Maple Peanut Butter Bacon Waffles

A hearty whole grain waffle flavored with maple syrup and peanut butter. These also have a bonus crunch from crumbled bits of crisply cooked bacon baked right into the waffle.

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When the weather turns to warm days with cold nights my thoughts run like sap straight to maple syrup. I get my jugs of locally-harvested maple syrup at the farmer's market and, to paraphrase the little old lady in the hot sauce commercial, I put that $%^! on everything.

I've shared muffins made using maple syrup, like my Healthy Morning Glory Muffins,  Winter Squash and Banana Muffins,  and {No Sugar} Carrot Cake Muffins.  I've used maple syrup in desserts, like my Pumpkin Cranberry Maple Kugel (although this makes an awesome breakfast) and Maple Doodle Cookies. I've even used maple syrup to sweeten up savory dishes like Maple Teriyaki Salmon Sushi and my Red Cabbage, Leek, Brat and Beet Skillet Supper (aka Hot Pink Mess) and in my morning Orange and Beet Smoothie. I'm a big fan of real maple syrup from local producers.

Three different stores for these ingredients--the local grocery, the farmer's market, and The Christmas Tree Shops (because where else do you buy peanut butter but The Christmas Tree Shops?).

When the maple syrup jug is brand new I tend to be quite free and easy with my syrup. Only towards the end of the jug do I get a bit stingy, but I am fortunate to enjoy a year round farmer's market so a new jug is just a Saturday morning trip away.


I didn't intend for this to be my second Friday Waffles with Meat post in a row, but I guess it turned out this way. At the beginning of the year I looked thorough the previous year's unblogged photos and jotted down recipes that would be suitable on each page of my monthly editorial calendar. [Sounds fancy, but I just printed off some calendar pages with boxes big enough to write in.] When I sat down yesterday to plot out my March recipes, these waffle photos spoke to me the loudest. Always listen to the waffles. I put them down first. Only after I looked at my recent posts did I realize that a mere week ago I posted my Corned Beef Hash Brown Waffles.

Other waffle recipes I feel like pointing out on the blog are my Butternut Squash Waffles, Overnight Yeasted Carrot Waffles, Eggnog Sourdough Waffles, Banana Blender Waffles, and Chocolate Zucchini Waffles. Yes, we eat a fair amount of waffles around here (and leftovers become school day breakfasts) because it's easy to make a few rounds and then call everyone to the table so we can sit together and enjoy breakfast.

Though that doesn't always happen when you have sleeping-in teens and a hungry, early-rising spouse, so sometimes we eat in shifts.

That doesn't mean we eat alone.


Often a crowd appears.

Maple Peanut Butter Bacon Waffles (adapted from Alton Brown's Food Network basic waffle recipe)

Ingredients

• 2 ounces (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 3 eggs
• 16 ounces buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ⅓ cup peanut butter (eyeballed, I hate to get measuring cups dirty for this)
• 3 Tablespoons pure maple syrup (good grief not that 'breakfast syrup' stuff)
• 1 cup (4 ¼ ounces by weight) white whole wheat flour
• 1 cup (4 ounces by weight) whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon salt (I use kosher)
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ cup crumbled crisply cooked bacon pieces

Instructions

1. In a large bowl whisk together melted butter and eggs. Whisk in buttermilk, vanilla, and peanut butter until smooth. Whisk in maple syrup. This is the wet team.
2. Dump all the dry ingredients on top, and whisk together until blended. Scatter the bacon on top, and give it one last whisk.
3. Walk away for a good 10 to 60 minutes to allow the batter to hang out and become more than the sum of its parts.
4. Preheat a waffle iron (Amazon affiliate link to mine) over medium heat, and spray with an oil spray if desired. I do. 
5. Pour batter into each well and cook to desired doneness according to appliance directions. For my waffle iron I use about ⅓ to ½ cup batter per well, there are 4 square wells, and it's on setting 3. Then I move the waffles into the oven on warm until we're ready to eat. The remaining waffles hang out on the cooling rack until the kids pack them up for school day breakfasts.