When Vince and I got married 15 years ago, he had an ancient waffle maker that worked like a charm. He had a waffle recipe given to him by his best friend in college . . probably given to him in college the way the paper looks. I still have that recipe, though I’ve lost it at least once, had to email Steve and get it again, but in the last move, the original recipe was found again.
The old waffle maker that Vince had eventually quit working. What happens with so many things (including myself) is that as they get older, they just get slower and slower and then finally quit working completely. I hadn’t realized how slow it was but when I’d start making waffles, Vince and Chad would start eating, and then they’d be ready for seconds before the next batch was done and they’d be completely finished eating before enough waffles were made that I had one for myself.
We bought a new waffle maker – same brand, looked just like the old one, but it never did make decent waffles. When I got the Cuisinart Griddler, I ordered the waffle plates. I loved the Griddler but didn’t love the waffle attachment.
Almost every weekend, Vince asks for waffles. Out of desperation, I even thought I’d try getting a cast iron non-electric waffle iron. I tried that once!
Last week, I decided I was going to start making more waffles and I’m going to experiment with different recipes — like adding some whole wheat or making banana nut waffles, or honey yogurt waffles. The first thing I needed would be a decent waffle maker. I like waffles that are crispy on the outside, kinda chewy in the middle (not the ones that are crispy all the way through); I like for them to have deep pockets in order to hold lots of maple syrup and I wanted a waffle iron that doesn’t take 10 minutes to make a waffle! The Chef’s Choice 850 was the one I kept coming back to even though it was a bit more than I had wanted to pay. I gave in and ordered it. This morning I was ready to go — the ancient recipe, the waffle maker and the mixer!
The instructions say to pour one cup of batter into the waffle maker but I didn’t measure. Guess I was a little shy of a cup!
Still not one to give up and measure, I eyeballed what I thought might be just a little more batter than I’d used for the first batch!
This just proves that even the best of gadgets is only as good as the operator! Hey . . at least I can give you an honest review now on how easy or difficult it is to clean the darned thing up!
The waffles were perfect! They were crispy on the outside, chewy in the middle. The pockets are plenty deep. As for the maker itself, I think I read that the irons cannot go in the dishwasher . . which isn’t a problem around here because there is no dishwasher! I simply wiped the edges down with a wet dish rag and the overflow wiped right off. Since the waffles didn’t stick to the irons, I didn’t even wash them . . just bushed them out with my little brush, wiped the top down with a paper towel and called it clean!
The waffles are done in just 2 minutes. That’s great when I’m needing to make more than one batch.
Vince was either (1) in a hurry to get outside and get started on the water line repair or (2) aggravated that I paid more than $20 for the waffle iron but when I asked him what he thought of the waffles, he said: They taste like waffles! Maybe I’ll send it back and he can have cold cereal and milk for breakfast! 
