All over Facebook and Instagram I have been seeing people waffle-iron various foods. These images often leave my mouth-watering and my mind wondering “why have I not tried this before?” I decided to waffle-iron a few things that I’ve seen online, as well as other things that I was curious about. Although my experience was different with each food I tried, it was an interesting experience overall. I’m always open to trying out new things, especially when it comes to food. See the results of my waffle-iron extravaganza below:

My first venture into waffle-ironing different food started with Publix ham and cheese croquetas. There were enough croquetas to fill up most of the waffle iron. They meshed together and seemed to become one larger waffled croqueta. However, as soon as I tried to pick it up, the croquetas split up into individual tiny waffled croquetas. They were still delicious, especially when dipped in Sriracha mayo (I like to experiment). This may not seem appetizing, but it turned out to be very tasty.

This didn’t work as well as I had hoped and was slightly painful to clean. Next time I’ll try this with thicker clumps of dough. Does this mean I need to buy more cookie dough and eat half the container myself? Yes? Sweet.

Next stop, Krispy Kreme glazed donut. Since there was just one individual donut, there was no need to piece together the food involved.  The heat made the donut slightly crispier, but still had its original fluffy insides; it was delightful to my taste buds. I’ll have to try to multiple donuts at once next time.

This was a cheese stick I saw while shopping at Publix and wanted to eat. It was a little bit harder to compress, because of its shape. The cheesy inside didn’t really heat up, but the outside continued to cook. I eventually cut the cheese stick open so the inside could melt a little more but it still took longer than any of the other foods. It didn’t work out that well, but perhaps cutting it up into nuggets would have been better. You may be asking what’s next to the cheese stick. Are those pizza rolls?

Yes, they are indeed pizza rolls. After trying three of them, I needed to make more and fill up the entire iron with them. Similar to the croquetas, they didn’t meld together the way they seem to do in videos online. However, they tasted awesome. Compressing the pizza rolls between the two plates also allowed the insides of them to “breathe”, so the inside wasn’t burning hot like they normally are. This also smoothed out the exterior texture and made them slightly chewier. Success!

For last, we have our trusty old after-school snack: the beloved pizza round. I actually put two in, one on top of the other, with the sauce in the middle. This prevented the sauce from sticking to the waffle iron and made it a lot easier to clean than it could have been. It resulted in a nice waffle pizza bagel sandwich. This was really delicious as well, but doubling up really offset the bread/sauce/cheese ratio.

There were some ups-and-downs in the waffle-iron experiment; nevertheless, I got to eat everything I made so I was pretty happy. It was a fun experience and I learned what to change for my next waffle-iron adventure. I hope this inspired you to play with your food and if there’s anything else you would like me to try, feel free to email me at [email protected]!

words&photos_kristinzheng.

Kristin Zheng is a junior from Rhode Island majoring in Software Engineering. She enjoys pandas, pie, and long walks through Trader Joe’s.