I've been trying to come up with different healthy breakfast ideas. My problem is that I get bored pretty easily, so I don't like to have the same thing too many days in a row. And I also want my breakfasts to be filling. I hate it when I eat breakfast only to feel hungry again half an hour later.

To that end, oatmeal is generally out. People always talk about how filling oatmeal is -- how it's a good stick-to-your-ribs breakfast that keeps you feeling full -- but I've never found it to be so. Oatmeal can be really tasty, but even if I have a big bowl of it, I'm ALWAYS hungry ~20 minutes later. Very disappointing. I still eat oatmeal occasionally becuase I do like it. I just wish that it didn't mean either feeling ravenously hungry for half the day or accepting that I'll need to have second breakfast halfway through the morning.

So, oatmeal is a sometimes food, but not a good breakfast go-to for me. Eggs in various forms have been a pretty good bet lately. I had scrambled eggs with feta and spinach for a few days. Then egg salad on bread. Then I switched to salmon salad for a few days. And now I've finished off all of those and I was on the hunt for some new breakfast options.

I probably should have made some sourdough okonomi yaki this morning. But I was feeling extremely tired and flattened and I've also been craving chocolate a lot lately so, in the end, I went with some purportedly healthy chocolate waffles instead.

I will grant that these waffles have very little added sugar. And almost no added fat. So they have that going for them. Unfortunately they are also incredibly bitter. Like, pretty much inedibly so.

The author said that she deliberately didn't add much sweetener to the recipe because she knows how much syrup her family drowns their waffles in, but... man, the amount of syrup these need to be palateable pretty much negates their healthfulness.

I've modified the recipe a bit. I haven't had a chance to test this (hopefully) improved version yet. But I'm optimistic that these changes will cut some of the bitterness without reducing the healthfulness of the recipe.

My first idea was to swap out some of the cocoa powder for powdered peanut butter. I figured that less cocoa == less bitter. And while, yes, that will also mean less chocolate flavour, I'm hoping that replacing some of the chocolate with peanut butter will still result in something pleasingly tasty, even if it is less chocolate-y.

The second change isn't so much a change as a restoration. I normally halve the salt most recipes. I did that here as well. But I think maybe it would be best to keep the original quantity of salt as salt also helps to mask bitterness in food.

And finally -- and this one is probably the riskiest -- I think I'd like to try swapping out the natural cocoa powder for Dutch-processed cocoa. The recipe author gives dire warnings against doing this because of the difference in pH and because natural cocoa powder has a stronger chocolate flavor than Dutched¹. This recipe contains a lot of baking soda, so switching from acidic natural cocoa powder to neutral Dutch-processed is a bit risky. That said, there is also a massive quantity of vinegar in the batter. Way more than I would've thought necessary to react with 2 tsp. of baking soda. So, I suspect that I will be able to get away with the swap here. But I haven't tested that theory yet. If I can though, that should also help cut the bitterness. We'll see how it goes...

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Waffles

Adapted from Amy's Healthy Baking

Ingredients

• 150g whole wheat flour
• 60g Dutched cocoa powder
• 1/4 c. peanut butter powder (de-fatted peanut flour)
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 tsp. coconut oil, melted
• 2 large egg whites
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp. maple syrup
• 1/2 c. fat-free Greek yogurt
• 1/4 c. vinegar
• 3/4 c. milk
• 5 Tbsp. water

Directions

1. Get your waffle iron out and start it preheating.
2. Meanwhile, combine flour, cocoa, peanut flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and mix well.
3. In a separate (large) bowl, combine the coil, egg whites, vanilla, maple syrup, yogurt, vinegar, and milk and mix well.
4. Add ~1/3 of the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until just combined.
5. Mix in ~2 Tbsp. of the water followed by half the remaining dry ingredients.
6. Mix in the remaining 3 Tbsp. of water followed by the remaining dry ingredients.
7. Scoop the batter into your waffle maker and cook according to the instructions for your model.
8. Carefully remove waffles from waffle iron and set on wire rack.
9. Serve with syrup, jam, yogurt, fresh fruit, and/or peanut butter fluff².

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¹ Interestingly, I was always told the opposite: that Dutched cocoa was both darker and carried a richer, deeper chocolate flavour than natural. Now I don't know who was right. But, either way, the point about the pH is relevant regardless of what the flavour is like. ^Back
2 I actually made a slightly variant on the original peanut butter fluff recipe to top my waffle with. I'm trying to keep things low calorie, so I replaced the peanut butter with powdered peanut butter (same volume, but 1/2 c. of peanut flour is equivalent to roughly 1/4 c. of actual peanut butter, so I effectively halved the peanut butter). I also swapped out the honey for Splenda since we have a bit left and it should be used up anyway. I think the Splenda gives it a weird flavour. It's not my favourite sweetener. I'm just trying to use up what we have because I don't want to throw it out. Might try the new monk fruit sweetener or some stevia at some point in the future and see if I like that any better. But the Splenda was good enough to get the job done today. ^Back