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During the week, our breakfasts are simple, hurried affairs. I need lots of protein in the morning, so I usually stick to a couple of scrambled eggs or yogurt and fruit. Larry likes hot cereal which makes sense since he usually is working outdoors and needs one of those stick to your ribs kinda meals. On the weekends though, it is an entirely different story. Larry often makes our weekend breakfast, which consists of his specialty; bacon, homefries and eggs. I love waking up to the scent of someone frying up some bacon for my breakfast.
When we have company staying over, a lot of times I make pancakes or French toast. I like the idea of the Grandkids someday nostalgically remembering having blueberry pancakes at our house, and the good time we had sitting around our table after a meal, talking and laughing and sharing a couple of oranges among us.
Then, just lately, I began to crave the idea of waffles. I haven’t had them often after childhood when our parents made them for us – it was a team effort as I recall. The team effort makes sense when you are making breakfast for 5 kids I guess. Waffles – crispy on the outside, airy and light on the inside. All those little pockets to hold syrup and melty butter, and maybe applesauce or sliced berries. I bought a waffle ironon my best friend, Amazon, and made a few batches, which turned out very nicely, but then I wanted something more. I have a lot of pecans around right now, so I began searching for a recipe for Butter Pecan Waffles. Most of the recipes I found didn’t seem to have any chance of the rich flavor I equate with butter pecan. There is one rather odd recipe floating around that involves melting butter pecan ice cream for the batter, but that isn’t exactly what I had in mind. I fiddled around a little and came up with this quite satisfactory version – they are light, have a rich pecan flavor and a nice crispy exterior for soaking up lots of syrup.
I will say though, that if you are in a hurry, and have a bunch of hungry kids waiting, separating the eggs and whipping the whites might be more trouble than you want to take, and if that is the case, just use the whole eggs in the batter, blending them with the brown sugar where I added the yolks in the recipe. The result will not be quite as light, but there is not HUGE difference. Not enough to skip making them altogether if that is what it comes down to. Your kids will thank you, I imagine, even without that little extra bit of fluff.
I had to experiment a bit, which was tough duty, I can tell you. Is there anything more arduous than taste-testing 3 or 4 waffle recipes? I was tempted to fool with the recipe a little more, just so could enjoy a few more batches, but these were perfect, so I had to quit. I hope you appreciate our sacrifice, made just so that you can enjoy these crispy delights.

Butter Pecan Waffles
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose white flour
- 1 & ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup dark brown sugar
- 2 eggs separated
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ cup butter melted
- ¾ cup toasted pecans coarsely chopped
Instructions
- Begin heating your waffle iron, because that needs to be good and hot to ensure a nice crisp exterior.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, set aside.
- In another medium bowl, whisk the eggs and dark brown sugar together, then gradually whisk in the buttermilk and vanilla. Lastly, whisk the melted butter in.
- In a small bowl, whisk or beat egg whites until soft peaks form and set aside.
- Immediately combine the buttermilk and flour mixtures, stirring just until incorporated, then stir in the pecans
- Gently fold in the egg whites. The batter will be a little lumpy, and quite thick.
- Cook waffles according to your waffle iron instructions, and serve immediately with melted butter, warmed maple syrup and more toasted pecans.
- Makes 4 large Belgian style waffles, or around 8 regular sized square waffles.
I think I might be ready with a new memory, the next time the grandkids are down to visit Grandma & Grandpa!
Donalyn,
What a great idea to make memories with the grandkids! My kids are truly spoiled by having 2 sets of grandparents that utterly rock at the breakfasts. Visiting my folks, the kids sit at a breakfast bar overlooking the kitchen where my mom uses day old hoagie rolls for her mini french toasts. Visiting my in-laws, the kids sit in a big table with views of the woods on 2 sides and eat lots of bacon and french toast. They’ve got great memories, and it’s a wonderful thing that you are doing.
One question–do you incorporate any of the 3/4 cup toasted chopped pecans into the batter, or are they just sprinkled on top? I’ll go have a cup of tea and re-read, because my foggy brain is just having a little trouble this morning. Thanks!
Hi Kirsten – I know how special the memories of my own grandparents are, so I want to make sure our grands have equally good ones of us. Thanks so much for your kind comments!
As for the recipe, I do mix the pecans right in – I will update the instructions to make that more clear – thanks for catching the error!
Mmmmmmm! I’m bookmarking this to try out soon!
Thanks for the chocolate waffle recipe, we’ll try them out tomorrow!! For those who are not from the deep south, pecans are a staple like all purpose flour!! I buy in 10lb. pieces~ not ground~ pieces. I keep mine in the freezer til needed and I always toast them before using.
Tried this today and they turned out so good without any tweaking of the recipe! Wish I could post a picture of how delicious they looked!