Whole wheat acorn squash waffles with walnut and cinnamon syrup

I've been on a bit of a breakfast recipe kick lately when it comes to winter squash. This time, it's waffles - waffles infused with a mashed acorn squash, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and topped with more cinnamon, sticky toasted walnuts, and warm maple syrup. 

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Yes, this is my kind of weekend breakfast. I wanted to use acorn squash for a couple of reasons. The first is that we had some really small ones, so I was hoping that i would be able to use it all in the recipe and not have any leftover squash remains. 

The second is that acorn squash is not very sweet when compared to many winter squashes and I like this in a breakfast that I'm going to douse in maple syrup. I'm not a fan of sweet overload, especially in the morning.

This recipe made 9 waffles for me, though this will depend on the size and shape of your waffle iron.

Whole wheat acorn squash waffles with walnut & cinnamon syrup
for the waffles
1 small acorn squash
1-1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 cup cold buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon real maple syrup
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
for the syrup
1/3 cup roughly chopped walnuts
1/3 cup real maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

First you need to prepare your acorn squash. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut the acorn squash in half lengthwise and remove all the seeds/strings. Place in a baking dish cut side-up and bake until you can easily pierce all the way through with a fork, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool until you can hold it. Turn the oven down to the lowest setting. 

When the squash is cooled, scoop out the flesh into a bowl and mash it up very well with a fork. You want it to be smooth. Measure out a packed 1/2 cup of the squash and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour through nutmeg). Then in a large bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients (buttermilk through butter) and the reserved 1/2 cup of mashed acorn squash until well-combined. Stir to dry ingredients into the wet until just combined. 

Lightly butter/grease your waffle iron as needed and cook the waffles according to manufacture instructions. Mine cooked two waffles at a time and each waffle used about 1/3 cup of batter. Once you remove the waffles from the iron, place them on a baking sheet and put in the oven to keep warm.

While the waffles are cooking, toast the walnuts in a dry skillet over low heat until fragrant. Then stir in the maple syrup and cinnamon. Keep on very low heat until the waffles are served.

When all the waffles batter is used, turn off the oven and serve the waffles topped with the walnut and cinnamon syrup.