These peanut butter and jelly waffle heart sandwiches are perfect for packing in your kids’ lunch boxes or as a simple Valentine’s Day breakfast.

Don’t you hate it when you get what you deem to be a great idea, but then it just falls flat? That’s what happened with these waffles. See, originally this post was going to be “Strawberry Swirled Waffles” where there were two separate batters that get swirled together in the waffle iron, cooked, then come out with a festive red swirl. Well, the batters came together well and it looked so pretty swirled in the waffle iron, but during the cooking process the whole waffle just turned dark brown 🙁 No pretty swirl. I even tried using just all-purpose flour thinking that could solve my issue. And while the brown wasn’t quite as dark, it was still a shade of brown rather than swirls of red.

So as Bry and I sat down to our brown waffles, I started noticing Bry breaking his into individual hearts, spreading peanut butter and jam over a heart, then topping it with another waffle slice to form a heart-shaped waffle PB&J. So simple, yet I couldn’t stop thinking about how cute the idea would be for a Valentine’s Day twist on the lunchbox classic. Plus, who doesn’t love the nutty and sweet combo? Okay, well if you don’t then it would also work well with jelly and Greek yogurt to keep with the Valentine’s Day color scheme.

While these waffles aren’t pretty and red, the strawberry flavor does come through and adds a nice sweetness to the batter (as you’ll notice there’s only 1 tablespoon of added sugar in the recipe). Since we were eating these for breakfast, I wanted to make sure they would give us enough energy to get to lunch, so I decreased the butter in the original waffle recipe and added in Greek yogurt and swapped half the flour for white whole wheat flour. While adding the Greek yogurt makes these a little less crispy than traditional waffles, the waffle flavor is still there. And the white whole wheat flour? You’ll never notice the difference!

While Bry made sandwiches with fresh waffles, I later made some with leftover waffles and found the sandwiches don’t get as soggy if you first toast them in a toaster or toaster oven before adding the peanut butter and jam. You could even make these waffles a few days ahead of time, freeze, and defrost in the toaster. Also, I strongly recommend using my favorite strawberry chia seed jam – it’s super easy, all you need is a bag of frozen strawberries, 2 tablespoons maple syrup, and 2 tablespoons of chia seeds. 

Buy the way, happy February! Be sure to check back over the upcoming days as I have more Valentine’s Day-inspired recipes coming your way!

So here’s a toast to adding a little more love to breakfast or lunch <3

Note: you will need a heart-shaped waffle iron. I have the Chef’s Choice 840 WafflePro Express Waffle Maker, Traditional Five of Hearts and have been very happy with it over the past 4 or so years.

Print Recipe

PB&J Waffle Hearts

These peanut butter and jelly waffle heart sandwiches are perfect for packing in your kids’ lunch boxes or as a simple Valentine’s Day breakfast.

Prep Time5 mins

Cook Time15 mins

Total Time20 mins

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Kid-Friendly, Valentines Day, Waffles

Servings: 12

Author: The Healthy Toast

Ingredients

Waffles

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1.5 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons butter melted and cooled
• 1 cup frozen or fresh strawberries
• Juice from ¼ of a lemon

PB&J Waffle Sandwiches

• Heart-shaped waffles broken into individual hearts
• Natural chunky peanut butter
• Strawberry Chia Seed Jam or your favorite jam

Instructions

To make the waffles

• Preheat waffle iron.
• If using frozen strawberries, heat in microwave until defrosted. If using fresh, remove stems. Place strawberries and lemon juice in food processor and pulse until pureed. Set aside.
• Combine flours, baking powder, and salt in large mixing bowl.
• In another bowl, whisk together milk, yogurt, eggs, and vanilla extract.
• Slowly stir wet ingredients into the dry until just combined. Slowly stir in cooled melted butter then add in pureed strawberries.
• Place ¼ cup of batter in the center of the waffle iron, close the lid, and cook until done. Repeat with remaining batter. If only making sandwiches, allow to cool to room temperature or place in fridge overnight. They can also be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months.

To assemble sandwiches

• Break waffles into individual hearts and toast in toaster or toaster oven until just slightly crisp but be sure not to burn your waffles.
• Spread jam on one side of one heart and peanut butter on one side of another heart. Smush together as you would with a traditional peanut butter sandwich. Repeat with remaining waffle hearts. Enjoy!

Notes

Waffle batter makes 10 large waffles, each of which can be broken into 5 heart-shaped slices. So you can make up to 25 sandwiches.

Adapted from The Food Network