The Miracle Ingredient You Should Be Adding To Your Waffles

Sweet or savory at breakfast (or brunch)? It's the eternal question that gets asked between the hours of 7 a.m. and noon, most often when we're staring down a menu at our favorite café or coffee shop and trying to decide whether to go with the steak and eggs or the short stack of pancakes.

If you belong firmly to Camp Sweet, it's more than likely you've had your fair share of waffles in your day. Whether tangy from a sourdough starter, shot through with melty chocolate, or crowned with charred fruit, waffles are the perfect warm, doughy counterpart to plenty of fragrant maple syrup or fluffy whipped cream.

And for as many waffle lovers as there are out there, there are just as many schools of thought on how to create a show-stopping, golden-brown, nook-and-crannied waffle. Some folks say the secret ingredient is buttermilk; others say it's cornstarch. But there's another waffle secret ingredient you may not have tried, and probably should.

Do you love tall, fluffy waffles? If so, you'll want to reach for a bottle of seltzer at your next brunch. According to Wide Open Eats, bubbly water, when mixed into waffle batter, helps create a fluffy-on-the-inside, crisp-on-the-outside waffle that's sure to be a hit. As Cook's Illustrated explains, the carbonation in seltzer inflates the waffle batter, keeping it light and airy when it hits the hot waffle iron, where it will perfectly brown on the outside.

Most waffle recipes that use seltzer simply swap out the water or milk that's called for with the same quantity of seltzer, instead. And while the ideal would be to make your waffle batter from scratch each time, you can also apply this method to boxed waffle mixes, adding 3/4 cup of seltzer per one cup of waffle mix, according to Spoon University. 

So the next time you get a craving for hot-off-the-iron waffles, try mixing them up with seltzer, and enjoy some of the fluffiest waffles to ever grace your Sunday brunch table.