The replacement waffle maker

Cuisinart makes a handy, and quite serviceable, electric waffle-maker. While it isn't perfect, it's certainly adequate to our needs. This waffle-maker makes one round waffle at a time--no fancy shapes, and no dual waffle action. ("Dual waffle action"--doesn't that sound like the sort of phrase you'd hear on a late-night infomercial?)


The Handy Guide to Features

Browning: Like many waffle-makers, the Cuisinart Classic Waffle Maker WMR-C has an adjustment knob so you can determine how brown you want your waffles. The settings go from 1-5, and we found that this encompasses everything from a very light golden brown to a nice deep brown. We had no trouble experimenting to find the perfect setting for our waffles.

Lights: The waffle-maker has a pair of indicator lights: red to indicate that the waffle-maker is heating up, and green to indicate that the waffle is ready to eat. There's no alarm sound to go with the lights, which, on the plus side, means no heart attacks (most alarm sounds are too loud, reminiscent of a truck backing up!), but on the minus side means that you need to stay right next to the waffle-maker at all times while you're making waffles. No running off to put out the syrup or the silverware.

Weighted Lid: In theory, the weight of the lid helps to press out the batter to fill out the waffle-maker, thus giving you a nice, round, evenly-baked waffle. In practice, it sort of presses out the batter, usually giving you a weirdly-shaped (yet thankfully evenly-baked) waffle. So, you should probably pour the waffle batter relatively evenly out over the waffle grid, even though the manual says to just pour it in the middle.

Non-Stick Surface: This is the most amazingly non-stick surface I've ever seen on an appliance like this! Hardly a crumb of waffle sticks to the surface when you're done (and yes, I'm talking about the kinds of waffles that have sticky things in them, like marmalade or blueberries).


The manual is extremely short and simple--the instructions are not complex in the least. You plug in your waffle-maker, wait for it to heat up, pour some batter in, close, and wait for it to finish baking your waffle. That's really pretty much it. There is no on/off switch, by the way--you just plug in the waffle-maker to turn it on, and unplug it to turn it off.

Thus, the manual also includes a few "tips to make perfect waffles"--nothing earth-shattering here, but it's fairly useful stuff. It also includes a small handful of basic recipes. There's a brief section on cleaning and maintenance (mostly cleaning amounts to brushing stuff off after the waffle-maker cools), a paragraph on storage (the waffle-maker can store on end so that it doesn't take up much room), and information on taking advantage of your three-year limited warranty.


The waffles made by this waffle-maker aren't large, so it takes a little while to bake a raft of waffles for the family. But it's perfect for small recipes meant for just a couple of people.