Malted Chocolate Chip Waffles with Maple-Cherry Sauce

Life has been really busy lately. Well, no. I should say work has been very busy lately and it’s been bleeding into my life. I love my job but sometimes it can be tough to remember why when I’m still sitting at my computer trying to finish coding a website at 9pm. Despite the long hours, I almost always feel like I’m never getting enough done, which leads to mentally beating myself up about not working hard enough/being good enough, etcetera, etcetera.

A couple of weeks ago I finally realized that is not the way I should be doing things. In fact, I realized that the all negative mental energy I was carrying around was actually making me less productive. So I decided to start over. Instead of being anxious about starting on something (because maybe it’ll be too hard or it won’t be good enough) I’m making an effort to just get started already and just do the best I can. Also, in a effort to make everything not all about work, I’ve been rewarding (aka bribing) myself when I do get big stuff done. This new attitude has helped me immensely and this past week was especially productive. So as a reward I’m gave myself a relaxing weekend of absolutely no work and these malted chocolate chip waffles.

I’ve had this idea floating around in my head for ages. It’s inspired by these great Malted Blueberry Waffles from one of my favorite food blogs, Heat Oven to 350. I happened to see some chocolate malted milk powder at Walmart one day and I immediately knew what I wanted to do. I tested the recipe a while ago but it wasn’t quite there. This weekend I finally tested it again with a few changes and the waffles turned out just like I had hoped.

The malted milk powder gives these waffles a subtle malt flavor that tastes great with the chocolate chips. Despite being made with chocolate malt powder, these waffles aren’t actually that chocolaty. I just wanted to make that clear so people don’t go in thinking these waffles are going to taste like a brownie or something. That said, the chocolate chips add more than enough chocolate flavor to satisfy the choco-holics out there.

I love the combination of cherries and chocolate and I just happened to have a bag of cherries that needed to be used up, so I cooked them down into a sauce along with some maple syrup to make a delicious (and even healthy) topping for these waffles. The cherry sauce can be made ahead of time and it also tastes great swirled into Greek yogurt or as an ice cream topping.

These simple but decadent chocolate chip waffles really were the perfect reward after my busy week. They’d be great for a lazy weekend brunch, breakfast for dinner after a long day or even as a quick late night snack when you’re craving chocolate. To borrow a saying from one of my favorite TV shows, sometimes you just gotta Treat Yo’ Self!

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Malted Chocolate Chip Waffles with Maple-Cherry Sauce

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adapted from The Art of Breakfast via Heat Oven to 350

Breakfast | Yield: 12-14 squares (about 4 servings)
Prep time: 30 min | Cook time: 8 min | Total time: 1 hour

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup chocolate malted milk powder or plain malted milk powder
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup melted coconut oil (slightly cooled) or canola oil
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Maple-Cherry Sauce

• 20 oz. (about 4 cups) fresh or frozen cherries, stemmed, pitted and halved
• 2 tbsp. water
• 1/4 cup maple syrup (or more to taste)

Process

1. Make the sauce (this can be made 2 days ahead): Place cherries and water in a sauce pan, cover and cook on medium-low for about 5-10 minutes or until cherries start to release their juice (this will take longer if using frozen cherries). Increase heat to medium and cook about 10 to 15 more minutes until cherries are very soft. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Transfer to a food processor or blender and puree the cherries. Or, if you prefer a chunkier sauce, gently mash the cherries with a wooden spoon or a potato masher. If you’re making this ahead of time, store the cherry sauce in your fridge.
2. When you’re ready to make the waffles, transfer the sauce back to your sauce pan and stir in the maple syrup. Taste and add more syrup if you prefer. You can also add a little more water for a thinner sauce. Cook over medium heat until thoroughly heated, turn down to low to keep warm until ready to serve.
3. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, malted milk powder, sugar, baking powder and salt.
4. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the milk, oil, egg and vanilla.
5. Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and stir until moist. Don’t overmix, the batter should be lumpy. Gently stir in the chocolate chips.
6. Heat your waffle iron and coat with cooking spray. Scoop 1/4 cup of batter on each square of your waffle iron (or 1/2 to 2/3 cup if you’re using a Belgian waffle iron). Cook until golden brown, about 8 minutes (or until your waffle iron’s light goes off). If not serving immediately, arrange waffles in a single layer on a baking sheet and place in a 250 degree oven to keep warm and crisp.

Serve warm, topped with maple-cherry sauce.