Honestly Steve,
I really dislike competition cooking, not because of the pressure or anything like that... It's just that I tend to take it too seriously and it takes all the fun out of it...
(I tend to diagree with judges quite a bit...)
I do love cooking and feeding people and that's big fun...
OK...
If I was gonna come up with my own scratch waffle mix, I'd try to copy the Krusteaz light and crispy Belgian Waffle mix that comes in a small blue box... All you add is water, egg and oil.
(Bought the 5lb. bag, but it didn't have the same mixing instructions...)
I've never concocted up anything that comes close to that...
As far as taste goes...
I've tried to "improve" it as my base by adding milk and other things to it, but it always seems to taste better, if mixed just as prescribed...
I haven't tried the old recipe Kevin posted yet, but will do so, because that came out of an old book, a book that explained the high/low base thing to me...
If we do a briquette waffle off at Pamplin, looks like I'm gonna have to get a low base...
BTW- I'm no expert on cast iron, just consumed with it...