My favorite new kitchen toy plus waffle recipe

I can confidently declare the Waffle Maker is my favorite new kitchen toy of the year. Ever since we got it as part of the cooking workshop we attended at a kitchen studio a few months ago, we have been using it quite regularly, mostly for breakfast but I also found it useful for a quick lunch sandwich too (so far my favorite was pulled pork sandwich)

Making waffles is quick, simple, fail-safe and only required basic ingredients that we usually have in stock. And the machine is easy to use and clean (it's a Cuisinart, in case you wanna know). It's the first waffle machine I ever owned so don't know how that compared to other competitor products but so far I am happy with mine. I love making waffles so much that I jotted down the recipe on a post-it note and stuck it at the refrigerator door to keep it handy. What I usually do is to prepare the smallest batch of batter possible (with one egg) and make as many waffles as I can with that portion, then just saved the extra waffles in the fridge. To reheat, just pop the frozen waffles in the oven (190C, 10 minutes) Of course, waffles taste best when it's fresh and hot, but I was in no mood to waste any leftover batter just because of that.

So here's just the replica of that post-it note I had on the refrigerator. This is hardly an original recipe, nor something I can brag about as being the best of the best (which very likely isn't). I probably just copied it from the instruction manual or something with slight modifications and changed the portion size. And I am posting here more for my own benefits - just in case I lost my note.

Recipe: Very Basic Waffle Batter (serves 3-4)

Ingredients:
1 large egg
1 cup of general purpose flour
0.75 cup of whole milk
0.5 tablespoon of baking powder
1 tablespoon of sugar
0.25 cup butter, melted (approx half a stick)
Dash of vanilla extract (optional)
Pinch of salt

Steps:
1. Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix with a whisk just until everything's combined and no major lumps in the batter. There's no need to over-mix.
2. Pre-heat your waffle maker according to the manufacturer's instruction. For mine, I set it to browning level 5 and wait until the green light is on, indicating it's ready.
3. Ladle the batter into the waffle maker and close. I turned down the browning setting a notch so it won't over-burn.
4. Cook until golden brown - for mine it took around 3 minutes. Remove and serve immediately, or keep warm.

Some recipes called for cooking spray or brushing oil on the waffle maker before the batter was spooned in, but with the amount of butter I used in the batter, I never felt the need to, and so far the waffles never stuck on the machine.