The waffle iron gives the nian gao lots of nice crispy edges, while the center stays soft and chewy. I loved biting into the waffle and tasting the contrasting textures at once. If you’ve ever had mochi waffles before, eating these nian gao waffles will be a similar experience. These waffles are very easy to make and they’re great for a weekend brunch. I made a batch at my mom’s house during Lunar New Year and my family loved them! I hope you do, too!
ARE THESE NIAN GAO WAFFLES DIFFERENT FROM MOCHI WAFFLES?
In terms of texture, these nian gao waffles are similar to mochi waffles. If I were to serve the waffles to someone who’s not familiar with nian gao, I’d call them mochi waffles because people are more familiar with the texture of mochi. The slight difference between nian gao and mochi is the type of flour that’s used to make each style of cake. Nian gao tends to be made from glutinous rice flour (typically from Thailand) that comes from long-grain glutinous rice. Mochi is usually made from sweet rice flour (mochiko) that comes from short-grain sweet rice. Mochiko tends to be a coarser grind than Thai-style glutinous rice flour. If you use either type of flour to make waffles, they will yield waffles with a chewy texture. (NOTE: Glutinous rice flour or sweet rice flour is not the same as rice flour.)
COOKING NOTES FOR NIAN GAO WAFFLES
WAFFLE BATTER
For these nian gao waffles, I used half of the batter from my baked nian gao recipe, as it contains eggs and baking powder. The egg and baking powder in the batter will give the nian gao waffles a fluffy texture. If you made waffles from my mom’s original nian gao recipe, the waffles will be more dense, as it doesn’t contain any eggs or leaveners.
WHY PAR-COOK THE BATTER?
When I first tested this recipe, I poured the batter into a heated waffle iron. I quickly discovered that I could only pour in a thin layer of batter before flooding the bottom plate of the waffle iron. As a result, the waffles that I cooked were very thin (see photo above). That’s when I decided to par cook the waffle batter in the microwave until the runny batter turned into a mochi-like consistency. That way, I could scoop up a larger quantity of dough and cook thicker waffles (see photo above). To par-cook the batter, heat the batter in the microwave batter at 1-minute intervals, stirring in between. Keep doing this until you get a solid batter. Keep in mind that the cooking times will vary depending on the wattage of your microwave and the type of vessel/bowl you use to microwave the batter. For instance, when I tried cooking the waffles at Mama Lin’s house, I found that her microwave had a lower wattage than mine. As a result, the batter took a little longer to cook. When I tested the recipe at my house, I found that microwaving the batter in a thicker glass bowl took longer than it did in my thinner Corelle bowl. Therefore, use the cooking times I provide in the recipe as guidelines, and pay attention to the visual cues.
WAFFLE IRONS
I tested the recipe using my Cuisinart Belgian waffle maker (affiliate link), which cooks 4 small waffles at a time (each waffle is about 4 inches in diameter). We all own different waffle irons, so the cooking times will vary. When I made the waffles at my mom’s house, I found that her waffle iron heats a lot faster than mine and I had to reduce the cooking time. Again, use the timings in the recipe as a guide and pay attention to how the waffles look when you cook them.
CAN YOU PREPARE THE WAFFLES AHEAD?
These nian gao waffles retain their crunch for several hours after they’re made. I tried reheating them in the oven the next day and they just didn’t have the same crunchy texture. They may reheat better in a toaster, but I don’t have one (shocking, I know).
CAN I USE PRE-COOKED NIAN GAO TO MAKE THE WAFFLES?
If you have any leftover steamed nian gao, you can cut it up into small rectangles or squares (no more than 1/2-inch thick) and heat them in a greased waffle iron for several minutes until they brown. Make sure the nian gao is cold before you cut it up (i.e., don’t use a freshly steamed cake). The texture will be slightly different than the waffles in this recipe.
