Pancetta and Cinnamon Waffles

A few days ago, my friend Raul suggested another chicken and waffle brunch. How could I resist? I'm on vacay! Of course, I knew we wouldn't do a whole chicken and waffle ordeal, but I wanted to do something special before we left on our respective trips (Daul to Mexico and me to Hawaii). I saw this recipe last week on Giada's new show. By the way, I have officially decided that Giada as a person bugs me, but her recipes tend to be excellent so I will continue to make them. This was another good one. Using a mix certainly helped because after all the cooking I did on Saturday, I wasn't really in the mood to create waffle genius. Raul picked up the gluten free waffle mix from Trader Joes which ended up being pretty good. The recipe doesn't call for sugar in the mix so the maple syrup (which I personally don't normally go for), added to the recipe. We used Vermont maple syrup from Dan's home town because we roll local like that :). This is a very easy and straightforward recipe. The only thing that bothered me a bit was that the pancetta mostly sunk to the bottom of the waffle batter so the last few waffles had most of the pancetta. No worries though, Raul cooked up some bacon to add some more pork to the menu. It was really good and filling...now if only I could become an expert at the new Raving Rabbids game, it would have been a perfect day.





Pancetta and Cinnamon Waffles
(From Giada De Laurentiis)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts
4 ounces pancetta, diced
1 package Trader Joe's waffle mix
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups water
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup maple syrup

Special Equipment: a Belgian or conventional waffle iron

Preheat and lightly grease a waffle iron.

Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pancetta and cook until brown and crispy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer the pancetta to a paper towel-lined baking sheet to cool.

In a large mixing bowl, combine waffle mix, eggs, vegetable oil, water, cinnamon, and salt. Using a whisk, blend the ingredients together until smooth. Stir in the pancetta. Pour the batter, using the amount recommended by the waffle iron manufacturer's instructions, into the preheated waffle iron. Cook waffles for 3 to 4 minutes until golden brown.

Place waffles onto serving plates. Sprinkle with the chopped walnuts and drizzle with maple syrup. Serve immediately.