Kicky Waffle Syrup on Textured Rice Vegan Waffle

Makes 1 1/4 cups

This topping will go with many neutral vegan waffle recipes. It has a bit of a kick from the ginger. It’s a topping I recently started making in bulk to put on my oatmeal, and I’ll also be making a batch for our waffle party. Accompany with non-dairy vanilla ice cream, dried cranberries, and walnuts, if you like.

I snapped the photo without the tripod, while pouring the syrup, so it’s not super-artsy. Cool purple-pink plastic plate, though! And I didn’t get any syrup on the camera.

• 1 cup real maple syrup
• 1/4 cup molasses (preferably blackstrap)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg or mace
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan. Stir constantly over medium heat until the spices are dissolved and syrup is desired warmth. Pour generously over your favorite waffle.

Makes about 1 1/4 cups.

Thanks to Blakely of Boston, MA for recently emphasizing how wonderfully peanut butter goes with chocolate vegan waffles, and suggesting that some type of related sauce might be in order.

Coincidentally, I grew up within walking distance of an ice cream shop, and was helplessly addicted to one of their premiere sundaes, which featured chocolate ice cream, fudge, and peanut butter syrup. As I child, I spent a few hours in the kitchen one weekend trying to figure out how they made their peanut butter syrup. (And many years later, I made a few richer and dairy-free versions of the whole sundae.) So I can certainly relate to Blakely’s fondness of the classic chocolate peanut butter combo.

I ended up realizing that I could approximate the flavor of the shop’s peanut butter topping by simply mixing a bit of brown sugar with peanut butter and heating it. A week ago, however, a new flavor entered the equation while enjoying a drink at a local cafe: coffee. So here’s a simple hybrid of an old favorite, for those of you who enjoy your chocolate waffles with a twist.

• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons instant coffee granules (see note)
• 1 cup peanut butter

Combine the hot water, brown sugar, and coffee granules in a small saucepan. Stir constantly over medium heat until the sugar and coffee granules are dissolved. Add the peanut butter, and stir constantly just until evenly warm.

Note: Reduce coffee granules to 1 teaspoon if you want just a hint of coffee flavor.

Note: This is a pretty thick topping. To thin, just add another 1/4 cup of water or non-dairy milk and continue to stir constantly over medium heat until evenly warm.

Sometimes you just know that you were meant to have something. That happened to me recently when we ran a wilderness 10K on the trails of Grand Island, just off Michigan’s beautiful Upper Peninsula.

Dave & Jen with a waffle-worthy bottle of syrup

Due to its location and efforts to minimize ecological impact, the event didn’t have a huge number of runners. Nonetheless, I was still excited to win the award given to the first finisher in each age class: a bottle of real maple syrup from neighboring Wisconsin. A prize just doesn’t get any more fitting than that! We’ve already gone through about a third of the bottle, which I agreed to share with Jen because she completed her first 10K that day.  All right, I may have shared it with her even if she hadn’t run…

While I most regularly use the darker grade B syrup from our Co-op, I have to say that this stuff (from Maas Sugarbush, which appears to have no information on the web) is also pretty darn tootin’ good. I’m not sure of the grade, but it’s a bit darker than some of the grade A amber syrups we’ve had, with nearly the same thickness as the grade B we normally use. It has plenty of maple flavor alongside the sweetness. On a hot day, it’s also great to mix a bit of it with some chilled hazelnut milk and a few ice cubes. If you’re ever in that region of the world, it’s worth taking home a bottle for your vegan waffles or pancakes, even if you don’t feel like running around on an island.

This basic but delicious sauce has topped many vegan waffles, and has long been a staple of our annual parties. With a richer, more bittersweet chocolate flavor than most store-bought chocolate syrups, it complements many fresh fruit toppings, as well as vegan ice cream. Makes about 3/4 cup.

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup vegan margarine
• 1/4 cup soymilk or other nondairy milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients except the vanilla extract in a small saucepan. Stir constantly and briskly over medium heat until half a minute after it begins to boil. Continue to scrape the bottom to incorporate any dry cocoa and keep it from burning. Immediately remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Don’t eat it all before you have a chance to spoon some onto a waffle!