One of my favorite tricks for gluten free waffle making is substituting the flour for a mix of glutinous rice flour and cornstarch. You end up with a waffle that is still chewy, though a little softer and lacking that rich wheat smell I associate with… uh, things made of wheat.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Waffles:
(adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s Pumpkin Waffles)

1 1/2 cup glutinous rice flour
1 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp ground cloves

4 large eggs, separated
2 cups buttermilk
1 cup canned pumpkin
6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Mix together flour, brown sugar, baking powder and soda, salt, and spices. Whisk eggs in with buttermilk, pumpkin, and butter until smooth. Combine with dry ingredients. The Smitten Kitchen version has you beat the egg whites to soft peaks separately, but I’m lazier and I’ve been happy with my mix-whole-eggs results.

At this point, make them however you make waffles. I tend to find that this batter needs more time than the gluten-including original. On my waffle maker, this batter takes a few minutes at heat setting “3” — I put the batter in, wait for the green light to come back on, then wait another two minutes. Whereas the gluten-including version, I do at heat setting 4, taking them out when the green light comes on.

My new waffle recipe (in addition to the normal waffles I make… Which I’ll post sometime) is blueberry mochi waffles.

I follow the recipe here for mochi cake, except I put it in a waffle maker instead of an oven. With my waffle maker, I do it on heat setting 3 or 4 (depending on whether or not you want them dryer and crunchier or softer and moister) until the waffle maker comes back up to temperature.

Mochi Cake Batter
1 pound mochiko (1 box)
1 cup butter (2 sticks), melted
2 cups sugar
1 can evaporated milk (12 oz can)
4 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
12 oz frozen blueberries (or 1 can blueberry pie filling)

In a large bowl, combine (by hand) the sugar and melted butter. Add evaporated milk and mix well. Add eggs and mix. Finally, stir in baking powder, mochiko and vanilla.

The blog entry I referenced suggests layering in the blueberries to avoid getting streaky purple batter… For waffles I think it’s a lost cause and end up with beautiful dark golden brown waffles, despite the streaky purpley batter. Also, they’re soft when they first come out of the waffle maker but harden in the next minute or so. Personally, I prefer them softer.