Looking for easy fall breakfast ideas? These homemade simple pumpkin waffles definitely need to happen in your waffle maker this autumn!
The recipe makes a quick batter from scratch with an entire cup of pumpkin, eggs, flour, spices like cinnamon and nutmeg and milk.
Bake to crispy and fluffy perfection in your waffle iron, then load them with your favorite healthy toppings for breakfast (or ice cream for dessert!).
So last week these super simple pumpkin waffles happened in my kitchen. Aren’t they beautiful? It was love at first sight for us!
Now they really are plain-old-straight-forward-nothing-fancy-shmancy pumpkin waffles. No cream cheese, no caramel, no brown butter, no nothing.
Just pumpkin batter plus waffle iron, which gives the entire stage to Mr. Pumpkin alone. And boy, does he take it and run with it!
You know what else is running? Time. It’s October already? Oktoberfest, Canadian Thanksgiving and Halloween?
It’s not that I care much about the actual Oktoberfest (but HELLO German food!) or know anything about Canadian Thanksgiving but Halloween?
Halloween is ace (that’s British for awesome though I’m starting to think saying “awesome” is much cooler) and every year I slightly regret being a grown up and not invited to any cool parties.
The one time I really (and I mean REALLY) celebrated Halloween as an adult was when I was working in a pub and guys! It was so good I might just need to combine ace with awesome.
I had only started working there on the first of October, so I was terribly new to the whole beer tapping and drunk customer handling kind of thing. The bar staff coordinates their costumes every year and it was the year of the Adams Family. The roles had pretty much been distributed already and guess who was left?
The grandma.
Now up until then my understanding of Halloween had been to dress up in a cutesy (or sexy, depending on your relationship status (brackets inside brackets: Facebook was still cool back then)) costume but apparently some people like to make themselves look as horrifying as possible.
Well, the good employee I was I absolutely cooperated and became a scary grandmother for one night.
I put on a huge black skirt and wrapped a fussy scarf around my shoulders. My hair was tousled and sprayed with white temporary hair dye while my face was painted in the most gruesome way possible.
But the coolest thing? My coworker got me this weird black tooth varnish and guys, it looked so REAL!
One of the regular customers kept telling me all evening that I shouldn’t have done that to myself and that he was never going to look at me again. When I was standing outside for a quick break a teenage girl actually shrieked when she saw me.
Yeah, those were the good times, making people jump with my appearance. Fun, right?
It was way less fun to actually be working. This party was HUGE.
There were so many people, the whole place was darkened (with bin bags stapled to the ceiling – my job during slow nights in November was getting rid of staples forgotten up there) and we constantly ran out of glasses. I don’t think I ever worked so hard in my life as during that night but it was such a great experience.
Now if there is any way to make your Halloween absolutely legendary if you don’t have the chance to work in a bar – start the day off with those waffles.
In fact, start any day during pumpkin season off with them babies. (Or with Pumpkin Stuffed French Toast. Your call.)
Their plain and simple appearance will give you all the oh-hey-it’s-fall-and-therefore-I-must-eat-all-the-pumpkins (abuse of dashes much?) satisfaction you need!
Hold on, can you hear them whispering too? “Go make us now”!
A few tips to make sure these simple pumpkin waffles turn out perfectly for you:
Don’t overmix the batter
When stirring the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, you want them to be just mixed.
If you whisk both together really hard, the waffles will turn out more dense and chewy instead of light and fluffy. Scroll back up to the recipe video to see what my batter looks like!
Bake them correctly
Because of the pumpkin, the waffles are quite soft as-is. If you don’t bake them right in your waffle iron, they will not turn out the way they should.
Use medium-high heat and allow the waffle maker to fully heat up before greasing.
Bake the waffles until they are crispy on the outside. They will crisp up more once they’re out of the waffle maker and soften back up if left at room temperature for too long.
The waffles might look a bit gooey when cut into while warm, but if you tear them you should see how fluffy they are.
Use them as a make-ahead breakfast or freeze them
If you want to make the waffles the day before, this is what I suggest:
Bake the waffles as instructed. Once you remove them from the waffle iron, immediately place them on a cooling rack.
Once the waffles have cooled down, cover them with a clean kitchen towel and leave them at room temperature.
The waffles will feel soft in the morning, but don’t worry! Pop them into the toaster until they’re hot and crispy.
If you want to freeze the waffles:
Bake the waffles as instructed. Once you remove them from the waffle iron, immediately place them on a cooling rack.
Once the waffles have completely cooled down, place them into freezer bags individually. Alternatively, place them in a single layer on a lined baking sheet and freeze until solid before transferring stacks of waffles to freezer bags.
Freeze the waffles for up to three months. Reheat them in a toaster. Alternatively, bake them on a lined baking sheet for 10-12 minutes at 350°F in your preheated oven.
Here is the printable recipe for these easy pumpkin waffles:
Watch the simple pumpkin waffles recipe video:
Simple Pumpkin Waffles Recipe
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Wet Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 1 1/3 cup milk
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 3 tablespoons butter melted
- 1 cup pumpkin purée
Instructions
- In a large bowl stir together the dry ingredients. In a measuring cup whisk the eggs, milk, maple syrup and melted butter well, then stir in the pumpkin purée.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
- Bake the waffles in your waffle iron according to the manufacturer's instructions.