Gingerbread Waffles with Peach Sauce

A weekend breakfast that brings December cookie flavor to the waffle iron. The batter starts from buttermilk baking mix for speed, then gets loaded with molasses, brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg until it tastes like the inside of a gingerbread cookie. The peach sauce is the genius pairing here.

Canned peaches and their heavy syrup get spun with cornstarch and a squeeze of lemon juice, then heated until glossy and thick. Spooned over the warm waffles, the bright fruit cuts through the deep molasses notes and keeps the plate from feeling too rich.

These are not the crisp Belgian-style waffles you might be expecting. The high sugar and molasses content yields a soft, cake-like crumb with crisp edges and a tender middle, more like a spice pancake shaped in a grid than a classic Liege.

Pro Tips

• Watch the iron carefully. Molasses and brown sugar burn fast, so go shorter than you think on the cook timer and pull at the first sign of dark crust.
• Stir cornstarch into the lemon juice before adding to the warm peach syrup. Dumping dry starch into hot liquid clumps every time.
• Save the heavy syrup from the canned peaches, do not pour it down the drain. That is the body of the sauce.
• Serve immediately. Cake-style waffles soften within minutes once they leave the iron.

Variations

• Swap canned peaches for fresh sliced peaches and a quarter cup of brown sugar during summer peach season.
• Stir crystallized ginger or chopped pecans into the batter for extra texture and bite.
• Use apricot or pear preserves in place of the peach sauce when peaches are out of season.