Everyday French Toast

It’s no secret that I’m not always a morning person. While I love some things about mornings (peaceful bike rides and sunrises), I really only like them on my terms… aka not when the alarm goes off at 5:30.

It should go without saying then, that I don’t actually make breakfast for breakfast all that often – especially on a work day. (Sorry, Andy.) Holiday weekends, however, are the perfect time to actually make breakfast – as long as they don’t require getting out of bed before I’m ready to start the day.

Enter this new method for making French toast from Cook’s Illustrated. You bake an entire cookie sheet of toast in the oven, which means you get:

a). Crispy, golden brown slices without underdone middles (mushy French toast is the worst).
b). No flipping / turning during the cooking process = no babysitting the pan, so you can wash the dishes, set the table, slice fruit, or do whatever else you’d like to do while breakfast is cooking.
c). All the slices are done at the same time, so everyone eats at the same time!

Seriously. It’s been a game-changer over here. And it doesn’t require any fancy bread, so odds are pretty good that you can make this on any morning (or evening) that you want. Win-win-win.

Everyday French Toast

vegetable oil spray (I used olive oil spray, since that’s what’s in my pantry.)
3 eggs
2 teaspoons packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon table salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup milk
8 slices of hearty white sandwich bread (I’ve used regular sandwich bread from Aldi with no problems!) 

Arrange one oven rack in the lowest position in the oven, and place the other oven rack about 6″ from the broiler element. Preheat the oven to 425°.

Spray a large (18″ x 13″ is the recommended size from CI, but mine is slightly smaller and it works out OK) rimmed baking sheet with non-stick spray.

In a large glass measuring cup, whisk the eggs, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt together until the sugar has dissolved. Pour in the melted butter, whisking constantly, then whisk in the milk.

Pour the egg mixture onto the prepared baking sheet. Place each slice of bread on the sheet, making two rows of four slices. Leave a small space in between each slice of bread. When you’ve placed the last piece of bread on the sheet, flip each slice of bread over, starting with the first piece of bread that you placed on the sheet. Once all of the bread has been flipped, let the slices sit on the sheet until the bread soaks up the rest of the egg mixture (about 1 minute or so).

Place the sheet on the lowest rack in the oven and bake until the bottom of the slices are golden brown, about 10-15 minutes. (This takes about 10 minutes in my oven.) Move the sheet to the rack closer to the broiler and broil until the tops of the slices are golden brown, about 1-4 minutes. Watch the toast during this time to make sure it doesn’t burn, and rotate the pan as necessary to ensure even browning.

Remove sheet from oven and use a metal spatula to lift the slices off of the pan. Serve immediately.

From Cooks Illustrated, March / April 2019

Printable version

Fall Fritters

Remember when I first looked through Cook It In Cast Iron? Lots of recipes caught my attention, and it’s been an almost-permanent fixture on my kitchen counter ever since I got my own copy. (Seriously. The chocolate chip cookie is my easy dessert go-to.) 

I showed Andy the apple fritter recipe, and he was on board immediately. Apple fritters are his doughnut kryptonite. I’d never made fried doughnuts of any kind, so I was eager to try them as well. Of course, this was back in April (of 2016! I’m a terrible blogger), and since the recipe calls for apple cider, I put it on the “things to make in the fall” list. I told Bethany about my plans, and we decided that it would be the perfect Saturday morning activity.

So, while our Andys were out volunteering one morning, we made it happen.

Fritter love!

Icing fritters is serious business.

Since I knew we’d have eager helpers, I prepped as much as I could before Bethany, Judah and Sadie arrived. I used Empires from our over-zealous apple picking, which worked well. I had everything measured out and ready to go when they arrived, so the kids could easily help add things to the bowl and mix the batter.

I’d never fried anything before this, and I was pleased to discover that it’s not nearly as intimidating as I thought it’d be. I think the biggest trick is to have everything ready to go before you start frying so you’re not scrambling to find a cookie sheet for the finished fritters when they’re ready. Having an accurate thermometer for the oil really helps too. We used Bethany’s for this project, and it made a believer out of me. (So much so that I took advantage of Thermoworks Black Friday deals last fall and purchased a ThermoPop for myself.) Once the kid-friendly activities were done, Judah lost interest in the process (until we were ready to ice the fritters), but Sadie pulled a chair up to the counter and watched us fry every fritter!

The guys came home just in time to help us eat the fritters (which I served with bacon because a Saturday breakfast without bacon is not one I want to attend), and everyone loved them. The cider in the fritters added a lot of flavor, and there were apple pieces in almost every bite. They’re not going to be an every-weekend thing, but I think we’ll make it a point to enjoy them at least once each fall.

Apple Fritters

2 apples (6 1/2 ounces each), Granny Smith, Cortland or Empire, peeled, cored, halved and cut into 1/4″ pieces
10 ounces (2 cups) all-purpose flour
2 1/3 ounces (1/3 cup) sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, divided
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, divided
1 cup apple cider, divided
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
8 ounces (2 cups) powdered sugar
4 cups vegetable oil, for frying

Preheat the oven to 200° and place the oven rack in the middle position. Line a baking sheet with paper towels and lay the apples in a single layer on the sheet. Pat the apples with a paper towel until they are nice and dry.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, one teaspoon cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg together. In a separate, bowl, combine the melted butter, 3/4 cup of cider and the eggs. Whisk them until smooth.

Add the dried apple pieces to the flour mixture and toss to combine. Stir the cider mixture into the flour mixture, and mix until the wet ingredients are thoroughly incorporated.

Place a wire rack over a rimmed baking sheet lined with a triple layer of paper towels. Set aside. Pour the oil into a 12″ cast iron skillet (you want the oil to be 1/2″ deep) and heat the oil over medium heat until it reaches 325°.

When the oil is hot, grease a 1/3 cup dry measuring cup and use it to scoop five heaping mounds of batter into the oil. Use the back of a spoon to flatten the batter in the oil. Fry the fritters until they are a deep golden brown, about six to eight minutes. Flip the fritters halfway through the frying process. Be sure to maintain the oil temperature, adjusting the burner’s heat if necessary.

Transfer the finished fritters to the wire rack on the prepared sheet and move them to the oven to keep them warm while you finish the rest of the fritters. (Before adding the next batch of batter to the pan, make sure the oil is still 325°. If the oil has cooled, wait until it comes back to temperature before adding the batter.) Repeat the process with the rest of the fritters, placing them in the warm oven when they are done.

Next, prepare the glaze. Whisk the powdered sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and the remaining 1/4 cup of cider together in a large measuring cup. (You could use a bowl, but a measuring cup with a pour spout will make it easier to drizzle the icing over the fritters.) Drizzle a generous tablespoon of icing over each fritter. Allow the icing to set for 10 minutes before serving, which should give you enough time to scramble some eggs or fry some bacon to serve alongside your fritters.

From Cook it in Cast Iron

Click here for a printable version.

Perfect Bread

Like I mentioned earlier, one of my goals for this year is to bake more bread. And thanks to Karen’s generosity, I’m all set to scratch sourdough off my baking bucket list. I started feeding Fester last week, and he’s been a happy part of our family ever since. I even felt some guilt when I moved him from his warm spot next to my KitchenAid mixer to the fridge. (Side note: All credit for the name “Fester” goes to Karen’s husband, Arron.) 

My one hang-up with the sourdough process is the “discard” step. After four days of gradual feeding, the instructions said to reduce the starter down to just 1/2 a cup, feed that portion and then discard the rest. And I have to discard starter whenever I feed Fester from here on out! This goes against my thrifty nature! Not to mention the fact that I’m lovingly feeding him on a regular basis (which is more than I can say about the plant in my office…). Why would I want to throw some of it out?

So I’ve been searching the internet for things to do with “discarded” starter. Thankfully, King Arthur Flour has some great ideas and recipes. After reading several recipes, I decided to start with this cinnamon raisin swirl bread. I had everything on hand for them (unlike these delicious-sounding English muffins).

It took a few hours to make the bread, but most of that was hands-off time while the dough rose. And making the dough couldn’t have been any easier. I literally dumped it into the mixer and let the dough hook do the work. I was a little concerned when that the dough was going to be too soft and sticky to work with, but I rolled it out on a greased pastry mat and didn’t really have a problem.

I’m just a week into this sourdough / bread baking adventure, but if my first experience is any indication, this is going to be a tasty ride.

Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Sourdough Bread

Note: I’ve been loving measuring by weight instead of volume (fewer dishes! improved accuracy!) lately, so I’m giving this recipe in weights. The good people at King Arthur Flour also provide standard volume measurements, so feel free to click over there if you need things in cups. 🙂

For the dough:
4 ounces of sourdough starter, fed or unfed
12 3/4 ounces all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast (KA calls for instant; I used the active dry that I always have on hand.) 
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 large egg
2 1/2 ounces softened butter
5 3/8 ounces lukewarm water

For the filling: 
1 3/4 ounces sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1 large egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water
2 5/8 ounces raisins

extra butter for finishing, optional

To make the dough, combine all of the dough ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Turn the mixer on to medium-low speed and mix until the dough comes together, then increase the speed to medium and knead until a soft, smooth dough forms.

Place the dough in a lightly greased large bowl (I used my 8-cup Pyrex bowl.) and cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough sit until it has doubled in size, about 1-1/2  to 2 hours.

While the dough rises, stir the sugar, cinnamon and flour together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Lightly grease your counter (or a pastry mat), and then turn the dough out onto the prepared work surface. Gently deflate the dough, and then roll / pat it into a rectangle that’s about 6″ x 20″.

Brush the surface of the dough with the egg wash, then spread the cinnamon-sugar mixture over the dough. Sprinkle the raisins evenly over the surface of the dough.

Working from one of the short ends of the dough, roll the dough into a log. Pinch the ends closed to seal the log, and make sure the long seam is pinched closed.

Transfer the dough log into a greased 9″ x 5″ loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rise until it is about 1″ above the edge of the loaf pan.

While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 350°. When the dough is done rising, bake the bread for 40-45 minutes, or until the interior of the loaf measures 190° on a digital thermometer and the top is golden brown. Tent the bread with aluminum foil after the first 20 minutes to prevent the top from becoming too brown.

Remove the bread from the oven and run a knife along the edges of the pan to loosen the bread. Turn the bread out of the pan and brush the top with extra butter, if desired. (This gives the bread a soft, satiny crust.) Allow bread to cool before slicing.

From King Arthur Flour

Click here for a printable version.

My Go-To Blueberry Muffins

I have been all about fast breakfasts lately. I don’t know if I’m getting lazier or if we’re getting busier, but there seems to be less time in the mornings around here. OK, so maybe that has something to do with chilly mornings and my desire to hit “snooze” as many times as possible before getting out of bed, but still. There just isn’t always enough time for a bowl of oatmeal before work.

Even on my busiest days though, I still need some sort of fuel in the mornings. I can be somewhat unpleasant when I’m hungry. (Andy will vouch for this. Hangry Beth = no good to anyone.) Enter muffins. They’re portable. They taste good either at room temperature or warmed up, and honestly, the flavor combinations are almost endless. (Don’t believe me? You should see Kirsten’s list.)

Blueberry muffins are one of my favorite kinds, and they’re one of the easiest ones to put together, at least in my opinion. You don’t have to peel or chop the fruit, and odds are, all of the ingredients are hanging out in your pantry/fridge/freezer right now.

These are great with fresh blueberries, but they work just as well with frozen blueberries, which is helpful when a). it’s not blueberry season and b). you froze several pounds of blueberries last July. And like I heard last night on Cook’s Country: “Frozen fruit is always in season.” (Yes, I watch PBS, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.) 

I swap about one-third to one-half of the all-purpose flour for whole wheat pie and pastry flour, since this is breakfast, not dessert. I go heavy on the blueberries, since we’re kind of addicted to fruit around here. Finally, I add the lemon zest to the sugar and give it a spin in the mixer before creaming the butter and sugar together. I feel like that gives the muffins a better lemon flavor. Of course, that could all be in my head, since I get a big whiff of fresh lemon while I’m working.

I’ll admit that these are best fresh, straight out of the oven, but they keep fairly well in an airtight container for the few days that it takes us to polish off a batch. And since nine muffins just won’t cut it at our house, I always double the recipe, which are the amounts reflected below. That way, we have breakfast (and snacks) for the entire week, which means I can hit snooze one more time. Again. 😉

Blueberry Muffins

1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups Greek yogurt
3 cups AP flour (can substitute up to half with whole wheat pie and pastry flour)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
heavy 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (If using frozen blueberries, do not thaw them beforehand.)

Preheat the oven to 375° and line a muffin tin with paper liners. (Alternatively, you could spray the tins with cooking spray, but that never works well for me. Besides, paper liners are so cute!) 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, then set them aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the sugar and lemon zest. Mix on medium-low speed for a few minutes, or until the zest has been evenly distributed throughout the sugar and smells lemony. Add the butter and cream together until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Add the eggs and beat well, then add the yogurt. Sift about half of the dry ingredient mixture over the batter and mix on low speed until just combined. Sift the rest of the dry ingredients into the batter and mix until the flour has almost disappeared.

Add the blueberries to the bowl and gently fold them in to the batter, which will be very thick. Make sure that the flour is fully incorporated into the batter when you’re done adding the blueberries.

Using a cookie scoop (or two spoons, if the spring on your scoop breaks halfway through the process…), fill the muffin cups about 3/4 of the way full. Bake until golden brown and the muffins test clean with a toothpick, about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.

Yield: Approximately 18-20 muffins

From Smitten Kitchen, who adapted it from Cook’s Illustrated

Click here for a printable version.

Dessert? Breakfast? You Decide.

You may have picked up on this  (especially if we’re friends outside of the internet), but dessert for breakfast is something that I endorse wholeheartedly.

Apple crisp? That’s apples and oatmeal, which totally equals breakfast in my book. Fruit pie? I’ve been doing that since I was a kid. After all, there’s no way that’s any worse than having a bowl of Frosted Flakes. I’d argue that it’s better for you than most boxed cereals, actually.

I’ve even gone as far as having coffee ice cream in the morning, but I’ll admit that’s a little more of a stretch. However, that’s one of the perks of being an adult. Just like calling chocolate waffles “breakfast for dinner” when you know they’re really just brownies. Ha. 😉

Either way, when I saw Deb’s Apricot Breakfast Crisp, I was all in. Crisp would be an excellent addition to our busy weekday mornings. Except for one tiny detail: Apricots (or peaches, which I prefer) aren’t in season. Even worse: they won’t be for MONTHS, and there’s almost nothing more disappointing than biting into tasteless off-season fruit. (Or, as Kirsten points out, a flavorless off-season tomato.) 

I spend hot summer days picking and preserving fruit just for moments like this though. Last summer I canned 14 quarts of peaches (along with several jars of peach jam), so I figured that I’d be able to use some of them in a “breakfast crisp.”

I drained a jar of peaches and weighed the fruit, which came to just over a pound. Perfect! I dumped the peaches in the bottom of a 1-1/2 quart dish, added the sugar/flour mixture and made the topping. I think the entire process took less than 10 minutes. Then it took a quite spin in the hot oven, and bam! My Sunday afternoon baking was complete.

Of course, there was no way that I could convince Andy to save all of the crisp for Monday morning. He had to sample some that evening, which, of course, meant that I had to sample some too. And true to form, the crisp lasted about 24 hours in our house, which meant that we got one breakfast out of it. Maybe a double batch should be in our future.

Peach Breakfast Crisp

For the fruit filling:
1 quart of peaches, drained (use a pound of fresh peaches if they’re in season where you live)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon AP flour
Pinch of nutmeg

For the topping:
4 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup AP flour
Generous pinch of kosher salt
2 tablespoons sliced almonds
Pinch of nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 400°.

Place the peaches in the bottom of a small baking dish. (I used a 1-1/2 quart dish; Deb recommends a 1-quart gratin dish.) In a small bowl, mix together the 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon of flour and a pinch of nutmeg. Sprinkle the flour-sugar-spice mixture over the peaches and gently stir until they are all covered.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Add the sugar and then the oats, flour, almonds and salt. Stir until the mixture clumps together. (I’ll go ahead and admit that mine never formed large clumps like Deb said, but I figured it didn’t really matter.)

Bake for 30 minutes, or until the topping is browned and your kitchen smells amazing. Serve warm or cold, with a scoop of yogurt for breakfast or ice cream for dessert.

From the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

Click here for a printable version.

Apple Butter In My Muffins

A couple of years ago, I started using the crockpot to make apple butter. It was an easy solution for the hundreds of apples we brought home from the orchard, and it makes the house smell incredible. Plus, it cooks while I sleep, and then I store the apple butter in the freezer. That’s a win-win in my world.

My apple butter usually winds up on biscuits or in baked brie, but when Andy requested muffins for a work potluck, I decided to see if anyone had ever put apple butter in the muffins before they baked, rather than on the muffins afterwards.

A few seconds later, Google came back with more than four million results. (Further proof that there’s nothing new left under the sun.) After skimming the first few items (does anyone really get past the first page of search results?), I narrowed it down to two choices. And from there, I simply went with the one that had the streusel topping. Although, I would have preferred a recipe that had the apple butter mixed into the batter, instead of spooned into the center. Maybe I’ll experiment with that someday.

Like any good muffin recipe, these came together quickly and easily. After all, if I’m going to spend hours in the kitchen, I’m going to make something fancier than muffins. I decided to skip the glaze (mostly because I was feeling lazy), and while I’m sure it would be fantastic, you can’t miss what you don’t know. The muffin itself isn’t overly sweet, but the apple butter and the streusel make up for it. And then I don’t feel like I’m completing negating my evening bike ride by eating one. (Please don’t tell me if that’s not true, OK? Ignorance is bliss.) 😉

 

Apple Butter Muffins
Makes about 16 standard-sized muffins

For the muffins: 
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt.
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup apple butter (I didn’t actually measure this out. I just scooped spoonfuls from the jar.) 

For the streusel topping:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup walnuts
4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 425. Line a muffin pan with liners and set aside.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together in a small bowl. Whisk to combine.

In a large bowl, beat the egg, milk and vegetable oil together until combined. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and gently mix until the ingredients are just combined. (Don’t overmix!) 

To make the topping, use your now-empty dry-ingredients bowl and stir the flour, cinnamon, brown sugar walnuts together. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter until the mixture is well-blended.

Place a heaping teaspoon of the muffin batter in the bottom of the prepared muffin cups, and then place a heaping teaspoon of apple butter on top of the muffin batter. Sprinkle a hearty pinch of streusel on top of the apple butter, and then top the streusel with another heaping teaspoon of batter. When all of the muffin cups are filled and the batter is gone, top the muffins with the remaining streusel.

Bake at 425 degrees for 5 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 375 degrees. Bake for another 15 minutes, or until muffins are golden brown and test done with a toothpick. Remove the muffins from the oven and allow them to cool on a wire rack before serving.

From Tastes of Lizzy T’s

Click here for a printable version.

Back in the Kitchen!

I am officially back in action, and man, does it feel good! I’m still asking Andy to drain heavy pots of pasta for me, and I’m still a little slower at chopping things, but I am making dinner and (perhaps more importantly) dessert again. For which Andy is very grateful. He did say that he’s going to keep helping with the dishes, something I’m very grateful for. There’s nothing like a broken bone to make you appreciate the little things in life. 🙂

Last Saturday was the first day that I not only felt good enough to get back into the swings of things, but also had enough time to play around in the kitchen. I started the day with blueberry pancakes, made a lemon-asparagus-feta salad for dinner, whipped up some caramelized onion dip and baked some fantastic strawberry-rhubarb bars for dessert. The kitchen was a mess. It was fantastic. I was even able to take pictures of three of the four items! That’s a personal best for me! (The strawberry rhubarb bars didn’t last long enough for pictures. I know Deb says that you’ll get 8-16 servings, but I have to disagree. One 8″ pan feeds four adults, which is slightly embarrassing when you realize that those same four adults also did a number on the onion dip before they got anywhere near the bars. Ahem. Moving on.) 

So, let’s start at the beginning and talk about pancakes, OK? I’m normally more of a waffle or French toast girl, but for some reason, I really wanted pancakes Saturday morning, and not just any pancakes. Blueberry pancakes. So while Andy slept in, I hit up the internet for a good pancake recipe. Of course, we were completely out of buttermilk, so that eliminated an entire category of pancakes for me, since I didn’t feel like “faking it” with milk and vinegar. A little more searching turned up multigrain blueberry yogurt pancakes on Annie’s Eats, which led me to the original recipe over at Smitten Kitchen.

I liked the idea of a pancake that wasn’t completely like eating dessert for breakfast, but I didn’t have rye or barley flour in the house. Hmm. Then I noticed that someone had commented on Annie’s site and said that they ground up oatmeal in the blender and used it as “oat flour” instead. That sounded do-able, especially since Andy was awake by this point and wouldn’t be disturbed by the jet engine food processor in the kitchen. That was it. I was out of bed and in the kitchen.

The batter was really thick, which meant that my first few pancakes weren’t the prettiest, but they tasted fantastic, especially with maple syrup. I added extra blueberries (because there’s no such thing as too many blueberries in your pancakes). Between the two of us, we ate almost the entire batch. Maybe I’m more of a pancake girl than I realized. 🙂

Multigrain Blueberry Yogurt Pancakes

2 eggs
1 cup Greek yogurt
4 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons melted butter, plus extra for the pan
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon vanilla (I didn’t measure this…) 
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup old-fashioned oats, processed into a powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-2 cups blueberries (I used some of my frozen blueberries and didn’t bother to thaw them.)

Whisk the yogurt, eggs and milk together in a large bowl. Whisk the lemon zest, vanilla and melted butter into the yogurt/egg mixture. In a separate bowl, whisk the flours, oats, sugar, baking powder and salt together.

Add the dry ingredients to the bowl with the egg mixture and stir until just combined. Gently fold in about 3/4 cup of blueberries.

Unless you feel like a short-order cook, preheat the oven to 200 degrees and place a rimmed baking sheet in the oven. This allows you to keep the first pancakes warm until the rest of the batch is done.

Heat a large, heavy-bottomed skillet or griddle over medium heat. (I used my cast iron skillet.) Melt a pat of butter in the pan. When the pan is hot, spoon a few tablespoons of pancake batter into the pan and flatten slightly with the back of a spatula. Sprinkle a few additional blueberries on top of the pancake batter. When bubbles have formed and the pancakes appear dry around the edges, carefully flip the pancake over. Cook the pancake until the underside is golden and the center is cooked through. (Here’s a plus for using the oven as a warmer: It will help finish any pancakes whose middles weren’t quite done on top of the stove. Win-win!) Remove the cooked pancakes from the skillet and place on the sheet in the warm oven.

Add more butter to the skillet as necessary and continue frying pancakes until the batter is gone, snacking on frozen blueberries while you wait. Serve warm with maple syrup.

Barely adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Click here for a printable version.

My Kind of Pumpkin

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t go nuts over pumpkin. I don’t rush to Starbucks each September for a pumpkin spice latte. I’ve been known to bypass the pumpkin pie in favor of other goodies at Thanksgiving, and while I’ll eat a piece of pumpkin roll or a pumpkin square, I don’t hide the fact that for me, those goodies are all about the frosting/filling.

We did, however, receive a couple of pie pumpkins at the end of our CSA, and since I wasn’t ready to make pie, I roasted them (per Annie’s method) and froze the puree. I figured I’d find a use for it sooner or later! I stumbled on a muffin recipe over at Smitten Kitchen, and, in spite of my ambivalence toward most things pumpkin, I will be the first to admit that these are a keeper.

First of all, they’re incredibly easy to make. In my mind, muffins should be quick and easy. If I want a breakfast with multiple steps, I’ll make cinnamon rolls or something. Since I upped the amount of pumpkin in the recipe, I figured I could also add some oatmeal (these ARE muffins, after all, not cupcakes). They’re nice and moist (thanks to all of that pumpkin!), and they go well with the handful of mini chocolate chips that just happened to find their way into the mixing bowl. 🙂

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 1/2 cups flour (I used a combination of white whole wheat, whole wheat pastry flour and regular all-purpose flour)
scant 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 lb. pumpkin puree (Deb’s recipe calls for 1 1/3 cups of puree, which is what I used the first time I made these. The second time, I discovered that there was just a little left in the freezer bag, so I added it all.) 
1/3 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
cinnamon-sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin cups with paper liners. (I got 24 mini-muffins and then another 10 or so regular-sized muffins out of one batch.) 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside.

Mix the pumpkin, oil, eggs and sugar together in a large bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl with the pumpkin mixture and gently stir until almost combined. Pour the chocolate chips into the bowl and stir the batter a couple more times, until the chips are incorporated and the flour is all mixed into the batter.

Divide the mixture between the prepared muffin cups, filling them about two-thirds of the way full. Sprinkle the top of each muffin with cinnamon sugar. Bake until muffins test done with a toothpick, about 22 minutes. (I start checking them around 18 minutes or so.) Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then let muffins cool completely on a wire rack.

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen, who got the recipe from the American Club in Kohler, Wisconsin, via Gourmet magazine

Click here for a printable version.

Good Morning Muffins

I’ve been on a muffin kick lately. Blueberry muffins. Pumpkin muffins (I added chocolate chips). Apple cider chocolate cranberry muffins.

Yep, you read that right. Apple cider. With chocolate. In muffins. Weird, right? (No weirder than some other things I’ve tried.) Who would have thought to put apple cider in muffins?! Not me, that’s for sure. But Kirsten at Farm Fresh Feasts makes a lot of muffins, so I figured she knows what she’s doing. And since apple cider is one of my favorite things, I knew I had to give them a try. Of course, I saw this recipe after apple cider season ended, which meant they went on the back burner for a few months.

Thankfully, cider season rolled around again, so I dug through my saved recipes and gave this one a whirl. My only changes were to use dried cranberries instead of cherries and regular chocolate chips instead of mini ones (all based on what was in my cupboard at the time). I thought about adding some diced apple pieces as well, but chose not to since I threw these together before work one morning and didn’t have time for extra peeling/chopping.

I love the fact that these are one-bowl muffins. And as long as you remember to soak the oats the night before, you can have fresh muffins by the time you leave for work in the morning. (Seriously… mix them up, bake them while you shower/prep for the day and then snag one – or three, whatever floats your boat – on your way out the door.) 

Apple Cider Muffins with Cranberries & Chocolate Chips

1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 cup apple cider
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 egg
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup chocolate chips

In a large bowl, combine oats, cranberries and cider. Let mixture soak until oats are well-hydrated (I soaked mine overnight). 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper liners and set aside.

Once oats are thoroughly soaked, whisk the oil, brown sugar, egg and vanilla into the oat mixture. Make a well in the middle of the wet ingredients, and then pour the dry ingredients into the well. Stir until the mixture is almost combined, then add the chocolate chips. Give the mixture another stir or two to fully combine things.

Evenly divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups. (I ended up filling 13 muffin cups! The frustration!) Bake for 15 minutes, or until tops are golden and muffins test done with a toothpick. Remove from pans and enjoy.

From Farm Fresh Feasts

Click here for a printable version.

Dessert for Breakfast

I’ll be the first to admit that we mix up meals in our house. Breakfast for dinner, for instance. And I fully believe that there’s nothing better than starting your day with a piece of pie. Or cold pizza. (Or having your morning coffee in ice cream form. Hehe.) 

And while these babies have cocoa powder and chocolate chips, there’s only one stick of butter and 3/4 of a cup of sugar in a batch of 24. Plus, there’s Greek yogurt and cherries! (I bet if you swapped out some of the flour for a whole-wheat variety, they’d be even healthier.) So… totally acceptable for breakfast. And lunch. And dessert. 

The most time-consuming part of making these guys is pitting the cherries, and even with that step, I was still able to get a batch of these in and out of the oven before work one day. They baked up into these jumbo-sized, perfectly domed beauties too. We enjoyed the first batch fairly well, but decided that they needed more cherries and chocolate chips. So, I upped the mix-ins the second time around, and they are going fast around here. 🙂

Chocolate Cherry Muffins

2 2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/3 cup dark cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s Special Dark.) 
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups Greek yogurt or sour cream (I used half yogurt, half sour cream.) 
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups chopped, pitted sweet cherries
1 1/3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper liners and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together 2 2/3 cups of flour, the cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Meanwhile, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, scrapping down the bowl as needed. Mix in the vanilla.

Stir in half of the dry ingredients until just combined, then add one-third of the yogurt. Stir in half of the remaining flour and then another third of the yogurt. Mix in the remaining flour, followed by the last of the yogurt.

Toss the cherries with the remaining tablespoon of flour. Gently fold in the chopped cherries and chocolate chips in to the batter, which will be very thick. Divide the mixture between the prepared muffin pans. Bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 375. Bake for an additional 8 to 10 minutes, or until muffins test done with a toothpick.

Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then remove from pan and allow to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Yield: 24 generous muffins

Barely adapted from Confections of a Foodie Bride, who adapted it from Cook’s Illustrated

Click here for a printable version.