Topped with a decadent maple glaze, these waffle cookies are a decadent, dessert-twist on one of your favorite breakfast staples. They’re fun, unique, and also surprisingly simple to make. Recipe includes a how-to video!
Why You’ll Love These Waffle Cookies
- Unique: Are they waffles? Cookies? Dessert? Breakfast? Yes, yes, yes, and yes, of course! Never, ever turn down the opportunity for cookies for breakfast. 🙃
- Easy to make: the dough comes together so fast, and most of the recipe time is just spent cooking (about 20 minutes, it is hands-on but overall still a fast process). Plus, there is no chilling required!
- So flavorful: They lean somewhat towards a sugar cookie in flavor, but they honestly taste better because the waffle iron caramelizes the outside as it turns golden.
- Amazing maple glaze: So much of the flavor in these waffle cookies comes from the maple syrup glaze. It’s incredibly easy with just three ingredients!
- Great brunch option: Imagine showing up to brunch with these–everyone will love you! Psst: my blueberry muffin cookies and crepe cake are great brunch/dessert options too!
Not to be confused with pizzelle, these waffle cookies are fun, unique cookies baked in a waffle iron and drizzled with a maple glaze. They are a bit different from your average cookie, which is exactly why I love them!
The Ingredients
I use basic pantry staples to make my waffle cookies, which means you probably have what you need to whip up a batch right now!
- Brown sugar. A combination of granulated and brown sugar creates a flavorful cookie base that caramelizes beautifully when pressed into a waffle iron.
- Vanilla. A classic waffle ingredient! Vanilla adds flavor to the cookies and complements the maple glaze so nicely. If you have some homemade vanilla extract lying around, feel free to add a splash here!
- Cornstarch. I took a note from my no-chill sugar cookies and swapped some of the flour for cornstarch. This keeps the cookies tender and flavorful.
- Butter. I use unsalted butter in the cookies themselves and salted butter in the glaze. If you only have salted butter on hand, just reduce the salt in the cookies to ¼ teaspoon. On the other hand, if you only have unsalted butter, you can add a pinch of table salt to the glaze.
- Maple syrup. I recommend using pure maple syrup for the best flavor, but you can use pancake syrup if you’d like.
And, of course, a waffle iron! A Belgian waffle iron is not a good choice here as the crevices are too deep, making the cookie too bulky and prone to falling apart when you remove it. Instead, you need a more standard/shallow waffle iron. I personally recommend using a mini waffle iron, like this one I used for the cookies you see here.
SAM’S TIP: Waffle cookies would be tasty with a pinch of cinnamon in the glaze for an extra breakfast-y feel.
How to Make Waffle Cookies
- Cream together the the butter and sugars with an electric mixer for 1-2 minutes on high speed.
- Stir in the egg and vanilla until well combined.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then gradually add them to the wet ingredients.
- Form 2-tablespoon sized scoops of dough into a ball, then break into 3 or 4 even pieces.
- Evenly place the dough pieces into your preheated mini waffle iron, then close and cook until golden brown (about 90 seconds).
- Carefully tilt the waffle iron onto a cooling rack to remove the cookie (be very careful and consider wearing oven mitts to do this, as the iron is hot and could burn you). Repeat with the remaining dough.
- Make the glaze: Whisk together the melted butter and maple syrup, then gradually add the powdered sugar until combined.
- Drizzle or dip the cooled cookies in glaze.
SAM’S TIP: My recipe makes a lot of glaze in case you want to entirely dip all of your cookies as shown below. If you’re just doing a drizzle, you can halve the recipe.
Frequently Asked Questions
Waffle cookies are like a waffle/sugar cookie hybrid. They have a sweet, caramelized vanilla flavor that pairs with the maple glaze in such a lovely way. Texture-wise, these cookies are similar to cut-out sugar cookies with a crisp, firm texture.
So long as it is not a Belgian waffle maker (those are the deep ones), then yes! They won’t have a pretty, defined shape like the ones in my pictures, but they will still taste amazing. To do this, simply put a 2-tablespoon scoop of cookie dough in each quadrant of your waffle iron and cook until golden brown. Take extra care when removing, as the cookies will need to be gently removed and turning them out from a larger iron is trickier.
Waffle cookies made in a regular waffle maker instead of a mini waffle maker may take just a bit more time to cook.
No, these cookies are far too thick and firm to be used for stroopwafles (a Dutch treat consisting of very thin, crisp wafer cookies sandwiched around chewy caramel). However, my waffle cookies could be used for ice cream sandwiches–maybe even with a maple walnut ice cream?! Yum!
While I suppose you could, I can’t guarantee consistent results. If you do try this with any of my other cookie recipes, please let me know how it goes!
What do you think: should waffle cookies be considered breakfast, dessert, or both?
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
Waffle Cookies
Ingredients
Waffle Cookies
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter softened
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- 3 Tablespoons (38 g) light brown sugar firmly packed
- 1 large egg room temperature preferred
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cups (218 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon table salt
Maple Glaze (see note)
- ⅓ cup (80 g) maple syrup
- 3 Tablespoons (42 g) salted butter melted (or use unsalted and add a pinch of salt after melting)
- 1 cup (125 g) powdered sugar
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
For Cookies
- Plug in the waffle iron so it begins warming up.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine butter and sugar and use an electric mixer to beat until well-combined and creamed (about 1-2 minutes on high speed).½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar, 3 Tablespoons (38 g) light brown sugar
- Add egg and vanilla extract and stir until well-combined.1 large egg, ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.1 ¾ cups (218 g) all-purpose flour, 1 Tablespoon cornstarch, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ⅛ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon table salt
- Gradually stir dry ingredients into wet until completely combined.
- Scoop approximately 2 Tablespoons of cookie dough and form into a ball. Break into 3 or 4 even pieces and place them evenly in the waffle iron (be careful, the iron will be very hot, do not touch the actual iron!). Gently but firmly close the waffle iron and cook until cookie is golden brown (about 90 seconds).
- To remove the cookie, carefully tilt the waffle iron onto a cooling rack (I use oven mitts to hold it when doing this). You may try using a fork but the cookie is more likely to break. Repeat with remaining cookie dough until all cookies have been baked. Allow to cool slightly before covering with maple glaze.
Maple Glaze
- Whisk together maple syrup and melted butter. Gradually add powdered sugar until completely combined. Drizzle over cookies or allow cookies to cool completely and then dip in the glaze. If the glaze becomes too thick at any point, just microwave for 10 seconds and then stir, repeat as needed until fluid.⅓ cup (80 g) maple syrup, 3 Tablespoons (42 g) salted butter, 1 cup (125 g) powdered sugar
Notes
Waffle iron
A mini waffle iron is great for doing one cookie at a time and making sure cookies are cooked properly, however a larger iron will work so long as it is not a Belgian iron (which has deeper crevices). I do not recommend a Belgian iron as the cookies are too difficult to remove and are prone to breaking.Maple glaze
This recipe yields enough glaze to generously dip every cookie. If you intend on a lighter amount of frosting or just drizzling over the cookies, feel free to reduce by half (half of the maple syrup would be just under 3 Tbsp)Storing
Once glaze has dried completely, store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Bruce Cavender
I’ve had a mini waffle maker for a while. saw this recipe and gave it a try. Excellent! Will be making again.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Bruce! 🙂
Roshni
Waffle cookies, oh, where do I even begin? These delightful treats have taken my taste buds on a journey of pure bliss! From the moment I took my first bite, I was transported to a world of sweet, crispy perfection.
The texture of waffle cookies is a marvel in itself – they strike the perfect balance between light and airy, with just the right amount of crispiness. It’s like biting into a cloud that’s been kissed by the sun. The gentle crunch as you take that initial bite is a symphony of pleasure for your senses.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Roshni! 🙂
Bets
Hi Sam, the day I received your mail with these cute cookies, I fell in love. But where in this place at the bottom of Africa will one find such little waffle iron? To my delight I found a store near me that stock them. So by evening I had a batch done – BUT my kids and grandchildren say they are too sweet. I also found that I had to bake them much longer before they got a little color. I thought they are delicious – however when cold they were hard to bite and chew. Do you think I baked them too long? This is the land of ‘load-shedding’! Electricity Cuts, often twice a day for 2 hrs resulting from insufficient and poor power supply. Also what would happen if I cut back on sugar to please the ‘too sweet moaners’? It was so much fun to bake them – THANKS!
Sam
Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear they were hard when cold. It could have potentially been from over-cooking them. I think you probably could reduce the sugar a little bit, but I haven’t tried it to say exactly how much to reduce it. 🙂
Old Grey Mare
I have a few questions. One is whether the cookie dough is too thick/heavy for a hand mixer? The other is about how much dough to use for what size cookie? My little waffle maker is also 4 hearts so I thought it was probably the same as yours but a half tablespoon of dough per heart did not seem like enough so I looked closer at your pictures and I think yours is probably even smaller than mine. If you could reply with the dimensions of each heart of your mini-waffle iron, I could tell if I need to use more dough in each section once I make these.
Sam
A hand mixer will work for these cookies. The actual heart shape of the iron at the widest point is 3.5 inches and it is 3 inches tall. 🙂
Cheryl
How funny yesterday I was looking thru a google search for chocolate chip waffle cookies. I think I’ll try these first. I have a regular size waffle iron so should bake up quickly. Anything to not heat up the oven in this hot weather!
Sam
I hope you love them, Cheryl! 🙂