Gluten Free Chocolate Buckwheat Waffles

This was a recipe I tried out a while back by doing a straight vegan translation of a Bon Appétit recipe here. The waffles were ok, the lacked a lot of body and I seem to remember having to pry them off my waffle maker quite a bit. But I hadn’t forgotten the potential they had as some guilt free waffles so I decided to do some internet sleuthing and see how other people modified the recipe. I made my own buttermilk and then did an egg substitute and while sometimes a straight sub works in non vegan recipes it is occasionally a fail and I’m not well versed enough yet to tell you exactly why that is.

I pulled up The Simple Veganista, Vegan Richa, and Green Smoothie Gourmet to compare and contrast and the thing I found is that each of them omitted the egg subs and use baking powder instead. Now, this doesn’t mean my recipe was wrong and I couldn’t have just done some tweaks it could just mean that someone worked out a good recipe with baking powder and everyone did what I did, they found it, made it in their kitchen and then posted it to their blog. I like to do my best to tell you exactly where all my recipes come from because I think it’s important to highlight other chefs, so I decided to go with Simple Veganista’s recipe here only because I think it’s more approachable but please note that each of them have links here. I would also like to remind you that once again I have pulled up three recipes to compare-four if you count the non vegan version-and I always do this when creating my own versions or just trying to figure out which one I want to attempt because as I have stated before, not all recipes are created equally, and you don’t know if someone has just yanked a recipe to create content and whether they have tested it out in their own kitchen, which btw, not mad at, it gets expensive and wasteful when you can’t eat it all on your own.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 ½ cups buckwheat flour

• ½ cup organic cocoa powder

• ¼ cup sugar (organic pure cane or coconut sugar)

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon, optional

• ½ teaspoon mineral salt

• 1 ¾ cup unsweetened almond milk, or plant milk of choice

• ¼ cup light flavored olive oil, coconut oil or applesauce

• 1 teaspoon vanilla, optional

Maple Nut Butter Syrup (serves 2)

• 4 tablespoons almond butter or nut butter of choice

• 4 tablespoons pure maple syrup

• 2 tablespoons water, + more as needed

INSTRUCTIONS

Nut butter maple syrup: First, mix your nut butter syrup. Combine ingredients in a small bowl and stir until smooth. For thinner syrup use more water. Set aside.

Preheat waffle maker to manufacturer’s instructions.

Waffle batter: In a medium size bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, salt. Add nut milk, oil and vanilla, mix until combined.

Cook: Pour batter onto the center of waffle iron, close and cook about 3 – 4 minutes (or according to your waffle maker’s instructions). Gently remove waffles and serve right away. You can also keep waffles warm in a preheated oven at 200 degrees F., keep waffles on a cookie sheet until all waffles are ready.

Serve with the maple nut butter syrup and sliced bananas.

Store: Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator for 4 – 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 2 – 3 months. Reheat in the toaster oven.

Makes 4 – 5 regular or 2 Belgian waffles.