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Breakfast

Eggnog Brioche French Toast

December 17, 2021

This is one of those recipes that I have been making for years around Christmas and my family loves (especially my husband!) so I am so glad I am finally sharing it with all of you!

The fluffy texture of brioche (or challah bread, I am using here) makes for the lightest, pillowy soft french toast, and the flavors of eggnog – with its sweet cinnamon and nutmeg flavors – go so perfectly together. 

This breakfast is so easy but is so special, perfect for quick holiday brunches while you are busy doing a million other things.  And it totally feeds a crowd – I am full after one piece.

The little dusting of powdered sugar is my kids’ favorite and just adds to the Christmas brunch allure.

To make it, you just combine all the ingredients in a bowl and then dunk each piece of brioche into it.

I love to use our indoor grill pan which is a skillet on one side, and it cooks 6-8 pieces at a time.

This dish is such a treat and will fill everyone with the flavors of the season. You are going to want to grab some extra eggnog this year and keep some brioche in the freezer for the slow mornings of Christmas week.

Happy Eating! xoxo Katie

Eggnog Brioche French Toast

Ingredients

 

Teddie’s Cinnamon Apple Cake

September 28, 2021

Happy Fall, friends! It is peak apple season here in New Hampshire and like the rest of New England we can’t get enough.  I keep buying huge bags from my favorite local farmer (where I get my eggs, vegetables and flowers all summer) and I have to go back and get more because we’ve eaten them all.

I have some healthy recipes for you coming, but I thought I would just start with this Apple Cake that originated in the NY Times Cooking section and found its way to Alexandra Cooks, and then into my kitchen with our twins. They love to cook! We make a lot of muffins and cookies, but they got very excited when I asked if they wanted to make Apple Cake. We have no idea who Teddie is though.

I really wanted to try it because it sounded similar to the blueberry cake I posted about last summer that was a recipe my mother in law makes often for family get togethers. I have really grown to love how a fruit cake is just as good with coffee in the morning as it is with ice cream for desert. And that is just what Alexander said she loved about this cake too.

Turns out it is fall in a slice of cake.

So moist, sweet, and filled with the warm spices of cinnamon. And I added a twist from what what we love about the blueberry cake which is to sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top. It makes it slightly crunchy with a sugary cinnamon crust. I highly recommend.

As I was making this I thought of a ton of variations – it would be so easy to triple this recipe and put it on a big sheet pan to feed a crowd. It would also be great with a drizzle of a maple frosting, but it is so simple and moist on its own and really lets the apples shine.

This recipe made me want to invite neighbors over and sit down and chat and drink coffee. It is the perfect thing to make for a neighbor or a get together (still so glad we have those now! I don’t take them for granted!).  Or just make it for your crew for dessert.

Teddie’s Cinnamon Apple Cake

INGREDIENTS

  • Butter for greasing pan
  • 3 cups(384 g) flour, plus more for dusting pan
  • 1 1/2 cupsvegetable oil
  • 2 cups sugar (+2 Tablespoons for topping)
  • 3eggs
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon (+ 1/2 teaspoon for topping)
  • 1 teaspoonbaking soda
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 3 cups peeled, cored and thickly sliced tart apples, I used Cortland & they were great*
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts (I omit)
  • 1 cup raisins (I omit)
  • Vanilla ice cream, for serving, optional

*Alexandra used a mix of Honeycrisp, Granny Smith, Fuji, York and Cameo with success — use whatever you have on hand or whatever variety you prefer to bake with.

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9-inch tube pan. Beat the oil and sugar together in a mixer (fitted with a paddle attachment) while assembling the remaining ingredients. After about 5 minutes, add the eggs and beat until the mixture is creamy.
  2. Sift together 3 cups of flour, the salt, cinnamon and baking soda. Stir into the batter. Add the vanilla, apples, walnuts (if using) and raisins (if using) and stir until combined.
  3. Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan.  Mix together the 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 2 Tablespoons sugar and sprinkle it over the top. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan before turning out. Serve at room temperature with vanilla ice cream, if desired.

Recipe from NY Times via Alexandra Cooks.

Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins

May 27, 2016

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We are so excited to have a long weekend with slow mornings, and time to linger over coffee, cartoons and these muffins. There is something about rhubarb, with its bright, slightly sour flavor that perfumes everything it touches. And the strawberries right now are so incredibly delicious and sweet that I had to add these to this recipe (the original one from Saveur had just rhubarb and almond flavors, but I’ve adapted it here without nuts and with strawberries).

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Whenever I use rhubarb, I always think of Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I love everything about this book, where the author writes about a year of living with her husband and two children on a farm where they only eat what they can grow or get within a 50 mile radius (in Southern Appalachia, this excludes grocery stores or box stores of any kind).

When the author’s 50 birthday takes place in the summer of their year of eating seasonally, they served their birthday guests huge vats of strawberry rhubarb crisp instead of birthday cake, and of course its completely delicious.image

When I made these muffins, I thought about that scene, because this recipe is really so versatile that it could be easily made into a delicious breakfast coffee cake (or birthday cake as the case may be) just by adding 15-20 minutes of cooking time. It is also very reminiscent of strawberry rhubarb crisp – which I posted here awhile ago – since it has a streusel topping. I love having another way to use strawberry and rhubarb together other than dessert. (Not that I haven’t eaten Strawberry Rhubarb crisp for breakfast.)

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And since I subscribe to the more is more philosophy, I made a quick and easy compote with strawberries, rhubarb, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water + 1 tsp. lemon zest (totally optional). This is fantastic on anything your memorial day weekend could bring your way – ice cream, angel food cake, toast. And it turns out to be delicious on these muffins too.

Warning: just licking the spoon of this stuff will cause extreme distraction due to the explosion of flavor in your mouth. So, so good.

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The sour cream gives the batter such a moist, tender cake, and the juicy fruits bursting out of it with the sugary, buttery streusel crust with hints of lemon is amazing.

So if you’ve been dreaming of some from-scratch flavors, give your baking tools a spin over this long weekend.

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Strawberry Rhubarb Streusel Muffins (printer version here):

MAKES ABOUT 18 MUFFINS

For the Streusel

½ cup flour

½ cup sugar

2 tbsp. packed light brown sugar

½ tsp. lemon zest

¼ tsp. kosher salt

4 tbsp. unsalted butter, cubed

 

For the Muffins

2 3/4 cups flour + ¼ cup to mix with fruit

2 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. kosher salt

1 cup sour cream

1 cup sugar

½ cup packed light brown sugar

½ cup canola oil

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 tsp. Vanilla extract

2 stalks rhubarb, cut into ¼” pieces

1 cup strawberries, cut into ¼” pieces

 

Instructions

Make the streusel: Whisk together flour, both sugars, zest, and salt in a small bowl. Add butter, and using your fingers, rub into mixture until smooth and large clumps form. Transfer to refrigerator; chill until ready to use.

Make the muffins: Heat oven to 350°. Grease and flour muffin pans; set aside. Whisk together 2 34 cups flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl; set aside. In another bowl, whisk together sour cream, both sugars, oil, eggs, and vanilla; pour mixture over dry ingredients and whisk until just combined. In a small bowl, toss remaining flour with rhubarb and strawberries until evenly coated, and then stir into batter. Working in batches, place cup batter in muffin cups, break streusel up into medium-sized clumps, and sprinkle evenly over muffins. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle of each muffin comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

To make a cake instead, preheat oven to same 350 temp. Pour batter into greased and floured 8″ round cake pan or 9×9 inch pan, top with streusel, and start checking at 35-40 with a toothpick for doneness.

Muffin Recipe adapted from www.saveur.com

Easy Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce

In a saucepan, combine: 2 stalks of rhubarb, cut into ½ pieces, 1 cup strawberries, quartered and hulled, ¼ cup water, ½ cup sugar, 1 tsp. lemon zest (optional). Bring to a simmer over high heat, then reduce to medium high, for 6-8 minutes or until fruit has broken down.

Chive, Herb Goat Cheese and Tomato Frittata

April 26, 2016

 

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Spring has finally sprung here! One of the first sure signs of spring are chives bursting up out of whatever dirt they are planted in.  I love seeing their determined and totally autonomous efforts peeking out under dead lives and even the last chunk of snow. There have been chives at every house we have ever lived in, so I am guessing I am not alone? At our current house, these huge containers were on the deck when we moved in filled with chives. I will add a lot more herb pots after memorial day, but until then, these have already made their way into our dishes.

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I always celebrate spring by making eggs with chives. Usually its scrambled eggs or an omelette, but last week, I wanted to make it even more of a celebration and I made this chive, herbed  goat cheese and tomato frittata for lunch and proceeded to eat it for the next 2 days for every meal, it was so good.

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I think a frittata is such a wonderful base for seasonal produce, a great way to use up a weekly CSA, fast-growing garden produce or just sad winter root veggies still in the vegetable drawer. At the hight of summer, corn, zucchini and tomatoes are all delicious with your favorite cheese and a sautéed onion. So versatile and so quick.

I really loved using the herb goat cheese in this one. (This trio from Trader Joes is also great to keep in your cheese drawer for when company comes over in a delightfully unplanned event. You can put out some crackers, maybe some jelly on top of the plain one and have a lovely cheese spread). Since I won’t be able to put my herb pots in until after memorial day, having them in the goat cheese was the next best thing to adding fistfuls of thyme and parsley. If you don’t love goat cheese, this frittata is equally good with feta or cheddar.

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And spring also means that we return to visiting our favorite farm (Rawson’s Farm Stand in Stratham,NH). Eddie is salt of the earth, thee nicest human. He loves letting our kids feed the chickens:

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His feed troughs are always full of squash and corn and bread, so I know his chickens are getting a great diet. I love knowing where our eggs come from and supporting a local farmer.  The fact that they make a delicious frittata is a bonus too.

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I have one more chive recipe to share with you all this week so look for it to come through soon. In the meantime, happy spring!! xoxo Katie

Tomato, Chive and Goat Cheese Frittata (printer version here):
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion chopped
2 cups grape tomatoes, halved
coarse salt and ground pepper
8 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 oz. of herbed goat cheese (or feta or cheddar)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a 10-inch ovenproof nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Add onions and tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, and cook about 5 minutes.
Add eggs and season with salt and pepper, and stir to combine. Sprinkle goat cheese throughout, crumbling with your fingers. Cook, undisturbed, until edges are set, about 2 minutes. Transfer skillet to oven and bake until top of frittata is just set, 10 to 13 minutes.
Invert or slide frittata onto a plate and cut into 6 wedges. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Tomato, Scallion and Cheddar Omlette.

 

 

Mini Christmas Frittatas

December 21, 2014

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I don’t know about you, but the kitchen is the last place I want to be on Christmas morning. That’s why I love these mini fritattas – they take less then 15 minutes to whip together, and 10 minutes to bake. Plus, for some reason my kids all loved these, which is more then I can say for egg casserole or quiche – both of which I happen to love and are great holiday make ahead ideas but the kids don’t love them.

I think ham, egg and cheese might just be my favorite combo on the planet (asides from fried pickles dipped in ranch).  Western omlettes make me swoon. And so do these. The salty bite of parm with the smokiness of the ham are just a match made in heaven. Plus these are relatively healthy for you – you know, to balance out the egg nog spiked with bourbon. Or if you are doing Whole Foods during Christmas (in which case, you may not want to hear about how I am making these with Egg Nog Challah French Toast).

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And don’t even get me started on a chance to use red and green for Christmas morning.

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Sauteeing the onions and peppers first just lends a sweet, buttery note to the whole little bite. They’re so cute. And you can make the batter the night before and just pour them in if you want to make it ahead.

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We may be totally behind on our gift wrapping and cookie making, but Christmas brunch is covered. Hope you are having a very merry festive week little elves! xo Katie

 

Ham, Cheese and Red Pepper Fritattas (printer version here)

Ingredients

Nonstick vegetable oil cooking spray

8 large eggs

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 ounces thinly sliced ham, chopped

1 small onion, chopped (about ½ cup)

1 small red pepper, chopped (about ½ cup)

1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan

2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves

 

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Spray 2 mini muffin tins (each with 24 cups) with nonstick spray.

Heat a pan on medium heat with 1 tablespoon butter, then add the onions. Cook for 5 minutes, until soft. Add the red peppers, cooking for 5 minutes until soft.

Whisk the eggs, milk, pepper, and salt in a large bowl to blend well. Stir in the ham, cheese, onion and pepper mixture and parsley. Fill prepared muffin cups almost to the top with the egg mixture. Bake until the egg mixture puffs and is just set in the center, about 8 to 10 minutes.

S’mores Pizza

August 25, 2014

 

You know how I went to that blogging conference a few weekends ago and that is all I have posted about since? This is the last one I promise. I just kept thinking so much about the s’mores dessert pizza they served us at the Saturday lunch. Good thing I blog about food, which gave me an excuse to re-create it and share it.

I have to say, that old adage, ‘Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good’ really came into play here. I had daydreams of making pizza dough out of graham flour and scouring some dark chocolate spreads to make this. Plus the restaurant had a wood burning pizza oven which I do not (Gwyneth Paltrow scoffs at my foodiness).

In the end, I just pulled out the obvious essentials and went to town:

I could add that I also made this for my kids breakfast. What can I say. Mom of the year for serving Hershey Bars and Marshmellows to my kids. Really, I was busy packing to go up north and again my thoughts drifted to the s’mores pizza when I saw a bag of dough in the fridge that I was tempted to pack (see this post). Not only would I get to taste that amazing combo of textures and oozy chocolately goodness, but I could check breakfast off my list. S’mores pizza for the double win.

But I am so glad I did because it is amazing.

 

I just put marshmallow fluff on one side, Hershey Bars on the other, and a few marshmallows in for good measure. When I folded it over, I cut three slits on top to allow the air to vent, and sprinkled a few graham crackers on top. I cooked it at 425 for 10-15 min (until marshmallow oozed out the end and the pizza dough was hard).

When it was done, I pulled it out and my daughter came into the kitchen and said, mmmm…what’s that yummy smell?

Don’t let the simplicity keep you from making this – you will thank me!  It is so good! It is a new family staple around here. Just probably not on a school morning 🙂

Katie