You'll never grow tired of making these chai buttermilk waffles, especially when making them for your family and friends on a beautiful Sunday morning. Fluffy, crisp, and made with the perfect amount of buttermilk, these are the brunch inspo waffles of your dreams.

a hand holding a tilted syrup from the top of the waffle

While these waffles lends themselves to Mother's Day or celebrating a holiday or occasion, this breakfast recipe is great as a meal prep for the week, for the freezer, or essentially any weekend breakfast.

All of my waffles have inspired one another, and especially my pink velvet waffles and pumpkin honey waffles. These chai buttermilk ones stand on their own, and for good reason.

Jump to:

What are the ingredients I need for these waffles?
How do I make these waffles?
Recipe Swaps and Substitutions
Recipe Variations and Serving Suggestions
Kitchen Equipment and Tools
How do I store these waffles? Can I freeze them?
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Chai Buttermilk Waffles Recipe

What are the ingredients I need for these waffles?

These waffles are made with classic waffle ingredients, with the addition of chai spices, buttermilk, and a hint of orange for the citrus flavor.

Buttermilk: I mean, these wouldn't be buttermilk without the buttermilk, right?! It's tangy, sweet, thick, and really adds a whole other layer of flavor in these waffles.
Oil: the fat that helps make the waffles nice and crisp.
Sugar: a little sugar goes a long way!
Eggs: the best binding agent.
Orange zest and juice: I squeezed half an orange in, and used a good amount of zest, but feel free to adjust the taste based on your own preference.
Vanilla extract: any baked good recipe requires vanilla. NO exceptions!
Paleo flour: I like Bob's Red Mill paleo baking flour because it's perfect made and balanced with coconut and almond flour, as well as other ingredients that help make the flour accessible and a great swap.
Baking powder: our leavening agent.
Cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg: part of the "chai" flavor profile. It's feels a little like Fall, but not quite. Feel free to leave any of these spices out if they aren't your thing.

See the recipe card below for more information about quantities.

How do I make these waffles?

Making these waffles doesn't get any easier than using a large bowl to whisk everything together, ladle in a waffle iron, and top with a generous amount of syrup. Specifically, here's the steps to making this recipe:

Start by whisk together the eggs, oil, and sugar until fully combined. Pour in the vanilla and whisk again. To the egg mixture, pour in the buttermilk and whisk until incorporated and the mix is a pale yellow. Zest half of the orange and squeeze in the orange juice, whisk to combine.

Pour in the flour, baking powder, and spices and whisk until just combined. Ladle a half scoop into a pre-heated waffle iron, cook for 3-4 or until desired crispness. Repeat until all batter is used and top with syrup or whipped cream.

HINT: Do your best not to over-mix the batter. I do this sometimes and always end up regretting the end result. Over-mixing causes a lot of issues with gumminess and results in flat or chewy waffles.

Recipe Swaps and Substitutions

Gluten Free? Dairy Free? Here are a few standard swaps you can make for this recipe:

Gluten free flour: this won't really change the bake time, but it will alter the taste and texture. I swear by Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour, which you can find on Thrive Market or in a variety of other stores.
Milk: if you want to make this dairy free, swap out the regular milk for almond or oat milk! The ONLY issue here is that the buttermilk is a big part of the "red velvet" flavor, so if you can find dairy free buttermilk then go for it!
Sugar: I like using Wholesome Sweet's brand of organic cane sugar, but I also really like their coconut sugar (Bob's Red Mill makes a great coconut sugar too). Coconut sugar is usually a 1:1 replacement, but sometimes, real organic sugar is best, and in these waffles the real deal is where it's at.

Recipe Variations and Serving Suggestions

Looking to make this recipe your own? Here's a few variations to the recipe you can make, including ways to serve them:

Mini - you can make these into miniature waffles if you have a mini waffle iron. Fun, cute for kiddos to snack on too.
Pancakes - turn this recipe into pancakes. Waffle and pancake batter are essentially the same, but pancakes will require a touch more oil (I would add 2 additional tablespoon of oil to the batter if you want to make these pancakes)
Add-ins - feel free to add in fresh fruit, chocolate, or sprinkles within the batter themselves!
Brunch Board - serve these waffles on a fancy brunch charcuterie board like I did in this recipe (link)

Kitchen Equipment and Tools

The beauty of making waffle recipes is the ease of using minimal tools. All you'll need is below:

Waffle iron (I love my mini by Dash, but I also really like my Cuisinart belgian waffle maker too)
Large mixing bowl
Whisk
Measuring spoons and cups

The most important kitchen tool I highly recommend is a scale for anyone who likes to bake, even if not professionally. The reason for the scale is because one cup for me may not be one cup for you. There's lot of methods out there for measuring dry, or even wet, ingredients, but I am here to tell you having a scale is a game changer. I like my Zwilling digital scale, (affiliate link) but you can find many more on Amazon, Sur La Table, or even Target.

If you are not using a scale: Use the scoop and level method: Scoop flour into a measuring cup until it fills the entire cup, the level it off by scraping the excess with a butter knife back into the bag of flour or whatever contain you keep your flour in.

How do I store these waffles? Can I freeze them?

You can most definitely freeze this recipe, and storage is a breeze. Simply add any remaining waffles to a large container or ziplock bag, store in the fridge for up to 4 days, or in the freeze for one month. Let defrost in the fridge the night before you want to eat them.