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Every year since I can remember, my family has made waffles for breakfast Christmas morning. When we lived in the Philippines, we’d celebrate up in the mountains. Christmas morning we’d wake up, open our stockings, and set about making waffles with strawberries and chocolate and whipped cream. There was no way I could give up this beloved tradition when I switched to a ketogenic diet, so I knew I had to create a recipe for Keto Belgian Waffles.
Keto Belgian Waffles
I have a recipe I use for pancakes that also works when I make mini waffles to freeze for breakfasts using my mini waffle maker. But when I tried it in our Belgian waffle maker, it just wasn’t cutting it. It wasn’t fluffy enough. I wanted something with the perfect crisp exterior that basically melted in your mouth when you ate it.
So I spent some time tweaking. And tweaking some more. I fiddled and tweaked and finally came up with something I’m pretty happy with. These are so light and crisp and airy and wonderful. My Christmas dreams come true!
The first thing I changed was to incorporate a technique from my childhood recipe– beating the egg whites separately.
The thing is, you can’t beat all the egg whites separately or your yolk/flour mixture will be way too thick to incorporate into the egg whites without deflating them. I found the optimal balance was to beat 5 of the 8 egg whites and leave 3 eggs whole to mix with the egg yolks.
You’ll need an electric mixer for the egg whites (unless you like mixing by hand for days) and a blender for the other ingredients. I personally love my refurbished Blendtec.
The other change I made was to swap out half the coconut flour with oat fiber. Oat fiber is different than oat flour– it’s just the fiber. It’s a great way to add a fluffy, cakelike texture to gluten-free baked goods. That being said, if you don’t have any you can use all coconut flour.
I added more butter and also almond milk to the recipe so the yolk/flour mixture would be pourable enough to incorporate easily into the egg whites. This is the trickiest part of the whole recipe– folding the two parts together gently without knocking the air out of the egg whites. You want to get it as incorporated as you can.
If you accidentally over whipped your egg whites a little (like I did,) the egg whites will want to clump a little. Just go slowly and do your best.
Once it’s all incorporated, it should be both fluffy and pourable. The amount you use will be dependent on your exact waffle maker. I use the same amount as I would for conventional waffle batter, but I do find that I have to have it on a lower heat setting.
We got a Waring Belgian waffle maker for our wedding and 12.5 years later, it’s still going strong. They don’t seem to make it anymore, but this Cuisinart is highly rated.
How gawgeous is that, you guys? Top it with butter and some low carb maple syrup and you’ve got yourself a delightful weekend breakfast.
Or take it to the Christmas level by adding chopped dark chocolate, whipped cream, and some diced strawberries.
I love that my kids get to continue this tradition with me! They look forward to it every year. I hope it is as special to them as it is to me.
Keto Belgian Waffles
Light and fluffy keto Belgian waffles.
Ingredients
- 8 oz (226g) cream cheese, room temperature
- 8 large eggs
- 5 tablespoons (71g) butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp maple extract (optional)
- 1/4 cup (30g) coconut flour
- 1/4 cup (20g) oat fiber or more coconut flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 2 Tbsp. low carb sweetener (optional)
- 1/4 cup almond or cashew milk
Instructions
- Separate 5 eggs, placing whites in the large bowl of an electric mixer and yolks in a blender. Beat egg whites on high speed until stiff but not dry.
- Add the remaining 3 eggs and cream cheese to the blender with the egg yolks. Blend until fully incorporated.
- Add melted butter and extracts, blending until mixed well. Add the coconut flour, oat fiber, baking powder, and sweetener if using. Blend until all the dry ingredients are incorporated. Add almond milk and blend again. Mixture should be thick but easily pourable. If it’s too thick, add more almond milk until it’s pouring consistency.
- Pour mixture into bowl with egg whites. Fold carefully with a rubber spatula until incorporated, being careful not to beat the air out of the egg whites. Mixture should be very fluffy but fairly homogenous.
- Cook in Belgian waffle maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6Serving Size:
1 waffleAmount Per Serving: Calories: 297Total Fat: 27.4gSaturated Fat: 15.6gSodium: 509mgCarbohydrates: 7.1gNet Carbohydrates: 2.8gFiber: 4.3gSugar: 1.8gProtein: 12g
Can it be replaced with almond flour instead of coconut flour?
Hi Kathy!
I’ve not tried this, but I think in theory it would work. However, since coconut flour is significantly more absorbent than almond flour, you’ll need quite a bit more almond flour. Generally speaking, you need 4x as much almond flour, so I’d start with 2 cups of almond flour and adjust from there.
These tastes great! Maple extract definitely helped with the flavor – I didn’t miss having maple syrup. Nice texture. Not as crispy and fluffy as yours but definitely the best keto waffles I’ve tried so far. Thank you!!!
I’m so glad you think so! 🙂
Can you freeze the leftovers?
Yes!
Freeze and reheat in a toaster or toaster oven! 🙂
You can also halve the recipe easily if that works better for you.
How do you make your crispy, mine tasted great but we’re not crispy at all?
Hi Naomi!
It might depend on the type of waffle maker, but if yours aren’t getting crispy, you can throw them into a toaster oven or regular oven on the lowest setting for a minute. They crisp up really quickly this way (and it’s also a great way to keep them warm as you’re cooking the others.) I hope this helps!
What about using heavy cream instead of the almond milk? Do you think that would work?
I think it would work just fine. Just make sure you’re accounting for the carbs in the heavy cream– there’s more than in almond milk. 🙂