My sons love waffles for breakfast and while I have no objection to the amount of maple syrup we seem to consume, I was not happy with the ingredient list in frozen waffles purchased from the grocery store. In my continuous effort to reduce the amount of packaged foods we eat, I came home one day with a new waffle maker. Needless to say, it has been a great hit. Our favourite waffles are made with vanilla yogurt, pecans and soy milk. I make a full batch every couple of weeks, freezing the extras so the boys can pop them in the toaster on school mornings. I like them with cottage cheese and some fruit on the side. They like them smothered in maple syrup. Whatever, they are much healthier than store bought.

Note:  This is a large batch, it makes about 50 square toast sized waffles.  It is fully scalable.  I have often made half or two-thirds batches with no difference in taste.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 3 cups unbleached white flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 or two single serve containers vanilla yogurt
• approx. 5 cups soy milk (see below for exact amount, you can use regular milk as well.  If you want to be decadent, use about 1/4 cup half and half cream in place of some of the milk.)
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 6 jumbo eggs (or 7 large)
• 1 cup chopped pecans

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat waffle maker.
2. Place flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in mixing bowl.
3. Place yogurt in large measuring cup.  Add enough milk to bring total liquid measure to 5 1/2 cups.  Add to dry ingredients along with vegetable oil and eggs.
4. Add chopped pecans.
5. Blend in mixer until well combined, about 2 minutes.  Let rest for 5 minutes.
6. Pour batter into preheated grid.  Spread with heat proof spatula until batter just covers lower part of grid.  Close lid and cook until desired crispness.

I sometimes add blueberries or other fruit to make Blueberry Waffles.  You can add the blueberries to the mixture but interestingly the blueberries mostly float so you end up with more blueberries in the first waffles than the last.  So now I just add them individually to the batter once it is poured into the grid, before I close the lid.

Yield:  About 50 square waffles.