Waffles and Buttermilk Syrup

Getting a waffle maker for Christmas results in an increase of waffles eaten. And Rachelle shared her amazing buttermilk syrup recipe with me, so now we can eat these delicious waffles with an even more delicious syrup! The waffle recipe I found here originally but I changed a few things and the syrup was on a recipe card Rachelle got from a work party. My recipe made 8 waffles (which freeze nicely if you have leftovers!) and the leftover syrup can be refrigerated and reheated, just make sure to heat until it is foamy and looks like the original end result. Enjoy!

Waffles
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups of flour (I used 1 cup whole wheat and 1 cup of all purpose flour)
- 1 3/4 cup milk (I used buttermilk. Just add 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice to milk and let sit for 5 minutes)
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon-ish cinnamon

1. Preheat waffle iron
2. Beat eggs in a large bowl with hand mixer until fluffy
3. Beat in flour, milk, oil, sugar, baking powder, salt, vanilla, and cinnamon just until smooth.
4. Spray preheated waffle iron with nonstick cooking spray. Pour mix onto hot waffle iron and cook until golden brown. (You know how to cook waffles.) Serve hot

Now first of all, the trick to making buttermilk is adding 1 tablespoon of lemon juice (or white vinegar works too) to 1 cup of milk. This recipe can be halved or doubled or whatever to suit the quantity of buttermilk you're making. Moving on.

Buttermilk Syrup
- 1/2 cup buttermilk (so add 1/2 tbsp lemon juice to 1/2 cup milk and let sit for 5 minutes)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon-ish cinnamon

1. Combine buttermilk, sugar, and butter in a saucepan and boil lightly for a few minutes.
2. Stir in vanilla, baking soda, and cinnamon.
3. The mixture with expand and become foamy (be careful, it might want to spill over the side of the pan. Move if off the heat momentarily if this happens) and ready to serve ASAP.

Whole Wheat Raspberry Walnut Muffins

Happy 2014! To start the new year and healthy eating goals (don't those two just go together? I mean really) Rachelle and I decided to make some delicious but healthy muffins. Thank you, Pinterest, for yet another awesome recipe. The recipe I found was on Apt. 2B Baking Co., but I adapted it a bit changing the measurements from grams to cups (you're welcome) and adding some cinnamon and vanilla (I didn't measure how much I added, so I just guesstimated here.) The results were pretty much the best healthy muffins I've ever made. It made about 18 muffins (I used a weird assortment of muffin tins so it may be a few more) and I'm freezing the leftovers for a quick breakfast another day!

Whole Wheat Raspberry Walnut Muffins

2 3/4 cups flour (I did 1 1/4 cup wheat and 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon-ish cinnamon
3/4 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 cup of milk
1/2 cup olive oil
zest of half an orange
1 teaspoon-ish vanilla
1 cup frozen raspberries
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. Line a muffin tin with muffin cups or grease it, whichever you prefer.
1. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, orange zest, eggs, milk, and olive oil until they are combined well.
3. Add them to the dry ingredients. Use a rubber spatula to fold the ingredients until the batter is almost fully combined.
4. Add the frozen berries and walnuts. I chopped up the berries even though the recipe said not to and I was pretty happy with the results. It just depends if you want chunks of berries or an even raspberry awesome. For the future, I would probably add a bit more berries if I'm chopping them up.
5. Fill the muffin tins 3/4 full and bake until the muffins are browned and a fork goes through cleanly, about 25 to 35 minutes (mine took 30 minutes-ish.)