Spiced Sweet Potato Waffles

Dense. Spicy. Orangey. Sweet. These waffles were all of these things, as well as cold-weather appropriate and perfectas a prelude to the upcoming holidays. In addition, jwa is a big fan of waffles. I like them too but generally, I am more of a savory breakfast type of person. These waffles, however, were wonderful and well worth making.

One night last week, while watching Good Eats, Alton Brown made these waffles. I turned to jwa and asked if he wanted some sweet potato waffles this weekend — and the rest, as they say, is history. Besides, gearing up for Thanksgiving, I just happened to have an extra sweet potato lying around. Perfect!

I followed AB’s recipe pretty much, except I added 1/4 tsp of cinnamon — a dash or two of nutmeg would probably be nice too.

I also always seem to forget how easy it is to make waffles. Sure, only one can be made at a time but it’s not that big of a project. I just listened to This American Life and sipped coffee while cranking out the waffles. Plus, I got to pull out my cute Fiesta Persimmon waffle iron!

This recipe, by the way, made about six waffles — but then mine never seem to go out all the way to the ends, so ymmv.

Spiced Sweet Potato Waffles:
1 1/2 cups peeled and cubed sweet potato (about 2/3 of a medium-sized sweet potato)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 egg whites
1 cup milk
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tablespoon grated orange rind
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Vegetable spray, for waffle iron
1/4 cup toasted pecans

Warm maple syrup
Optional garnish: 1 banana, sliced

Put cubed sweet potatoes in a steamer basket. Place the basket in a large pot of simmering water that is no closer than 2 inches from the bottom of steamer. Allow potatoes to steam for 20 minutes of until fork tender. Mash cooked potatoes and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

In another bowl combine the sweet potatoes, milk, brown sugar, butter, and grated orange rind. Stir the sweet potato mixture into the flour mixture and thoroughly combine. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gradually fold egg whites into batter 1/3 at a time. The batter will be thick.

Using a scoop, place 2 scoops of batter onto a preheated, lubricated waffle iron.

Cook until lightly browned, about 5 to 6 minutes (or until your waffle iron indicated that the waffle is done).

Keep making waffles until the batter is gone. Eventhough my waffle iron is non-stick, I found it helpful to give the surface a shot of non-stck spray before making a new waffle.

Serve with toasted pecans, maple syrup and some sliced banana to make it a healthy breakfast.