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These Sweet Potato Waffles are loaded with warm spices, crystallized ginger, and orange butter, making these waffles unique and impressive.
If you're looking for your next favorite waffle recipe, try these out: Strawberry Waffles, Buttermilk Waffles, Peach Waffles, Corn Waffles, Blueberry Waffles, Fried Chicken and Waffles, Chocolate Waffles, and Belgian Liege Waffles.
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I love sweet potatoes. I eat them roasted, fried, mashed, and in sweet potato chips.
The best thing about sweet potatoes is that they are so versatile - you can add just about anything to them, and they will taste good! One of my favorite sweet potato dishes has got to be these waffles with orange butter. If you have never had sweet potato waffles before, you must try these out ASAP!
These waffles are a perfect breakfast option for using any leftover sweet potato casserole from dinner or a holiday meal, or for my pecan waffle recipe.
Sweet Potato Waffle Key Ingredients
To make these outstanding sweet potato waffles, you will need the following key ingredients:
All-Purpose Flour
Every great waffle base has flour. Flour is the foundation of helping your waffles be amazing.
Baking Powder
A little baking powder goes a long way to giving these waffles the perfect thickness.
Cinnamon
Cinnamon and sweet potatoes love each other. Usually, when you see one, you’ll see the other.
Nutmeg
Nutmeg is similar to cinnamon. A little goes a long way, especially when paired with sweet potatoes.
Ground Ginger
This warm spice is going to add another layer of flavor to these great waffles.
Sweet Potatoes
I love to use organic roasted sweet potatoes. They have more flavor and nutrients than conventionally grown sweet potatoes.
Light Brown Sugar
Sweet potatoes and brown sugar work well together, so I only use the best sugar on the market. I sometimes even go with raw cane sugar, which is less refined than white sugar, with the natural molasses essence.
Crystallized Ginger
This candy version of ginger adds a lovely sweetness, zing, and texture to the waffles.
Orange Marmalade
This store-bought item does all the heavy lifting for this amazing butter.
Salt
Always add a little salt to anything sweet to brighten up the flavors of all the ingredients.
Ingredients for Sweet Potato Waffles
To make the best sweet potato waffles ever, you need a recipe that’s proven to produce deliciousness. Here’s how you make these delicious waffles and homemade butter.
- Sweet Potato Waffles:
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Crystallized ginger
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Ground ginger
- Kosher salt
- Imperial Light Brown Sugar
- Eggs
- Buttermilk
- Unsalted butter
- Sweet potato puree
- Vanilla extract
- Grade A maple syrup
- Orange Butter:
- Unsalted butter
- Orange marmalade
- Kosher salt
How to Make Sweet Potato Waffles
These are the steps and techniques you need to follow to make these superb sweet potato waffles.
Step 1: Preheat oven to 200°F. In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, crystallized ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and sugar.
Step 2: In a medium bowl mix, melted butter and sweet potato. Add eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla together. Pour wet mixture into dry and mix until smooth. Set aside for 10 minutes.
Step 3: While the waffle batter rest, make orange butter. In a medium bowl, mix butter, orange marmalade, and salt until smooth.
Step 4: Heat the waffle iron to desired temperature or color and spray the waffle iron with cooking spray. Use a 2-oz. cookie scoop or a greased ¼ measuring cup to scoop batter in the waffle iron, close waffle iron, and cook for 3-4 minutes or until the desired color. Remove and continue until all waffles are made. Keep made waffles warm in a 200-degree oven.
Step 5: Serve warm with orange butter and maple syrup.
How to Store Waffles and Homemade Butter
If you want to make this dish ahead of time, here’s how to do it:
Orange Butter – The butter can be made hours in advance and kept in an airtight container on the counter or in the fridge. Keep in the fridge for fourteen days.
Sweet Potato Waffles—You can make the waffle batter one day in advance and store it in an airtight container in the fridge. Cooked waffles will be good for seven days. You can freeze the sweet potato waffles in a freezer-safe container for three months. Thaw twenty-four hours before eating or pop them in your toaster for 2-3 minutes.
Sweet Potato Waffles Recipe Tips & Tricks:
Here are some of my top tips and tricks to help you make this dish:
- If you’re in a rush, you can skip resting the waffle batter. Resting the batter allows the gluten to form, which improves texture.
- Feel free to add some crumbled bacon to your batter.
- You can use whipped butter to make your orange butter.
- Crystallized ginger is readily available near the herbs and spices at the grocery store.
- Add the zest of 1 medium orange or 1 teaspoon of orange extract to your sweet potato waffle batter to elevate your sweet potato waffles.
- The batter will be thick. I like to use a 2 oz. cookie scoop or a dry ¼ cup measuring up to scoop waffle batter.
- Waffles will not spread; they should resemble a Belgian waffle in shape.
- If you want to make these gluten-free, use gluten-free flour as a swap for the unbleached flour.
- You can make these healthier using ¾ whole wheat flour or oat flour with ¼ all-purpose flour. For example: Use 1 cup whole wheat flour and ½ cup all-purpose flour. Using 100% whole wheat will not yield the desired texture.
- You can substitute apple spice mix or pumpkin spice mix for the total amount of warm spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground ginger). To make savory sweet potato waffles, use 1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder and ½ teaspoon dry thyme in the batter.
- Feel free to swap out the kosher salt for sea salt.
- Feel free to use almond milk, oat milk, whole milk, and coconut milk to swap for the buttermilk.
- You can use flax eggs as a swap for large eggs.
- Feel free to use canned pumpkin as a swap for the sweet potatoes to enjoy pumpkin waffles.
FAQ
Here are the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about sweet potato waffles.
Can I Substitute Canned Sweet Potatoes for Fresh Sweet Potatoes?
Absolutely. If you're in a hurry, you can also use canned sweet potatoes instead of fresh sweet potatoes.
How to Cook Sweet Potatoes?
There are several ways to cook sweet potatoes. My first preference is baking them in a 425°F oven for 1 hour—1 hour 30 minutes, depending on the size of the sweet potato.
The other way is to pop them in the microwave for 8 minutes on each side. You can also boil them until they are tender, but all the flavor stays in the water.
Can I Use Pumpkin Instead of Sweet Potato?
Yes, sweet potato and pumpkin are interchangeable in most recipes. You can use canned or pureed fresh pumpkin instead of sweet potatoes to make this recipe if you like.
Do These Waffles Have to Be Made with Buttermilk?
You can swap the buttermilk for milk if you like. For every cup of sweet potato waffle batter, use ¾ cups of your substitute ingredient (milk, almond or oat milk, regular whole milk). If you want to go all out and make this vegan, just skip using eggs and substitute water in place of them.
What Can I Serve with Sweet Potato Waffles?
For a complete breakfast, these sweet potato waffles would go nicely with bacon, sausage, fruit, or berries. You could serve these waffles at brunch paired with poached eggs and ham. They also make fantastic lunch paired with fried chicken.
More Delicious Sweet Potato Recipes
If you’re looking for more ways to use sweet potatoes, these dishes will be hits. Here’s a list of a few great recipes.
- Sweet Potato Cheesecake Bars
- Sweet Potato Cornbread
- Sweet Potato Chili
- Sweet Potato Pancakes
- Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls
These Sweet Potato Waffles are a perfect breakfast or brunch treat for this holiday season. The warm spices, crystallized ginger, and orange butter make these waffles unique and impressive. I hope this post has inspired you to get creative in the kitchen with your food creations during this time of year. Leave me a 5-star review if you like what you read here today!
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📖 Recipe
Sweet Potato Waffles with Orange Butter
Ingredients
Sweet Potato Waffles:
- 1 ½ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ cup crystallized ginger
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- ¾ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons Imperial Sugar light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups buttermilk
- 4 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
- 1 cup sweet potato puree
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- cooking spray
- Grade A maple syrup
Orange Butter:
- 2 sticks unsalted butter room temperature
- ½ cup orange marmalade
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°F. In a large bowl mix flour, baking powder, crystallized ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and sugar.
- In a medium bowl mix, butter, and sweet potato. Add eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla together. Pour wet mixture into dry and mix until smooth. Set aside for 10 minutes.
- While the waffle batter rest, make orange butter. In a medium bowl mix butter, orange marmalade, and salt until smooth.
- Heat the waffle iron to desired temperature or color and spray the waffle iron with cooking spray. Use a 2-oz. cookie scoop or a greased ¼ measuring cup to scoop batter in the waffle iron, close waffle iron, and cook for 3-4 minutes or until the desired color. Remove and continue until all waffles are made. Keep made waffles warm in a 200-degree oven.
- Serve warm with orange butter and maple syrup.
Notes
You can use flax eggs as a swap for large eggs. Storage Orange Butter – The butter can be made hours in advance and kept in an airtight container on the counter or in the fridge. Keep in the fridge for 14 days. Sweet Potato Waffles – You can make the waffle batter one day in advance and store it in an airtight container in the fridge. Cooked waffles will be good for 7 days. You can freeze the sweet potato waffles in the freezer by keeping them in a freezer-safe container for 3 months. Thaw 24 hours before eating or pop in your toaster for 2-3 minutes.
Ms.Brown says
Chef I give this a 5 star the waffles were deliciousness.Yum!Yum! Thank you for sharing your recipes. I’ll become a Great Cook like you. Ms. Brown