Pizza Waffles: A Kid Favorite
Seventeen years ago (!), some kind soul gave us a waffle iron as a wedding present. Over the years, I’ve made waffles on occasion, but since pancakes are soooo much easier, there’s really only one reason I don’t Kondo the big, heavy iron altogether —
PIZZA WAFFLES.
Pizza waffles are one of my kids’ favorite meals, and one of my favorite things to make for them because I almost always have all the ingredients I need on hand. If you have a waffle iron and you’re not making some variation of this recipe, you’re missing out!
One important note before we get started — I do NOT preheat my waffle iron before I start making these waffles. I don’t turn it on or even plug it in until the iron is closed with the pizza waffles inside. Also be sure to spray your waffle iron with non-stick spray before you get started, because you definitely don’t want these waffles to stick to the iron.
Start with a roll of crescent roll dough (two rolls if you’re making these for four people). If you can find the seamless roll dough sheets, fantastic — You’ll just cut the roll into four rectangles and stretch two of those rectangles to fit across your waffle iron as pictured above. My grocery has stopped carrying the seamless rolls and I’m wondering if Pillsbury is discontinuing them, which UGH, but no matter — Just pinch two triangles of the dough together as I have here and stretch them across your iron.
The dough tears easily and when I’m in a hurry with this part, I have a terrible time getting the dough to fit. Take your time and slowly stretch it out — It will fit eventually! I find it stretches more easily when I’ve let the dough sit out at room temperature for a few minutes.
Next, spread tomato sauce  across your waffle sheets. I use anything I have on hand, whether it’s straight tomato sauce, pizza sauce, or pasta sauce — This recipe is a great way to use up leftover sauce in your refrigerator. You’ll want to be somewhat sparing with the sauce so that it doesn’t squirt out the sides and make a big mess when you close the iron — Also try to leave a little space around the edges of your dough so that the two pieces can seal together along the sides without sauce between them when you add your top dough layer.
If you’re feeling extra ambitious, try adding pureed vegetables to your tomato sauce! When my kids were younger, I did this all the time to sneak vegetables into their meals. Pureed vegetables are almost impossible to detect in tomato sauce. *Mwah ha ha ha ha*
Next up, spread some cheese. In this case, I’ve used shredded mozzarella, but I generally use whatever I have on hand, whether it’s shredded or sliced. My kids don’t even notice!
Top it all off with your kids’ preferred meat. I often use pepperoni or crumbled hamburger or sausage — again, whatever I have on hand. Today, it’s salami.
If it were summertime, I’d add a sprinkling of oregano and basil from the garden at this point. Since it’s the dead of winter, I’m sadly skipping that step.
Now, add those two remaining dough sheets to the top. Make sure you’ve stretched them enough to seal with the bottom layer of dough on the sides when you close the iron. Your waffles should take several minutes to cook — Exact time will depend on your particular waffle iron. Feel free to check on them after several minutes — I do!
Your pizza waffles are ready when they’re a deep golden brown. Unplug your iron and use a spatula to carefully pry them away from the iron — If you’ve used non-stick spray, they should lift away very easily.
You did it! Add a small bowl of pizza sauce for dipping and you’re good to go. If you’re making these waffles for 4 people, just repeat the process above and each person will have two waffles, which is plenty of food.
Your options with this recipe are pretty much limitless — The kids want me to spread Nutella in the crescent rolls and make them for breakfast. I’m also eager to try these with ham, cheese, and honey mustard inside. If you come up with a great variation, let me know about it in the comments!
| Prep Time | 10 minutes |
| Cook Time | 7 minutes |
| Servings |
pizza waffles
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- 1 package crescent roll dough
- 1 cup pizza sauce
- 1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
- 16 slices Pepperoni
- 1 Tablespoon fresh chopped basil
- 1 Tablespoon fresh chopped oregano
- 1 cup pizza sauce for dipping waffles
Ingredients
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- Coat waffle iron with non-stick spray. Do not preheat or turn on until pizza waffles are ready to be cooked.
- Pinch two triangles of dough together into one long rectangle. Stretch to fit across two bottom waffle squares on iron. Repeat process for two top squares of waffle iron. Reserve remaining four triangles of dough for the top of the pizza waffles.
- Spread pizza sauce evenly across bottom layer of dough. Leave room around the edges so that tomato sauce doesn't seep out when the iron is closed.
- Spread shredded cheese evenly over the pizza sauce.
- Place pepperoni slices evenly over the shredded cheese.
- Sprinkle basil and oregano evenly over the pepperoni.
- Top with remaining two rectangles of dough.
- Turn on your waffle iron and cook waffles until they are a deep golden brown. Carefully remove with a spatula and cut into triangles.
- Serve with small bowl of pizza sauce for dipping.
Sounds great. Have you ever used the Pillsbury refrigerated pizza dough? (I’m guessing it is not as soft and puffy as the crescent roll dough, so might not be as tasty.) The reason I ask is because I have a pizza maker whose inner four sections are hearts instead of squares, so the entire surface is more round and I thought the kind designated “pizza” dough might be easier to stretch over it.
A homemade pizza combination our family loved when I was a child [made on flattened canned biscuit dough, so you know that was a long time ago] was cooked “breakfast sausage” crumbles (rather than Italian sausage), diced onion, well-drained canned pineapple tidbits. and shredded cheddar cheese — and, like your recipe, any tomato-based sauce [at the time, ours was canned tomato sauce + Italian herbs], but not as much sauce as one would probably use with pepperoni. We’d have them for supper, but now that “what can be for breakfast” is more flexible, I’d think they would be good for breakfast. Also, there are cooked, bagged, refrigerated sausage crumbles sold in groceries [Jimmy Dean, I think?] that have usually been B1G1free at least once a year. I always buy 2 and put them in the freezer for when I just need a little bit of crumbled sausage, like for something like this.