My little princess is pretty finicky when it comes to eating vegetables. We are getting to the point now where we can get her to eat a few bites of vegetables at dinner, but it's definitely not the first thing she goes for on her plate (unlike her brother). It is for that reason that many of the things I make for breakfast have a vegetable hidden inside. It's easier to hide veggies in breakfast than you may think...especially vegetables that have a sweet taste anyway like sweet potatoes!
I made a batch of pumpkin waffles from Weelicious a few months back and put them in my freezer, and my son has really been enjoying them, so I wanted to look for another waffle recipe to try. You may have noticed that I haven't posted any waffle recipes on the blog. I love eating waffles, but am not always successful in making them unfortunately. I think these sweet potato waffles might be the best I've ever made, and I think the secret is separating the eggs! I have done this with pancakes in the past and love the fluffy texture, but I don't do it every time to save the extra steps of separating the eggs and beating the whites. I think it is well worth the extra effort for waffles though because these turned out perfectly crisp on the outside and fluffy in the middle. Yum! Let me show you how I made them.
You will need 1 cup of sweet potato puree for this recipe. This is about one regular sized sweet potato. I made the sweet potato puree the same way I do for my sweet potato muffins, so check that out if you need a reminder! I always cook and mash the sweet potato the night before I need to to save time in the morning. I also usually measure out dry ingredients the night before. I have hungry kids in the morning, so anything I can do to make breakfast come together more quickly is a big plus in my world!
The first thing you want to do is measure out all of the dry ingredients: flour (all-purpose and whole wheat), baking powder, salt, and some spices and whisk them together in a bowl. When I make these again I will use all white whole wheat and will update the recipe if they turn out as well! I usually have a lot of success using whole wheat flour in waffle, pancake, muffin, and other quick bread recipes. This being the first time I made these particular waffles, I went with a mix of all-purpose and whole wheat as the original recipe says. If you want to use 3/4 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice in place of the ginger, nutmeg, and cloves that would work well I think. Feel free to add in some flax seeds if you'd like. I think I will do that next time as well just to make them even healthier!
Next in a separate bowl combine the wet ingredients (all except the egg whites): 2 egg yolks, milk, sweet potato puree, coconut oil, butter, vanilla extract, maple syrup, and some optional orange zest. Feel free to use any milk you have here. I used cow's milk because that's what I had, but I am sure a dairy-free milk would work just as well. Also, I used a mix of coconut oil and butter because I think adding a little bit of butter just adds a nice flavor to, well, everything. Feel free to just use oil if you'd like. I've been trying to cut down on our refined sugar intake, so I used maple syrup, but regular white sugar, brown sugar, coconut sugar, or even honey would all work here. I love maple flavor with sweet potatoes, so I used that. The orange zest was in the original recipe, but I do not feel it added a lot to the over all flavor, so I don't think I would include it next time. My kids are obsessed with clementines, so I zested 2 of those and got just over 2 teaspoons of orange zest for this recipe.
Next combine the dry ingredients with the wet and stir gently until just combined.
Now comes the extra step that I believe made all the difference with these waffles. Beat the two egg whites with an electric mixer until they get to stiff peaks. I just beat mine until when I turned the mixer off and pulled them out of the egg whites, the little peaks made from the beaters stay standing. It just takes a few minutes, but it is worth it!
Next you'll want to very gently fold the egg whites into the batter. You just spent extra time and effort to get those egg whites nice and fluffy, so you don't want to undo all of that. It may help to stir a small amount into the batter first to lighten it up a little and then gently fold in the rest. It's difficult to see in the picture, but I could still see streaks of egg whites in the finished batter, and that is okay. You definitely do not want to over mix!
Your waffle iron needs to be ready to go after you fold in the egg whites, so at some point while you are making your waffles, you should preheat it. Mine doesn't take very long at all, so I started preheating it right before I whipped the egg whites. Pour batter onto a greased waffle iron (I sprayed mine with coconut oil spray), and cook based on your waffle iron's instructions. Not every waffle iron is the same size or works the same, so you'll want to consult your owner's manual if you are unsure.
You can keep waffles warm in a 200 degree oven while you are making the rest of them. I have a Belgian waffle maker, so it only makes one waffle at a time.
Serve topped with butter and maple syrup! My kids eat theirs topped with butter and a sprinkle of powdered sugar which they call "sprinkles."
These also freeze very well! I lay them out on a cookie sheet and put them into the freezer until they are frozen solid. My waffle maker makes large round Belgian waffles which are too big for my son to eat at once, so I freeze them as half waffles for individual breakfast servings for him. (Though I did not take a picture of the semi-circle waffles on the sheet pan...oops!)
Once the waffles are frozen solid, just place them into a freezer safe bag and you have frozen waffles...much healthier and more delicious than anything you would find in a store!
Here's the recipe...I hope you give these a try! If you do, please leave a comment to let me know what you think!
Sweet Potato Waffles
Adapted slightly from Food.com
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup pureed cooked sweet potato
2 Tablespoons coconut oil, melted and cooled
1 Tablespoon butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon maple syrup
2 teaspoons orange zest (optional)
Directions
1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and spices.
2. In separate bowl, whisk together egg yolks, milk, sweet potato, oil, butter, vanilla, maple syrup, and optional orange zest.
3. Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients, stir together until just moistened.
4. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixter until stiff peaks form.
5. Fold gently into batter; pour batter onto a heated nonstick lightly greased waffle iron.
6. Cook in waffle iron based on manufacturer's instructions. These freeze very well!
