Still Pictureless

I must apologize for a lack of camera cord, but soon it will be fixed, just give me one more week. This time I even market the day I need to get it on my calender.
So if you have actually read this far with seeing there is no picture you will be happy because I have an incredible weekend breakfast treat, english muffins. I tried these things for the first time and they are incredibly easy. Not to meantion insanely tasty. I will never go back to store bought, ever!

So the recipe I used is here. I did make alterations to make it multigrain.

-1 Tablespoon of honey(added after the egg whites)
-skip the four cups white flour and mix up your grains, I used the following
1 cup all purpose flour
2 cups white wheat flour
1/4 flax seeds
1/4 cup oat bran
1/4 cup wheat germ
I added the white and half the wheat flour first. Then the eggs(and honey) as directed. Next I added my grain mix and needed the dough in the remaining cup of wheat flour.

That may seem complicated, but I'm sure it would turn out with any grains you have, just make sure you get some white flour or gluten in there.

Coconut Syrup

Bare will me while I still have not found my camera case people. Guess it's time to go buy a new adaptor right? And I promise I will do just that, soon, I promise. Then I will share with you a very long post of pictures. Until then I have a solution of what to do with a half a can of coconut milk. You make coconut syrup. This stuff is so good. I want to put it on some pecan crusted fench toast..you with me on that one?

Coconut Syrup

1 13.5 ounce light coconut milk
2 T cornstarch
1/2 C sugar
2 C cornsyrup(you can just make a simple syrup if you don't have this on hand)
1/2 flaked coconut

Mix coconut milk and cornstarch until smooth. Add sugar cornsyrup and coconut. Mix and heat until it comes to a rolling boil. Remove from heat and serve cold. This is great for breakfast foods and desserts.


**Simple syrup=equal parts water and sugar boiled until sugar is dissolved.

Challah Bread and Apple French Toast

I am short on words, great day, but the bed is looking like my best friend. Bread is great, french toast even better. You could even make this baby with wheat flour. And well, yesterdays bread makes tomorrows french toast.
Oh and stay tuned because later this week my friend and I are going to make the most insane turtle cake ever, just you wait.

Click here for the Challah bread recipe I used. I must admit, it is not near as eggalicious when ya use wheat flour, but what can I say, I love me some fiber!

Apple French Toast Casserole

4 tablespoons butter

3 large apples, peeled and sliced thinly
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon cinnamon
8 slices bread, 1 inch thick
4 large eggs

1 1/4 cups milk
2 teaspoons vanilla

Melt the butter in a large skillet and add apples.Cook and stir for 5 minutes. Add brown sugar, water, and cinnamon and continue to cook and stir for 10 minutes until apples are tender. Spoon mixture into 13x9 baking dish.Cover apples with bread slices, making sure to cover the entire surface.Trim the bread to fit if you must. Beat eggs until foamy, then beat in milk and vanilla. Pour egg mixture over the bread slices .Cover the dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight .In the morning, remove the dish from the refrigerator and let it stand while oven is preheated to 375 F. Bake uncovered for 35 minutes, or until bread is golden and firm. Let sit 10 minutes before serving. To serve on a platter, run a knife around the edges of the casserole, place platter on top of casserole, and carefully flip. To serve individually, use a spatula to remove serving, place serving plate on top of serving and carefully flip so apple side is up.

Pumpkin Brioche Rolls

I found these recipes from this website. This girl makes to die for dessert. Literally. I first found her blog because of these pumpkin brioche snails or cinnamon rolls. I didn't take pictures, but the final product was fabulous. I made them with nuts, butter and maple syrup. Then I made the other half with the plain jane cinnamon mixtures and they were both hits.


I didn't try it myself, but I would recommend making a loaf of bread with half the dough and turning it in to french toast. If you must know, if I were to make french toast out if it would go a little something like this. Mix eggs with milk, cinnamon and vanilla. Then crush some corn flakes, pecans and maybe a pinch of brown sugar. Dip the french toast in the egg, then the crunchy mixture then cook on a griddle with a little butter so your brown sugar carmelizes. Nuff said.

Syrup

If any of you have been to Magelby's Fresh in Utah you know this syrup. It is so so yummy. So easy to make as well. The second one is just a simple strawberry syrup. It's easy and quite tasty.

Buttermilk Syrup

1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup buttermilk,

1/2 cup butter

2 tablespoons corn syrup

1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla

Place first five ingredients in large saucepan. bring to boil and cook for 7 minutes, or until it just starts to turn a carmel color. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract. Serve warm.

*Make sure you stir every few minutes to prevent scorching and use a BIG pan. The buttermilk is an acid and the baking soda is a base...you do the math. Sixth grade volcano science project is the outcome in a small pan. With a much bigger mess.

Strawberry Syrup:

2 C strawberries, puried and strained
1 C sugar(2 C if you like is sweet)
¼ C water
½ tsp lemon juice

Add everything to a pot. Boil for five minutes, stirring occassionally. Skim the top and serve over pancakes or waffles.

Muffins and Pancakes

I like breakfast, no I love breakfast! But the hubs, he'll take some ovaltine and if you're lucky a banana. So I have to make stuff my little guy likes, and cottage pancakes are the answer. Easy nutritious and goble-able. He eats them four at a time. Pretty good for a light weight.

The blueberry cornmeal pancakes are one of Ryan's favorite. Must be because he's a country boy, and they love cornmeal anything. I substitute the white flour in these for white wheat or wheat pastry flour.

As for the muffins, I halved Dori's recipe for the breakfast cake and made them into 24 mini muffins. They only needed to be cooked for 10 minutes. The muffins are also healthy, delicious and in the eyes of my todler, goble-able.

Cottage Pancakes

1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
4 egg whites or 2 eggs
Blend all ingredients in blender. Spray skillet with cooking spray and cook just like"silver dollar" pancakes, a few small ones at a time. Top with your favorite pancake topping!

Blueberry Cornmeal Pancakes

Oatmeal Applesauce Muffins

Breakfast Crepes My Way

I love weekend breakfast, but I do not like to eat cinnamon rolls after my run. Ya feel me? So I made some wheat crepes with fruit and yogurt. If you are feeling a little more sinful use white flour and fill these babies with ice cream, fruit and chocolate syrup. I even like to do mine with ham, cheese and eggs sometimes.

Crepes:

1 cup all-purpose flour (I used wheat pastry flour)
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted

for sweet crepes add:
1 tsp vanilla and 2 ½ Tbs sugar

Throw everything in a blender and mix until smooth. Preheat pan for a few minutes. Pour 1/4-1/3 C batter on the pan and immediately spin pan to make a circle. Cook for about 1-2 minutes or until color slightly changes. Flip and cook for about 30 more seconds. Serve with fruit and cream or ham and cheese.

Bagel-isn't she perty

What do you do for your friends when their sick? I wake up at a rediculous hour and bake my bagels, stop by the grocery store for cream cheese and share these with them. But only when I'm feeling way overly ambitious.

I saw this website and knew I had to try shaping my bagels like stars. Their recipes have the best instructions. Not to mention they taste fabulous. I cannot wait to make the english muffins.

Bagels and Cream Cheese

Bagels seem to be so feared and thought of as so much work. I find making them fairly doable, highly rewarding and theraputic. I have tried many recipes, but this one with my alterations is my favorite. Our two favorite toppings are cinnamon raisen and Asiago. Be careful if you do asiage though. If you have kids around, they may have the urge to continually dip their hand in your cheese and consume large handfuls at a time....at least mine did. Please fogive half of my bagels for being short on cheese.

Hope the pictures help. Try these out at least twice, the first time is a little confusing.

Asiago Cheese Bagels

adapted from Peter Reinhart

1 teaspoon instant yeast

4 cups unbleached high-gluten flour

2 1/2 cups water, room temperature

1 teaspoon instant yeast

3 cups white wheat flour

3 T wheat gluten

2 3/4 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons malt powder or 1 tablespoon dark or light malt syrup, honey, or brown sugar 1tablespoon baking soda

(2 C. grated Asiago)
Cornmeal or semolina flour for dusting
Sesame seeds, poppy seeds, asiago cheese, cinnamon sugar, kosher salt, rehydrated dried minced garlic or onions, or chopped onions that have been tossed in oil (optional)

To make the sponge, stir the yeast into the flour in a 4-quart mixing bowl. Add the water, whisking or stirring only until it forms a smooth, sticky batter Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for approximately 2 hours, or until the mixture becomes very foamy and bubbly. It should swell to nearly double in size and collapse when the bowl is tapped on the countertop.
To make the dough, in the same mixing bowl (or in the bowl of an electric mixer), add the additional yeast to the sponge and stir. Then add 2 cups of the flour, the gluten and all of the salt and malt. Stir (or mix on low speed with the dough hook) until the ingredients for a ball, slowly working in the remaining 1 cup flour and 1 C asiago cheese to stiffen the dough. Transfer the dough to the counter and knead for at least 10 minutes (or for 6 minutes by machine). The dough should be firm, stiffer than French bread dough, but still pliable and smooth. There should be no raw flour - all ingredients should be hydrated. The dough should pass the windowpane test and register 77 to 71 degrees F. If the dough seems to dry and rips, add a few drops of water and continue kneading. If the dough seems tacky or sticky, add more flour to achieve the stiffness required. The kneaded dough should feel satiny and pliable but not be tacky. Immediately divide the dough into 3-4 ounce pieces for standard bagels, or smaller if desired

Form the pieces into rolls. Cover the rolls with a damp towel and allow them to rest for approximately 20 minutes. Line 2 sheet pans with baking parchment and mist lightly with spray oil. Poke a hole in a ball of bagel dough and gently rotate your thumb around the inside of the hole to widen it to approximately 2 1/2 inches in diameter (half of this for a mini-bagel). The dough should be as evenly stretched as possible (try to avoid thick and thin spots.)
Place each of the shaped pieces 2 inches apart on the pan. Mist the bagels very lightly with the spray oil and slip each pan into a food-grade plastic bag, or cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let the pans sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes. Check to see if the bagels are ready to be retarded in the refrigerator by using the “float test”. Fill a small bowl with cool or room-temperature water. The bagels are ready to be retarded when they float within 10 seconds of being dropped into the water. Take one bagel and test it. If it floats, immediately return the tester bagel to the pan, pat it dry, cover the pan, and place it in the refrigerator overnight (it can stay in the refrigerator for up to 2 days). If the bagel does not float. Return it to the pan and continue to proof the dough at room temperature, checking back every 10 to 20 minutes or so until a tester floats. The time needed to accomplish the float will vary, depending on the ambient temperature and the stiffness of the dough.
The following day, preheat the oven to 500 degrees F with the two racks set in the middle of the oven. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the baking soda Have a slotted spoon or skimmer nearby. Remove the bagels from the refrigerator and gently drop them into the water, boiling only as many as comfortably fit. After 1 minutes flip them over rand boil for another minute. If you like very chewy bagels, you can extend the boiling to 2 minutes per side .While the bagels are boiling, sprinkle the same parchment-lined sheet pans with cornmeal or semolina flour. If you want to top the bagels, do so as soon as they come out of the water. You can use any of the suggestions in the ingredients list or a combination. When all the bagels have been boiled, place the pans on the 2 middle shelves in the oven. Bake for approximately 5 minutes, then rotate the pans, switching shelves and giving the pans a 180-degree rotation. After the rotation, lower the oven setting to 450 degrees F and continue baking for about 5 minutes, or until the bagels turn light golden brown. You may bake them darker if you prefer. Remove the pans from the oven and let the bagels cool on a rack for 15 minutes or longer before serving.

Cinnamon Raisin Bagels: For cinnamon raisin bagels, increase the yeast in the final dough to 1 teaspoon, and add 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon and 5 tablespoons of granulated sugar(the same time I added the Asiago) to the final dough. Rinse 2 cups of loosely packed raisins with warm water to wash off surface sugar, acid, and natural wild yeast. Add the raisins during the final 2 minutes of mixing. Proceed as directed, but do not top the bagels with any garnishes. When they come out of the oven and are still hot, you can brush the tops with melted butter and dip them in cinnamon sugar to create a cinnamon-sugar crust, if desired.

Veggie Cream Cheese:

(This stuff is way better than the grocery store stuff.)
4 ounces light or whipped cream cheese
1 T carrots
1 T scallions
1 T bell pepper
Dice the heck out of the carrots, scallions and peppers. Mix with the cream cheese and serve with your bagel. Or sandwhich for that matter.

Rise and Shine

I must confess, I am a morning person. Why, I don't know, but I often see it as a curse when I go to bed at one and wake up at six. I am human though and have those can't roll out of bed mornings. In fact, I have had them pretty much every morning for a while now...

My solution for those late nights, throw something like this in your fridge. It is so easy to throw together, uses day old bread, it's healthy oh and it is delicious! For this recipe to live up to its full potential you must use fresh peaches.

Baked Peach French Toast

1 /2-1 loaf french bread, at least 2 days old

6 eggs

1 cup skim milk

splash of half and half, cream or whole milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 lb fresh sliced peaches

handful of blueberries or blackberries

handful of brown sugar mixed with some cinnamon

Coat a 9 by 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Cut the french bread into 1/2 inch slices or cubes and arrange in a single layer in the pan. In a medium bowl, whisk together whole eggs, , milk, half and half, and the vanilla. Pour the egg mixture over the bread in the pan. Layer the peach slices evenly over the bread. Sprinkle evenly with the brown sugar and cinnamon. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Uncover and bake until it is slightly puffy, and the bread is golden brown, about 40 minutes.

Healthier Coffee Cake

This is a fun breakfast that I adapted from Ellie Kreiger. I love cake for breakfast, especially if I can convince myself it's healthy.

Wheat pastry flour is hard to find, so sub in for white or wheat depending on your tastes. Another fun thing to do with this recipe is make it into muffins.

Healthier Coffee Cake:


2 cup whole-wheat pastry flour or regular white whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped pecans
½ cup rolled oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons canola oil, I sometimes sub applesauce here
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup blueberries or blackberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray bundtpan with cooking spray(or try muffin tins).
Whisk together the flour, the baking soda and salt. In a small bowl, stir together the granulated sugar, cinnamon, oats and pecans. In a large bowl, beat the brown sugar, butter and oil until fluffy. If necessary, use the back of a spoon to press out any lumps in the brown sugar. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, beating until fully combined. Beat in the vanilla and yogurt.
Add the flour mixture in 2 batches, stirring until just combined.
Spread half of the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle half of the nut mixture over the batter and top with the blueberries, gently pressing them into the batter. Spoon the rest of the batter into the pan, smoothing the top. Sprinkle the remaining nut mixture over the cake, pressing gently. Bake until a wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool slightly and then unmold and allow to cool completely on a cooling rack. Cut the cake into 2-inch squares.

Whole Wheat Pancakes

This recipe is authentically me. I made it up one day with no guidence. It is nothing unique in the world of pancakes but it is delicious, easy and nutritious. If you want a fluffier pancakes, beat the egg whites until stiff and fold in at the end. If you want, add a little vanilla to the batter to mix it up. My personal favorite is blueberries or chocolate chips.

Tammy’s Whole Wheat Pancakes:

2 C Wheat Flour
¼ C sugar
½ tsp salt
1 T baking powder
2 C milk
2 eggs
1/3 C oil

Mix milk, eggs and oil. In a separate bowl mix dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Mix just until combined. Cook on gridle until bubby, then flip.