How can I keep my waffle iron relatively clean when making waffles?

Question

I do not make waffles overly frequently, but when I do I tend to make a mess of my waffle iron. I use a ladle to place waffle batter in the middle of my waffle iron. On accident I occasionally overfill the iron so that when it is closed batter runs out the sides. The obvious answer is use less batter, but then I tend to use too little. To complicate matters I rarely use the same waffle batter recipe and some tend to make a larger mess than others.

Aside from eyeballing is there a good ratio of batter amount to iron size I should be using? Is there a way to easily cleanup a waffle iron after use that does not take a long time?

Answer

Replace your ladle with a ice cream scoop.

You will be able to control the amount of dough for each waffle much easier. For my waffle iron and scoop I use two scoops.

An additional advantage over a ladle, is that the dough releases much easier from a scoop - which reduces the probability of making a mess.

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