Overnight Malted Waffles

Friends, I have been testing and testing to make the very best yeast-raised, overnight malted waffles in the land, and the testing has paid off.

This recipe buys you 7-8 large, Belgian-style waffles that are crisp on the outside, fluffy and tender yet substantial on the inside, and are full of flavor. Perfect for soaking up syrups, jams, and butter.

You may also enjoy my small-batch pancakes for one recipe. For ease of browsing, you can find all my breakfast recipes in the same place. Now let’s make some waffles!

Best waffle I’ve ever made; light, fluffy, and browned beautifully…Tried them tonight, DH, who is not a huge pancake or waffle fan…also gave five stars.

Reader Victoria

Overnight Malted Waffles at a Glance

Even if you have never worked with yeast before, I encourage you to make these waffles. There is no kneading–just stirring ingredients together and letting them hang out in the fridge. The flavor and texture payoff is more than worth it. Trust me.

✅Skill Level: Beginner
✅Skills: Warming milk, whisking, using a waffle maker
✅Type: Breakfast yeast waffles
✅Number of Ingredients: 11
✅Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
✅Rise Time: 12-24 hours
✅Cook Time: about 3 minutes per waffle
✅Yield: 7-8 large, Belgian-style waffles

Jump Straight to the Recipe

Tasting Notes

Malt lovers, these waffles are for you.

They are just off-sweet, light and fluffy with a bit of chew thanks to an overnight rise, and their outsides are spectacularly crisp.

Check out this cutaway shot:

The malt flavor comes through as a gentle milky, earthy sweetness that is hard to describe if you’ve never had malted milk before. Think Whoppers, Maltesers, or a nice malted shake. The aroma of malt really shines in the batter, too. So good.

The vanilla lends its cozy, familiar woody, creamy, and floral notes. These waffles pack a lot of flavor and are truly head and shoulders more interesting than baking powder-leavened waffles.

Since the insides are so fluffy, they make excellent little sponges to soak up all the butter and syrup.

If these malted waffles sound like your idea of a good time and you make and love them, I have a favor to ask:

Credit Where Credit is Due

After two less-than-stellar results with highly rated baking powder waffle recipes, I turned to a yeast-raised waffle from Mel’s Kitchen.

The flavor and texture were so far superior to baking powder-raised waffles that I never looked back. And I’ll never make another baking powder raised waffle unless someone is paying me.

I used Mel’s recipe as a template to make malted waffles, adding malted milk powder and splitting the liquid between milk and water. I made a few other little changes as well, but her “inspiration waffles” are also excellent.

Using Mel’s recipe as a base, I probably made 6-8 iterations before I was able to fine tune it to get

1. enough malt flavor
2. crispy outsides
3. tender and fluffy insides

Because, there’s nothing worse than a floppy waffle. Not only do they not hold up to butter and syrup, they also tend to shrink a bit, making it nearly impossible to reheat leftovers in the waffle iron.

How to Make Malted Waffles

Please don’t let the yeast scare you off. Pretend it’s baking powder and just toss it in with the dry ingredients.

If you already know how to make waffles and are ready to get started, go ahead and skip down to the recipe.

Otherwise, I’ll go over ingredients, offering substitutions where it makes sense to do so.

• whole milk: Provides the majority of the liquid for the batter along with some milk sugars and proteins to assist in browning
• water: Most waffle batters are made with all milk, but since we’re adding some malted milk powder, we need the water to basically turn the powder into malted milk. Using all milk would be overkill on the milk proteins and would result in denser waffles.
• vegetable oil: Tenderizes the batter and assists in browning. For a buttery malted waffle, substitute the same amount of ghee rather than butter since ghee and oil are both 100% fat while butter is only about 80-81% fat
• all-purpose flour: Gives the waffles structure and allows them to set and have a nice crumb structure
• cornstarch: The magical ingredient that binds some water during cooking, helping to ensure waffles with a lovely, crispy exterior. If you don’t like to use cornstarch, leave it out and increase the flour amount by 2 oz in the full recipe
• malted milk powder: Gives us our delicious malty flavor while adding milk sugars and proteins. Malted milk powder is also a little bit sweet, which lends an overall sweet milkiness to the waffles without adding a lot of sugar
• sugar: The full recipe only requires 2 Tablespoons. A little sweetness is always welcome, and sugar assists in browning as well as turning into a syrup with some of the liquid, helping to give the batter body
• salt: Enhances all the flavors and brings them into focus
• yeast: This provides the leavening or rise to the batter. Using yeast for a longer, slower rise than you’d get from baking powder allows the batter to develop delicious flavor. You can use instant yeast or active dry. If using active dry, proof the yeast in a portion of your warm milk and water mixture before adding the oil. Once bubbly, add to the rest of the batter
• eggs: Provides some emulsifiers in the yolk as well as proteins in the white to help crisp up the waffles
• vanilla extract: Rounds out all the flavors, adding warm, woody and floral notes to the waffles

Making the Waffle Batter

I can tell you after making waffle batters over and over and over again during testing that these waffles are very easy to make.

You’ll need a medium bowl, a larger bowl, and a small saucepan. Here’s what goes in each:

1. Saucepan: Heat whole milk, water, and oil to no hotter than 120F
2. Medium bowl: Whisk egg and vanilla until foamy and a bit paler in color
3. Large bowl: Combine flour, cornstarch, malted milk powder, sugar, salt, and yeast

Once you have those three components ready, simply whisk the warm milk mixture into the dry mixture, and then whisk in the eggs last.

Cover, refrigerate overnight, and when you’re ready to waffle, remove it from the fridge, stir it well–no need to let it rise again–and make waffles according to the instructions that came with your waffle maker.

If you’re a visual learner, please take a look at the recipe video.

What If I Don’t Like Malt?

Use Mel’s recipe, linked towards the top of the post, or you can modify this recipe like this:

• Leave out the malted milk powder
• Use 100% whole milk rather than milk and water
• Increase the all-purpose flour to 15 oz

Malted Waffle Q & A

Amazing waffles! Crispy and tasty and scrumptious all at the same time! Double batch fed a crowd with lots of compliments! It was so great to have them ready to go in the morning. I will make them again and again.

Reader Jane

More Decadent Breakfast Goodies

If you’re the kind of person to make overnight malted waffles, maybe you are the kind of person who’d like to give yeast-raised chocolate chocolate chip pancakes, “regular” but still decadent chocolate pancakes, or homemade cinnamon rolls a try.

Questions?

If you have any questions about this post or recipe, I am happy to help.

Simply leave a comment here and I will get back to you soon. I also invite you to ask question in my Facebook group, Fearless Kitchen Fun.

If your question is more pressing, please feel free to email me. I should be back in touch ASAP, as long as I’m not asleep.

Love These Yeast Waffles? Please Rate and Review

And there you have it, friends. I really hope you enjoy these overnight waffles. They really are delicious (even if I’m a little tired of testing them)!

Thanks for spending some time with me today.

Take care, y’all!