Chai waffles with sautéed pears are a delicious combo of sweet and spice..and everything nice. Perfect for a weekend breakfast with the fam.
I’ve wanted a waffle maker forever. And Steve has wanted one since before forever because he loves waffles even more than I do. But I kept putting off buying one thinking one day, we’ll add it to our wedding registry ;). Well, Steve’s Mom beat us to the punch and bought Steve one for Christmas and we finally tore open the package last month. We first made a recipe for oatmeal blender waffles that my cousin sent me. And then I decided I needed to try my hand at my own homemade waffles.
Remember those chai scones with vanilla glaze I made last year? They were so good that I decided I should try making a chai version of all baked goods, breakfast staples like waffles and pancakes included.
Because chai is delicious…and tastes like Christmas. The cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger, they create this spicy taste that brings you back to the holidays. And who doesn’t want to pretend it’s Christmas every day?! As long as the snow doesn’t follow suit…
Pancakes and waffles were never breakfast go-to foods for me. Eggs? Yes. Sweet stuff? Not so much. But when I do indulge in the sweet stuff, I make sure to pile it high with fruit and just a tiny bit of syrup. I also cut back the sugar in this recipe by at least half. The sautéed pears add a nice sweet element that makes you not even miss the extra sugar.
PrintChai Waffles with Sautéed Pears
- Yield: Makes 4 large waffles 1x
Ingredients
For the waffles:
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 7 chai tea bags (I used decaf)
- 2c all-purpose flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp cardamom
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 c butter, melted
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 eggs, yolks separated
- Optional: Maple syrup for topping
For the pears:
- 4 bartlett pears, peeled, cored, and sliced
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
Instructions
For the waffles:
- In a medium saucepan, bring milk to a simmer over medium heat. Turn heat down to low and steep chai tea bags for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.
- In a large mixing bowl, add flour, baking powder, sugar, cinnamon, cardamom and salt and whisk to combine.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together chai-steeped milk, butter (make sure it’s cooled), vanilla, and egg yolks. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir to combine.
- In small bowl, using a hand blender or whisk, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the batter.
- Pour waffle batter onto preheated waffle iron and cook according to manufacturer’s directions until golden brown.
- Serve with sautéed pears and optional maple syrup.
For the sautéed pears:
- Toss sliced pears with lemon juice until ready to cook.
- Heat butter over medium heat in a sauté pan. Add pears and cook for about 5 minutes. Add cinnamon and maple syrup, and turn down heat to low and cook for another 5-10 minutes.
- Serve pears over waffles.
These sautéed pears were seriously the icing on the waffle cake. I love sautéing apples and pears as toppings. A little butter & cinnamon go a long way with cooking fruit. Totally beats whatever weird fruit topping you can buy in a jar. Yuck.
Start counting down the days till the weekend when you can wow everyone with these waffles!
Ahh I love a good waffle! And these look incredible, perfect for a fall brunch!
Thanks, Lauren!!
Made them for my daughters birthday breakfast and daughter approved. I like them too! Awesome!
Awesome! So glad your daughter approved! Happy belated birthday to her 🙂
Beautiful waffles & I know they would have tasted incredible.. If only I could wake up to a stack of these every morning!
Thanks, Thalia! Haha if only!
Yum! Chai Pear is one of my favorite flavor combos. I’ve made chai pear steel cut oats (here: http://kellytoups.com/2015/01/12/overnight-chai-pear-steel-cut-oatmeal-slow-cooker/ ) but I definitely want to make these waffles!
Thanks, Kelly! Chai pear oatmeal sounds pretty fantastic too. Time to get more pears!
These look delicious Kara! My husband makes waffles or pancakes every weekend. He’s become quite good at making them vegan. 🙂 I’ll have to show him this recipe.
Awesome! Would love to hear about your substitutions for making it vegan and how it turns out!
These look absolutely amazing! I definitely prefer waffles/pancakes for breakfast, I typically eat way more eggs for lunch and dinner. I have a waffle maker silently sitting in the dark forever and that needs to change.
Haha bust it out! I like eggs for lunch too. 🙂
I’ve wanted a waffle maker forever too and finally I got my mom (aka I bought it and she paid for it and insisted on wrapping it too 🙂 to get me one – I ended up getting an iron that you put over a flame. I LOVE IT so I’m collecting waffle recipes like mad – pinning this one now to my Wonderful Waffles board!
Bahaha I love that! I’m also loving the fact that you have a wonderful waffles board on Pinterest – genius.
My man is a waffle-holic. Can’t wait to make these this weekend! Pinning to make!
Haha our men think alike :). Enjoy!!
mmm, these look amazing! I’m also a waffle lover! I have some cardamom in my spice cabinet which I never use and this looks like the perfect use for it!
Thanks, Heather! I used cardamom in my butternut squash soup last year (https://karalydon.b.wpstage.net/recipes/appetizers/vegan-butternut-squash-soup-with-cardamom/) and it was really good but other than that, I hadn’t really experimented with the spice before!
These look divine! What a smart flavor combo. Sounds delicious!
Thanks, Marisa!!
Pears and winter spices are so good together. You had me at chai waffles… this sounds seriously delish! I’m a waffle gal, but I don’t have a waffle maker, so I’ve been making tons of pancakes!
Chai pancakes with sautéed pears, anyone? I’m down! 🙂
Sweet beautiful breakfast! Love love love waffles! I’ve been choosing them over pancakes lately!
Thanks, Rebecca! Me too – so glad we finally got a waffle maker so I can make them at home now!
I always forget about pears but sautéed pears are THE BEST. I’m going to have to try this soon!!
I always forget about pears too! In fact, I think this was my first recipe with pears on the blog. #poorpears
Definitely making these this weekend! I’m a sweet breakfast person but the boyfriend is a savoury breakfast fan, so we alternate between the two. We had a sweet breakfast last weekend, but I’m going to make these on Saturday morning anyway. They look delicious!
Hahaha. Sweet triumphs savory. Love it! Hope you enjoyed ’em!