Aretha Frankenstein's ... without the 2 hour wait!

For those of you who don't live in Chattanooga, Aretha Frankenstein's is a breakfast joint famous (or perhaps notorious) for its insanely long wait on weekend mornings, as well as its insanely outstanding pancakes and waffles.

Well, this weekend we got to enjoy the aforementioned waffles right in our own dining room, thanks to this recipe I found Food52.

Now I generally try to make my waffles a little healthy and go more for the multigrain, not too much oil, etc. route when I'm making them at home, but these were well worth making an exception. I doubled the recipe and did wind up cutting back on the oil a bit and that didn't seem to do them any harm.

The secret ingredient? Cornstarch! It makes them perfectly soft, chewy and moist on the inside, and just crispy enough on the outside to make you think you might be eating at a restaurant and not in your own home where you have to put away the syrup and butter, face the mound of dishes in the sink and get a paint scraper to deal with the waffle batter that's now permanently adhered to the kitchen counter.

Worth it, though? YES.