Clean Eating Chocolate Waffles

Here is the long awaited recipe! I'm sure I'll be doing some more tweaking to this, but here is the recipe I made yesterday.  I got the basis of the recipe from The Gracious Pantry..  I decided I wanted to tweak it a bit, and thought about adding Peanut Butter because who doesn't love PB cups! Well, the peanut butter didn't make a flavorful impact I was hoping for, but, man, the protein in peanut butter makes them sooo filling! My husband couldn't even finish the 2 waffles on his plate, which normally is no problem for him!

If you are new to clean eating, I highly recommend adding more honey, maybe 2-3 tablespoons more.  Once you adapt to clean eating, you enjoy things that are lightly sweetened, especially sweetened with natural ingredients such as honey or maple syrup.  It does take a bit for you body to get used to it, so if you are a newbie, then add some more honey!  Also, if you aren't into dark chocolate, I would use regular cocoa, rather than the dark chocolate cocoa I used.

Then for toppings, sure you could do the basic pure maple syrup on top, but here are some other fun suggestions.  My husband and I heated up organic strawberry jam with a bit of water and used that as our "syrup".  Then for breakfast this morning (these are excellent as leftovers, just freeze them and toast them up when you want to eat them!) I mixed plain greek yogurt and peanut butter, you could even add a bit of honey or maple syrup, and I made sort of a PB cup waffle sandwich.  Yum! Super filling as well!!!  My next version may include coffee!

Clean Eating Chocolate Waffles

(makes 6-7 waffles)

Adapted from The Gracious Pantry

1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I used King Arthur's White Whole Wheat)

1/2 cup cocoa powder (I used dark chocolate)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup ground flaxseed meal

1-3/4 cup milk (you can use any kind you have, dairy or non dairy)

1 ripe banana

1/2 cup natural peanut butter (the ingredients should be only peanuts and possibly salt)

2 whole eggs

2 tablespoons melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons honey (add more if you are new to clean eating!)

1) Mix all of the dry ingredients-flour, cocoa, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and flaxseed meal, using a whisk, whisk them together.  Using a whisk simulates using a sifter (its a lazy way of doing it, I learned it from Martha Stewart!).  It will break up all of the clumps and make the dry ingredients fluff up.  

2) Mix all of the wet ingredients together-milk, banana, peanut butter, eggs, butter, vanilla, and honey.  I used a potato masher, so it would mash up the bananas and mix the ingredients together.  They won't mix perfectly but get it so the bananas and peanut butter is all mixed in or in small pieces.

3) Slowly whisk in the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.  Mix until everything is just mixed and there are no clumps.  Be careful to not over mix, because then you will bring out the stretchy glutens, and won't make a nice fluffy waffle! 

4) I like to have the batter sit for a few minutes so the baking soda can start doing its work.  This is when I then preheat the waffle iron.  I set it to the highest setting because I like crispy waffles.  

5) Once the waffle iron is heated, I use a bit of butter on both sides of the iron to be sure that the waffle doesn't stick.  Then pour a ladleful of batter in the center of the iron, and close it up.  Follow however your waffle iron tells you they are done! Viola! Yummy, good for you, chocolate waffles are here!