Pumpkin Eggnog Waffles with Chocolate Chips

Tender pumpkin waffles made with pumpkin spice eggnog, with chocolate chips inside and out.

Chocolate is a comfort food, and comfort foods are good in lousy situations. Traditions are comforting, too. So a tradition that involves chocolate can sometimes be just the ticket for comfort.

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I'm not certain how we started the tradition of going out for chocolate chip breakfast foods en route home from the airport after seeing off my spouse for a deployment. I think he had an early flight and we didn't want to wake the kids up until just before we were ready to leave. Dawn was breaking as I drove home, and I just wasn't ready to face reality so we stopped for breakfast. I ordered chocolate chip pancakes. The kids were young, and the idea of mom eating a mountain of chocolate for breakfast must have surprised them. The next time he deployed we had chocolate chip pancakes deliberately--something to look forward to after saying goodbye. After we moved to Ohio we had to adjust the tradition, as all military families learn to do. The next departure was on Mother's Day, and while at Waffle House eating chocolate chip waffles I got a carnation from the staff. Too sweet.

That brings you up to speed for the reasoning behind this recipe. This time the kids said goodbye and headed off to school, knowing that we'd get our chocolate chip waffles in a homemade version/after school snack so I could blog about it for #Choctoberfest.

Military children are nothing if not resilient. A food blogger's kids are nothing if not resigned to eating when the photos have been taken.  The day turned dark and gloomy, though, so I greeted my returning children with:

Yes, I know it's our tradition to eat chocolate chip waffles the day your father deploys, but the lighting is bad for taking photos. We'll have our waffles tomorrow, ok?

Gotta love kids that will roll with the changes life brings.

Some people celebrate ALL THINGS PUMPKIN by choice. I do it by necessity.

Despite never purposefully planting them,  I grow about a dozen pumpkins in my back yard every year. I hate to waste food, so that means I spend time each Fall processing a pile of pumpkins into puree. It also means that while my pantry is not stocked with cans of pumpkin the freezer has bags of puree stuffed every which way. I don't mind all the pumpkin. Because I put it up, I can choose the amount I want to have in each package. [If you're using canned pumpkin just double the recipe and use the entire can. It will be close enough.]

For more recipes using pumpkin, please see my Pumpkin Recipes Collection. This is part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me who eat seasonally or have a backyard prone to producing pie pumpkins. Want to know how to use this blog? Click here.

Note: I do not recommend taking photos in the middle of the process, because the time spent getting the camera, taking the shot, adding more batter then taking another shot will result in rather browned waffles.

Pumpkin Eggnog Waffles with Chocolate Chips

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup roasted pumpkin puree (if using a whole can of pure pumpkin, double the recipe)
• 1+¼ cups pumpkin spice flavored eggnog (or the eggnog of your choice)
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups (8+½ ounces) unbleached all purpose flour
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• optional--½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• mini chocolate chips--as many as you'd like (at least ¼ cup per person, let's be real)

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, combine eggs, pumpkin, eggnog and oil. Beat well (I use a whisk).
2. Dump the flour, baking powder and salt on top. (You'd put the pumpkin pie spice here if you're using it).
3. Stir until just barely combined, then walk away. 
4. Seriously! Leave the waffle batter alone for at least 10 minutes on up to an hour.
5. Pour the mini chocolate chips into a bowl to snack on have handy when you get busy.
6. When you're ready to cook (bake?), spray your waffle iron with whatever you usually use, and preheat it. While you're preheating, set the oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit for good measure. After playing around with the first 2 test waffles, I found that these moist waffles needed a bit higher setting than my usual buttermilk waffles and adjusted the setting up a bit.
7. Pour about ⅔ of your usual waffle amount onto the waffle iron. Sprinkle a tablespoon or so of chocolate chips on each waffle. Top with the remaining ⅓ of batter. Every waffle iron is different so I don't want you dumping in too much--though I have waffle batter oozing out the side darn near every time.
8. Close the waffle iron and cook according to manufacturer's instructions.
9. Move waffles to a rack in a warm oven until you're ready to serve, and keep on cooking.
10. To serve, top waffles with more chocolate chips, butter, locally produced maple syrup . . .

I created this recipe for #Choctoberfest, a celebration of all things chocolate. If you haven't already, check out my first #Choctoberfest post to learn all about the sponsors and enter the giveaway.
I also shared Trail Mix with {Leftover} Halloween Candy, S'mores-filled Peanut Butter Oatmeal Blondies, and Chocolate Beet Crinkle Cookies.

There are many mouthwatering chocolate recipes from the talented #Choctoberfest blogger group--check them out!

An InLinkz Link-up

One more--behind the scenes--my spouse really helps out with keeping the kitchen counters cleared off, you can sure tell when he's gone: