Fresh Cherry Mascarpone Waffles

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 cup mascarpone, at room temperature
1 cup milk, at room temperature
1 cup halved fresh sweet cherries
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
pinch salt
2 eggs, at room temperature

Directions:
Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium sized bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, oil, mascarpone and milk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to combine. Fold in the cherries. Follow the instructions included with your waffle iron to complete the waffles. For most large, Belgian-style waffle irons you would use 1 cup of batter for each waffle. I love my waffle maker.

Yield: 4 large Belgian-style waffles

My thoughts:

I haven't posted a lot a of cherry recipes (maybe one?) over the years but it isn't for a lack of cherry love. I just end up eating them fresh out of hand and next thing I know, the bowl is empty and I haven't made anything special with them. I decided to remedy that with these waffles. I had some leftover mascarpone so on a whim I thought I'd add it to the batter. I am glad I did, the waffles turned out creamy, moist and light. No small feat for a simple waffle. The cherries add a juicy pop of flavor to nearly every bite.

Eggnog Waffles

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cup flour
1 cup milk
1 cup eggnog
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons rum or 1 teaspoon rum flavoring
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
2 eggs

Directions:
Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to combine. Follow the instructions included with your waffle iron to complete the waffles. For most large, Belgian-style waffle irons you would use 1 cup of batter for each waffle. I love my waffle maker.



Yield: 4 large Belgian-style waffles

My thoughts:

Eggnog seems to be a fairly polarizing beverage, you either love it or hate it. I guess I am in the love it camp if by loving it you mean "drink maybe one glass once a year". There is a local business that makes a nog that I enjoy (I have to draw the line at making it myself) that my mom would buy growing up. I bought some myself this year and while I enjoyed that cup, I was left with quite a bit leftover. Eggnog always strikes me as sort of breakfasty for some reason so I thought making something for breakfast might be fun. I am so happy I thought of making waffles, they were great! I used half milk and half eggnog and they had the perfect level of nogness. Rich but not sickeningly so and just really festive tasting.

Bacon & Chocolate Chunk Buttermilk Waffles

Ingredients:
2 cup flour
2 cups buttermilk
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chunks
1/4 cup cooked, crumbled bacon
2 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch salt
2 eggs

Directions:
Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium sized bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, oil, vanilla and milk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to combine. Fold in the chocolate and bacon. Follow the instructions included with your waffle iron to complete the waffles. For most large, Belgian-style waffle irons you would use 1 cup of batter for each waffle. I love my waffle maker.

Yield: 4 large Belgian-style waffles

My thoughts:

Much like the characters of Glee, I do think that chocolate and bacon go together even though, perhaps, they shouldn't. When I saw that Vosges had launched a bacon & chocolate pancake mix, I knew, without even trying it that this was something I could make at home. While it is nothing like the waffles we had in Belgium this fall (although, now that I think of it, topping sugar waffles with chocolate was pretty common)it was actually really good. I was careful to only use the meaty bits of bacon not much fat, so it added a crispy, smoky note to the waffles not a greasy one. Anyway, chocolate + bacon + buttermilk waffles = over the top, decadent breakfast fun. Perhaps not fun that you'd want to eat every day, but definitely a delicious treat.

Blackberry Waffles

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature
1/2 cup blackberries
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
pinch salt
1 egg, at room temperature

Directions:
Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium sized bowl. Stir together sour cream and milk in a measuring cup. Whisk in the egg, vanilla and oil. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to combine. Stir in the blackberries. Follow the instructions included with your waffle iron to complete the waffles. For most large, Belgian-style waffle irons you would use 1 cup of batter for each waffle.



Yield: 2 large Belgian-style waffles (I used this Belgian-style waffle iron, results may vary machine to machine.)

My thoughts:

Our blackberry bush is doing very well this year. Just yesterday we picked almost a quart of blackberries. I looked at the other blackberry recipes I have made over the years (blackberry panna cotta, blackberry-vanilla cupcakes, blackberry cream cheese frosting, chipotle blackberry pulled pork, blackberry cornmeal cake, and blackberry clafouti) and realized that there are no breakfast recipes. I am rectifying that now. The delicate blackberries get smushed a bit which spreads out the flavor and gives the waffles a swirly, mottled look. I loved the bursts of sweet-tartness in the waffle. It was a real summertime treat without much fuss.

Coconut & Lime Waffles

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons unsweetened, dried coconut
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tablespoon lime zest
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
pinch salt
1 egg

Directions:
Whisk together the flour, sugar, coconut, baking powder, salt and zest in a medium sized bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, oil, vanilla and milk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to combine. Follow the instructions included with your waffle iron to complete the waffles. For most large, Belgian-style waffle irons you would use 1 cup of batter for each waffle.

Yield: 2 large Belgian-style waffles

My thoughts:

I bought a Belgian-style waffle iron a week or so ago to supplement the one we have that makes the flatter style of waffles in cute heart shapes. I've been very pleased at how our waffles are turning out! Our first attempt at using it was just plain waffles, I thought I'd make some coconut & lime waffles in honor of the blog's 5 year anniversary. They were pretty great; there was a light coconut and lime flavor throughout and minimal chewiness from the coconut. The texture was the real star, crisp on the outside and moist and soft on the inside. I also liked how they were thick but not dense so they were filling without being heavy.

Note: You can easily double this recipe to make four waffles. Two is all we can handle!

Apple Waffles

Ingredients:
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
2/3 cup Granny Smith apples, grated
1 egg
1 tablespoons butter, melted
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions:
In a large bowl, beat together egg, apple, milk, vanilla, butter, and nutmeg until throughly combined. Add in baking powder and flour, stir to combine. Prepare as per your waffle iron's instructions.

Yield: 4 waffles

My thoughts:

Autumn is the perfect time to cook with apples. I came up with this apple waffle recipe to have for dinner tonight. It has good apple flavor and since they are unsweetened, they taste great with butter and syrup. I left the skin on the apples so they have a slight greenish hue where the skin is peeking out. If this bothers you, peel the apples before grating.

Buttermilk Waffles

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons butter, melted *
1 3/4 cups buttermilk

Directions:
Into a large bowl, sift the dry ingredients together. In another bowl, beat the eggs. Add the butter and buttermilk and beat to combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and mix well.

* about one minute in the microwave should do the job