Should you Grease a Waffle Iron?

Waffle lovers want to have waffles to the fullest with greasing or not. So whatever you like, both results are awesome. But you must make sure that what you want because it works behind the choosing of the waffle maker.

Greasing depends on the variation of the material that a healthy waffle maker consists of. We can provide an idea of all the types and also explain which type is opt for greasing and which is not. After going through the whole content, you can have the whole knowledge about greasing needs. Let’s begin with different materials that need greasing or not.

Teflon Nonstick Waffle Makers

In the market, there are non-stick waffle makers like Teflon coated or other chemicals like polytetrafluoroethylene. The main aim of this chemical is to prevent the sticking of the food in the cookers. Not only waffle, but non-stick is also good for any type of cooking.

In terms of non-stick, you won’t need to grease the waffle iron rather greasing may damage or make it difficult to use for a longer time. The material makes it nonstick to avoid the use of greasing with butter or oil. So if you season it then you have to clean with hard chemical washing elements that may pull out the coating which is the main thing to prevent sticking. Then, the plates would stick the waffles afterward.

Finally, it is to mention that, avoid greasing oil in non -stick waffle iron to prevent damage. You have to clean the non-stick very softly too for better maintenance.

Cast Iron Waffle Makers

People use cast iron cooker from the very beginning and still now it is one of the most useful cooking materials. The best thing about the cast iron waffle maker is that it is BPA, PTFE, and PFOA free which are harmful chemicals for human health.

Unlike the non-stick coating waffle maker, cast iron waffle iron should be greased with oil. You can use any oil like butter, olive oil, vegetable oil, canola oil, peanut oil, and any other oil you prefer. The function of the cast iron is the opposite of the non-stick. The more you use greasing to the waffle iron, the more it would be better to work with waffle. You can use greasing in every use to turn your waffle into a good one.

Ceramic Waffle Makers

If you want to avoid the Teflon in the non-stick waffle iron, then the ceramic plates are the best options to use. Ceramic is healthy and environment-friendly material.

Like Teflon non-stick one, you don’t have to grease the plate with oil. But for a buttery flavor, you can season the plates with butter as it doesn’t get worsen like Teflon non-stick after every seasoning. But it is better to cook waffles without greasing to ease the cleaning process. During cleaning, you can not use any harsh material to clean the surface.

Why non-stick cooking spray is not recommended to grease a waffle iron?

For the same reason, we don’t recommend greasing, avoid non-stick cooking spray too. As the usage of cooking spray is very easy and comfortable to grease, you could use it frequently if you don’t know the drawbacks.

Can you use cooking spray on waffle maker? If you use the cooking spray regularly on the waffle iron, then the sprays can pull up on the plates over time and it will be hard to clean the plates with soft soap.

How to Keep Waffles from Sticking to a Waffle Iron?

Without greasing oil, it may sometimes seem difficult for you to work on a non-stick waffle maker. But with some usual tips, you can make the best waffles and maintain the non-stick waffle iron with good care for a longer time.

Deep Clean Your Grid Plates

If you have already used greasing or cooking spray regularly in the non-stick waffle iron and have made the plates enough massy to clean up then don’t worry, you can still do the proper cleaning with utmost care. Just follow the rules.

• Don’t forget to turn off and cool down the grid plates before starting cleaning otherwise it may cause you mishaps or danger.
• The simplest method of cleaning is to use a wet paper towel to remove the stains, batter, or lumps of cooking spray that sum up with many uses.
• If there are any thick stains of hard batter or crumps, it is possible to remove them with a rubber spatula. Never use steel or aluminum ones here.
• Things may seem to go out of hand if the clumps are extremely hard to remove. Then you can apply some oil (any oil can go with this) on the hardened dried batter or crumps and come back after 15 minutes. This process makes the stains softer to remove and then using a spatula work with the batter and crumps.
• You can now gently clean the plates with a paper towel if all the stains are gone. But if any other stains may seem to appear, then apply some baking soda in the paper towel and finish the cleaning by scrubbing.
• After all the stains are gone, you can use a damp cloth to wipe the whole grid plates. Remember to clean the outside parts too.

You can finish the maintenance when the whole waffle iron is dried up. Before storing, it is one of the important tasks to do for your safety.

Make Your Waffle Batter Thick

Another way to avoid sticking in non-stick plates is making the batter thick. If the batter is too thin, then the heat enters the food rapidly to cook and it sticks on the plates instantly after cooking before you get time to finish.

So, make the batter thick with more dry ingredients to make a perfect recipe for a waffle.

Turn the Heat Up

Producing not enough heat can make your waffle uncooked inside, but the outside part is stick on the plates as it is cooked at the very first. So, you have to turn up the heat to ensure proper preheating in the plates. You can use the indicator lights to get hints about proper heat. Moreover, you can test the heating process with a small amount of batter dripping in the plates with a spoon. It makes a hissing sound if the waffle plates are ready.

Buy a New Waffle Maker

If you still bother about how to season a non-stick waffle iron and you cannot still fix your non-stick ones; then it comes to matter to purchase other waffle makers that are not non-stick. You can apply seasoning on ceramic and cast iron waffle makers.

So, it’s better to switch on these and get the exact waffle flavor and texture. And also, you can get the waffles that do not stick on the waffle grid plates.

You may also read: What’s the difference between Belgian Waffles and Regular?

Final Verdict

So, the bottom line is that to avoid sticking the waffles in the plates, it is not necessary to grease them with oil. The whole fact is about getting a perfect waffles texture, for which you must maintain the respective rules of waffle makers.

The rules are that you cannot grease or season a non-stick waffle iron as these can create hard stains that turn the surface damaged over time and it damage the non-stick coating too that causes more sticking incidents later. But in other waffle irons especially except the Teflon coated non-stick ones, you can grease the surface with oil or butter that you prefer. So, choose as per your choice.