Butter Is The Secret To Perfecting A Store-Bought Waffle Mix

Waffles are a staple of American breakfast. There's nothing quite like a warm, fluffy stack drizzled with maple syrup on a weekend morning. Whether you're short on time or you're missing an ingredient to make them from scratch, sometimes your only option is boxed waffle mix.

However, there is an easy trick to take your boxed waffles from being fine but underwhelming to tasting surprisingly homemade, and all it requires is butter. The key is to melt butter in the microwave (standing up) and then stir it into your batter. It will improve both the taste and the texture of the finished product.

Exactly how much butter you should use will depend on the recipe provided by whichever brand of waffle mix you bought, and how many waffles you plan on making. If the recipe calls for 1 cup of the mix, try stirring in 2 tablespoons of melted butter. If your batter looks too wet, decrease the amount of milk or water by the measurement of butter you added. However, if the recipe calls for oil, simply replace that ingredient with melted butter. This will give you the rich, homemade taste you are aiming for.

Why does this simple trick improve both the taste and texture of your waffles so much that they are comparable to the made-from-scratch real deal? Every time you cook, you're basically doing a chemistry experiment, and this is no different.

Butter is a fat, which gives the waffles a delectable, rich flavor, often lacking in boxed mixes. Adding melted butter also results in waffles that are delightfully crispy on the outside, but fluffy on the inside. Boxed waffle mixes usually contain flour, and adding a fat such as butter to this ingredient limits gluten development, which in turn creates a waffle with a moist interior, as opposed to something stretchy and chewy. Butter also acts as an emulsifier, meaning that it helps to blend the liquids and flour together more easily. This leads to a less dense mixture and light and airy waffles.

Some boxed waffle mixes call for oil, which is also a fat and accomplishes the same chemistry goals as butter. But simply put, butter tastes better and will result in a more delicious breakfast. So, next time you break out the boxed waffle mix and that trusty waffle maker, put some melted butter to the test and try this trick yourself.