I know a waffle maker is a unitasker, but I just love having people over for brunch on Sunday and serving homemade waffles!
Sometimes I add blueberries to the batter. You can also add other berries, chocolate chips, bananas, etc. I usually also make the whole batter recipe and only use half, so I can freeze the other half and have the batter ready for an impromptu brunch party!
I love making breakfast foods and pastries! You probably knew that already. So what better recipe to make than danishes? The buttery dough and cream-cheesy filling can’t be beat.
Of course you can make something that is sort of similar to danishes using store bought puff pastry (like Ina and Giada do). But it’s NOT the same! So if you have the time, give these a try.
I love baking bread. It just makes the house smell so good. And I know it doesn’t have ingredients I can’t pronounce in it. It also allows for some really easy lunches – sandwiches! Though I’ve tried many bread recipes, my go-to recipe is always Amish white bread. It has the soft texture and flaky crumbiness that just works. I try to have some slices in my freezer at all times. Sometimes, I want some variety, though. Whole wheat bread, rye bread, and sourdough bread are great, but oatmeal bread? That’s something new to me. So when I saw Alton make bread using leftover oatmeal, I just knew I had to try it. And I did, the very same day. I didn’t eat oatmeal for breakfast, though. I cooked it just for use in the recipe. It was definitely worth it.
This bread is amazing with some salted butter or fruity jam. It’s great for breakfast, and healthy, too! Put some in the freezer for fresh bread the entire week. Those oats are good for your cholesterol, according to the Cheerios commercial. This is a bread that I’ll definitely be keeping in my bread-baking rotation. I might double the recipe next time, though. It takes a lot of time to only yield one loaf. And maybe try to make it in my mixer because after being spoiled by my dough hook, kneading by hand gets tiring (though it wasn’t nearly as hard as kneading bagels).
Oatmeal Bread, adapted from Alton Brown:
Make one loaf – I got 16 slices.
Ingredients:
Directions:
1. Combine yeast, flour, 1/4 cup uncooked oats, and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
2. Combine cooked oats, agave, water, and oil in a large mixing bowl.
3. In three increments, add dry ingredients to wet. Mix with a wooden spoon until completely incorporated.
4. Knead by hand on a floured surface for about 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth. Add more flour if it’s too sticky.
5. Oil bowl, add dough, and cover. Let rise for an hour.
6. Punch down dough and shape into loaf. Place in greased loaf pan.
7. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight, or for at least 8 hours.
8. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
9. Combine the egg yolk and water in a small bowl. Brush the top of the loaf with egg wash and sprinkle with the remaining tablespoon of raw oats.
10. Bake for 55 minutes to 1 hour (actually it took me 1 hour, 10 minutes), until the internal temperature of the dough reaches 210 degrees.
11. Cool on rack for 30 minutes before slicing.
Scones is a kind of scary word. It makes me think of really fancy tea parties that have clotted cream and loose teas. Though they look and sound fancy, they’re really simple and easy to make. They’re especially a pleasure to bake with a food processor. They’re easier than muffins! So next time you have a breakfast party or brunch guests, give these a try! Serve them with some homemade (fine, or store bought) jam, and you’re in for a really special treat!
Scones are the perfect breakfast. The outside is flaky and crunchy, while the inside is soft and moist. There are all different flavors of scones nowadays, but my favorite is definitely this classic cream one.
Cream Scones, adapted from The Art and Soul of Baking.
Ingredients:
Directions:
1. Cut butter into cubes and refrigerate for 20 minutes – It has to be super cold!
2. Place the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of your food processor and process for ten seconds to blend well.
3. Add the cold butter pieces and pulse 5 times at 1-second intervals until the butter is cut into medium pieces.
4. Add the cream and pulse another 20 times, or until the dough comes together into a ball in your bowl.
5. Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and bring it all together.
6. Pat dough into a circle about 7 inches in diameter and 1 inch thick.
7. Cut it into 8 pieces (like a pizza pie!) using a chef’s knife.
8. Transfer to a silicone-mat (or parchment paper) lined baking sheet
9. Brush the tops with egg and sprinkle with the raw sugar
10. Refrigerate for 20 minutes (this step is actually not in the book, but I find that the dough can get too warm and the scones may spread. This step makes sure that this won’t happen.)
11. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
12. Bake the scones for 14-16 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes on a wire rack.
13. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Summer’s coming to an end, so stock up on your berries and preserve them any way you could. Our favorite way to do this is to make jam. Though freezing is probably easier, cooking and preserving the berries is a very flavorful way to enjoy our summer produce all year long. It also makes a really nice gift!
(Berries actually freeze quite well. Make sure to clean and dry them, and then store them in a zip top bag. Make sure to suck all the air out and seal it tight so that the berries don’t get freezer burned. If you want to freeze strawberries, hull them before freezing.)
Last year we made raspberry jam with raspberries we picked ourselves from a local farm. We also made strawberry-fig jam, inspired by my backyard fig tree. This summer we decided to make more mixed fruit jams, and the apricot-nectarine turned out really orange and delicious. This raspberry-strawberry-blueberry jam is an amazing deep purplish pink color. We can’t decide if it tastes better than it looks or looks better than it tastes.
Oh, we took all the photos with my new(ish) Droid-X. Pretty cool, huh?
All jam making directions and tips are from pickyourown.org and the package of pectin.
Ingredients:
Equipment:
For canning:
Instructions:
If you are canning, make sure to sterilize the jars. If using a dishwasher, run it without soap. If using a pot, fill the pot with water and the jars and boil. Do not touch the inside of the jars (that’s why you have the jar tongs), because that will introduce bacteria to the sterilized jars and could result in icky jam! Do this now so it will be ready when you are. Boil the lids, too.
1. Wash the fruit. Sort through it to make sure you have no bad berries or stems, etc.
2. Chop the strawberries.
3. Add the fruit to a bowl and make sure you have 10 cups. Mash.
4. Measure out the sugar. Set aside 1/4 cup of sugar and mix with the pectin. This will allow the pectin to incorporate into the fruit better, and make sure you don’t have lumpy jam.
5. Add fruit to large pot and cook over high heat, stirring constantly. When it comes to a full rolling boiling, meaning it doesn’t stop bubbling even when you stir, time one minute. Add the pectin and stir until it dissolves.
6. While still stirring, add the sugar, a cupful at a time, until it is all incorporated.
7. Continue stirring constantly until the mixture comes to a rolling boil again. After one minute, test the jam to make sure it sets.
8. Take a spoonful of jam and dip it in a cup of ice water. If it gels, it’s ready to be jarred. If not, boil for another minute and test again.
9. Use a ladle or big spoon to fill the sterilized jars. Leave about 1/2 inch of space at the top.
10. Use the magnetic lid lifter to cover, making sure to clean the jars before placing the tops on. Screw on the lid.
11. After all the jam is canned, place in about 2 inches of water and boil for 5 minutes (or more, depending on altitude). You will hear the tops POP, either while they are boiling or after when they are cooling. If you don’t hear the pop after a while, try boiling again or just put the jam in the fridge and use it right away. It will still be good.
12. The boiled jars should last about a year (’til next summer).
This recipe made 10 6-oz jars of jam.
I never ate a sugar plum before this weekend, but when I saw them at the Greenmarket on Friday I decided to be brave and try something new instead of going with something I knew I loved, like blueberries. I like plums, after all, and sugar plums seemed to me like they were just cute, sweet plums.
Well, that’s basically what they are, but I didn’t finish the whole basket and after sitting on the counter ripening (I probably should have stored them in the fridge) they became rather mushy. So I decided to turn them into a cobbler and whipped up an easy biscuit recipe to spread on top.
Like Lori said, this recipe makes way too much dill sauce! So here’s my not-as-fancy version of eggs benedict. Okay, so it’s nothing like eggs benedict: no hollandaise, no canadian bacon, and a sunny side up egg instead of a poached one. At least there’s a toasted English muffin involved. Continue reading
I’ve never really thought of baking eggs in the oven, but it turns out they’re fluffy and creamy, and definitely easy when feeding a crowd. This is the perfect Sunday brunch food, and much more interesting than making a giant pan of scrambled eggs.
I actually ate this in Napa, and decided the second I came home that I just had to try the recipe for myself, in my own kosher kitchen. It took six months, but I finally tried it, and immediately regretted not making it months ago. Continue reading
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I wanted to post this recipe before the rhubarb season escapes us. It’s pretty late now, but it’s still findable in small quantities, and really that’s all you need for this cake. I’m also pretty certain that it was be almost as good without the rhubarb filling, or with some other seasonal crop in there, like cherries or berries. Why not? Continue reading
I’ve made this recipe more than once, and all I can say is sorry for not sharing with you the first times! This is such an easy muffin recipe that can be adapted for the seasons or the (not so great anymore) fruit you have on hand. It’s from the Art and Soul of Baking, which has made a comeback in my kitchen now that the semester’s over and I have time for more time-consuming baked goods.
