Carrot Cake Waffles with Orange Ricotta and Grand Marnier Syrup
A fun challenge is going on called #50ShadesofWaffles over on Instagram, and I decided to enter a few items... of course they will all be heart-shaped as my Babycakes Lolly Waffle maker is the only one I have. LOL! Here was my first entry yesterday. I may try to do waffles on Wednesday as #WaffleWednesday is also a thing.
INGREDIENTS
1/3 cup cake Carrot Cake cake mix
1/4 cup fat-free greek yogurt
1/2 scoop cinnamon protein powder
3 tbs almond milk
1 egg
Stir all ingredients in a bowl to make the batter. Use as much milk or water as needed to make the batter less thick, but not too runny. If you accidentally make it too runny add a little more cake mix and protein powder. This should make 4-5 waffles.
FILLING
1 oz cream cheese
1/3 cup lite ricotta
1 tbs lite sour cream
1 tsp Grand Marnier liquor
dash vanilla extract
Stir the filling until well-blended. Alternatively, just use Mascarpone cheese which works wonderfully with Grand Marnier and is what I like to use, but don't have in the small town I live in.
TOPPINGS
1 singles can mandarin oranges
1 serving cashew pieces (about 50 cashew halves)
SYRUP
2 tbs lite maple syrup or your favorite kind
2 tsp Grand Marnier
Juice from the can of Mandarin Oranges
Mix together well and heat in saucepan or microwave briefly to make warm.
When the waffles are done, you can either layer filling between two of them or just top one of them with filling and toppings. Split the oranges and cashew pieces among the number of waffles you have. Top with warm syrup.
These were DELICIOUS if I may say so. The cashews could be optional but they really add a nice and subtle nutty salty flavor with the oranges. Texas pecans would also work nicely.
