I’m hungry. I need waffles. However, I lack a waffle-maker. Can anyone recommend a good one? Less than $50 would be nice, but I can go higher if need be. Waffles!
“Waffle maker” leads me to believe you are looking for one of those all-in-one units that you plug in. If so, I can’t help. If not, then I will tell you that I use this Nordicware waffle iron and it is terrific. It may take a few tries to figure out how much heat to use, but once you get the hang of it, it turns out tasty, crisp waffles one after another. Just spray a very light coating of PAM or the like to start out and you will be pleased, I am sure.
I bought this one a couple weeks ago and it was cheap and it works. Not sure what more you’d want from a waffle maker. When I make waffles for me and my husband I just keep one warm in the oven while making the second and they both taste great.
I made these waffles first and they were amazing, absurdly so. Since then I’ve been making less heart-attacky waffles. But totally whip the egg whites separately no matter what recipe you use: worth it.
I have an incredibly cheap ($9.99, I think) waffle maker from K-Mart. You wouldn’t want to make waffles for a Roman legion with it since it only makes two square waffles at a time, but it does make them quite well. My only complaint is that, if I accidentally get too much batter in it so the batter sploots out a little, it is very difficult to clean the sploots from the hinged side. Perhaps this is a flaw endemic to all waffle makers.
I got this for Christmas, works great for me.
Brand doesn’t matter as much as a few criteria, stolen from Good Eats: you want one that’s round, because you’ll have more even heating and they’re easier to fill (no empty corners). You want one that’s heavy, because a heavy iron can hold on to, and thus transfer, more heat to the batter. And you want one that’s metal on the outside, because irons that have plastic shells can’t get as hot as the metal ones, or else the plastic would melt. That means metal irons make crisper waffles.
So: round, metal, heavy. Go with that, and you pretty much can’t fail.