I love buying unusual flavor extracts, but it can be hard to not get tired of using it for the one purpose I bought it for. The original intent was for pandan lattes, which I made once. So I found myself with two bottles of McCormick pandan extract, and they sat in my cabinet for about a year before I decided it was time to do something about them. I went on a bit of a waffle making streak this winter, and waffles use vanilla extract. Pandan has a bit of a vanilla-y flavor. So why not make pandan waffles?
What Does Pandan Taste Like?
Pandan is a tropical plant where the leaves are used to flavor food and color food in Southeasy Asian cuisines. It has a toasty vanilla-y flavor, which makes it perfect in places where you would use vanilla extract but also want a little more excitement or layer in the flavors.
These use slightly different ingredients than regular waffles. The tapioca starch and rice flour give them a chewier, mochi-like consistency that's really light and fluffy!
Pandan Waffles
Equipment
- 1 waffle iron
- 1 tongs
- 1 spatula
Ingredients
- ½ cup tapioca starch
- ¾ cup all purpose flour
- ¾ cup rice flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¾ cup white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon pandan extract
- 4-5 drops green food coloring (optional)
- ¼ cup unsalted butter melted
- 1 14.5 oz can coconut milk full-fat or lite as desired
- ghee, or other high-heat oil spray
- whipped cream, berries, and mint leaves to garnish as desired
Instructions
- Mix the first four dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
- Mix together the sugar and wet ingredients (eggs, coconut milk, butter, extract, food coloring) in a separate bowl.
- Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry, using a spatula to stir together until well mixed. Some small lumps are okay, perfect smoothness is not required. Add more food coloring if you want super green waffles. I wanted mine a lighter green.
- Follow the individual instructions for your waffle iron here. I like to use the ghee spray to impart a light butteriness. But in general spray each side of the waffle iron, then pour a small amount of batter to fill but not overfill the waffle iron. I cooked mine for 2 minutes (according to my waffle iron).
- Use the spatula and tongs or your preferred method to loosen the waffles from the pan. Stack on a plate and cover with a towel until all are complete. Mine made 6 waffles, but yours may yield more or less depending on iron size. Or make smaller ones, whatever you want to do!
- Garnish with whipped cream, cut strawberries, and blueberries (and mint!) as desired. These waffles with garnish, are sweet enough not to need syrup.
Types of Pandan Flavoring
There are a lot of types of pandan extract, or pandan flavoring. What I used is very similar to vanilla extract. It's clear and thin. Others are more paste-like and come with the color included. You'll have to read the ingredients on your particular one to see if it includes artificial coloring if you don't like that.
This is the McCormick pandan extract I use. The Halo Pantry brand is another dye-free pandan extract. This pandan concentrate has green coloring added in. You could even try dried pandan leaves if you want it to have a hint of real pandan!
Using Ghee Oil
I used ghee oil spray on the waffle maker, and wow, it worked really well! The waffles came loose easily, I didn't feel like there was a ton of overspray from this specific brand, and it imbued the waffles with a crispy, buttery exterior.
I got it from Lowes Foods, but you can also find this Mantova ghee oil spray online for a very comparable price to in-store.
Have you ever had pandan flavored anything?
Want more waffles? Try my Cheddar Cornmeal Waffles with Cherokee Purple Tomato Coulis or Meatless Chicken Tenders and Waffles with Hot Honey!