Aunt Kate’s Kitchen: Waffle recipes from the 1930s that were made for breakfast in 2020

Three recipes for livening up your traditional waffles, using cinnamon, coconut or ginger, straight from Aunt Kate’s Kitchen in the 1930s.

Waffles are one of those versatile treats that you can have for breakfast, brunch, birthdays, Christmas, sweet, savoury or as an after dinner treat.

Aunt Kate, the “original domestic goddess” knew this all too well and even dedicated a section in her 1933 Baking Book to the treasured treats.

At the top of the section, Aunt Kate writes: “Waffles are light pancakes meant to be cooked in a waffle iron, but an omelette pan does just as well. The secret of good waffles is to get the iron or pan very hot, then keep it at an even temperature throughout the baking.”

So, why not make breakfast a bit more exciting this weekend with one of these waffle recipes – with cinnamon, coconut or even ginger?

For more of Aunt Kate’s bakes, take a look at her previous recipes here.

Cinnamon Waffles

Ingredients

• ½ cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 ½ cup flour
• 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt

Method

1. Cream the butter and add the sugar gradually.
2. Add the beaten eggs, then the flavouring and all the dry ingredients sifted well together.
3. Heat the pan or waffle iron for five minutes (it must not be as hot as it would be for ordinary waffles), grease it slightly and put three or four tablespoonfuls of the batter into the centre.
4. Spread the batter slightly and bake for two or three minutes.
5. Serve warm with whipped cream, flavoured to taste with vanilla.

Gingerbread Waffles

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ cup butter
• ½ cup sour milk
• 1 ½ tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 ½ tsp soda
• 1 cup of treacle
• 1 beaten egg

Method

1. Sift the flour, ginger, cinnamon and salt well.
2. Next, heat the treacle and butter to boiling point, but do not boil.
3. Remove from the heat and beat in the soda. Add the sour milk, beaten egg and sifted dry ingredients.
4. Drop in spoonfuls of the batter into a waffle iron or omelette pan, greased with butter and fry until light and puffy.
5. Serve hot and with whipped cream.

Coconut Waffles

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups flour
• 2 eggs, yolks and whites separated
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ cup desiccated coconut
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 ½ tbsp melted butter
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 cup milk

Method

1. Sift together the dry ingredients. Add the milk slowly and the yolks of the eggs (well-beaten).
2. Then, stir in the butter and coconut and fold in the stiffly-beaten egg whites.
3. Bake in a waffle iron or fry like pancakes in a greased omelette pan.
4. Serve hot with warm jam poured over.

For more in this series…

Aunt Kate’s Kitchen: Three pancake recipes from the early 1900s that will still hit the sweet spot

Aunt Kate’s Kitchen: Two scone recipes from the early 1900s that will taste just as good in 2020