Our pride and joy is a Smart Waffle Pro from Breville. It brings us great pleasure. Every Sunday morning, we cook waffles, which makes for a delicious tradition. We’ve prepared buttermilk waffles and blueberry waffles and cornbread waffles. Today, we made chocolate waffles. We had never eaten a chocolate waffle. We had never heard of a chocolate waffle. But, the Breville has a special setting for chocolate waffles, and we decided to expand our horizons. Ignorance is rarely bliss.

Our chocolate waffle—or as we’ve dubbed it “choc-affle”—was decadent. Being full-grown adults, we didn’t want a sugar bomb, so we used 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate. Wa wa wee wa! It still delivered a rich, cakey, delightful breakfast experience. The choc-affle paired especially well with our homemade strawberry balsamic syrup. We even grew the strawberries in our backyard garden.

Oh man, we sound obnoxious. Are we hipsters? Are we pretentious “foodies”? No, no. We think of ourselves as simple gourmands, which means “persons who enjoy eating and often eat too much.” Synonyms include glutton, overeater, big eater, gobbler, and gorger. Yes, that describes us. We’re just gobblers. Big gobblers.

Anyway, here’s how we made our chocolate walnut waffles with strawberry balsamic syrup.

Chocolate Walnut Waffles

Wet ingredients

• Two eggs
• One cup of buttermilk
• 1/4 cup of vegetable oil
• One teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

Dry ingredients

• One cup of flour
• 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
• Two tablespoons of dark brown sugar
• One teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Other ingredients

• One cup of chocolate chips (60% cacao bittersweet)
• 1/4 cups of chopped black walnuts

Directions

Whisk together wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. Slowly pour dry ingredients into bowl of wet ingredients—mixing constantly. Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts. Cook in a waffle iron. The chocolate waffle is best a bit less done than a regular waffle, so shave a minute or so off normal cook time.

The recipe makes four choc-affles.

Strawberry Balsamic Syrup

Ingredients

• 4 cups of chopped strawberries
• One cup of sugar
• 1/4 cup of lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar

Directions

Mix all ingredients in bowl, and let sit at room temperate for thirty minutes. In a saucepan, bring to a simmer, then reduce heat. Cook until syrup reaches desired consistency. Remove from burner, allow to slightly cool and serve by drizzling over waffle.