Pumpkin waffles

This morning, I made pumpkin waffles for breakfast.  My family loves waffles.  The Big Kid likes to fill each hole with maple syrup.  I said fill.  The Wee One (now 1.5 yrs) is hilarious to watch as she tears a piece off with her hands and rubs it on her tray to dip it in her syrup.  Don't try tearing the girl twin's waffle, it is then considered broken and no good to her.

I found the recipe at Food.com and modified it to make 12 waffles instead of the default 8.  In reality, I made 24 squares (I filled my machine 6 times).

I made a batch of Canadian Living's Cinnamon Icing out of The Complete Canadian Living Baking Book.  I find CL recipes are so reliable.

Pumpkin Waffles
almost directly from Food.com, this is a recipe for 12 waffles
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 1/2 pinches salt

3 eggs

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin puree

2 1/2 cups milk

6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1 Tbsp vanilla

- mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt in large bowl.

- in a second bowl, add eggs, sugar, pumpkin, milk, butter, and vanilla; beat well.
- gently fold in the flour mixture.

- cook according to your waffle iron directions.

- I do these in my belgian waffle iron and it uses about 1 cup + batter and takes 4-5 minutes to bake.

These are great with a little bit of syrup (or a lot), honey butter or Cinnamon Icing.  They are tasty enough to eat as is, in your hand as you are running out the door to go to work - not that I would know personally (I don't actually work), but that's what The Man said this morning as he was flying out of the house. 

These are good the next day and put in the toaster.  These are great in lunche boxes too!  BONUS!

Plain is handy because then there is inherently less mess!  The kids can wear the clothes they have on until the next meal; the walls, chairs, window and their hair don't require a complete wipe-down which they usually do require after I serve syrup.  I'm going to bring a batch to a playdate this morning and the kids can just garb one and sit down to eat with minimal supervision and no hovering.  If they do wander off with the waffle, it's not a big deal.

Thing 1 declared they were "huffle cookies".  I guess they are that sweet and spicy (but not in a hot kinda spicy).

What to do with any leftover pumpkin purée from the big can you bought?  Freeze it in 1/2 cup portions.  I use my muffin tin, drop 1/2 cup purée in it and once frozen, wrap tightly in two layers.  Label the outside with contents, quantity and date.  I drop some in just about any soup I make, there's no flavour with everything else and it adds another veggie to the mix!