Carrot Cake Waffles

When Luke’s parents gave me a waffle iron for Christmas, I was overjoyed.  Still am in fact.  As a little girl, I remember my mom making buttermilk waffles for my brother and me, and I always marveled at the sizzling crevices of the iron, releasing a waffle that was both crisp on the outside, and warm and fluffy on the inside.

I’ve wanted one of my own for a while, since waffles have a bagillion variations, and I can’t wait to try as many as humanly possible.  For my first waffles, I probably should have stuck with something more traditional, but with a big bag of carrots eyeballing me from the crisper drawer, there was really nothing I could do.

There is no way Izzy can eat a pound of carrots (over half her body weight) in a week, so I knew something needed to be done about them.  I grated them up and threw them in waffle batter to make Luke’s favorite dessert into his breakfast.

He was quite pleased.  And so was I.  This recipe called for blooming the spices in melted butter, a process that kind of “cooks” the spices in the butter to enhance their flavors.  The waffles certainly were flavorful, so I guess it worked?

Also, I love how they came out all speckled, though it might be hard to see that in the photos.

Carrot Cake Waffles

Adapted from Willow Bird Baking

Makes about 12 waffles

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon allspice
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
2 eggs, separated
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick butter)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup finely grated carrots
Cooking spray for waffle iron

Bloom the spices in butter.* Heat 4 tablespoons butter in skillet over medium heat until melted, 1 to 2 minutes. Continue to cook, swirling pan constantly, until butter is light brown and has faint nutty aroma, 2 to 4 minutes. Add spices and continue to cook, stirring constantly, 15 seconds. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.

Combine the flour, salt, sugar, baking soda.

Mix together the buttermilk and the egg yolks. Stir in the spiced butter and vanilla. Preheat the waffle iron. Stir the wet into the dry ingredients.

Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl with a whisk or electric mixer (make sure bowl and mixer are spotlessly clean) until they hold soft peaks. Stir them gently into the batter. Add carrots and stir gently to combine.

Spread a ladleful or so of batter onto the waffle iron and bake until the waffle is done, usually 3 to 5 minutes, depending on your iron. Spray iron with cooking spray between waffles as needed.

*If you prefer a quicker breakfast, you can melt and cool the butter plain instead of browning it and blooming the spices in it — but doing so does add flavor. If you do skip the spice blooming, simply add the spices to the dry ingredients. Add your plain melted, cooled butter instead of the spiced butter.

---