Chocolate Waffles (Two Ways!)

Well folks, I've done it again.  Chocolate for breakfast.  Isn't that the dream?  And what better way to start your Valentine's Day than with some chocolate waffles?  Trust me, the way to a man's heart is chocolate.  And waffles.  Hence, chocolate waffles!

The Belgian waffle maker I got for Christmas came with a few recipes.  I hadn't tried any of them yet, but I had my eye on a chocolate waffle recipe.  It's brilliant.  They suggested serving it as a dessert with ice cream.  I wanted it for breakfast.  So I used whole wheat and Splenda to make myself feel better about having chocolate for breakfast.

Now that I had decided I was going to make chocolate waffles for breakfast happen, I had some serious decisions to make.  What was I going to use as my topping?  I sometimes have donuts for breakfast.  I sometimes have coffee cake for breakfast.  But ice cream seemed like going a little too far.  I thought that for Valentine's Day, whipped topping and strawberries with strawberry syrup would be great.  But at the same time, peanut butter is chocolate's true valentine.  I remembered the peanut butter glaze I used on my Elvis cake and thought a thinned out version of that would be amazing on a chocolate waffle.  

I am horribly indecisive.  Or maybe I'm not.  No, I definitely am.  I couldn't decide which topping trail I wanted to take, so I took them both.  We cut the waffles in half and ate one half with peanut glaze, and the other half with lite Cool Whip/strawberries/strawberry syrup.  And they were both everything I hoped they would be. 

I had done it.  Chocolate waffles.  For breakfast.  More proof that you should always follow your dreams!  To get your Valentine's Day stated right, whisk together some whole wheat flour, cocoa powder (I used Hersey's Special Dark), baking powder, and salt.

And cream together the margarine and Splenda until they are blended.  Yeah, these aren't standard waffles!

Add half the milk. 

Then add half the dry ingredients, and the rest of the milk, and the rest of the dry ingredients and this is what you will get:

Grease up the old waffle iron (or new waffle iron for me!) and pour in that chocolate dream.  My waffle iron makes big Belgian waffles so I used about 3/4 cup.  The recipe I used said it would make 3-4 waffles.  I got 2.  I was sad I didn't 10.  These were so good I could eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  And brunch.  And as a snack!

And now it's time for you to start making your topping decision.  One one hand, you have the irresistible combination of chocolate and peanut butter.

But then, again, 'tis the season for chocolate and strawberries.  

 

This is how that plate looked about 5 seconds later:

Which would you prefer?  There's only one way to find out!

Chocolate Waffles

Ingredients:

1/4 cup margarine

1/2 cup sugar (or Splenda)

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

2/3 cup whole wheat flour

3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup skim milk

Directions:

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.

In a small mixing bowl or stand mixer, cream margarine and sugar until well blended.  Add egg and vanilla; blend until smooth.

Add half of milk and mix until combined.  Then add half of the dry ingredients and mix until combined.  Add the other half of the milk and then the other half of the dry ingredients.  Mix until blended.  Batter will be thicker than normal waffle batter.

Spray waffle iron with non-stick cooking spray.  Pour batter onto waffle iron and bake according to manufacturer's directions. 

Serve immediately with lite whipped topping, sliced strawberries, and strawberry syrup or peanut butter glaze.

Peanut Butter Glaze

Ingredients:

1/4 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1/2 cup- 3/4 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

Microwave peanut butter until softened.  Whisk peanut butter and melted butter together until smooth.  Whisk in powdered sugar.  Add additional water if you want the glaze thinner; add additional powdered sugar to make it thicker.

Recipe adapted from Proctor Silex