Beloved hipster ice cream joint Creamier reopened on 12 May after having had to close for two weeks during the extended Circuit Breaker. Just before its closure, it had launched a new product: a frozen version of their café chain’s handmade waffles that only need to be briefly reheated at home to be enjoyed, along with their artisanal ice cream. It proved so popular, the waffles sold out within minutes each time they put it online. Why the frenzy?

The stylish packet of four waffle squares costs $12, which works out to the same price as dining in-store ($6 per serving of two waffles at the café). Each parcel comes with clear heating instructions — there are options for using the toaster oven, pan on a stovetop, air-fryer, microwave oven or conventional oven. We chose the latter, with 12 minutes of baking in the oven.

Despite being free of preservatives, these can last in the freezer for up to two months. Which means any time can be waffle time, even at 2am while bingeing on Netflix. Dangerous — but we like it.

The perfect-looking squares appear no different than their counterparts freshly cooked on the spot back when cafes were still allowed to have dine-in customers (remember those good old days?). Creamier’s rep tells us that the waffles are made exactly the same way as they are in-house, with eggs, milk, flour, butter, sugar, baking powder and salt. The only difference is that these are blast-frozen upon being cooked, to increase its shelf life. But the proof, as the saying goes, is in the pudding — or in this case, waffles.

Perhaps our oven runs a bit too hot — the squares turned slightly darker than we’d have liked at the 12-minute mark. Anyway, we fished them out and gingerly plopped scoops of ice cream on top. Instead of Creamier’s usual blend of generic maple-flavoured syrup + chocolate sauce (which costs $1.50 each), we dressed our waffles with a drizzle of melted gula melaka instead. Okay, so the waffles were crispier than the in-house version, but they were still totally delicious for something frozen. Lemak, with toasty, lightly eggy notes. That pronounced crunchiness actually works quite well to mitigate any sogginess from the ice cream (though we’d prefer a bit of softness in the middle). We tried cooking it a minute less for our second batch and a similar crunchy effect emerged, though the Creamier rep informs us that the correct texture should be closer to that served at the café: crisp on the outside, slightly fluffy within. Perhaps we'll bake them for just 10 minutes next time.

We got our go-to Creamier ice cream flavours: Sea Salt Gula Melaka Ice Cream ($12/pint) and Roasted Pistachio ($16/pint). This combination is really the best with the waffles: the caramelly, coconutty gula melaka and nutty pistachio are lovely bedfellows. Caveat: Creamier’s ice creams are best eaten fresh within a week or less as they turn a little icy with time. Buy an adorable pastel cooler bag ($4) to house all your goodies if you're grabbing this for gifting.

The waffles go on sale on Creamier’s website every Tuesday and Friday, at noon. Definitely worth splurging on (they ain't pricey per se, but you'll have to add on ice cream etc to hit a minimum spend of $65 if you wanna avoid the $18 delivery fee) since they taste practically as good as those served at Creamier's cafes. How the texture turns out depends on how you reheat them, though. They're good enough to be enjoyed on their own with butter and syrup — but why do that when you can have ice cream too? Unfortunately, these sell out super quickly because, well, they’re delicious. And only limited stocks are available as the waffles are hand-made on-site at the shops. “Our team is working round the clock to produce the maximum number at this point, and we’re finding more ways to increase our production levels. But we won’t take this to the factory level as we remain a small-batch café,” explains the Creamier spokesperson. Spoken like a true hipster.

Waffles available at https://shop.creamier.com.sg. Free island-wide delivery for orders of $65 and above, otherwise a flat fee of $18 will be charged.

Photos: Florence Fong/Creamier