Tubular Waffle Grid Wafers 2

Back in August, I published my recipe for Tubular Waffle Grid Wafers that I used test tubes for helping shape the cooked wafers. (I wanted to use my waffle cone appliance to make shapes besides waffle cones.) This time, I used a 3 x 8 grid text tube rack for holding the shapes. The rack is open air, better for air circulation and avoiding trapping steam than the set of test tubes I used previously. Also, the 24 vertical cavities means I can stand up a lot more tubular wafers.

My pixstrip shows the following images:

1. Equipment and utensils
2. Ingredients and mixing
   1. Eggs and salt, to be mixed together first
   2. Sugar, to be added to the eggs and salt mixture (Yes, I'm reusing this and the next pix of ingredients.)
   3. Rest of ingredients
3. Process completion
   1. Batter baking process (1st and 2nd image in the 2nd row)
   2. A rolled baked wafer
   3. Finished tube wafers in the test tube rack (My batch of 18 includes a few substandard ones for cautionary note.)

Equipment and utensils (spray oil being a bridge from equipment to baking process)

• Waffle cone maker
• Mixer (I used an electric hand mixer.)
• Measuring cups
• Measuring spoons
• Rubber spatula(s)
• Plastic spatula
• Mixing bowl(s)
• Cooling rack
• Test tube rack, available online for less than $10

Ingredients and mixing (from the Simply Vanilla Wafer Cones recipe of the Bella Recipe Guide)

• 2 eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 C of water
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 C cake flour (can sub with 1 C flour -2 T flour +2 T cornstarch)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Recommended: Spray oil application about every other wafer or so.

1. Beat the eggs and salt.
2. Add the sugar and beat it. :-)
3. Add the water, oil, cake flour (or replacement flours), and vanilla.

Process completion (baking, etc.)
Prepare the iron as instructed with your appliance. Because I've used mine a few times, I've only wiped the cooking surfaces with a clean, warm, damp kitchen rag for cleaning preparation, sprayed the cooking surfaces, and plugged the cord. Heating time is a minute or so.

For each disk, pour about 2 T batter, close the lid, and heat for about 30 seconds. Move the cooked disk onto the cooling rack, roll it up, and slide it into a cavity. Continue the batter dispensing and baking process until you use up the batter. My calculations for calories, about 93 calories for each tube.

Tubular Waffle Grid Wafers

These tubes are soft rollups that you can spread frosting or other sweet filling in. The softness comes from rolling up baked waffle-cone wafers and dropping them into cylinders that are narrow enough for steam to stay in. For my recipe, I used color-coded 1-inch diameter test tubes. The recipe is actually from the waffle-cone machine manufacturer for making waffle cones. I wanted to try making tubes, as I don't keep ice cream in the house. If you want crispy tubes, roll each baked waffle around a dowel or chop stick and hold them together for a few seconds. (For my next experiment for making crispy tubes will be trying a fortune cookie batter recipe, a test tube rack, or both.)
My pixstrip show the following images:

1. Equipment and utensils
2. Ingredients and mixing
   
   1. Eggs and salt, to be mixed together first
   2. Sugar, to be added to the eggs and salt mixture
   3. Rest of ingredients
3. Process completion
   
   1. Batter baking process (1st and 2nd image in the 2nd row)
   2. A set of rolled baked wafers
   3. Finished tube wafers
   4. Some tubes and frosting (filling optional)

Equipment and utensils (spray oil being a bridge from equipment to baking process)

• Waffle cone maker
• Mixer (I used an electric hand mixer.)
• Measuring cups
• Measuring spoons
• Rubber spatula(s)
• Plastic spatula
• Mixing bowl(s)
• Cooling rack
• Cylinders (I used test tubes—aka "test tube shooters"—that I bought at Urban Outfitters, which are also available online.)

Ingredients and mixing (from the Simply Vanilla Wafer Cones recipe of the Bella Recipe Guide)

• 2 eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 C of water
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 C cake flour (can sub with 1 C flour -2 T flour +2 T cornstarch)
  

  Note: I'm 'fessing up to having putting only 2/3 the amount of flours because I, duh, misread my list of ingredients

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Recommended: Spray oil application about every other wafer or so.

1. Beat the eggs and salt.
2. Add the sugar and beat it. :-)
3. Add the water, oil, cake flour (or replacement flours), and vanilla.

Process completion (baking, etc.)
Prepare the iron as instructed with your appliance. Because I've used mine a few times, I've only wiped the cooking surfaces with a clean, warm, damp kitchen rag for cleaning preparation, sprayed the cooking surfaces, and plugged the cord. Heating time is a minute or so.
For each disk, pour about 1 T batter, close the lid, and heat for about 30 seconds.

Note: If you want to make cones or bigger tubes, which won't easily fit into test tubes, pour 2 T. With 1 T batter, the lid locks fine. More than 1 T at a time, the lid tends to not stay locked. In my past recipe for waffle-grid tortillas, I held down the lid, using an oven pad for each hand. (Warning: The lid gets hot.)

Move the cooked disk onto the cooling rack, roll it up, and drop it into a cylinder. Continue the batter dispensing and baking process until you use up the batter. (My pixstrip shows a set of six filled, poured out tubes, and tubular wafers.)

I wound up with 22 tubes and some 2-T batter disks. Those disks didn't last long enough to make it into the picture. :-) My calculations for calories, considering my reduced amount of flours, came to about 50 calories for each tube. Placing about a teaspoon of frosting nudges the calories by another 25. IOW, the plate of four as shown in the pixstrip amounts to about a 300-calorie snack, about the amount in a good-sized candy bar. Eater beware!

Waffle-grid Tortillas

Just after Christmas while browsing for post-holiday sales in a department store, I spotted a clerk placing a sale sign for an appliance that I'd been lightly considering buying for the last couple of years. I'd seen waffle cone makers selling for $20, which I just wasn't willing to commit for. Woohoo! The sign said $7.99! What a deal! It took me a couple of months to try a recipe. A bit time consuming, and calorie-loaded because of a lot of sugar called for.

About a month later, I talked to an associate about waffle cones, how I was amazed that the baked disks were moldable for about only 10 seconds. He speculated that sugar in the batter crystallizes during the baking and hardens them when they cool. I decided to try making sugarless waffle cones. Well, I confirmed that the baked results did not retain a molded shape after cooling, whether cone or tube. So, this recipe is making waffle-grid tortillas, which are good for folding over or rolling up after microwaving fillings in them. (I've tried cheese and spinach, and cheese only.)

My tortilla recipe has significantly fewer calories than either the Simply Vanilla Wafer Cones or Orange Cinnamon Waffle Cones recipe at the Bella Waffle Cone Maker pdf manual, which I used for my basis. My tortilla batch makes about 11 5-inch disks. Interestingly, both waffle cone recipes claim 6-9 sweet cones for 2-3 T batter per waffle shape, although the volume of flour differs by about a third: 2/3 C flour all-purpose vs. 1 C cake flour.

My pixstrip's boundaries delineate the following sections:

1. Equipment and utensils
2. Ingredients
   1. Eggs and mixing
   2. Flour (replacement for cake flour)
   3. Oil and water, and mixing them into the flour and eggs
3. Batter baking process
4. Baked tortilla, microwaving with cheese (foldover, rollup)

Equipment and utensils

• Waffle cone maker
• Mixer (I used an electric hand mixer.)
• Measuring cups
• Measuring spoons
• Rubber spatula(s)
• Plastic spatula
• Mixing bowls
• Cooling rack
• Cone shaper (for reference only, in case you decide to make sweet waffle cones)

Ingredients

I created the following table that shows ingredients and amounts for two model waffle cone recipes, and the would-have-been unsweetened cone recipe.

Note: Recipe #1 sweet refers to Orange Cinnamon Waffle Cones. Recipe #2 sweetrefers to Simply Vanilla Wafer Cones.

Ingredient	#1 sweet	#2 sweet	Tortilla
1 whole egg + 1 egg white	✔	—	—
2 eggs	—	✔	✔
1/4 t salt	✔	✔	✔
1/2 C granulated sugar	✔	—	—
2/3 C granulated sugar	—	✔	—
1 t ground cinnamon	✔	✔	—
2/3 C sifted all-purpose flour	✔	—	—
1 C cake flour (can sub with 1 C flour -2 T flour +2 T cornstarch)	—	✔	—
2/3 C cake flour (subbed with 2/3 C all-purpose flour -4/3 t flour +4/3 t cornstarch)	—	—	✔
2 T butter, melted and cooled slightly	✔	—	—
2 T vegetable oil	—	✔	✔
1 t orange extract	✔	—	—
1 t vanilla extract	—	✔	—
1/3 C water (Add more if needed.)	✔	✔	✔

Recommended: Spray oil application about every other tortilla or so.

 Eggs and mixing

Beat the eggs. If you want to make cone waffles, this is the stage where you mix in sugar after beating the eggs, then also add extract(s).

 Flour (replacement for cake flour)

Choose the flour type and amount. I used the 2/3 C cake flour replacement.

 Oil and water, and mixing them into the flour and eggs

Blend the flour, cake flour, or cake flour substitutions into the beaten eggs.

Batter baking process

Prepare the iron as instructed with your appliance. Because I've used mine a few times, I've only wiped the cooking surfaces with a clean, warm, damp kitchen rag for cleaning preparation, sprayed the cooking surfaces, and plugged the cord. Heating time is a minute or so.

For each disk, pour about 2 T batter, close the lid, and heat for about 60 seconds.

Note: The lid tended to not stay locked, so I held down the lid, using an oven pad for each hand. (Warning: The lid gets hot.)

Move the cooked disk onto the cooling rack. Continue the batter dispensing and baking process until you use up the batter.

Baked tortilla, microwaving with cheese (foldover, rollup)

If desired, as depicted on pixstrip, place filling on disk, microwave (about a minute, depending on filling, microwave power, and your preference), and fold over or roll up. Repeat for as many tacos or wraps as you want.

In case you want to use store-bought tortillas for fast preparation, try my convenient spinach-cheese taco recipe.