Just the other day, I was grocery shopping with the kids…
I hate grocery shopping alone, so I always make them come with me. I like chatting them up while we shop, I like that one of them pushes the cart and one of them checks off our list, and I love that they bag the groceries, load them in the car, and unload into the kitchen. They also put all the groceries away. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship. They do a lot of the work and keep me company. I buy them some extra goodies and snacks.
Anyway, while we were looping the isles, we were talking about our waffle experiments, more specifically, our stuffed waffles.
Natalie pointed out that we hadn’t made a sweet, dessert stuffed waffle in a while and wondered: could we bake a pie in the waffle iron, kind of like we do with the stuffed waffles.
Make a pie in the waffle iron? Hmmmm…
The more we thought about it, the more we liked the idea. We could use pie crust for the outside just like a real pie, and we could probably use a pie filling — if it was thick enough.
My mind immediately went to apple pie.
We could totally make an Apple Pie Stuffed Waffle. It’d be a little heavy on the crust, and a little dry because the pie filling would need to be really thick, but all of that could be overcome with lots of ice cream and caramel sauce.
Needless to say, we grabbed a few apples and a frozen pie crust on our way to the check out lines. No way was I going to invest my time into making a crust from scratch!
If you love apple pie and you love waffles, you’re going to love Apple Pie Waffles.
Making Stuffed Apple Pie Waffles
When it was time to make our Stuffed Apple Pie Waffles, I diced up two apples, tossed them in a skillet with a little vegetable oil and lemon juice, and cooked them over high heat until the juice became visible. I then reduced the heat to low-medium heat, mixed in butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and simmered the mixture.
While the apple pie filling was cooking, I toasted chopped pecans under the broiler. When the apple pie mixture began to bubble, I added some flour and the toasted pecans and mixed it together, as it continued to cook over low-medium heat a few minutes more.
Next, I turned off the heat and let the apple pie filling sit and thicken a bit while I preheated the waffle iron on low heat and prepped the pie crust. I pulled the pie crust out of the refrigerator, rolled it out on the counter, and used a large round cookie cutter to cut all of the tops and bottoms of the Apple Pie Stuffed Waffles. I got 6 pie crust circles out of each crust.
When the waffle iron was ready, I placed a pie crust round in the waffle iron, topped it with a scoop of apple pie filling, covered it with another pie crust circle, and closed the waffle iron lid to let it cook.
For most of our waffle creations, we set the waffle iron to medium heat, but to ensure the pie crust cooked all the way, I used a low heat setting for this waffle recipe and cooked the waffles for a longer period of time — about 7-8 minutes.
A Few Stuffed Apple Pie Waffle Tips
My daughter’s not a big fruit pie person. She’s not even a big apple pie person. But she did love these waffles and ate two of them in record time.
If you’re going to make Stuffed Apple Pie Waffles at home, I have a few tips to share:
FIRST: Because these waffles take longer to cook, you’ll want to do one of two things:
- Preheat your oven to 200 degrees, and as each waffle finishes cooking, transfer it to a baking sheet in the oven to keep them all warm until it’s time to serve them.
- Make the waffles ahead of time, transferring the stuffed waffles to a cooling rack as they are done cooking. Once cool, store them in an airtight container. About 20 minutes before it’s time for dessert, arrange the waffles on a baking sheet and reheat in the oven at 350 degrees.
SECOND: We were dead right with our assumption that these waffles are crust heavy and just a little bit dry as a result. You’ll want to top these babies with lots of ice cream and caramel sauce, and while three stacked up look gorgeous in these photos, you really only want to stack them two high IF you even stack them at all, because you want caramel sauce and ice cream on every waffle.
Stuffed Apple Pie Waffles
If you love apple pie and you love waffles, you're going to love Apple Pie Waffles.
Ingredients
- 1 package of 2 frozen pie crusts
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 2 large, crisp apples, diced
- 1/3 cup butter
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1/4 cup pecans, chopped and toasted
- Vanilla ice cream
- Caramel Sauce
Instructions
- Dice apples and toss them in a skillet with vegetable oil and lemon juice. Cook over high heat until juice begins to bubble and apples are softening.
- Add butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg to apples. Simmer over low-medium heat, stirring frequently. While apple mixture simmers, toast chopped pecans under the broiler.
- When apple mixture begins to bubble, add toasted pecans and flour, mixing them into the apple pir filling. Cook for another 3-4 minutes. Turn off heat and let pie filling sit and thicken.
- Preheat waffle iron on low heat. Remove pie crust from refrigerator, roll it out, and using a large round cookie cutter, cut it into rounds.
- When waffle iron is ready, place a pie crust round in the waffle iron, top it with a scoop of apple pie filling, cover it with another pie crust circle, and close the waffle iron lid. Cook the waffle for 7-8 minutes.
- Serve Apple Pie Stuffed Waffles topped with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.
Notes:
Each pie crust will net you approximately 6 pie crust rounds, to make three waffles.
Every waffle iron is different, I recommend watching the first waffle carefully to see just how long they need to cook in your waffle iron.
