It’s pumpkin season, which means everything pumpkin flavored! Sourdough pumpkin waffles bring fall to the breakfast table. This gut healthy option can be frozen and eaten all week too!

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Sourdough to the Rescue

In high school, I started breaking out in hives for no apparent reason. We had been to every doctor in town and nobody knew why I was so itchy. I eliminated foods and eventually discovered that gluten set off the hives. I changed my diet to permanently remove gluten. It was a hard breakup. Tears were shed.

I had never enjoyed cooking, therefore I didn’t know much about it. Cooking just about anything required a research paper first. During that research I stumbled upon sourdough. I read all about the benefits of fermented food, how to make it, and amazing looking recipes.

Then I found something interesting about gluten in connection to sourdough. The article stated that people that are sensitive to gluten can oftentimes handle sourdough because of the fermentation. I was immediately curious and did what any nerd would do. More research!

That led me to creating a sourdough starter. After a week, I set out to make all things sourdough. I failed a lot. But I also learned a lot. I eventually mastered sourdough waffles. They became my breakfast staple. I kept waiting for the hives to show up or my stomach to hurt, but I never had either. So I kept practicing recipes so that everything could be sourdough.

Then something crazy happened. I was in a situation where I had to eat gluten to avoid being awkward. Going home that night, I was preparing myself for the worst. I knew that hives and a stomach ache lay ahead of me that night. I just hoped that it would wait until I was safe in my own house. The hives never came. My stomach didn’t hurt. So naturally I ate gluten again a week later. No side effects!

That was about a year ago. I eat sourdough at least once a day, if not more. If I’m baking something at home, I always try to ferment it. I can then eat all the gluten I want without getting sick or breaking out in hives. Sourdough totally changed my life and eating habits. Despite the bad breakup, gluten and I have gotten back together and have a wonderful relationship, as long as sourdough is there too.

Leggo my Sourdough!

Sourdough is wonderful, but figuring out how to use up all of the starter each week can be a little tricky. I keep my starter in the fridge, so I must discard half and feed it to reactivate it. I hated wasting half of it each week, so I found a solution.

Sourdough waffles don’t need the starter to be activated to come out light and fluffy. Most weeks, I pull the starter out of the fridge and immediately start making waffles with it. This helps me to be less wasteful and they are delicious!

These sourdough waffles can be made up ahead of time and frozen. I make them on the weekend and eat them throughout the week. It’s like having Saturday morning breakfast everyday!

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Why Sourdough?

Sourdough was used by people to leaven bread before they were able to go to the store and by those little yeast packets. Sourdough is the old fashion yeast packet.

Grains contain phytic acid, but our bodies don’t really process it well. Phytic acid prevents our bodies from absorbing the nutrients from our food. Fermentation gets rid of most, if not all of the phytic acid, in the grains before we eat them. The fermentation process also helps break down some gluten, so although the bread isn’t gluten free it does have a lower gluten content. This allows people like me, who are sensitive to gluten, to eat sourdough. It also acts like a probiotic, which makes it great for gut health. Sourdough has prebiotic characteristics as well, which simply means that the good bacteria in your gut enjoy eating the fiber.

Sourdough Pumpkin Waffle Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup sourdough starter or discard

1 egg

2 tablespoons fractionated coconut oil

1 tablespoon honey

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon of pumpkin spice

½ cup pumpkin purée

Instructions

First crack the egg into the bowl.
Then add the sourdough discard, pumpkin purée, and fractionated coconut oil.
Now add the honey. If you measure the oil first, then the spoon is greased and the honey won’t stick as bad.
Next put in the salt, vanilla, and pumpkin spice.
At this point, it’s time to heat up the waffle iron.
As soon as the iron is warm, add the baking soda into the sourdough pumpkin waffle mix.
Use a measuring cup to put the sourdough pumpkin waffle batter into the iron, then sprinkle on a few chocolate chips if desired.
Next cook until the waffle is crispy.
Use tongs to remove the waffle.

Sourdough Pumpkin Waffle Variations

Dropping a few chocolate chips on each waffle before closing the lid, makes what I can only compare to eating a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie for breakfast. I don’t put anything on pumpkin chocolate chip waffles, I literally eat them like a cookie! I’ve found that if I mix the extras into the batter, they all sink to the bottom. I’d rather just drop them each waffle as I’m making it.

Freezing Sourdough Pumpkin Waffles

After the waffles are cooked, place them on a cooling rack. This prevents soggy waffles later. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the cooled waffles on the sheet. You can add another sheet of parchment paper on top of the waffles to create a second layer if needed. Without parchment they stick to the cookie sheet and are nearly impossible to get off without thawing. Now you are going to put the sheet of waffles in the freezer to flash freeze. I normally leave them in the freezer overnight. Once they are frozen, they can be removed from the sheet and placed in a plastic bag before going back into the freezer.

I find that the pumpkin makes the waffle less crispy than normal. I don’t mind because I eat them like cookies. If you want to crisp up the waffles, I suggest freezing them and heating them up in the toaster.

Yield: 8-10 mini waffles