Take your breakfast up a notch with this recipe for Gluten Free Chocolate Waffles and Strawberry Sauce! This recipe is gluten free, dairy free, egg free, nut free, vegan, and can also be made sugar free as well. The strawberry sauce is paleo, too!
Hey friends, we’re back with another allergy friendly breakfast recipe created just for you: top 8 free chocolate waffles with homemade strawberry sauce!
Our gluten free chocolate waffles are based off of our regular gluten free waffle recipe that we posted recently and these are also dairy free, egg free, vegan, tree nut free, peanut free, and can easily be made sugar free as well.
These chocolate waffles aren’t overly sweet, so you can add any sweet-ish toppings you like and it won’t be overwhelmingly sugary.
I had initially wanted to get this recipe up in time for Valentine’s Day, but we got busy, traveled to Utah, and went hiking, so this post is late by my calendar. But allergy friendly chocolate waffles are perfect for any time of the year, so I guess there’s no such thing as late for posting these 😉
Onward to the recipe steps!
How to make gluten free chocolate waffles
Here are the steps to make our gluten free and dairy free chocolate waffles. This recipe makes 3 large Belgian style waffles, which have about 1-2 servings for each waffle depending on how hungry you are 😉 So there’s about 3-6 servings in this batch.
The full printable recipe card is at the end of the blog post!
- Preheat your non-stick waffle iron (we linked to the one we use).
- In a large bowl, whisk together the gluten free flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. You can swap the sugar for a granulated sweetener if you like.
- Add xanthan gum if you are using a gluten free flour mix that doesn’t include xanthan gum.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the dairy free milk, oil, and vinegar (the vinegar and baking soda react together to add air and lift to the batter).
- Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk together until mixed well. and you have a thick batter.
- Scoop the batter into your hot waffle iron according to the amount that your waffle iron will hold. We pour 1 measuring cup of batter into our Belgian waffle maker. Spread the batter a bit if needed.
- Cook in the waffle iron for 4 to 4-1/2 minutes. Once it’s done cooking, the steam will reduce or stop when it’s ready.
- Top with your favorite dairy free butter and toppings.
Our photo below is of our regular waffle batter, but the chocolate batter is just as thick. This will give you an idea of how thick the waffle batter will be for our chocolate waffles.
Please note that every waffle recipe will have a different thickness of batter depending on the type of recipe it is. Our waffle batter should be fairly thick, so don’t worry if the batter looks thicker or thinner than other waffle recipes you may have tried.
With the chocolate waffles, you won’t notice as much of the browning on the cooked waffle, so just set your timer for the waffles and remove them when the timer is done so they don’t burn or overcook.
How to make the homemade strawberry sauce
Our homemade strawberry sauce is easy to make and is made with strawberries and natural sweeteners. It’s paleo and can be made without added sugars as well!
Here’s how to make the strawberry sauce (these steps are also included in the printable recipe card at the end of the post):
- Measure your 4 cups of strawberries after you have hulled and quartered them.
- Place the quartered strawberries and the maple syrup into a medium sized heavy bottom sauce pan and cook over medium heat.
- Once the strawberries and syrup start to boil, reduce the heat to medium/low heat and simmer until the strawberries begin to soften and break down (about 7-10 minutes). Stir occasionally.
- Stir in the lemon zest and lemon juice if using.
- If you want a chunky sauce, mash the strawberries with a potato masher until it reaches the texture you’d like.
- If you want a smoother sauce, use an immersion blender to puree the sauce. Place your immersion blender directly into the sauce and blend it all until it is smooth. Be careful of splashes from hot strawberries!
- Serve over the chocolate waffles, ice cream, or whatever you like.
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3-4 days.
If you don’t have good strawberries to make strawberry sauce for these waffles, you can skip it and just use dairy free butter and pure maple syrup. That tastes amazing too!
The lemon zest in this strawberry sauce is purely optional, but I love the flavor dimension it adds to the sauce.
If your strawberries are pretty sweet, add a little fresh lemon juice to your sauce to add some tartness to balance the sweet flavors. Add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice at a time until you reach your desired balance of sweet and tart.
A note about the flour we used
We used the King Arthur gluten free all purpose flour in this recipe. Their gluten free all purpose flour isn’t the same as their gluten free all purpose baking mix.
The King Arthur gluten free all purpose baking mix has xanthan gum and salt added, but their gluten free all purpose flour does not have those things added.
Check your gluten free flour, if it has xanthan gum in it already, you won’t need to add any to this recipe.
Every brand of gluten free flour absorbs water a bit differently, so you may need to adjust the amount of water in this recipe if you use a different brand. The batter is quite thick with the flour we used, but it cooks up best that way. If it is too thin, it will try to stick to the waffle iron.
Check out our other gluten free, dairy free, and egg free breakfast recipes!
- Gluten Free Waffles
- Gluten Free Buttermilk Pancakes
- Gluten Cranberry Orange Scones
- Gluten Free Coffee Cake with Pears
- Gluten Free Baked Oatmeal
- Instant Pot Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal
Gluten Free Chocolate Waffles with Strawberry Sauce (Dairy Free)
Ingredients
Chocolate Waffles:
- 1-3/4 cup gluten free all purpose flour (I used King Arthur gluten free all purpose flour)
- ⅓ cup unbleached cane sugar
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt (reduce if your all purpose flour has salt added)
- ½ teaspoon xanthan gum (skip this if your gluten free flour already has xanthan gum in it)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1-3/4 cup dairy free milk
- ¼ cup light tasting olive oil
- 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Liquid stevia to taste (we used about 1/2 – 1 teaspoon in our waffles)
Strawberry Sauce:
- 4 cups quartered strawberries
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
- Lemon zest from 1 lemon
- Optional: lemon juice*
Instructions
Chocolate Waffles
- Preheat your non-stick waffle iron.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the gluten free all purpose flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and xanthan gum.
- In a separate small bowl, whisk together the dairy free milk, oil, vinegar, vanilla, and Stevia drops.
- Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk until combined and it makes a thick batter.
- Pour batter into your preheated waffle iron according to the size of your waffle iron. Ours is a Belgian waffle maker, so we poured batter into the iron using a 1 cup measure as a batter scoop. If you have a smaller iron, use a smaller scoop.
- Bake for 4 to 4-1/2 minutes. Ours cooks in our Belgian waffle iron for 4-1/2 minutes, but if you have a smaller iron, it might only take 3-4 minutes. You'll know when your waffles are close to being done when there is very little steam escaping the edges of the waffle iron.
- Top with the Strawberry Sauce, dairy free butter, maple syrup, powdered sugar, whipped cream, or whatever you like!
Strawberry Sauce
- Place the cut strawberries and the maple syrup into a heavy bottom sauce pan and cook over medium heat.
- Once the strawberries and syrup start to boil, reduce the heat to medium/low heat and simmer until the strawberries begin to soften and break down (about 7-10 minutes).
- Stir in the lemon zest and lemon juice if using.
- If you want a chunky sauce, mash the strawberries with a potato masher until it reaches the texture you'd like. If you want a smoother sauce, use an immersion blender to puree the sauce.
- Serve over the chocolate waffles, ice cream, or whatever you like.
Notes
Nutrition
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie. She’s a food allergy mom and healthy living blogger based in Wyoming. Sarah is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Certified Health Coach, Revolution Running certified running coach, and an ACE Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist