Sweet Potato Muffins

I bought a single sweet potato at Target the other day, with the plan to make it into sweet potato donuts that I saw online. After getting home, I decided I'd really rather not go to the trouble of frying anything. So I went on a search to find something else to use my sweet potato to make. I found this recipe for sweet potato muffins and thought I'd give it a shot. Little did I know (yes!) that these would be that good. They are super. I wish I had 12 more of them right now. Unfortunately, I just ate the last one with my breakfast. I am not even the biggest fan of sweet potatoes (probably why I was planning to turn mine into donuts), but these may have changed my mind. Not that they are hugely different than donuts, but yeah. You should try these.

Muffin ingredients:
1 c. old fashioned oatmeal
1 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg
1 (15 oz) can sweet potatoes, drained and mashed, OR 1 c. fresh sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed
3/4 c. light brown sugar
1/3 c. canola oil OR 1/3 c. applesauce
1/4 c. milk
1 egg
1 t. vanilla

Crumble topping:
1/4 c. old fashioned oatmeal
1/4 c. flour
1/4 c. light brown sugar
1 T. margarine or butter, melted
1 t. vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the oatmeal, flour, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir in the sweet potatoes, brown sugar, oil/applesauce, milk, egg, and vanilla, until just moistened completely. To make the crumble topping, combine the oats, flour, and brown sugar. With a fork, mix in your melted butter and vanilla until crumbly. Fill your muffin tins with batter 3/4 full. Sprinkle the crumble topping on top, and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Original recipe found here.

Swedish Apple Pie, or, Swedish Breakfast Cake

This recipe is actually called Swedish Apple Pie. But, I'm not sure why. To me, it is more of a crumbly apple cake, and even though the recipe specifically says to serve it warm, I found it more enjoyable the next morning for breakfast. So... either I'm weird, or this recipe was a bit off. Either way, it's super easy, very healthy, quite tasty, and a great way to use up some apples.

Swedish Apple Stuff

1/2 c. sugar

1/4 c. whole wheat flour

1/4 c. white flour

1 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. cinnamon

1 egg

1/4 t. vanilla extract

2 medium tart apples, chopped (I used green)

3/4 c. chopped walnuts or pecans, toasted (I used untoasted walnuts)

confectioner's sugar, optional (I used a cinnamon/white sugar mixture)

In a large bowl, combine the sugar, flours, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. In a small bowl, whisk egg and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients until just moistened. Fold in apples and walnuts.

Transfer to a 9" pie plate coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. (Or do as I did and sprinkle with cinnamon and regular sugar.) Serve warm. (Or, the next morning for breakfast.) :)

Cranberry Ginger Scones

These are dainty, British tea-party scones. NOT fried batter with cinnamon-sugar scones (Which are delicious but NOT scones. Sorry. I don't make the rules). I got turned on to scones when my roommate made them for me and served them with lime curd and Devonshire cream. Now they are an obsession. If you're shy about ginger, leave out the crystallized ginger and stick to the fresh and powdered gingers. But for those of you who love ginger, it's not overpowering. I promise!

Cranberry-Ginger Scones
Serves 12 scones

3 cups flour
1/2 cup plus 1 TBS Sugar (plus more for dusting)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Dash of salt (or 1/2 tsp if using unsalted butter)
3/4 cup COLD butter (1-1/2 sticks)
1 tsp lemon zest
1/2 C dried cranberries
1/4 cup baker's crystalized ginger, diced fine
1 tsp dried ground ginger
1 TBS fresh grated ginger
1 cup buttermilk OR 1/2 C plain yogurt + 1/3 C milk


1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, placing rack in the lower third of the oven
2. In a large bowl mix dry ingredients then cut in butter by hand with a pastry blender (or forks if you don't have a pastry blender) until its mixed and looks like crumbs.
3. Add lemon zest, cranberries and ginger(s).
4. Make a well in the center of your mixture (think mashed potatoes with a well for the gravy--same idea). Pour the buttermilk or yogurt and milk into the dry ingredients. Mix until JUST BARELY combined with your hands. Seriously. DO NOT OVERMIX THE SCONES! Unless you're into tough little rocks.
5. On a lightly floured counter, knead the lump once or twice. Divide the lump in half and pat into a flat circle 3/4 in. thick. Your circle will have cracks on the edges. Leave 'em. Don't work the dough any more than you have to.
6. Cut into pie-wedges (about 6 per circle)
7. Put scones on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper (I just use my silicone-glass baking sheets). You can freeze the scones at this point and thaw them for a later date.
8. Brush the scones with heavy cream and sprinkle sugar on top before baking.
9. Bake until the scones are golden-brown and cracking (about 20-25 minutes).
10. Serve with lemon or lime curd and Devonshire cream.

My Favorite Waffles

I often rely on commercially-available, just-add-water pancake mixes. I wouldn't dream of this for waffles, as it's impossible to get the ideally ethereal, whispery light waffle batter from a mix.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 c. flour

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 3/4 c. milk (2% is best)

1/2 c. oil (can be halved if watching your figure)

2 eggs, yolks and white separated (set whites aside)

Directions:

1) Stir dry ingredients together in a bowl.

2) In another bowl, beat egg whites only with hand mixer until stiff peaks form. Stiff peaks means when you pull the hand mixer blades up, the egg pulls up from the mixture in little points.

3) In a blender, mix egg yolks, milk, and oil.

4) Pour egg yolk mixture into dry ingredients, stirring until just wet. Do not overmix. Batter will be slightly lumpy.

6) Gently fold in stiffened egg whites. Leave a few egg fluffs visible on top.

7) Pour onto a lightly greased waffle iron. Will make 8-12 waffles depending on the type of waffle iron you use.

German Pancake

I'm convinced that everyone knows this recipe, but I'm going to remind you how awesome it is anyway. German Pancakes (aka Dutch Babies) are a staple in my diet. When I don't feel like eating anything or when I can't summon up the energy to cook, the German Pancake is my go-to recipe despite the hour of the day. I LOVE them.

I believe that there is only one way to eat a German Pancake--with fresh lemon juice and a dusting of powdered sugar. I'm a purist. But I suppose you can do whatever you want with them (provided you try lemon and powdered sugar).

So anyway, from someone who has had approximately 238 German Pancakes in her life, here is how to make the perfect German Pancake:


1 TBS salted butter
3 eggs
1/2 C milk
1/2 C flour
1/4 C sugar
dash of salt
splash of vanilla

1. Heat oven to 425. While oven is heating place butter in a medium cast iron pan (or if you don't have one, a ceramic or glass pie dish works well too). Melt butter in the pan in the preheating oven until the butter is brown. Seriously, trust me on this one. Brown.

2. While butter is melting and caramelizing, mix up the batter. Beat the three eggs together with the milk using a wire whisk. Add the flour, sugar, salt and vanilla and whip it good for a minute.

3. Carefully pour the batter into the brown butter in the pan. Aim your batter so that the brown butter is nicely distributed.


4. Bake for 10 minutes. It's done when the pancake is high and puffy.


5. Serve immediately with fresh lemon juice and powdered sugar. I tried Meyer Lemons today and loved the interesting flavor and added sweetness.

(Serves 2)


TIPS:

* Making your pancake in a cast iron results in more even cooking and a shorter, flatter pancake with bubbles.
* Making your pancake in a pie dish will give it really high edges that will brown nicely while the center is perfectly cooked through. If you make your pancake in a pie dish, make sure you put your oven rack in the middle of the oven to give it lots of room to rise without hitting the heat element.
*The cast iron pancake is not superior to the pie dish pancake. I like to mix them up, depending on what I'm into.

Chocolate Pancakes

Almost too good to be a breakfast food. We like to serve these with coconut syrup (available here) and toasted coconut

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar (less may be used, to taste)

1 cup milk

4 teaspoon butter, melted

2 eggs

4-6 teaspoons cocoa

Directions

1. Combine dry ingredients. Add remaining ingredients and stir only until mixed.

2. Preheat a non-stick skillet until sizzling hot (a drop of water will "dance" on the surface). Brush lightly with oil or butter.

3. Pour pancake batter onto hot skillet; flip once when bubbles begin to form along edges. This batter is quite thick and doesn't cook up like traditional pancake batter. It's goopier than most pancakes, so to prevent flipping accidents, I like to cook three at a time instead of four.

4. These freeze well and can be reheated in the microwave for a quick breakfast.

Cranberry Almond Granola

Well, we are officially out of cold cereal and I've banned myself from the grocery store. Luckily, Megan's granola kick reminded me that I can make a suitable replacement and I happened to have all the makings for this granola in my cupboard. Granola recipes are perfect for experimentation. If I make this one again, I'll try dried cherries and pumpkin seeds.

I modified a recipe from Bon Apetit to make this stuff. Mmmmmm....

2 C old-fashioned oats
2/3 C chopped almonds
1/3 C sweetened flaked coconut
1/3 C ground flax seed
1/3 C whole wheat flour

1/2 C frozen cranberry-raspberry juice concentrate, thawed
1/2 C brown sugar
2 TBS canola oil
1 tsp cinnamon

1 C dried sweetened cranberries


1. Stir together the first list of dry ingredients, set aside.

2. Heat the second list of ingredients over medium heat, stirring frequently until sugar is dissolved and the mix is a light syrup.

3. Pour the juice/brown sugar mix over the dry ingredients and stir until well coated.

4. Bake on a greased cookie sheet in a 300 degree oven for 15 minutes. Stir then add the dried cranberries. Cook for another 8-10 minutes until granola begins to dry.

5. Let cool completely and store in an airtight container.

6. Eat with plain yogurt or by the handful.

Spinach and Bacon Quiche

This was my breakfast quiche for last year's festivities. It keeps well in the fridge and freezes well in individual slices. It's definitely a special occasion quiche, since it has enough cholesterol to stop Lipitor in its tracks.

Ingredients:

6 large eggs, beaten

1 1/2 c. heavy cream

Salt and pepper

2 c. chopped baby fresh spinach, packed (frozen spinach works, too)

1 lb. thick-sliced bacon, cooked and crumbled

1 1/2 c. shredded Gruyere

1 (9-in) refrigerated pie crust, fitted to a 9-in glass pie plate (I don't bother with my own pie crust for this)

Directions:

1) Preheat the over to 375 degrees.

2) Combine the eggs, cream, salt, and pepper in a food processor or blender.

3) Layer the spinach, bacon, and cheese in the bottom of the pie crust.

4) Pour egg mixture on top.

5) As pie plate will be very full, place on top of a jelly-roll pan to catch spills.

6) Bake for 35-45 minutes, until the egg mixture is set.

7) Makes 8 big servings.

Creme Brulee French Toast

I got this recipe from a friend in the ward. It is sooo delicious. You can just top it with powdered sugar or the syrup butter.

French toast:
1/2 c. butter
1 c. packed brown sugar
2 T. corn syrup
1 loaf texas toast bread (extra thick slices)
5 eggs
1 1/2 c. half and half cream
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla

1. In a small saucepan melt butter brown sugar and corn syrup over med. heat until smooth stirring occassionally. Pour mixture into a large greased jelly roll pan (18x3x1). Spread to cover suface.

2. Place 12 slices of texas toast bread in a single layer to cover bottom of pan. Mix together eggs, cream, salt and vanilla. Spoon mixture over each piece of bread. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

3. Bake uncovered in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from pan and serve. (if not serving immediately, turn each slice of bread over to prevent from sticking to pan)

Syrup Butter:
1 1/2 c. butter
3 c. maple syrup

1. Warm syrup and warm butter.
2. Mix together and serve.