Pumpkin Waffles

Okay, so you are going to have a houseful of family on Christmas Eve. You’ll snack on chips and dips, veggies, cheeseboards and meat platters. You’ll have oyster stew, or ham, or maybe even another turkey dinner. Christmas morning, everyone will be up at the crack of dawn (I’m thinking kids here) and there is a two-hour gift opening session with freshly brewed coffee, hot toddys and hot chocolate for the kiddos. Afterwards there are gifts strewn all over the place, toys are being assembled and as just as you start to clean up all the paper and wrappings you hear those fateful words… “when is breakfast?”

Sound familiar?

If you are anything like me, you know that dinner will be a replay of last night, in some form, and that the last thing you want to do this morning is make a big mess with a complicated breakfast.

My go-to Christmas morning breakfast is always a big batch of my famous Pumpkin Waffles from Café 222. The restaurant is closed on Christmas (our one and only day of the year) or I would shuttle everyone down there and save myself the mess and dishes. But since I am stuck making breakfast for a crowd, I think the next best thing to going to Café 222 is making this dish at home.

This waffle batter can be made ahead of time. It will hold well overnight and even for another day after that, if need be. On Christmas morning, all you need to do is pull it out of the fridge and fire up the waffle iron.

Then it’s as easy as bringing out a stack of plates, a softened stick of butter and your best quality maple syrup. Turn the oven on low and store the waffles until you get a few ahead and then you call in the troops. If you’ve got some leftover ham from the night before, cool… throw that in the oven on low too… and you’re good to go. 

Cafe222’s Famous Pumpkin Waffle Recipe

STEP 1: SIFT TOGETHER DRY INGREDIENTS

2 ½ Cups Flour

¼    Cup Brown Sugar

1     TBS Baking Powder

½    tsp Cinnamon

1     tsp Ground Ginger

¾    tsp Salt

¼    tsp Ground Cloves

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg.

STEP 2: ADD THE FOLLOWING:

4  Large Eggs

1  Cup Whole Milk

1  Cup Buttermilk

1  Cup Canned Pumpkin Puree

Gently stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

STEP 3: ADD 1 STICK MELTED BUTTER 

Gently Fold.

STEP 4: Once you've sprayed a little oil onto your hot waffle iron, SPREAD the batter (it's a little thick) onto the bottom plate, do not over do it, this almost doubles in size when baking.  Set the timer and bake according to your waffle iron manufacturers directions.