Can You Use Wholemeal Flour For Waffles?

Our answer

Nigella's recipe for Waffles (from AT MY TABLE) gives waffles that are golden and crisp on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside. The recipe uses plain (all-purpose) flour.

Unfortunately we don't think that wholemeal (whole wheat) flour can be swapped in directly for the plain flour in this particular recipe. Wholemeal flour is made from wheat grains that still have their outer skins (bran), which gives a darker-coloured flour. However, the inclusion of bran in the mixture means that wholemeal flour tends to need more liquid and also gives heavier baked goods. So if using wholemeal flour you would need to change the amount of liquid and baking powder used, otherwise the waffles will be heavy in the centre. In addition, it should be noted that US whole wheat flour tends to be quite high in gluten (it is similar in gluten content to British wholemeal bread flour), which means the waffles will be tougher and more chewy. You could experiment with a mixture of half wholemeal and half plain flour, but the waffles may still be slightly on the heavy side.