One of the holiday traditions in our home is eating soaked waffles on Christmas morning after all the presents have been opened. In past years, I have always used the waffle recipe from Nourishing Traditions cookbook. I dutifully soaked the freshly ground, whole wheat, einkorn or spelt flour in buttermilk, yogurt, or kefir the night before and whipped up the batter in the morning.
While the NT recipe is delicious, my husband always felt like the waffles were a bit heavy on his stomach and didn’t find them all that easy to digest even when soaked overnight in some sort of cultured dairy. I even tried soaking for a full 24 hours one year, but this did not seem to improve the digestibility at all as compared with an 8 hour, overnight soak.
This time I tried something different. I followed Rami Nagel’s suggestions on how to prepare wheat for optimized digestibility. Rami is the author of Cure Tooth Decay fame. The method I used was based on a conversation Rami and I had at the Wise Traditions 2010 Conference.
That chat really set me back on my heels as Rami told me that whole grains contribute to cavity issues and that soaking flour in cultured dairy really does not break down the phytic acid, lectins and other anti-nutrients or improve digestibility that well according to his research.
Soaking in water plus an acidic liquid such as lemon juice, vinegar, or liquid whey apparently breaks down these little nasties much much better.
According to Rami:
Calcium when souring reduces how much phytic acid is removed. So if a grain is soured with too much calcium, such as milk or yogurt, not as much phytic acid will be removed.
Homemade Soaked Waffles
Below is the recipe I came up with using Rami’s suggestions for super digestible, nutrient dense, healthy waffles.
The verdict? The kids said the waffles tasted the best ever and my husband said they were very light and easy on his stomach! In fact, he said that waffles prepared this new way were as easy to digest as his typical, non grain based breakfast.
Looks like I will be preparing my waffles using this new and improved method from now on! One other tip from Rami to keep in mind is that when soaking grains, the temperature needs to be kept at 70-85F otherwise phytic acid breakdown will be hindered.
Want to try this even more digestible, traditional waffle recipe on your family? Here’s how I incorporated Rami’s suggestions using the Nourishing Traditions’ basic waffle recipe as a guide.
Traditional Soaked Waffles Recipe
Recipe for the traditional method of making soaked waffles so that get full faster, eat less and stay satisfied all the way to lunch.
Ingredients
- 4 cups flour freshly ground is best
- 2 cups filtered water
- 2 Tbl lemon juice fresh squeezed is best
- 2 egg yolks lightly beaten, preferably from pastured eggs
- 2-4 Tbl maple syrup dark or Grade B
- 2 Tbl butter melted, preferably grassfed
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 4 egg whites
- expeller pressed coconut oil to grease waffle iron
Instructions
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Sift 4 cups of fresh flour to remove most of the bran. This should result in about 2 1/2 cups of sifted flour. Add the discarded bran to your compost pile or feed to your chickens or other birds.
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Mix 2 1/2 cups of sifted flour with 2 cups filtered water plus lemon juice. Cover with a cloth secured with a rubber band and let sit on the kitchen counter for 8 hours or overnight.
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After soaking is complete, drain off any excess water that has come to the top. Blend in maple syrup, egg yolks, vanilla, salt, and melted butter.
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In a separate bowl, add pinch of sea salt to egg whites and whip them until stiff peaks form. Pour whipped egg whites into batter and blend until smooth.
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Cook in a hot waffle iron oiled with coconut oil.
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Serve with plenty of raw, grassfed butter and Grade B maple syrup.
Prefer Sprouting to Soaking?
Do you prefer sprouting vs soaking as a traditional method for preparing grains? If so, check out this recipe for sprouted Belgian waffles using the sprouted flour of your choice.
Eat Paleo? Here’s a gluten free waffle recipe that is also grain free!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
We love this recipe. It’s been our “waffle recipe” for years. I’ve yet to afford a grain mill, so I mostly use jovial all-purpose and soak overnight. I’ve blended their wheat berries in the vitamix also, but there’s no way to sift that. Still makes a good waffle tho.
I recently found a brand new 1920s Sunbeam W2 waffle iron at an estate sale and it makes AMAZING waffles. I highly recommend a vingtage iron if you can locate/afford one.
Although those older units do not use a non-stick coating, aren’t the plates still made of aluminum? As far as I know, aluminum should be avoided as a cooking service. Please advise.
Can you soak a store bought pre-mixed pancake batter to make it easier to digest and to reduce phytic acid?
Pancake mix from the store has more than just flour in it (sugar and additives), so no, you really shouldn’t soak that overnight as the other ingredients would likely interfere with the process.
I foolishly didn’t read through all the instructions, just jumped in and added 4 cups of whole spelt flour with 2 cups water and 2 tbsp whey! I guess we will see how it looks in the morning! Lesson learned!
Hello Sarah, do you have an egg free version of this? My daughter is allergic to eggs. Thank you
You can try it with this egg substitute.
I have not tried it myself, so if you do … please let us know how it turns out! https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/video-the-best-baking-substitute-for-eggs/
This is news to me – using water and acid vs cultured dairy. So many of us assume it’s still cultured diary that’s breaking down the anti nutrients :-/
I tried these with Einkorn All Purpose flour and had some trouble (I could not get my egg whites to peak and just threw them in without them being “right”) and no one liked the end result. Are they supposed to have a rubbery texture? And is it right that there is no baking powder in the recipe? I really want to feed my family healthy food but they are not liking it. I made Orangina and no one liked that either. 🙁
If the egg whites are not whipped to peaks, then yes, the overall texture of the waffles will be negatively affected. I have served these waffles to many overnight guests who do not eat traditionally and they loved them. Hope that helps!
By the way, bringing the egg whites to room temp before whipping helps them foam up better if you have trouble on occasion.
I soaked flour, water, & apple cider vinegar over 24 hrs,for pancakes, & let it out for closer to
34 hours.The yellow color that appears in some areas on top & the sour smell is leading me
to ask you if it is edible.What is the longest time you have left flour soaking ? The temp was
probably less than 65 degrees .I think I will simplpour off that top layer with the excess water & give it a try.Thanks so very much for all the great info you share.
Mark
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Hi- I’m loving your blog! I’m pretty healthy but still have some changes to make. As of right now, I use bobs red mill unbleached white flour. So I would like to change that, because I have also read- cure tooth decay and I now realize it’s just dead and contributes to my tooth decay.
So, I saw where you have resources- where you can buy flours. So, what do u do? Or you might already have a tutorial for this. But do you grind the fresh grains and get your flour that way (is that what you mean by freshly ground flour in this recipe? Or do you buy already freshly sprouted flour?
I guessim just confused, cause I’d like to eat fresh flour, but I also would like to buy things in bulk and follow your tips from your other post on how to save money.
If you can just help guide me into choosing the right flour and how to properly handle it, I would greatly appreciate it 🙂