The Ingredient That Makes Carrot Cake Waffles Way Easier To Make

If you want to add some additional nutrients to your breakfast, you can't go wrong with carrot cake waffles. The vegetable's natural sweetness makes it an easy fit for the syrupy nature of waffles. That said, peeling carrots can be difficult and potentially dangerous if not careful. You're handling a utensil with a sharp blade, after all. Save yourself the hassle and aggravation of incorporating shredded carrots into the mix. Consider using a jar of baby food instead.

Before you make a face, you can combine baby food with other ingredients to make spectacular baked goods. In most instances, baby food is just finely blended fruits and vegetables. So carrot-flavored baby food is just carrot purée mixed down so it's easy for an infant to swallow. For this reason, it should be an easy way to add carrot flavoring to your waffles without the added work or mess of shredding up carrots and plopping them in the batter.

Using carrot-flavored baby food in your waffle recipe is as easy as opening a jar. (Although opening jars can be a struggle themselves). You'll want to mix the purée in with your other wet ingredients to form a batter. Since your carrots have been blended, the veggie should combine effortlessly with everything else, solving one of the main hurdles of using solids in a waffle batter. While some may prefer the texture that shredded carrots give, mixing the shredded carrots evenly throughout can be challenging. Because waffles are known to burn unless evenly spread out, you can see how adding them to the mix can make a difficult situation that much worse.

It may go without saying, but you should check the ingredients list on the baby food to ensure there are no additives. In most cases, carrot-flavored baby food is just mashed carrots and water, making it perfect to sub in. However, some baby foods blend multiple veggies, like carrots and peas, so do your due diligence and avoid flavor accidents. While baby food can certainly be convenient, it's worth noting that jars average around $1.40. In comparison, on average, a bag of whole carrots costs around $3.98, meaning you'll get more carrots if you go the fresh route. However, there's a middle ground between convenient and affordable.

If you're at home and don't have any baby food, you can always blend carrots to create a purée for your waffles. While blending your own purée may not be as simple as just using baby food, it's still relatively easier than shredding carrots since you can plan ahead.

Creating the mixture requires you to boil your carrots until they're tender. From there, you'll toss them in a blender or food processor to blend them into a fine mix. If the purée is too thick, add a bit of water to thin it out. You can prepare it the night before to fix waffles in the morning. From a quality perspective, the purée will last a couple of days in the fridge, but you can extend its shelf life to several months by freezing it.

Meanwhile, carrot-flavored baby food can be a long-term option. Jason Jacobs, an executive at Beech-Nut Baby Nutrition Company, told Romper, "Unopened, most baby food should have 12 to 24 months of shelf life." In addition to waffles, you can incorporate it into old-fashioned carrot cake as well.