Why You Should Warm Your Milk Before Mixing Waffle Batter

After a long week of early mornings and on-the-go meals, you deserve a sweet homemade breakfast — and waffles are one of the best foods to satisfy that craving. Homemade waffles are super easy to whip up; in fact, we'd argue that they're even easier to make than pancakes. If you've got a waffle maker and a few basic baking ingredients, you're on your way to making an ultra-comforting breakfast to start your weekend off on the right foot. But before you begin whipping up that batter, there are a few tips you need to make the best homemade waffles. One of the most crucial is ensuring that you use warm milk in your waffle batter to ensure that each bite is full of buttery goodness.

The majority of waffle recipes call for melted butter, and if you've ever worked with melted butter, you may have noticed that it can seize up and become coagulated when it comes in contact with ingredients of cold temperatures. When making homemade waffles, you want to avoid this as it will create little butter chunks that don't melt and reach every inch of the waffle itself, leaving you with a waffle that isn't as smooth and buttery as you'd like. Warming up your milk also means that you won't have to whisk your ingredients together for very long in an attempt to remove those butter chunks. Not only will this save you from an unnecessary workout, but the gluten in the batter won't develop prematurely, so you'll be left with gorgeous and fluffy waffles.

When heating up milk to add to your waffle recipe, make sure that its temperature is warm, not hot. The easiest way to do so is by warming it up in the microwave for a minute; this should be plenty of time to remove the chill from the fridge. To ensure that those butter chunks don't make an appearance, you should also consider warming up your eggs before adding them to the batter, since they're likely the only other liquid ingredient necessary for your waffles. To warm eggs up, simply fill a small bowl with warm water, and place your eggs into it for five to 10 minutes. Make sure that your water is warm, not hot; otherwise, you risk accidentally cooking them.

Once you've warmed your liquid ingredients, you're on your way to achieving an ideal waffle consistency. If you want to ensure that your waffles are as satisfying as possible, sourdough is the real secret ingredient for the fluffiest waffles ever. Throw a bit of your starter into your batter and watch the real magic happen. If you don't have a sourdough starter, whipped egg whites or a bit of club soda can help give your waffles that extra fluff you're looking for to help you seriously treat yourself.