This morning I wanted Waffles for breakfast, nothing else would do.

So I researched how to make Waffles without a Waffle iron, and only found the answer that you can use a grill pan instead, only I didn't have one...

But the difference between Waffles and Pancaked became confirmed by those pages, it is the crispyness of the Waffle that sets it apart.

I had an idea, what if I used a crispy batter recipe for the outside and a pancake recipe (actually I used a Piklate recipe instead: Piklate Recipie (NZ Womans Weekly)) for the inside, but either is fine.
note: Use the lesser amount of milk suggested.

So I made crispy batter inspired by this recipe: Food.com Classic Crispy Batter Recipe   Just leave out the Fish! :)
Only I made less of it, I made a 1/3rd, but I should have made at least a half batch since I ran out, I also put some sugar in, not sure if that was a good call but it still worked ok.  Add a little more cold water than they say.   The baking powder amount seems high but it worked ok, a half batch would be about 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder, half a cup of flower, only a pinch of salt and a bit over half a cup of cold water.

Make both batters in separate bowls, then making sure there is enough butter/oil in the pan add the crispy batter in a thin layer tilting the pan to get good coverage, then as fast as you can add the Pancake or Piklate batter on top.

Now you have 3 choices, have only one side crispy.
Or add more crispy batter to the pan surface and then flip the pancake before the top is set onto the crispy batter, this might require removing the pancake from the pan first to get the clear space.
Or while the first side is cooking, gently pour the thinner crispy batter over the as yet unset pancake batter.
I did the last one and it worked well and was easy.

It seems that there needs to be enough butter/oil to get the crispy batter to crisp up right.

Making the crispy batter was super easy, it didn't add a lot of difficulty to it, it just gave the the tastiest pancakes or flattest Waffles around!

Next time I might try adding oil to the crispy batter.

Please try and tell me how yours went!

Update: I learnt a few things, firstly you don't want to wait around to add the Pancake/Piklate batter, it cooks better it the crispy batter is cooked on the top first it doesn't go so well.
Also this seemed to be maybe caused by my adding less baking powder to the crispy batter, additionally I left out the sugar but I am not sure that was a good call either taste wise when that much baking powder is in use and didn't have the pan hot enough.
However adding oil to the crispy batter mix seems to be good idea and I got some super yummy crispy bits on the next try.
Finally the idea of removing the partially cooked pancake from the pan to start the next crispy side was a huge flop, it probably could work with small pancakes but was a disaster with a big pancake.
After watching a video on making super crispy battered fish, I would consider adding soda water to the the crispy batter next time and ensuring the heat was high enough.

If these are masters you have the ultimate pancake, I bet this trick could also work with a waffle iron for ultimate crispy Waffles.