Gingerbread Waffles

With our normal early wake-up call, a hot breakfast is an infrequent luxury.  Today, however, waking up to our THIRD snow day, I decided that Gingerbread Waffles would be the perfect snow-bound treat.

Yes, even I was impressed to find all these ingredients on hand!

This recipe, courtesy of Rachael Ray and The Food Network, makes a delicious, thick batter.  

I made my usual substitutions of white whole wheat flour and canola oil.

It took a little finessing to spoon the batter into my barnyard-shaped Williams-Sonoma waffle maker.

A little patience, a little perseverance and VOILA!  Perfect barn, cow, chick and pig waffles.

Despite the extra thick batter, the waffles turned out deliciously fluffy with a crispy exterior and a tender interior.  

The kid-o-meter gave it four out of four stars!

I made a double batch.  One for today and one for the freezer.  

Now we won't need a snow day to enjoy a tasty, hot breakfast!

Gingerbread Waffles

Adapted from Rachael Ray on foodnetwork.com

3 cups white whole wheat flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 large eggs

2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

1 1/4 cups milk (I used almond milk)

1/2 cup molasses

1/2 cup canola oil

Preheat waffle iron.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt.  In a medium bowl, beat eggs and brown sugar until fluffy, then beat in pumpkin, milk, molasses and canola oil.  Stir the wet into the dry ingredients until just moist.  Spray iron with cooking spray and spoon batter into waffle iron.

Makes four large waffles.