Pancakes

I've been a bit of a pancake connoisseur lately, sampling the pancakes at various local cafes. Brekky is a popular meal to eat out, and many cafes serve breakfast all day. I had been in raptures over the pancakes at Vans in Cottesloe. Those are served with slices of banana between the warm pancake layers...but the real key is the citrus butter melting over the top. This weekend, I tried eat cafe's crepe-like pancakes, topped with toasted coconut and maple syrup and served with thinly sliced fruit salad (strawberries, bananas, pears, and melon) in between the layers. Look at how beautiful:


I ate every bite! And I am taking notes, adapting my own pancakes at home to reflect the deliciousness I find while out. Citrus butter is super easy! Just mix freshly squeezed orange juice with melted butter and let the butter re-solidify in the fridge, stirring occasionally so they won't separate. Give it a try, and I promise you will be happy you did!

Apple Oatmeal Bread

There is such goodness in homemade bread. Yes, it takes a bit of effort and planning, but it mostly takes time to rise all by itself. When it bakes, it fills the house with fabulous smells, and you can't beat the goodness of freshly baked bread! Since we moved from Europe, we have lost the good breads available daily in our local bakery. In their place, we have supermarket bread. In the words of Mimi, "Yuck! Ick! Pooey! We spit on that!" It just isn't the same! No flavor, no richness, no texture! We just can't handle it, so I'm going to have to buckle down and bake my own for the first time since Qatar (where we also had icky supermarket bread). My returning foray into homemade bread couldn't have gone any better! The recipe I tried was "Apple Oatmeal Bread" from the King Arthur's Flour website. They have an impressive list of bread recipes, by the way. Take some time to peruse if you are interested in bread-making. The Apple Oatmeal Bread smelled heavenly while baking, and ooooooo the goodness when it's done!

Apple Oatmeal Bread

2 packages (a scant 2 tablespoons) active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
2 cups warm milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 cups oat flakes or old-fashioned rolled oats
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
5 cups (approximately) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour (I used whole wheat)
2 cups coarsely chopped tart apples (Granny Smith)
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon cold water, for glaze
additional oat flakes or rolled oats, for topping

In a large bowl, stir yeast into water to soften.
Add remaining ingredients through walnuts. Beat vigorously for 2 minutes.
Gradually add remaining flour, a little at a time, until you have a dough stiff enough to knead.
Turn dough out onto a floured surface.
Knead, adding flour as necessary, until you have a smooth, elastic dough.
Put the dough into an oiled bowl, turning once to coat the entire ball of dough with oil, and cover with a towel.
Let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Grease two 9 x 5-inch or 10 x 5-inch loaf pans, and sprinkle with rolled oats.
Turn dough out onto a lightly oiled work surface.
Divide dough in half.
Shape dough into loaves and place in prepared pans.
Cover with a towel and let rise until almost doubled, about 45 minutes.

Just before baking, brush tops of loaves with egg/water mixture. Sprinkle with additional rolled oats.

Bake in a preheated 375°F oven for 30 minutes, or until internal temperature of loaves reaches 190°F.
Immediately remove bread from pans and cool on a rack, to prevent crust from becoming soggy.


This morning, we discovered this bread makes the MOST DELICIOUS FRENCH TOAST!
I grew up with (dreaded supermarket) white bread French toast, which I always hated for the soggy, eggy nothingness it was. Now, I have a whole new understanding of why people eat French toast! Yum yum yummers!

French Toast

slices of Apple Oatmeal Bread
2 eggs
1 cup milk (or less if you prefer an eggy toast)
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
pinch salt
butter or oil to grease skillet/griddle/pan/what-have-you

Mix ingredients from eggs through salt.
Heat pan/griddle/what-have-you until water drops dance on the surface.
Melt butter or spray/spread oil.
Dip bread in mixture until both sides moist. (you can soak the bread rather than dip if that's your pleasure)
Place in skillet and cook (flipping when first side is done) until both sides are nicely browned.
We spread jam on ours and were over the moon. Enjoy!

Strawberry Rhubarb Handpies

These are oh-so-delicious! Very simple and full of yummy goodness. The site where I found the recipe advocates eating them for breakfast with a hot cup of coffee...sounds like a brilliant idea! I just made them tonight because I am tired of not baking and I could make these without any appliances (though the dough is even easier if you just whip everything but the ice water in a food processor, adding the water in after you have your cornmeal textured dry stuffs).

Strawberry Rhubarb Handpies
discovered the joy on angrychicken

Dough:
1.5 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
1 stick butter
4 Tbsp ice water

Filling:
4 cups chopped rhubarb and strawberries
1 cup sugar
4 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Roll out dough. Add filling. Fold over and crease.
Bake 15 minutes at 425F, then 25 minutes at 350F.

Baked Mini-Donuts

Here's another favorite that I de-veganized from gail's site: Baked Mini-Donuts. With the occasional exception of a piping hot, fresh Krispy Kreme donut, I prefer baked, cake-style donuts to the fried variety. When gail found this delicious recipe for homemade donuts, I had to try it! I bought myself a donut pan, and we have had very few donut-free weeks since.

Baked Mini-Donuts

Makes 12 Donuts

Dry Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp nutmeg
pinch of cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:
½ cup buttermilk
½ tsp pure vanilla extract
1 egg, slightly beaten
4 Tbsp butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350º F
In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients with a whisk to mix thoroughly. Mix wet ingredients in separate bowl. Add wet to dry until just combined; this should form a very soft dough.
Using a tablespoon measure, scoop out dough into ungreased non-stick mini-donut pan (2 Tbsp fills each spot in my pan perfectly). Smooth out the top of the dough for a more even donut (though this isn’t crucial).
Bake for 12 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Try not to let the donuts brown on top.
Invert hot pan over cooling rack to release donuts. Cool completely.

Chocolate Dip
Melt 6oz of high-quality milk chocolate over low heat in a double boiler, stirring until chocolate is smooth and only slightly warm to the touch. Do not get water anywhere near your melted chocolate or you will have problems; trust me on this.
Dip each donut into chocolate until covered. Place on cooling rack to set (chocolate isn’t shiny or runny anymore). If you must have sprinkles (and we must!), sprinkle away before the chocolate sets.

Other options are glazing them Krispy Kreme style with a very thin powdered sugar glaze or simply tossing them in cinnamon-sugar for a thin coating; you could also eat them straight-up, which is darn tasty too.

Below is a picture tutorial of donut eating.

First, inspect for adequate sprinkle coverage.



You are clear to enjoy!

Oatmeal with pumpkin

Taking note of our wee one's constant battleground over meals, I've become more dedicated to offering a wider variety of foods and flavors at mealtimes while also trying to get the most bang for my buck (so to speak) nutritionally. The other morning, I made oatmeal with added pumpkin. It was so tasty! Pureed or mashed sweet potato would work just as well, but we didn't have any on hand. The recipe is simple enough and every member of the dipe squad approved of the flavor!

Oatmeal with Pumpkin

1 cup milk
1/4 - 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (canned solid pack pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling works well) or sweet potato
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
maple syrup
dried fruit
nuts

Heat the milk and puree to a simmer over medium heat. Add oats and stir until thickened.
Serve into bowls. Drizzle with small amount of maple syrup and top with your favorite dried fruits and nuts. We used chopped dried cranberries and apricots with slivered almonds. Delicious!