Choccy Hazelnut & Quinoa Waffles

Both children and adults love the combination of hazelnuts and chocolate in these mouth-watering waffles. They are such a winner for breakfast, after school snacks and for after sporting activities. You will find it hard to believe that are not full of N**ella!
A meal in one, these scrumptious waffles contain healthy fats and protein as well as a whole courgette! The waffles are naturally gluten-free and use quinoa flakes and hazelnuts as the base of the batter. Suitable from 12 months plus.
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Choccy Hazelnut & Quinoa Waffles
Ingredients
- 150 g Hazelnuts (whole)
- 100 g Quinoa Flakes
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- 3 tbsp Cacao Powder (or cocoa powder)
- 2 tbsp Coconut sugar
- 1 Courgette
- 3 Eggs
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp Maple syrup
- 6 tbsp Milk
- 50 g Chocolate Drops
Instructions
- Turn on waffle maker and set to the highest heat.
- Place the hazelnuts and quinoa flakes in your food processor and grind up for one and half minutes until the hazelnuts are ground up into a rough flour.
- Add in the baking powder, cacao powder and coconut sugar, and blend for a few seconds.
- Grate in the courgette using a very fine grater like a microplane, the add the cracked eggs, vanilla extract, maple syrup and milk.
- Blend again for another one and half minutes until the mixture is a cake-like batter. There will probably still be some hazelnuts and quinoa flakes that are not fully broken down, and it’s ok that it’s not totally smooth.
- Stir the chocolate drops into the mixture.
- When the waffle maker is hot, spoon in the batter so that it just fills each waffle iron, being careful not to overfill them as otherwise the batter spills everywhere and makes a mess.
- Cook the waffles for 5 minutes. You might want to check them at around 4 minutes. They should be ready once the steam has stopped coming out of the waffle maker.
- Place on a cooling rack to cool slightly.
- Serve on their own or with maple syrup and raspberries.
Notes
- Egg free – use 3 tablespoons of ground flax seed, mixed with 9 tablespoons of water, soaked for 5 minutes.
- Nut free – swap hazelnuts for sunflower seeds
- Dairy free – use any plant based dairy free milk and vegan/dairy free chocolate drops or roughly chopped up squares of dairy free chocolate
- Buy quinoa flakes from health food shops or online. Swap to porridge oats or buckwheat flakes if you don’t have any quinoa flakes to hand.
- You will need a food processor with a sharp blade, like a Magimix to make this recipe.
- I recommend this Breville ceramic waffle maker.
- Stores in a cake tin for 4 days or bagged in a freezer for up to 3 months. Defrost by popping them in the toaster.
Could these be made like pancakes … I don’t have a waffle maker!
It is a slightly different consistency to pancakes, so sadly this may not work that well as pancakes – I will make a choccy pancake recipe soon!
I’ve got some waffle moulds that go in the oven. How long do you think they’d need to get a similar result?!
If you are baking in a waffle maker in the oven I would try 15 minutes in the center of a 220 degree oven. Check at 12 minutes.
Good luck!
These are delicious, and my fussy little eater gobbled them up and asked for them the following day – a win for sure! And such satisfaction to know how much goodness sits inside these.
How long will the mixture keep? If not made into waffles straight away. Ie – in the fridge air tight container? Thanks
I’d say overnight would be just fine!