Whole Grain Waffles with Strawberry-Rhubarb Topping

In February of '07 I put myself on a yeast-free diet for health reasons. In doing so, I had to change my eating habits pretty dramatically. Cutting out all wheat flours was a part of that process. I've since added most everything back into my diet in moderation, but I'm continually on the lookout for new recipes that utilize whole-grains versus overly processed flours, grains and sugars.
This is another recipe from Bob's Red Mill Baking Book, but it looks like it was originally featured in Cooking Light! I can't seem to get away from that magazine. Most grocery stores have a great selection of alternative flours these days, and I have to reign myself in constantly to keep from buying too many. Our fridge is already full of interesting flours that I can never hope to use up for just the two of us. :-)

We used a Belgian-style waffle iron and I think it made this batter a little trickier to use. What usually cooks in ~3-4 minutes took 6+ minutes. The waffle reeeeeeally did not want to release from the iron either. Note our first attempt...


I started oiling the iron (something I don't have to do with regular batter) and I think it helped. But, just know you'll have to cook them longer than you're used to for a thick style waffle. Pry one side at a time, as gently as you are able without giving yourself a steam burn. They'll be nice and crisped on the outside while retaining a lovely moist texture inside. A yummy waffle that I plan to make again with a few tweaks.

Whole Grain Waffles:

3/4 cup Brown Rice Flour
1/3 cup Gluten Free Sweet White Sorghum Flour
1/3 cup Oat Flour
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 tsp. Cinnamon
dash of Salt
1 Tbs Maple Syrup (I used agave nectar, Monster said he likes a sweeter waffle than this made, so I'll add a little more next time)
2 Tbs Canola Oil
1 Tbs pure Vanilla Extract
1 Egg, separated
1 1/3 cup Milk (I used Silk unsweeted soy milk)

Mix together all liquid ingredients, except egg white. Beat egg white until stiff, but not dry, and set aside. Add all liquid ingredients, except egg white, to dry ingredients. Stir and fold in egg white. Bake on hot waffle iron and enjoy. A variation suggested in the recipe is to add orange zest to the batter, but I didn't try that this time. Instead, I toasted up some sunflower seeds and mixed into the batter, but I don't think I really cared for the addition.

We had leftover fresh strawberries from the salmon salad last night, so I paired them with 1/2 a bag of frozen rhubarb for our waffle topping. I used a similar method to what I do when making my Fruit Pancake/Waffle Topping, but with no lemon juice. The rhubarb provides the sour that the lemon usually does. I used some water to cook the rhubarb down and used more agave than I usually do. Then I added the cornstarch and sliced strawberries. Not cooking the strawberries for very long after that.