Best Keto Waffles Recipe (No Almond Flour)

Without a doubt, breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and when you're eating a low-carb or keto diet---bacon, whole eggs, and egg whites, fit right into it perfectly. You know what doesn't...waffles!

Well ladies and gentlemen, break out your waffle iron because we're bringing traditional waffles back! And I'm talking delicious, regular waffles. These are not keto chaffles or keto almond flour waffles so be forewarned!

The reason I came up with this recipe is because I was quite frankly tired of making the "easy keto waffles" and "easy keto pancakes" recipes out in internetland. They had ingredients that just aren't supposed to go into waffles or pancakes! Let me see how many ridiculous "keto waffle" ingredients I can name:

1. Cream Cheese
2. Peanut Butter
3. Almond Butter
4. Almond Flour, Almond Meal, and pretty much Nut Flours in general
5. Mozzarella cheese (I laughed really hard when I saw this one)

If you can think of any more, please put them in the comments and we'll laugh together! 🙂

The funny part about all of the "keto waffles recipe" posts is that the writers/bloggers expect us to take something we have been eating for 30, 40, and 50+ years, change the ingredients completely, and accept the "not even close to waffle" taste and texture! I mean I want to be as keto as possible but be realistic for crying out loud. The taste has to somewhat resemble normal waffles or Belgian waffles!

And I wholly believe that this is one of the best keto waffles / keto recipes out there. The great thing about it is that you can or cannot share my belief after you try these low-carb waffles. Also, I may not have mentioned that they're just over 4 g net carbs and 17 g protein per 1/2 cup of this waffle batter. (And you'll notice that I don't include protein powder.)

Learn from my Mistakes (American Waffle vs. Belgian Waffle)

When I first started testing this recipe, I didn't go with a Belgian waffle maker because I wanted to make normal-size waffles like you get at the grocery store. I've also seen these referred to as American-Style waffles so that's what I got, an American-Style waffle maker, the Cuisinart Classic Waffle Maker on Amazon. (And yes, we make commissions on affiliate links through Amazon so click away because that encourages us to make more free recipes!)

Now, the Cuisinart Classic Waffle Maker is a great option when you're making keto-friendly waffles... especially when the whole family is eating them as soon as you're making them.

This is an easy to use, straightforward waffle maker. You make sure you preheat it to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, coat it with cooking spray, dump 1/2 cup of your waffle mix, wait 4-5 minutes and viola..perfectly cooked waffles!

Here's the downside to this waffle iron. If you're not going to eat the waffle immediately, you have a larger family, or you're short on time, this makes 1 waffle at a time and this recipe makes about 9 waffles.

So if you're with me, you're doing the math right now, and 9 waffles x 5 mins/each is 45 minutes! I don't know about you but I don't want to make my entire family a low carb breakfast if it means that I'm going to have to make them wait their turn for a waffle.... and make myself wait nearly an hour before I get to eat! Ha!

The other downside to the Cuisinart Classic Waffle Maker is that if you're reheating your waffle later you will need a larger than standard-sized toaster.

We have the Breville BTA720XL Toaster and freaking love every second of using it but it's just not the right size for the crispy, larger-than-life waffle that the Cuisinart makes.

Now a question that many people, including myself, ask when they're on a low carb diet or a ketogenic diet, is what's the difference in a pancake vs waffle batter?

Pancake vs Waffle Batter - They're the same, right?

To answer this question in short, "Negative Ghost Rider." And if you understood that movie reference, you and I have the potential to be great friends.

I like many people thought that pancake and waffle batter

There are 3 primary differences in Pancake vs Waffle Batter:

• Waffle Batter has more fat than Pancake Batter - Fats like Butter, Grass-Fed or otherwise, are responsible for making waffles richer tasting and crispier in texture. You may think that fats making your waffles taste better are the best part of waffles in general, but you'd be incorrect. The best part of fats is they help your waffle release from the waffle iron because you and I both know the worst thing that can happen after cooking your waffle is it tearing in half as a result of sticking to the waffle maker!

• Waffle Batter has less liquid than Pancake Batter - When there is more liquid in a batter like water, you'll notice that the batter will cook via steam instead of frying in the fats, which is the preferred way. Since it waffle batter has less liquid to steam it will end up being crispy just the way you like it!

• Waffle Batter adds egg yolks and egg whites separately vs whole eggs in Pancake Batter - Waffles are known to be crisp and light, not dense and heavy like keto pancakes. When you add egg whites to waffle batter, you whip them to soft peaks and then fold them into the waffle batter right before you cook them. Folding them into the waffle batter gives you the best results in terms of the lightness of a waffle.  But let's be honest, most of us don't have that much time to separate the egg whites, whip the egg whites, and then fold the egg whites into the batter.  So it's your choice if you'd like to complete this step but I personally do not because we know it's all going to the same place...our bellies!  

Easy Keto Waffle Recipe - The Ingredients

This is the best low carb waffles recipe that I've ever had because it actually tastes like a waffle!  This 7 ingredient keto waffles recipe is pretty straightforward in my opinion because you're literally just combining dry ingredients with wet ingredients, cook, smother with sugar free syrup and chow down!

But onto the specifics of the ingredients I chose:

Flour - King Arthur Keto Wheat Flour

Flour is one of the main ingredients in any waffle and I mean regular flour.  These aren't almond flour or coconut flour waffles as I said above.  If nut flour waffles are your thing, by all means, please continue making them.  They're simply not for us because we're more of a traditional family when it comes to waffles.  

King Arthur Keto Wheat Flour is one of the low carb flours that I've found works similarly to regular all purpose flour.  And don't make the obvious mistake of thinking these are going to taste anything like an actual wheat flour.  That couldn't be further from the truth.  Like most people, I thought my waffle batter would have that brownish, grainy look to it like you get from a whole wheat flour.  To my pleasant surprise, it was the exact opposite!  It looks like your stereotypical waffle batter that was mixed for a traditional waffle, but is in fact a keto diet waffle!

In developing this recipe, something funny happened that made this low carb waffles recipe that much better.  I started trying to figure out how much protein powder I needed to use to get around 10-11 g protein per serving like Birch Benders and Kodiak protein waffles.  It only makes sense that if we're going to develop a recipe that it has to be better and lower grams of net carbs than our other options out there, right?  But to get back to the funny thing, when I calculated the protein per waffle I found out that King Arthur Keto Wheat Flour has whey protein powder in it already!  And I was even more excited when each waffle added up to about 17g of protein per waffle...outstanding, right?!

Note: If you substitute anything in place of this flour, all bets are off because this recipe was developed using only this Keto Wheat Flour.  So please don't cry in the comments about it not working when you substituted in a nut flour.  Basically, don't be crazy.

Sugar - Lakanto Powdered Monk fruit Sweetener

I chose this because I've always had great luck in sweetening my coffees and other baked goods with Lakanto products.  I tried at the beginning of my keto diet days to substitute everything with straight erythritol and quickly found out that I couldn't stand the minty cooling effect it had and the aftertaste that came with it.  I've talked to other people and it seems that not everyone has this issue but it's alive and well with me so powdered monk fruit sweetener it is!  Powdered sweeteners mix in much better and don't have the grainy texture that other sugar alcohols have in their granular forms.

Salt - Granulated Salt

Our family is a lover of salt and salt adds balance to baked goods after sugars are added.  You've heard of sweet and salty being a popular combination, right?  Well, that's the main thing it does here but it also helps what little gluten is created, when all of the ingredients are combined, have a little bit of structure and therefore rise up to create a fluffy waffle.

I'd also recommend using granulated salt and not flaky-like kosher salt.  Salt granules will combine easier since we're not going to overmix this waffle batter.

Baking Powder - Any Double Acting Baking Powder

I used double-acting baking powder for it's strength in leavening.  Since we're substituting the sugar and flour for other options, we won't have the typical chemical reactions that regular waffle batters have.  So we need double-acting baking powder because its leavening powers will activate when your mixing the wet and dry ingredients together as well as during the cooking because it's also heat-activated.  It's like a 2-for-1 sale!  

And for all of you nerds like me out there, the ingredient that most double-acting baking powders have that single-acting ones don't is Sodium Aluminum Sulfate also known as SAS.  Who knows, that may just be a Trivial Pursuit question for you one day!

Note: DO NOT use Baking Soda since there is no acid in this recipe, it will not rise at all like you want it to and instead will be dense like a pancake.

Whole Large Eggs - Preferably Organic but Regular is just fine as well

Eggs bring the mixture together since it's an emulsifier along with bringing extra flavor and richness.  As long as you're using large eggs and not medium or extra-large, its really your own preference on what eggs you use.  This is one ingredient that just needs to be there in general.

Heavy Cream

Again, this one really just needs to be there.  I started off using milk like a traditional waffle recipe but quickly remembered how much sugar and added sugar there was in it and just went with heavy cream instead for it's low carb diet friendliness.  

Note: You may have to thin out your batter a little based on the heavy cream you buy because I've noticed certain brands of heavy creams seem to have more fat and creaminess to them than others.

Butter - Kerrygold if you have it on hand

I've noticed a difference in the taste of Kerrygold versus other butters in terms of overall flavor and richness.  Kerrygold is my favorite grass-fed butter out there.  But again, if you don't have a high quality grass-fed butter on hand, you'll be just fine with store brand butter.

Optional Ingredients - Water, Vanilla, and Cinnamon

Depending on how everything mixes together and the ingredients you use, it may be necessary to use water just to thin out your batter a little.  What you absolutely must avoid if you want the best keto waffles is adding too much water.  If too much water gets added, your waffles will steam and be much more fluffy and limp instead of airy and crisp right out of the waffle iron.

Vanilla or vanilla extract is also a popular addition to and if you are going to add it, I'd probably go with no more than 1 tsp to start and add from there as vanilla extract is quite strong.

And last but not least is cinnamon.  Cinnamon is one of those spices that can make or break a waffle or pancake recipe because not everybody loves the cinnamon flavor so I'd speak with whoever you're making these for before adding it to your batter! 

Waffle Irons - Belgian or Regular Waffle Iron?

Depending on the waffle iron you have, you may have to test out a couple of waffles to get the waffles cooked just right.  I started out with the Cuisinart Classic Waffle Iron and also used the tried and true All-Clad 2-Slice Belgian Waffle Maker.  They both cooked the waffles very differently and it's going to be up to you to decide which one you want to go with.  I detailed my experience with the Cuisinart above and I'll tell you about the All-Clad now.  

If I had to name one of these as my favorite, I'd go with the All-Clad simply because it's more fun to make Belgian-style waffles vs traditional waffles.  Belgian waffles have room for plenty of keto maple syrup and other additions such as lower-carb fruits like fresh blueberries or raspberries.  You could even put sugar-free chocolate chips in there for the kiddos in the house or immature older men like me!

The difference in the All-Clad and the Cuisinart in terms of cooking was quite different though.  The All-Clad took longer when I made the waffles on it and I assume that is because it is the Belgian-style waffle maker (thick waffle) and not the traditional style (thin waffle).  And I forgot to say that I was able to use 1/2 cup of waffle batter on both waffle irons so they were similar tests in that regard.

My recommendation is to cook the waffle per the manufacturer's instructions first and then make adjustments to heat settings and cook times as needed to suit your own preferences.