Nutella Inspiration Waffles

I discovered a wonderful blog by Amy Chaplin called Coconut and Quinoa in a search for a waffle recipe that included nut meal and cocoa. This recipe was my jumping off point. I do hope to make it as written someday, but this morning I was fulfilling a long ago made request for chocolate waffles. I've made Amy's Roasted Squash, Carmelized Onion and Goat Cheese Tart and it was to die for good. Hopefully, she'll let me repost the recipe...although truth be told, it's looking at her photos that will convince you to make it.
Ok, back to the waffles. Nutella. So good. I had hazelnut meal in the fridge that needed using up, so thought immediately of pairing it with cocoa. I've left the orange in from the original recipe for a more grown up flavor, but you could leave that out if it doesn't appeal (I SO wanted to spell that "appeel") to you. I stuck with a more neutral flavored oil instead of extra virgin olive oil, added some vanilla, and a bit of dried espresso to deepen the chocolate flavor all the more. To drive home the Nutella goodness, I mixed about 1 Tbs into some fat-free Greek yogurt to top the waffles.
True confession time now. I also mixed in homemade agave sweetened coconut cream. Decidedly not fat-free. Wow.

Nutella Inspiration Waffles:

1 Cup whole spelt flour
1/4 cup good quality unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
3/4 cup hazelnut meal (almond meal would be great too)
2 eggs (separated)
optional: ~1 tsp orange zest
1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
3/4 cup almond milk, soymilk, regular milk, etc. (I poured 1 tsp of vanilla into the measuring cup and then filled to 3/4 full with the milk)
1/4 cup canola oil, or other neutral flavored oil
1/2 tsp dried espresso powder (optional)
2+ Tbs Sucanat

Topping:
Mix together-
(~1/4 cup Coconut cream...only because I had it, but man was this good!)
Greek yogurt
~1 Tbs Nutella
Agave nectar to taste


Heat a Belgian waffle iron.

Sift spelt flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt into a medium sized mixing bowl. Stir in hazelnut meal and set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together, egg yolks, orange zest if using, orange juice, vanilla/milk combo, espresso powder if using, Sucanat, and oil.

Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks in a third bowl.
Stir the milk/juice mix into the dry ingredients. Then, gently fold the egg whites into the batter.

Brush heated waffle iron with oil and go forth and waffle! Cook waffles until little to no steam is coming out...we used a large Belgian waffle iron for this. Best eaten directly off the iron, but we did keep most of them warm in a low oven. Alas, they lose their crispness doing this. Delicious all the same. Top waffle with yogurt/Nutella/agave mixture....mmmmmmmm....