breakfast blogger

And delicious ones, at that.

I made these donuts- FOR BREAKFAST- this morning. They were easy to make, and quick to fry, though I wouldn’t suggest making these if you can’t be trusted with a pot of hot oil first thing in the morning. You could make them the night before, keep them in the fridge and then frost them right before serving, or you could omit the frosting entirely and roll them in powdered sugar, or a mixture of cinnamon and granulated sugar. They’re tasty however you make ‘em.

Here’s the recipe-

2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg, beaten

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Set aside
In a larger bowl, whisk the egg until its solid yellow, about 2 minutes. Gradually add the sugar, making a light buttery yellow emulsion. Alternate adding the flour mixture and the melted butter, then more flour, then half the milk, then more flour, followed by the second half of the milk and vanilla extract, and finished with the last of the flour. You should have a fairly firm dough ball. Turn it out onto a lightly floured board and roll it out to about 1/2 an inch thick, or slightly thicker. Use a donut cutter or a large round biscuit cutter and a small biscuit cutter, to cut out donut rounds.

Heat a quart of oil to about 375 degrees in a large high sided dutch oven or deep fryer. Drop the donuts in the hot oil one at a time, being careful not to crowd the fryer. I try to stick with two or three donuts at a time, so I can keep track of them and they won’t get burnt. Fry the donuts for about a minute on each side. Remove from the hot oil with a slotted spoon and drain on several layers of paper towels, or on a wire cooling grid.  Allow to cool before frosting. If you’re going to roll them in sugar or cinnamon sugar, do it while they’re hot.

I made my icing with a mixture of about 1 cup powdered sugar and a tablespoon of milk plus a few drops of strawberry extract. Mix until you’ve got a thick paste, and pipe it on top of the cooled donuts. Smooth out the tops with a small icing spatula dipped in milk or water, and sprinkle with your choice of sprinkles!

I couldn’t resist eating one! I made mine pretty small, just a step above bite size. They’re fun, and like I said before, you can make them ahead of time if you know you’ve got a morning sweet tooth, or if you want a quick pick me up with your morning coffee.

..We can’t always be so healthy.. *smile*

-A.

Alright, so it has been cooling down a tad around here, but its still summer. The weather in the northwest is anything but predictable, so its always a good idea to start the day off producing as little heat as possible, just incase the temperature starts sky rocketing before the house gets a chance to cool down.

So these waffles, they take a little bit more work, and a few more dishes, but they’re a great addition to a sweet breakfast or brunch, and well worth any extra effort they entail.

Cinnamon caramel pecan waffles-

Covered in a rich maple cinnamon caramel glaze.

Each bite is full of delicious bits of pecans and caramel, and the smell these things put off while they’re baking makes your whole kitchen smell like you’ve been hard at work for hours, thanks to the heavy dose of cinnamon.

I recommend eating these things with a nice big glass of milk. They’re tasty, and you might not be able to stop with just a few. I ate a whole stack myself!

For both recipes, stop over at Never Bashful with Butter.

And don’t you worry, I’ll be back with more waffler recipes soon!

-A.

Living in the Pacific Northwestern section of the United States has been pretty tough lately. 100 degree temperatures are just not something we’re used to, considering 10 months of the year we’re wishing that the rain would stop just long enough to run and check the mail.

This last week, we’ve been stuck with the heat. Dawn to dusk and back again, the mercury hasn’t gone below 60 Degrees Fahrenheit, at best.

For those of us who live without air conditioning, and rely on the few fans we have to most efficiently cool our living spaces, limiting our heat producing activities basically every hour that the sun is up… This means the oven and stove top are just off limits during the waking hours.
After a week of cold cereal for breakfast, I finally had enough. I needed something warm in the morning. Something fresh. Something that didn’t come from a can, or require the usage of my microwave or toaster, because even they put off a lot of heat, which I normally wouldn’t notice if I wasn’t living on the surface of the sun already this summer.
So I dug through everything in my kitchen. Every cabinet, every drawer. I shuffled through gadgets and gizmos and Pannini Makers and George Forman grills, and then I found it. The perfect, all in one, lowest radiant heat producing, most heat efficient multi tasking cooking device ever created. It was as if the heavens opened and down it came with guilded wings…
The Waffler.

And that is exactly what I used to make today’s breakfast. No other heat producing surfaces needed.

The MacGyver Waffle Sandwich-

I know, I know, they make specialty machines that you can use to do the same thing, but… do you really want to buy a special machine for that? Its just as easy to use your regular waffle iron. I mean, doesn’t everyone have one? I personally have two. I chose to use the belgian style waffler for this project, simply because I wanted more doughy waffle crust. Any waffler will do. For those of us here in the Northwest you can buy a cheap one just about anywhere for under $10 USD.

So first, I set about making the outside of the sandwich. The waffles. I made some cheddar cheese waffles, an idea I got from the brilliant Brillynn of Jumbo Empanadas (she loves waffles too, you should check out her waffle sandwich) I could have eaten these by themselves, but why stop there-

When you’re done with the waffles, just crack an egg (or scramble them in a bowl) directly into the waffle iron pockets, close, and in a matter of no more than a minute, you’ve got a nice waffled egg, perfect for the waffle sandwich.

Last, but not least, you can actually waffle your bacon. This is why I call this the MacGyver waffle sandwich, because where MacGyver can make a bomb with a toothpick, some tin foil and a coconut- I can make an entire breakfast sandwich with one single machine. All from scratch, all fresh, all delicious.

Making breakfast today used minimal energy, required minimal dishes and minimal cleanup, since everything was made using one single device.

Oh yeah, did I mention its delicious?

So here’s a great recipe for cheddar waffles-

1 cup milk
4 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
2 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup shredded cheddar (any cheese will work, depending on your taste)

Whisk together the liquid ingredients. Add the salt and baking powder to the flour, and then stir the flour mixture into the liquid mixture. Lastly, add the cheese a quarter cup at a time, stirring lightly between each addition, so it doesn’t form a big cheesy glob in the center of the batter.

All depending, this should make about 5 bread slice shaped waffles (my iron makes 5 inch square waffles, and it made 5 of them)

You can add whatever you like to the inside of your waffle sandwich, and enjoy it without heating up the whole house, or being at the mercy of whatever “extra” ingredients you’d find in a store bought breakfast sandwich.

Until next time, when I’ll bring you more adventures in waffleing (Can anyone say WaffleOmlettes?)-

ENJOY!

-A.

Here’s a cute little breakfast idea, perfect for the summer months because the bulk of the work can be done ahead of time, keeping you from spending too much time over a hot oven on a hot day.

These can also be served as desserts, though they were originally created as breakfast treats, inspired by danishes and sweetbreads made by my mom every spring and summer.

I call them Strawberry cream cheese breadlets, because the texture of the bun underneath is much closer to bread than a muffin or a biscuit. They’re sweet with a solid base, light but filling. In short, they’re delicious.

So, here’s how you make them!

For the breadlet base, I used a pretty generic white bread recipe similar to this one. I’ll normally use about half of the dough for the breadlets, and freeze the rest before the second rise.
The cream cheese filling is easy to make, just add 3 tablespoons granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract to a full cup of cream cheese. Mix well.

After the second rise, roll the dough out flat (under an inch thick, but not too thin) and use a 3″ round cookie/biscuit cutter for each breadlet. Before the dough begins to rise again, take one tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture and spoon it into the center of the dough, using the back of a greased teaspoon, press an indent into the cream cheese, where you’ll place a teaspoon of strawberry jam or preserves. Allow the dough to sit and rest for about 10 minutes before baking.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the dough is fully cooked and slightly golden.

Allow to cool before serving. You can cover them loosely with cling film and refrigerate them up to 3 days at this point.

To serve-

For an added touch, take a small clean strawberry, slice off the top and place it point side up in the center of the cream cheese once the breadlets have cooled completely. Drizzle a bit of agave nectar over the top and/or sprinkle with a tiny bit of sugar.

Eat, and enjoy!

-A.

p.s. Of course, you could use any seasonal fruit for this. Just make sure you coordinate the flavour of jam to be compatible with the flavour of fruit you use!

Lately, my husband and I have been in a bit of a breakfast rut. I’ve come close to the breaking point with french toast, if only it weren’t so versatile. And while french toast is quite tasty, it’s rather boring to photograph week after week.

So this week, I decided to try something different. Only problem, the weather has gone from temperate and almost enjoyable, to “I’ve just set foot on the sun” hot. Cooking in my house isn’t the most fun thing to do during those days, so I’ve got to make everything at night for the next day, because its much cooler at night.

This is exactly the case when it came to breakfast yesterday. Expecting another hot day, I decided I would make breakfast the night before, store it in the fridge, and just assemble it, heat it up and serve it. I knew this would also be a great time to break our cycle of french toast for breakfast, but since my husband still enjoys nice hearty breakfasts- We ended up with buttermilk biscuit breakfast sandwiches.

They’re simple, they’re easy, and they’re so much better for you than the kind you pick up at the neighbourhood fast food joint.

The night before, I made the biscuits and the bacon, and since I’m not a fan of reheated eggs, I made those just before serving, threw a little slice of cheese on top of it all, and voila- Breakfast on a biscuit!

My recipe for buttermilk biscuits-

2 cups flour
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1/4 Teaspoon baking soda
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 Cup butter
1 cup buttermilk

One of my very favourite things in this world, is French toast.
There are plenty of different varieties of French toast. Some coated in cinnamon sugar, some served with ketchup as a savory dish. Some people dip the bread in egg and Corn Flakes, some soak the bread in a custard mixture and bake it in the oven. Those are all great, but when I think of French toast, I think of a nice big slab of some sort of bread, dipped in egg and pan fried to golden deliciousness.. Not necessarily sweet or savory, no frills or bells or whistles, just plain and simple.

I usually just use regular bread. Lately, I’ve been expanding my French toast horizons, and I’ve been trying new breads. Some favourites are French baguettes, day old Challah, Any sort of cinnamon swirl bread (bonus points for raisins!) but today, I think I found my new favourite type of bread to use for French toast…

Danish buttered bread.

Oddly enough, the only place I can find this bread is at an Asian grocery store. Online, the only information I could find was by looking up the name, and it sent me to an Asian grocery store website, where it explained that Danish buttered bread is really popular in Japan. I live in The U.S. so, I guess it just never got as popular here, which explains its limited availability, at least in my region.

Just to illustrate the difference between regular bread and this bread, here is a photo I took of a slice before making it into French toast-

I could speak for hours about how delicious this bread is, plain, or with a variety of toppings, but right now, its all about the French toast.

A detail shot to show those wonderful little nooks and crannies that soak up the egg and make the French toast SO tender..

And a closeup of the top of the bread. Its much like a loaf shaped giant croissant, really.

I had mine with butter, and some strawberry jam with some real maple syrup mixed in.

Paired up with some maple bacon, some yogurt and berries…mmm..berries..

So I suppose if you’re unable to find this delicious bread, you could just slice up a croissant and use that in its stead. I’m sure that would be just as delicious!

Happy eating!

-A.

P.S. I did some research and found that another name for this Danish buttered bread is “Russenzopf” I have since begun the hunt for a recipe, which is proving much more difficult than expected. If you know of one, please leave a comment and let me know!

I’m not a big fan of coffee. I know this is blasphemous, considering I’m from the Pacific Northwest, just a few hours down the road from the birthplace of Starbucks Coffee. I just never acquired the taste for it.

This isnt to say, that I havent acquired the taste for all the delicious treats that people sometimes eat with their coffee.

Biscotti, muffins, coffeecake.. I love it all. Especially coffeecake.

My first introduction to coffeecake came when I was in highschool. I lived off coffeecake and Coca-Cola for just about an entire year of my life. It was my breakfast of champions. Most people would probably abandon something that they consumed with such regularity. Not I. I’m addicted.

I started making my own coffeecake soon thereafter. I found a recipe for it in one of my mom’s ancient cookbooks, wrote it down and soon committed it to memory.

This is the recipe I bring to you today-

A simple recipe for coffeecake with cinnamon streusel topping and orange sugar glaze.

1 Cup milk
1 Egg
2 Cups flour
1 Cup sugar
1/3 Cup Butter, softened (not melted)
1 Teaspoon vanilla
3 Tablespoons baking powder
Dash of salt

Take all of the ingredients and mix them together. The butter shouldnt be completely incorporated, and small lumps of butter should be scattered throughout the batter. Set to the side.

For the streusel topping-

1 Cup brown sugar
2 Teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 Cup butter, melted
Mix all of the streusel ingredients together until crumbly. Add a pinch more cinnamon if desired. Set aside.

Pour the coffee cake batter into a greased 9×13″ pan. Sprinkle Streusel topping evenly over top the batter. Bake at 350 for about 20-30 minutes, or until the top is light golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Orange sugar glaze-

3 Tablespoons orange juice
2 Cups Powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon milk
Mix orange juice and milk together. Pour powdered sugar into another bowl. Drizzle orange juice/milk over top powdered sugar and mix until you have a thin icing consistancy.

When the coffee cake is still hot, spread the icing on top of the cake. Let cool slightly, serve warm with coffee *cringe* or milk, or hot cocoa, Which is how I had mine. mmm.. cocoa.

This makes a perfect quick breakfast for a group of people, or unexpected guests. Or, you can freeze the pieces if wrapped in cellowrap and just microwave them for a few seconds to bring them back to life.

Mmm.. Delicious.

-A.

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of eating aebleskiver, you know what I’m talking about when I say how incredibly delicious they are, and how versatile they can be.

First off “aebleskiver” is Danish for “apple slices”. There is a lot of speculation as to whether or not the first aebleskiver actually had pieces of apple in it. Personally, I think the name probably derives from the Danish delicacy’s resemblance to the apple itself… But I’m not Danish, and I definately am no expert on the matter.

I am, however, a big fan of the aebleskiver.

What are they?

A long story short would describe them as Pancake balls. Spherical Pancakes.

The recipe I use to make my aebleskiver I got from one of my childhood friend’s parents. They’re of Danish origin, so I like to pretend this recipe came over with them when they came to America.

I’ve also looked up plenty of recipes to compare it to, and its basically the same recipe all around. There are plenty of deviations, the most popular one being scrapping the entire “from scratch” batter and using plain old Krusteaz pancake mix, only using less water, adding a few tablespoons of sugar, and calling it good.

Personally, I enjoy a good homemade batch of any sort of breakfast food, so this morning I got down to business and created a beautiful batch of aebleskiver using this recipe-

-Ingredients-

2 egg whites
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter, melted
2 cups buttermilk

You will also need-

-Either liquid canola oil or an aerosol spray canola oil- like Pam
-A monks pan (a specialized aebleskiver pan) THIS IS REQUIRED. See here for more info.
-wooden skewer or knitting needle

Directions

Beat the egg whites stiff. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, sugar, melted butter and buttermilk and beat until smooth. Gently fold in the egg whites last.

Spray the bottom of each æbleskiver pan cup with a small amount of oil and heat until it sizzles. Fill each of the pan cups about half full with the batter. As soon as they get bubbly around the edge, turn them quickly by poking the wooden skewer into the edge of the batter and turning it up, allowing the uncooked batter to flow down into the cup. Alternatively, you can turn them halfway first, so that the baked crusts protruding from the pan will look like the Sydney Opera House. And after a while you turn them the remaining 90 degrees. This will give them a perfect ball-shape (this is how I do it) Continue cooking, turning the ball to keep it from burning. Spray each pan cup with oil before refilling with the batter.

It sounds difficult. The first couple tries it WILL be difficult, but sooner than later you will be an aebleskiver pro. Once you’ve gotten the hang of it, invite all your friends over, whip up a batch and watch the ooh’s and ahh’s come out as you present them with pancakes straight out of an episode of the Jetsons.

Traditionally, they’re served with a generous sprinkling of powdered sugar and some preserves-

I like mine with Strawberry jam, but Raspberry is just as good.

Just break the ball in half-

And spread some jam around in there-

Pop it in your mouth, and enjoy!

They can also be eaten the same way as you would pancakes, and they’re just as tasty, only a little sweeter.

The other cool thing about Aebleskiver, besides being a totally awesome way to impress your friends (the novelty of spherical pancakes NEVER wears off, trust me) is that they’re portable, and they keep really well as leftovers. Keep them in the fridge and just put them in the micro to reheat them for a few seconds and enjoy them up to a week later.

So go out and get yourself a monks pan and give it a try.
Seriously. It’s so worth it.

-Muffin