Carrot Cake Waffles with Cream Cheese Topping

Happy National Waffle Day! Today I was invited to celebrate at Fox59 by sharing a unique waffle recipe. In the past I've made brownie waffles and blueberry waffles and cinnamon waffles, but since today was a special holiday I wanted to make something more unique.

That very day that I was asked to do the segment, my mom told me about a recipe for carrot cake waffles that she saw in the newspaper. It was fate! I love carrot cake and I can't think of a more perfect spring treat. And instead of syrup I opted for cream cheese topping because everyone knows you can't have carrot cake without cream cheese.

In the past, I've been hesitant to make waffles because, let's be real, they're a pain to clean up! All of those little grids that you have to hand wash. But recently my dad got this Hamilton Beach waffle iron that is awesome because you can take the grids out and they're dishwasher safe! This post isn't sponsored by Hamilton Beach - it's just a little suggestion in case you don't already own a waffle iron.

Carrot Cake Waffles with Cream Cheese Topping

Yield: About 4 waffles

Ingredients

For the waffles: 

• 2 cups all-purpose flour 
• 4 teaspoons baking powder 
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt 
• 2 teaspoon cinnamon 
• 2 eggs 
• 3 tablespoons packed brown sugar 
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil 
• 8-ounce can crushed pineapple (not drained) 
• 1/2 cup toasted, chopped walnuts  or pecans
• 2/3 cup packed grated carrot 
• 1 cup buttermilk 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

For the cream cheese topping:

• 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

For the Waffles:

1. Heat waffle iron to medium-high.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, brown sugar, oil, pineapple, nuts, carrot, buttermilk and vanilla.
4. Gently stir the dry ingredients into the liquid ingredients just until combined. Batter will be very thick.
5. Spray the waffle iron with cooking spray and add 1 cup of batter, or an appropriate amount for your waffle iron.
6. Cook as directed for your waffle iron or until golden brown.

For the Cream Cheese Topping

1. Use a mixer to beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth, or about 1 minute.
2. Add the powdered sugar, lemon juice, vanilla and salt and beat until incorporated and smooth.
3. Spread on finished waffles

Recipe Adapted from The Columbus Dispatch