9 Delicious Recipes You Should Try With Your New Waffle Iron

Cold, firm slices of leftover mac and cheese go straight into the waffle iron, and voilà—out comes a perfectly crispy, golden creation with a gooey, cheesy interior. The cheese crisps up beautifully, creating a delicate outer layer, while the inside remains soft and melt-in-your-mouth tender, offering an amazing contrast of textures and flavors.

This is, without a doubt, the best tofu I’ve ever had. It’s wonderfully crispy on the outside with a slightly chewy interior, full of tiny pockets perfect for soaking up sauces. Right now, I’m loving this chili oil and a blend of infused soy sauce and hot honey, but feel free to smother it in BBQ sauce for a plant-based McRib experience.

I wouldn’t recommend waffling your precious homemade crab cakes made with generous chunks of crab meat, but I do urge you to give the cheap, store-bought, mostly-filler crab cakes a try. These four-dollar crab cakes aren’t sacred, so don’t hesitate to press them between the plates of a hot waffle iron. The result is a crispy, crab-packed patty that’s perfect for sandwiches, Benedicts, or a quick appetizer.

Frozen foods are always great candidates for the waffle iron, but this pound cake truly exceeded my expectations. It makes the perfect brunch dish—a rich, buttery waffle with a light sweetness, balanced by crispy golden edges and crevices. You can enjoy it with butter and syrup, fresh fruit, or get creative and turn it into a breakfast sandwich.

This may be one of the most ridiculous things I’ve waffled this year, but it was also one of my absolute favorites. It’s a perfect little package of crescent dough wrapped around a hot dog, all crispy and golden brown, with plenty of crunchy nooks and crannies—ideal for holding your favorite sauces and condiments.

I’m a fan of cold, leftover pizza, but sometimes you just need something hot and cheesy, and nothing else will satisfy. That’s when waffled pizza comes to the rescue. The secret is to place two slices on top of each other with their toppings facing inwards, and waffle them together. The crust crisps perfectly against the hot plates, while the cheese—pressed together—melts and reverts to its gooey, cheesy glory. Once it’s heated through, you can either pull the slices apart to enjoy them like traditional pizza, or go wild and eat it like a sandwich (you could even add more cheese between the slices if you want to indulge a bit more).

It wasn’t sausage ball season when I first wrote about this waffle, but now it definitely is. For those who haven’t had the pleasure, sausage balls are a mix of sausage, baking mix, and shredded cheese, rolled into little balls, then baked as a snack for holiday parties or a Christmas morning treat. When you cook them in a waffle iron, the meat, cheese, and biscuit mix flatten into a crispy waffle with little pockets perfect for holding eggs or maple syrup. It’s really, really good.

This is pretty much the only way I cook SPAM these days. The waffle iron perfectly maximizes the surface area of the canned meat, giving you crispy edges all around. It’s the ideal salty, savory treat, perfect for rice bowls, breakfast sandwiches, or just eaten on its own—absolutely perfect.

Melted cheese is like a cozy, soothing blanket for your mouth. It’s warm, comforting, and incredibly satisfying. Not all cheeses are waffle-friendly, but the ones that are—brie, curds, paneer, halloumi, bread cheese, and Parmigiano-Reggiano—waffle beautifully. The firmer cheeses form a fantastic, savory crust while becoming soft and gooey inside. Waffled brie is like baked brie, only with the added bonus of waffled dimples where honey can settle, which is a pretty impressive upgrade.