It's Time To Ditch Your Toaster For The Perfect Store-Bought Frozen Waffles

Toaster waffles are a quick option when you need breakfast in a hurry. The results when those little frozen discs pop up, however, definitely aren't the same as freshly made waffles hot from the iron. But if you want your frozen waffles to taste more like homemade, skip the toaster and grab your skillet. 

This hack is a tried-and-true method for upgrading your frozen waffles into the best you've ever had. Although toaster prep is the manufacturers' recommended heating method for readymade waffles, stovetop cooking yields excellent results, serving up a crisp exterior and a hot, soft interior. Toasting, on the other hand, can leave your waffles with an undesirable texture — sometimes overly hard or with parts that are half crispy and half soggy. At best, a toaster gives you an adequate result. So why settle for that when there's a better option that's just as quick?

To achieve elevated stovetop waffles, simply spread butter on both sides of your frozen rounds and slip them into a hot pan. Give them time to turn golden and reach the crunch level you want, then flip and repeat. Make sure you cook them straight from the freezer, and don't let them sit out and begin to thaw. Thawing the product can impact the final texture no matter what cooking method you use, and you're more likely to end up with some mushiness.

While stovetop cooking is the best way to produce a more delicious waffle, another outside-the-toaster method can enhance your results as well: cooking frozen waffles in an air fryer. While a toaster simply heats, dries, and toasts its contents, an air fryer is essentially a convection oven, actually cooking foods rather than just heating them. Circulating hot air from all directions, air fryers achieve even cooking, evaporate moisture from foods, and also stimulate the Maillard reaction, which enhances color and flavor. Rather than delivering a waffle that is simply heated and browned, air fryers produce a final product that is cooked, which is closer to waffle iron-type results.

Like the skillet, an air fryer helps eliminate sogginess and delivers crispy-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside goodness — though this method can also over-crisp your waffles if you're not careful. Another advantage of both the air fryer and the stovetop is you can prepare more waffles at once, rather than being limited to two at a time as you are with most toasters.

While frozen waffles can be cooked in a conventional oven as well, the time-draining need to preheat the appliance kind of nullifies the convenience factor that had you reaching for a toaster waffle in the first place. For our money, stovetop and air fryer are the ways to go, making sure you leave some grace for trial and error as you figure out the ideal cook times and temperatures to get the waffle results you want.