Cinnamon Waffles with Apple-Cranberry Sauce

Normally my post Thanksgiving meals gets creative as the obvious – the giant sandwich with a little bit of everything and a side of stuffing and potatoes. Spread on some gravy and cranberry sauce, sprinkle the turkey liberally with salt, add some lettuce and I’m good to go. This year; however, I mixed it up a little bit… I used my left over cranberry sauce to make a flavored apple sauce atop cinnamon waffles, yum!

When I lived in Germany I served waffles at the local Christmas market one evening, as a fundraiser for a local non-profit organization I was a part of. I was shocked to find the traditional shape for waffles in Germany was the same as mine at home! The 5 heart waffle iron I’d had since high school (maybe even middle school) was the spitting image of the German form. The biggest difference was the serving – in Germany waffles are most commonly served simply with powdered sugar or with apple sauce. Ever since then, I’ve really enjoyed eating my waffles with apple sauce instead of syrup. Syrup is good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s so sweet and sometimes I want something a little lighter.

I’ve also recently become obsessed with farmer’s market apples and making my own apple sauce for that matter. Most things are better from local small farms, but apples are one thing I think really taste so much better when they are not from my chain grocer. Obviously, if you have better apples you have better applesauce – it’s so delicious if you make it yourself! It’s not as sweet as the kind you buy in the store, and you can experiment with different apples infusing different flavors. So bringing together this newly rediscovered love of apple sauce and the German Christmas tradition seemed a fabulous way to use my cranberry sauce. The combination of sauces was great, a little sweet and a little tart there’s a reason they make cran-apple juice. I went with cinnamon waffles to tie it all together, which was absolutely the right choice. The cinnamon flavor was mild but perfect with the apples and cranberries, it felt like a mingling of the holiday season in my mouth. You have to give this a go.

Apple-Cranberry Sauce:

• 3 apples
• 1/2 cup of water
• sugar to taste (abt 2 tbsp)
• cranberry sauce (whatever you have from Thanksgiving should do)

Peel and chop apples. Bring to a boil with water, cover and simmer until apples are soft. Stir with spoon breaking up apples into sauce. Add sugar to taste. Cool. Mix apple sauce and cranberry sauce to taste – start with 2 parts apple to 1 part cranberry, may go up to 1:1 depending on what you like. Makes 2-3 servings.

Cinnamon Waffles:

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp baking power
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 3/4 cups milk
• 1/2 cup butter (one stick), melted
• 1 tsp vanilla

In one bow combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, slightly beat eggs, milk butter and vanilla. Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients, stir just until moistened – batter may still be lumpy. Cook in waffle iron per instruments instructions (they’re usually done when it stops steaming). Makes abt 6 waffles.