Photo credit: freepik
Getting tired of the usual waffle recipes and toppings? Wondering what are some creative ways to servy up waffles to your guests?
Here is a roundup of different waffle toppings and flavour sensations that I have seen in my travels around four continents and the internet that are not necessarily representative of the country they were created in.
Let’s start with a quick review of some common favourite toppings and delicious topping combinations that you might have forgotten or haven’t seen before.
- sliced bananas or strawberries other fruit with drizzled chocolate, caramel sauce and/or maple syrup. A dollop of ice cream and sprinkles or whipped cream turns this into a special birthday treat.
- strawberry jam or honey instead of syrup topped with yogurt and granola crumbles and shredded coconut
- oreo cookies and whipped cream and /or vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup
- peanut butter or almond butter and bananas and caramel or chocolate or chopped nuts
- butter waffles with sliced apples and slices of sharp cheddar cheese and chopped,toasted nuts
- ham and swiss cheese or cheddar cheese melted on top of savory waffles, or waffles used instead of bread for a sandwich
- salted caramel sauce (go to eh 3:53 min mark) with salted chopped peanuts
- cinnamon, raisin, brown sugar and butter spread on top of hot waffles
- buttered waffles topped with dark brown sugar and a generous squeeze of lemon to ‘melt¡ the sugar
- sweetened lemon cream cheese or sweet lemon sauce with grated lemon peel and a few blueberries or raspberries and a drizzle of honey
- cream cheese topped with mango chutney or jalapeno jelly
- maple cream cheese
- savory or plain thin waffle topped with garlic and herb cream cheese
- savory or plain thin waffles topped with hummus and tzaziki yogurt with chopped thinly sliced cucumbers or fresh parsley or cilantro
- plain or savory waffles topped with feta cheese, chorizo or avocado, a poached egg and a handful of microgreens (cilantro or coriander or sweet corn or spicy radish or arugula microgreens – any micerogreen except mustard would likely work, really)
- spicy flavoured versions of traditional favourite sauces and syrups, such as spicy honey, chocolate infused with chili, or spicy maple syrup
- squash waffles – sweet squash puree (sweet pumpkin or butternut squash) or beet puree or fruit purees like strawberry added to waffle batter and topped with candied bacon. Adds colour and flavour to the waffle base and a surprise for your taste buds
- dark chocolate or milk chocolate waffles, or normal waffles baked with chcocolate chips in them, topped with peanut butter, cashew butter, almond butter or a nutbutter substitute like ‘pea butter’, topped with maple syrup and whipped cream or ice cream
- waffles topped with whipped cream or ice cream and cookie crumbles, drizzled with chocolate sauce or berry syrup
- Apple butter or another fruit butter (e.g. plum butter, pear butter) instead of syrup
- Sweet Nutmeg and vanilla white sauce (Grandma’s nutmeg waffle sauce, similar to Mennonite waffle sauce)
- pina colado inspired waffles, with pineapple puree, coconut cream syrup, whipped cream and sweetened shredded coconut
- butter icing of any type, piped into flowers like the photo below
Now let me share some innovative creations thought up by different chefs and cafe owners around the world. They may not be unique to the country I mention, and some are more universal now (e.g. waffles on a stick are claimed to have been ‘invented’ in Thailand, Korean, and Toronto Canada).
Since I am Canadian, let me start by telling you about Canadian waffle toppings and traditions. Breakfast is a big meal in Canada, considered by many farmers be the most important meal of the day. It is usually big, and big brunches on the weekend are common.
Bacon Cheddar Waffles topped with grated cheddar and bacon bits and sour cream with chives -The Canadian classic topping is butter with real maple syrup if you can find it. Sometimes people put slices of crsipy bacon and a fried egg right on top of the buttered waffle and pour a generous amount of maple syrup over it all. Bacon and maple syrup is quite common, actually.
Note: Canadians are crazy about bacon, and it’s very common to see waffles served with a side of bacon, with a lot of maple syrup on them, or cooked bacon slices stacked right on top of a buttered waffle, with a fried egg, and a liberal topping of maple syrup as the final touch.
They also love sausages. Below is a photo of spicy maple syrup generously poured over a stack of waffles and sausages with bacon in the background. Incidentally, spicy maple syrup made the list for trendy things to watch for in 2025.
Photo credit: Spicy Maple Syrup video by the Kitchen Divas channel onYouTube.com.
Carrot Cake waffles with maple cream cheese syrup-Here is a rather unique flavour I have seen in Canada, topped with maple cream cheese, raisins, cinnamon and sugar. Traditional carrot cake has nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cinnamon and brown sugar in the mix, and features grated carrots, walnuts and raisins. The recipe linked above substitutes shredded coconut for raisins and omits the nuts, but I would add them in.
Apple Pie waffles – cinnamon waffles topped with apple pie filling and sliced apples and cinnamon sugar. Sometimes the apples are thinly chopped and cooked inside the waffle batter along with cinnamon and a few raisins.
Chocolate zucchini waffles – a common Canadian dessert is zucchini cake and chocolate zucchini cake
The photo below is from a short video that shows a variation on this theme, using a puff pastry sheet cut into circles and cooked in a waffle iron instead of batter or dough. They put one circle on the bottom of the waffle maker, added apple pie filling with a salted caramel flavour twist, added another circle on top and closed the waffle iron lid to ‘seal’ the ‘pie’, and then they topped it with cinnamon whipped cream.
Photo credit: apple pie waffle made with puff pastry and salted caramel apple pie filling
Butter pecan waffles – topped with a butter pecan topping with a sweet caramel sauce and whipped cream, with a few strawberries. A Canadian twist is the Butter Tart version,
My personal favourite is not a Canadian classic, but I highly recommend it. On top of your favourite type of waffle, add a topping of frozen berries that have been made into a syrup, especially saskatoon berry syrup, which people outside of the Canadian prairies have usually never heard of, but which are absolutely the best berry in the world, in my humble opinion. I like to top this with Greek style coconut yogurt, a sprinkling of sweetened coconut, and layered on ribbons of maple syrup or liquid honey over top and a few chopped fresh mint leaves for colour and a refreshing contrast to the sweetness and creamy yogurt..
Here is a Norwegian style waffle, made with a Norwegian style waffle maker, and served as a coffee time snack rather than as breakfast. The toppings are brown whey cheese called Brunost, strawberry jam and butter.
Photo credit: screenshot from Norway with Pal https://youtu.be/vVqkItkMqRk?si=k9hrb0rbCake-Uf
This simple waffle is made of grated potatoes, and chopped green onion (shown below), topped with sour cream, bits of smoked salmon, slices of cucumber and garnished with fresh dill. It was created by two Danish women but is not specific to Denmark.
Photo credit: Let’s Make Potato Waffles
In Mexico, it’s common to top waffles and pancakes with sliced bananas, slather it with nutella and dot the top with whipped cream.
Photo credit: Marianne Graff. Son Daniel oogling a waffle treat in a special waffle restaurant. This waffle is a belgium waffle with chocolate and nutella and whipped cream.
Another common Mexican topping is a layer of sliced banana topped with thick ribbons of sweetened condensed milk instead of butter or syrup or nutella.
In Argentina, Dulce de Leche is by far the most popular filling and topping for everything, more popular than chocolate is in North America. It’s easy to make too: heat a can of sweetened evaporated milk in a double boiler with water until it turns the caramel colour and taste you like.
In Thailand there is a sweet waffle made with palm sugar, coconut and pineapple that is served without extra sauces that is delicious.
Koreans have taken waffles to the next level. The croiffles are croissants cooked in a waffle iron instead of an oven, and can be topped with everything you can imagine a croissant can be topped with (sweet jams and butter or donut type toppings to savoury sandwich fillings).
Here are 12 kinds of Korean street waffles The Bacon corn and cheese topping is folded into the middle so it is less message to eat (you eat it like a sandwich or a taco) as you walk along.
This one is unique, using a belgium style waffle maker, with unusual toppings. This one below has been spread with whipped cream, then drizzled with sweetened condensed milk, which is topped with a generous sprinkling of brown bean flour (which looks like light brown sugar),sliced almonds, and more sweetened condensed milk, before it’s folded over into a taco shape.
Photo credit: Top 12! Yummy Waffle Making Compilation- Korean Street Food.
In Hong Kong I used to be hit with the smell of bubble waffles, also called egg waffles, as I walked with my son through the malls and markets. The waffles smell very similar to traditional waffles but the flavours are very different : green tea, charcoal cheese, purple potato, custard, coffee caramel. They are cooked in the shape of bubbles in a honeycomb sheet,and are then cooled in a cone shape so they can be filled with ice cream, or whipped marshmallow cream, then topped with cereals or candies and chocolate sauce or other sauces. . The ice cream flavours that were popular when I was there were green matcha, and other tea flavoured ice cream such as lavender honey and earl grey flavoured ice cream. They had all the other flavours of ice cream under the sun too.
Photo credit: screenshot from Hong Kong Style egg Waffles of how to make bubble waffles with various fillings and toppings (this one has whipped marshmallow filling piped inside and is topped with candies)
Waffles on a stick – I have seen hot dogs with a waffle wrapped around them, served on a stick like a corn dog in Thailand, Mexico, Canada and the US.
The Waffle Up company in Korea has even created a special serving container that is like half of a cardboard box that fits their square waffles perfectly, with a hole for the stick of their crsipy, chocolate dipped and fancy fruit topped waffles.
photo credit: Ashol Waffle Up Chinum by Waffle Up. Man eating a chocolate dipped waffle on a stick in a special cardboard container that has a hole for the stic
Indian waffle – In India, there are a variatey of waffles called called ‘rava’ waffles. These are savory waffles made with semolina or lentil flours,with finely chopped or grated vegetables and spices in the batter, and served with some sort of chutney sauce on the side. This short shows how to make a simple and healthy waffle made with yogurt, semolina flour, diced purple onion, finely chopped green pepper, finely shredded carrot, minced coriander leaves, and it’s served with and a creamy green chutney dip (which unfortunately they did not list the recipe for).
In a variation on this vegetable infused waffle idea, this Indian Rava waffle (captions in English for the recipe segments) as described by an Indian chef is made of moong (lentil) flour, corn niblets, diced tomato, diced purple onion, coriander leaves and curry leaves and other indian spices served with a coconut chutney sauce (recipe demonstrated).
In France, “potato waffles” are a regional specialty of the Nord region. They are made with grated potato, flour and eggs, and are often served with cheese An updated version of this is featured in a video by two Danish cooks, with a batter that is very similar to hasbrowns cooked in a waffle iron, as shown below and in this short video . They use a Norwegian waffle iron, which makes thin, heart shaped waffles. Yum!
Amsterdam stroopwaffle stores such as the one in the photo below sell a multitude of thin stroopwafles that are like cookied with a thick, dark buttery caramel-like filling (traditionally made of molasses), topped with a wide range of sweet candy, cookies, and donut like toppings.
.Photo credit: Best Waffles in Amsterdam https://youtu.be/yCmmOti3cSM?si=rURiorzfCNyD4tnD
USA -The Crepe House NYC got very innovatve and created ‘waffle fries‘ (below) which are waffles cooked into long strips, served with a choice of five dips. The photo below shows is from a video that includes waffle fries served with nutella sauce, pistachio butter sauce, cinnamon butter sauce, white chocolate sauce and milk chocolate sauce.
Photo credit: screen shot from the Crepe House NYC short showing how they make waffle fries.
There are loads of videos by people using a ‘stuffler’ waffle making machine, showing how to make pizza, hamburgers and taco stuffings for waffles, but I think that is pretty easy to imagine.
The cheesy Korean ‘pizza’ waffles shown below in their custom sized boxes with the pizza toppings baked on top of a savory waffle base that is crispy on the outside and soft inside look more visually appealing, in my opinion.
Photo credit: Combination Pizza Waffles -Korean Street Food
I think the current craze to put fried chicken on waffles, and top it all with maple syrup, has to be one of the strangest of the waffle innovations I have come across.
Photo credit: A History of Waffles by The History Guy
Fusion Waffles
photo credit:https://www.theforestcantina.com/chorizoandfetawaffles
Pictured above is a savory waffle made with add ins of chorizo sausage and feta cheese, topped with poached eggs and microgreens. Microgreens are a wonderful addition to savoury waffles, with their fresh and juicy crunch, and they don’t wilt or go soggy quickly like chopped herbs, plus they offer a powerhouse of nutrition to boot.
Have a great idea for a waffle variation that you don’t see here? Drop me a line and let me know!