ever. And for some reason, they taste even better on a Sunday afternoon.

I love that waffles are quick and easy to make but still feel completely decadent, especially when you complete them with real maple syrup, fresh fruit and homemade whipped cream. Last week I topped my waffles with sliced nectarines; the week before it was blueberries — or was it raspberries from the garden? It’s so hard to keep track of my gluttony.

Gluten-Free Waffles

We’ve been making waffles weekly for years now — well before we switched my eight-year-old to a gluten-free diet. I thought at first we would have to give up waffles for good, but to our surprise, gluten-free waffles are just as easy to make and every bit as delicious as wheat flour ones.

We use Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Baking Flour almost exclusively. It just works for us. We’ve experimented with other flour blends — both homemade and store-bought — but I keep coming back to this mix for a few different reasons:

• it’s easy to find at a variety of stores;
• it can replace regular flour at a 1:1 ratio;
• it tastes great when it’s properly baked; and
• it doesn’t include rice flour as an ingredient (something I worry about using too much, given that rice can contain arsenic.

For some reason, a few of my gluten-free friends do not share my love of this flour. They complain about a strong bean flavour, but I only ever get that yucky taste when the baked goods are underdone. The key is to bake everything until it’s golden brown — oh, and do not eat the cookie dough raw.  You’ve been warned.

We use Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Baking Flour in gluten-free waffles, pancakes, cookies, cakes, brownies, breads, tooth-free biscotti, muffins and loaves. And we have never gotten a complaint from anyone, whether they usually eat gluten-free or not. But then again, my husband is a pretty talented baker.

Me? I’m more of an utilitarian baker. I can’t be bothered to pre-chill mixing bowls or sift the flour or do any of the things that my husband swears by. He calls it “love”; I call it “a ridiculous waste of time”. Yes, his baking turns out better — but mine turns out faster, and when you have three hungry kids that want to eat, fast beats fluffy, right?

There are two waffle recipes that we like — my husband usually follows the fussier one and I usually pick the more simple one. Both are adapted from recipes found in the book Where’s Mom Now That I Need Her, which my husband received as a Christmas gift a couple years after we were married. (Ummm… thanks?)

Despite the unfortunate title, I do love the recipe section. The recipes all pretty basic but surprisingly tasty — the kind of recipes you’d expect to find in your grandmother’s sauce-splattered recipe box or a church’s fundraising cookbook. And sometimes a basic recipe is exactly what you need.

Like this waffle recipe…