Day 5 Gourmet Pumpkin Waffles

I am now on day 5 of making a different pumpkin recipe until Thanksgiving. The funny thing is, I started this on a whim, without really thinking about what 46 days of pumpkin recipes would mean. And this week being the first week, well I am a little limited on ingredients and can't go to the store until tomorrow. So I have been picking recipes based on what I have the ingredients for. (This is the reason I have not yet made the much requested pumpkin chocolate chip cookies - I am out of chocolate chips!) I have plenty of pumpkin and that is all that really matters!

So last night I decided I would be making pumpkin waffles this morning. I went on a search for the best pumpkin waffle recipe I could find. One of the most fun parts of this for me is finding recipes and playing around with them to make them my own. For example, yesterday I used a plain scone recipe and modified it to become a delicious pumpkin scone recipe.

I did not find any fantastic looking pumpkin waffle recipes on any of my favorite cooking websites. (Allrecipes.com and cookinglight.com) So, I did a google search. At the top of the search was this website:
http://pumpkinwaffles.wordpress.com/ultimate-pumpkin-waffle-recipe-metric/

Yes, that is right, an entire blog devoted to this one recipe! When I first looked at the recipe I almost moved on in my search. It is very complicated - for waffles! I mean, you have to separate the yokes and egg whites, fluff up the egg whites, etc. Basically you need 3 to 4 bowls to make this recipe. And that would normally be just too many dishes for me. But then I started reading the comments. 373 comments raving about this recipe! Well now I just needed to see what the fuss was about and I was not going to be "playing around" with this recipe. The creator spent way to much time perfecting it. I did do a few things different but that was because of ingredients on hand, etc. I will note what I did differently at the bottom.

These waffles are delicious! They have fabulous spicy pumpkiny flavor. They are INCREDIBLY light and fluffy in the middle and crispy on the outside. I just wish I had a better waffle iron. I know they would have been AMAZING if I had a Belgian waffle iron. (I have the George Forman one, it is pretty good - but to get them crispy - it takes FOREVER!)

So here is the recipe and the link again that I got them from. The blog has much better pictures than I do so feel free to visit the site. They also have some yummy looking syrup recipes. I just stuck with butter and powdered sugar on mine, my husband had maple on his, and our 2 year old butchered hers with her request for purple (blueberry) syrup.

http://pumpkinwaffles.wordpress.com/ultimate-pumpkin-waffle-recipe-metric/

"Ingredients:
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 3 Tbsp. cornstarch
• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 3/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 tsp. ginger
• 1/4 tsp. cloves
• 1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg*
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
• 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and warm

*Grated and lightly packed into the spoon, use 1/2 tsp. Grated and loosely scooped, this is about 1 tsp. of nutmeg. If you have to use pre-grated, dried nutmeg, use 1/4 tsp.

DIRECTIONS


1. Lightly oil the waffle iron with vegetable oil, and set it to the desired temperature.

2. Combine brown sugar and cornstarch in a large bowl. Whisk together to break apart the cornstarch. Add the remaining dry ingredients, and whisk to blend.


3. Separate eggs: yolks go in a medium sized bowl and whites get set aside in a smaller bowl.
4. Add pumpkin and milk to the egg yolks. Whisk to blend and set aside.

5. Whip egg whites with a hand mixer on high until stiff peaks form – about 1 1/2 – 2 minutes. Set aside.



6. Pour melted butter into the yolk/milk/pumpkin mixture. As you pour, whisk to combine.

7. Add the pumpkin mixture to the dry ingredients, and mix them together until just combined. A little lumpiness is fine. That will smooth out when the egg whites are added.



8. Slide the whipped egg whites out of the bowl and onto the mixture you just prepared. Gently fold them in until no white bits are obvious.

9. Once the waffle iron is heated, you’re ready to pour the batter! In my Presto FlipSide waffle maker, cook time is exactly 2 minutes 30 seconds."

The only changes I made were: I use nonfat milk (all we had), I meant to use jarred nutmeg but then forgot to put it in, I also used margarine instead of butter since I am out of butter. Oh and lastly, I whipped my eggs up with a whisk because I couldn't stand to get one more bowl dirty and I would have had to put it in my kitchenaid mixing bowl. It was really quick and easy to do with a whisk.