Archive for the 'breakfast' Category
I won’t lie – it was a terrible New Year’s Eve (with the exception of the party we went to!), and an even worse New Year’s Day, starting before I even got out of bed. Today ended with taco chips for dinner and a house more disastrous than it was before Christmas, with the tree still up, no new stove, and a kitchen that looks like someone picked it up and shook it. I suppose that means things can only improve this year, right? I’m happy to read of all the clean slates and beautiful beginnings, but mine was not. It’s the worst kind of writers’ block, where you can’t think of anything good to say, and so probably shouldn’t say anything at all, but you really want to.
This apple pancake was good. There, that’s something.
A puffed pancake is easier to make than you might think, easier than traditional one-at-a-time pancakes, even. You whisk the batter together, pour it into a hot (from sautéing those apples) pan, slide it into the oven and let it puff up all crusty and crackly, like a ginormous Yorkshire pud.
If you want it to rise even higher, take the sautéed apples out of the pan, set them aside, pour the batter into the pan and bake it on its own. Then dump the apples on top when you serve it, in wedges. If you don’t want to do apples, heat up the pan on the stovetop with a little oil (and butter too, if you like) and bake the batter as-is, then fill the pancake with fresh berries to serve it.
I’m also struggling with the fact that it’s January 1st, which means a) this blog has been here 4 years! and b) I want to launch something new, which I know is either a very good or very bad idea, but would be so much fun, wouldn’t it? Especially if I start tonight and do 365 days of something. There’s so much potential on this here world wide inter-web.
And so regarding this new year, I declare a do-over. I’m back to deadlines this week but W is still home, so I’m hoping to spend some me and him time clearing the clutter, three-dimensional and otherwise, and hopefully get a good and proper start on the year – next Monday morning. Tomorrow just can’t count. I’m not fresh and focused and ready! Where did the week go?
Puffed Apple Pancake
2 apples or pears, ripe but firm, cored and sliced
1-2 Tbsp. canola oil
1-2 Tbsp. butter
1-2 Tbsp. sugar or honey
Pinch cinnamon
3 large eggs
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup milk
Preheat the oven to 450°F.
In a large skillet (if you have an ovenproof one, use it), sauté the apples in the oil and butter over medium heat for a minute or two. Sprinkle them with the sugar and cinnamon and cook until they start to turn golden. Remove them from the heat.
Whisk together the eggs, flour, and milk. Don’t worry about getting all the lumps out. Pour the batter over the apples in the skillet and put it in the oven. (If you don’t have an ovenproof skillet, pour the sautéed apples into a pie plate and pour the batter over them.)
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the pancake is puffed and golden. Cut it into wedges and serve warm, sprinkled with icing sugar if you like, with the fruit and a drizzle of maple syrup. Serves 4.
January 01 2012 | breakfast | 21 Comments »
I woke up early this morning, and finding myself downstairs in the kitchen in the dark surrounded with half cleaned-out cupboards and drawers and a sink more than full with dirty dishes, I opted to make muffins. Breakfast is important, right?
Also, that half jar of mincemeat in the fridge was far more pressing than total kitchen reorganization. (I do this every holiday week – decide to overhaul the kitchen or bedroom or basement, or all three. Most often my gumption runs out after I’ve taken everything out, and before I put it all back away.)
Mincemeat is one of those things that -unlike chocolate and cheese and wine- does not translate well to any season beyond Christmas. Namely January. Eating mince tarts in the middle of January just does not taste the same as the middle of December. But what else do you do with all that mincemeat?
Bake muffins!
They won’t come out tasting of mince tarts, but of themselves – moist and fruity and wonderfully spiced. You can add chopped apple or pear and pecans or walnuts too, if you like. And if you have a little more than a cup of mincemeat, or a little less, don’t sweat it – they’ll still work.
And the house will smell wonderful when everyone gets up.
Mincemeat Muffins
Gourmet, December 1997
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup canola or other mild vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 cup all-fruit mincemeat
1 small tart apple, cored and chopped
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 400°F and line twelve muffin cups with paper liners.
In a largish bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In a smaller bowl (or Pyrex measuring cup) stir together the milk, oil and egg, and add it to the flour along with the mincemeat. Stir until the batter is almost combined, then add the apple and nuts and stir just until blended. Don’t worry about getting the lumps out.
Fill the muffin cups almost full and bake for 25 minutes, or until golden and springy to the touch. Serve warm.
Makes 1 dozen muffins.
December 29 2011 | bread and breakfast and snacks | 6 Comments »
I’m not quite done with cookies yet, although I can’t really classify these as cookies. They’re light, airy and crisp, and taste like what I want elephant ears and other fried dough products to taste like at the Stampede, but never do.
Rosettes are made by frying batter quickly on the end of a rosette iron, which I imagine aren’t found in too many kitchens. But I’d like to rectify that. It’s the sort of thing one might ask Santa to tuck in one’s stocking – they’re inexpensive, and worth it for the batches of crisp rosettes you’ll undoubtedly crank out every Christmas. There’s something to be said for special recipes only made on special occasions, like cookie parties and Christmas. Especially when those things are rosettes, still warm and dusted with icing sugar. Waffle irons exclusively make waffles – so why not? You may even come across some nice vintage ones at garage sales or on etsy.
The batter is similar to that of a crepe, although the result is nothing of the sort. The mixture is easily whisked together in a minute or two. Then to make the rosettes, bring an inch or two of canola or other mild vegetable oil in a smallish pot. Dip the floral end of the metal iron in the oil to heat it up, then dip it in the batter, and back into the oil. Once golden, each rosette will pop right off with the tip of a fork.
Set the pile on a paper towel-lined plate and dust with icing sugar. Pass around immediately.
Rosettes
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
canola oil, for cooking
icing sugar, for dusting
In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth. Add the flour and salt and whisk just until blended.
Heat an inch or two of oil in a heavy medium saucepan until it’s hot but not smoking (if you have a thermometer it should register about 375°F). Dip the metal end of the rosette iron into the oil for a minute to heat up, then take it out, letting the extra oil drip into the pot.
Dip the rosette iron into the batter, without letting it come up over the top edge of the design, then submerge the iron in the oil and cook until golden, 35 to 40 seconds. Lift out iron, letting oil drip off, and pry the rosette off with a fork over a paper towel-lined plate. Repeat with remaining batter.
Dust the rosettes with icing sugar and serve immediately. Makes lots.
December 20 2011 | breakfast and cookies & squares | 19 Comments »
I may be done with banana bread. For a little while, anyway. We just need a break from each other. I may just be tired of the avalanche of bananas each time I try to locate something in the freezer. And in the fall, I do love the idea of baking with squash and sweet potatoes. And I always get this sense that I’m somehow taking care of everybody when I have a loaf baking in the oven.
Let’s keep that illusion going.
This is – yes – more of a cake. It’s dense and moist, and crackly on top. Somehow baking it in a loaf pan makes it seem more suitable for breakfast and snacking, but if you baked it in layers and slathered it with cream cheese frosting, you’d have yourself a pretty substantial cake. I cut back on the sugar, but it’s still pretty sweet. I’m quite sure, however, that most coffee shop baking is loaded with the good stuff – butter, sugar, oil – ignorance is bliss, right?
Oh hey! You can totally make this with grated raw winter squash – like butternut or pumpkin – in place of the sweet potato, too.
Zucchini & Sweet Potato Loaf
adapted from Bon Appétit, November 1992
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup canola or mild vegetable oil (or half oil, half applesauce or pumpkin puree)
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups grated zucchini
1 1/2 cups grated peeled sweet potato
1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
Preheat oven to 350°F and spray a 9×5-inch loaf pan with nonstick spray. In a large bowl, stir together the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla and add to the dry ingredients along with the zucchini and sweet potato. Add walnuts and stir just until combined.
Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake for about 1 hour 20 minutes, until golden and the top is springy to the touch. Cool bread in pan on rack 15 minutes. Cut around bread to loosen. Turn out onto rack and cool completely. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Wrap in foil and let stand at room temperature.)
Makes 1 big, hefty loaf.
November 17 2011 | breakfast and cake | 4 Comments »
When I placed one of these babies down in front of W, he declared in his best British accent: “bloody hell! That pancake is amazing!” (One of the most entertaining Harry Potter influences is imitations of Ron Weasley, saying “bloody hell” – or more, “bwoody ‘ell“, as if it were the most natural commentary a six year old could give.)
The Club Club girls had their community cookbook launch this weekend. When I went over to photograph them Lisa told me about her contribution to the book – banana and bacon pancakes she had had in Chicago (or New York? somewhere cool and food-centric) that blew her away and inspired her to make them once she got back home. Of course when it came to write the recipe down, it was a bit tricky, as it tends to be when you regularly wing it.
“You just make pancakes, really,” she told me, “and put bacon and bananas in them.”
And so I did. I stirred crumbled bacon and chopped bananas into a batter that already had a pureed banana in it (one that had blackened in the freezer, making it extra juicy and mashable). Bonus: you then get to cook the pancakes themselves in the bacon drippings, if you’re so inclined.
And then just now, when I flipped through the book to Lisa’s recipe did I realize she caramelizes the bananas and serves them OVER the bacon pancakes! Hello! That changes the game entirely! Will make them next Sunday and report back.
But these are pretty awesome. Even 13 year old Em, who like totally hates bananas, devoured hers.
And guess what! I have a copy of their book, warm from the presses, to give away!
Banana & Bacon Pancakes
6 slices bacon, chopped
2 cups all-purpose flour (or use half whole wheat, half all-purpose)
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 large egg
2 Tbsp. melted butter or oil
1 very ripe banana, mashed
1 ripe banana, chopped
In a heavy skillet, cook the bacon over medium-high heat until crisp; drain off almost all the drippings (keep them in a small dish) and set aside.
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk, egg and oil. Add it to the dry ingredients along with the overripe mashed banana; stir just until combined. Stir in the cooked bacon and chopped banana.
Warm the skillet up again. (The great thing about cooking the bacon first is that it sort of gets the skillet going, so that the pancakes cook perfectly from the very first go.) If you like, add a bit of canola oil and swirl it around the pan. Ladle in some batter and cook over medium-low heat until the edges look dry and bubbles begin to pop on the surface. Use a thin, flat spatula to flip the pancakes over and cook them for another minute, until they are golden on the other side.
Repeat with the remaining batter. If you need to keep the finished pancakes warm, keep them uncovered on a plate in a 200ºF oven. Makes about 8 pancakes.
September 05 2011 | breakfast | 18 Comments »
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