Add cream cheese to a medium bowl and whisk cream cheese until it becomes a whipped consistency. If your cream cheese is too hard to whisk, heat in the microwave for a few seconds (no more than 5 seconds at a time) to soften the cream cheese. Be careful not to heat the cream cheese too long or it will overheat and make a mess in your microwave.
Whisk in egg and pumpkin puree until batter is smooth. Add in pumpkin spice and almond flour and whisk until evenly combined. If using baking powder and sweetener, whisk in until evenly combined.
Preheat waffle iron. When it is ready, grease waffle iron with a cooking oil spray.
Pour half of the batter into the mini waffle maker. Your batter should cover all the holes. Close waffle iron. Let it cook for about 4-5 minutes, or until waffle is a dark brown and crispy on the outside. Repeat with remaining batter. You should have enough batter for two chaffles using the Dash mini waffle maker.
Notes
For these waffles, I used the Dash mini waffle maker* and the recipe makes two round waffles (about the size of a regular Eggo waffle).
You can use other waffle irons to cook the batter as well. If it's a large waffle iron, you can pour all the batter on at once and then slice the waffles.
The chaffles taste a little plain on their own, so I definitely recommend eating them with syrup. I served mine with ChocZero maple syrup.*
The cream cheese needs to be softened and whisked until it becomes a whipped consistency before adding any other ingredients, otherwise, you'll end up with unmixed chunks of cream cheese.
I prefer using cream cheese instead of shredded mozzarella for sweet chaffles. If you have made sweet chaffles with mozzarella before and don't mind the flavor, you can substitute the cream cheese with 1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese. If you do this, do not add the mozzarella until the very end, after all the other ingredients have been thoroughly mixed.
Pumpkin spice is key to the chaffles tasting like pumpkin because the pumpkin puree by itself is too mild in flavor.
The almond flour gives the waffles a better structure and takes away the eggy taste that occurs when you only use cheese and egg in the batter. You can substitute the almond flour with 1 tsp of coconut flour.
The baking powder is optional, but it does make the waffles fluffier and puffier.
The erythritol sweetener is also optional. Since you will likely be eating these with syrup, you don't really need to sweeten the waffles beforehand, but I like having a little sweetness in my waffles and then use less syrup. I used So Nourished Erythritol Sweetener Granular.*
*Some of the product links contained in this post are affiliate links. Much like referral codes, this means I earn a small commission if you purchase a product I referred (at no extra charge to you).
Estimated Nutrition Information does not include toppings (syrup and butter) and does not include carbs from erythritol.
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. This is not a comprehensive list of all the nutrients in the recipe (i.e., does not include vitamins, cholesterol, etc). I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.