Ten Posts of Pumpkin: (8) Pumpkin Waffles

Every time I make waffles I wish I made waffles more often. Maybe you have felt that way too. If you haven't, it's probably because you haven't gotten over the impulse to thoroughly clean your waffle iron after every use. I got over that about two years ago and it was v. liberating. Cleaning? Bah! What a waffle iron needs is seasoning. And I think the definition of "seasoning" is something like: cleaning as best as you can without hurting yourself, using obscenities, or experimenting with tools stolen from your dental hygienest, and then stopping. It was a process, I'm not going to lie. Where kitchen cleanliness is concerned, I'm generally my mother's daughter. But then I got knocked up and everything changed. (It didn't for her though. And she had lots of kids.)

Anyway, these waffles are super awesome, because they're only ever-so-slightly adapted from my second favorite cookbook, Vegan with a Vengeance, which includes only super awesome recipes. And they're vegan, if you don't swap out the non-dairy beverage for milk.

I only got this one picture because (a) I made them on a weekday morning, so we were a bit rushed, and (b) they were promptly devoured. We ate them with some decidedly non-vegan Apple Cider Syrup, and it was a nice, albeit morally ambiguous, combo.

Oh. If you make these waffles and they are not as super awesome as I imply, perhaps your waffle iron isn't quite seasoned enough.

Pumpkin Waffles

Adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance

Yield: 12 4X4" waffles (three full-size sheets)

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon*

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger*

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg*

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1 cup soy milk (or oat milk or rice milk or regular milk or whatever)

1 cup homemade pumpkin purée or canned pumpkin

2 tablespoons oil

2 tablespoons maple syrup

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

*You could just use 2 or 3 teaspoons of pumpkin pie or apple pie spice, if you have either on hand.

Preheat waffle iron according to manufacturer's instructions.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. In a separate bowl or large measuring cup, with gusto, whisk together soy milk, pumpkin, oil, maple syrup, and vanilla until well blended and slightly frothy. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix. A few lumps are okay. Cook the waffles according to the manufacturer's instructions.

I put four cooled waffles into a freezer bag and reheated them in the toaster for myself and my daughter later in the week. Worked super great. Naturally.