Tasty Tuesday - Pumpkin Waffles

Yes, I've been in a bit of a Blissdom haze lately. That hasn't been my entire focus, happy as the wee ones are to know that. As part of Little Miss's school's reading program, the school earned a pancake breakfast day. The teachers cooked pancakes for every student in the school who had achieved the reading incentive for the past week.

It's awfully sweet. I love all the extras that her principal and teachers do to go above and beyond. Unfortunately, some of the treats - including the pizza for the entire school this Friday - don't work for us. Little Miss has a dairy allergy and can't eat the pancakes. (Or so I hope - a local restaurant has told us multiple times that their pancakes and waffles contain no dairy!) The last two years, I've made special waffles for her instead of the pancakes.

Why waffles? It's really obvious with waffles instead of pancakes - to her and to the teacher - that she's eating what she's supposed to. Plus, I have a waffle maker, and I figure I should use it when I can. Unfortunately I don't like waffles, so this is purely for the wee ones. And my husband, who always sneaks some.

This time? I went with pumpkin. And they were good. Or so I was told....

Pumpkin Waffles

Ingredients:
1 1/2 T baking powder
1 T cinnamon
1 t allspice
1 t nutmeg, grated
1/2 t salt
2 1/2 c flour
1/2 c brown sugar
1 c canned pumpkin
1 t fresh ginger, grated
2 c milk (dairy free for us - I love coconut milk or at least rice milk for it)
4 eggs, separated
1/4 cup butter substitute, melted

Directions:
Preheat your waffle iron. These will take a little longer to bake, so if yours has an adjustable temperature, turn it up higher than you normally would. If it doesn't (mine doesn't), just know you'll need to bake these longer than normal waffles.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and salt until they're well-mixed. In a separate bowl (ok, so I use a large liquid measuring cup so I don't have to dirty another bowl - I'm lazy), mix together the pumpkin, milk, ginger, and egg yolks until completely blended (save those whites!). Slowly add the butter (substitute) so that it doesn't cook the eggs or turn into a solid lump. Make sure you're whisking as you add the melted butter. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

Take the egg whites and put in a clean metal or glass bowl. Whip until medium peaks form. They will look like this:

Fold the egg whites into the waffle batter. That means you'll want to add about a third of the egg whites to the batter and sacrifice their fluffiness. Incorporate them as gently as you can. Don't stir them like you normally would. Instead scrape underneath the batter with the spatula and turn the batter over on itself. This will help keep the egg whites aerated and your waffles fluffy. After you get the first third incorporated, go ahead and add the rest of the eggs, folding as gently as possible and using as few motions as possible. Once you have very few or small white streaks remaining, your batter is done.

Pour batter into your waffle maker. Mine takes almost a cup per waffle, but all waffle makers are different. Let the waffles cook until no more steam come from the sides before removing, using a fork to gently pry the waffles out, if needed. Remember that these will take longer than normal waffles, so don't go by the "done" timer on your waffle iron.

These store well in a sealed container for a few days, or feel free to freeze them. When I want to serve them after the first day, I pop them in the toaster for a bit, and they turn out great. I have a happy family!

Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday. Also posting now with A Southern Fairytale and her Mouthwatering Monday.