Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Latina Bloggers Connect and California Sweetpotatoes. All opinions and recipe are my own.

It’s a vivid memory that drives me to write this post. I had to be about 25 years old at the time of this story and I was sitting in a diner in NYC. The windows were fogged up due to the humidity and heat outside while the cool air blow around the restaurant making it a cool haven. A cat slipped by me under the table and made a bed on my feet. I don’t remember the name of the place other than it was the name of the lady who owned the joint. What I do remember clear as day is eating sweetpotatoes for the first time mashed into a thick puree sitting next to a perfectly grilled piece of chicken. The introduction of this fine sweet papa was all I needed, to know that it would be a flourishing relationship, and I would make it my business to go down every avenue the sweetpotato traveled. I have picked up many fun facts along the way. For instance, “sweetpotato” is one word, and has more than a day’s worth of vitamin A. Or did you know sweetpotatoes are grown in the sand and not in the dirt and are naturally sun cured on the vine before harvest?

Fast forward to present day, and I open my front down to the chirping of a bell that the UPS man on the other end is pushing. To my delight he is carrying a big box of sweetpotatoes. As I sign my name across his screened pad, my mind has drifted to a far away place of sweetpotato possibilities, and they are endless. Endless I say. Oh the joy…. What shall I make? What shall I make? I could make sweetpotato pancakes. No, too simple. I could make sweetpotato flan. I think I got something like that on my blog already. I could make sweetpotato en tacha sauce for dia de los muertos…. Too soon for that. I could make sweetpotato churros. I can’t find my churro tool to press them out into the long logs, bummer. I could make sweetpotato churro waffles with cajeta and candied pecans on top. Bingo! The winning idea took flight. Here is my waffle recipe… hope you like it.

Ingredients for sweetpotato churro waffles:

• 1 – sweetpotato  (small sweetpotato peeled and cut into 2 inch rounds) (you will need 1/2 cup sweetpotato puree)
• 2 – egg yolks
• 1 1/2 – buttermilk
• 3/4 – cup butter (melted)
• 1 1/2 – teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 – teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 – cups flour
• 1 – cup sugar
• 3 1/2 – teaspoons baking powder
• 3 – egg whites
• cajeta
• candied pecans

Directions:

1. In a small pot filled with water over a medium flame, bring water to a boil.
2. Add in sweetpotato rounds and boil for 25 to 30 minutes or until fork tender.
3. Drain water from sweetpotatoes and mash into a puree.
4. Preheat waffle iron by turning it on.
5. In a large bowl whisk egg yolks, buttermilk, butter, vanilla, and 1/2 cup sweetpotato puree together. whisk until batter is smooth. Set to the side.
6. In a large bowl sift 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon, flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and baking powder together.
7. Mix wet ingredients (buttermilk/sweetpotato) with dry ingredients (flour/sugar), and mix until completely combined. Set to the side.
8. In a mixer, whip egg whites until peaks form.
9. Then gently fold the egg whites into the waffle batter. 
10. Pour 1/4 cups of batter onto the waffle iron. 
11. Cook for about 4 to 5 minutes. 
12. Then repeat with more batter until all done.
13. In a large bowl mix 1/2 cup sugar and 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon together.
14. Dust waffles off with sugar cinnamon mixture.   
15. Stack up waffles and top with cajeta and candied pecans!
16. Or if you prefer your sweetpotato churro waffles plain…. here is an option without the cajeta. 
17. Enjoy!