Pioneer Woman’s Lemon Blueberry Pancakes

These were on one of her food network episodes. We really liked them. Instead of evaporated milk we had used half almond milk half regular old cow milk. On her website, she swears by the evaporated milk. Maybe next time… Since the recipe says it makes four servings, we doubled it and had a ton left over. Nothing wrong with that, though – we have breakfast ready for tomorrow!

• 1-½ cup Cake Flour (We used regular All Purpose Flour)
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• 1 Tablespoon (heaping) Baking Powder
• 3 Tablespoons Sugar
• 1-½ cup Evaporated Milk (more If Needed)
• 1 whole Lemon (more If Needed)
• 1 whole Large Egg
• 1-½ teaspoon Vanilla
• 2 Tablespoons Butter, Melted
• Zest From 1 Lemon
• 1 cup Heaping Blueberries

Mix dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients, plus zest.  Combine. Add blueberries. Cook. Ta da.

Original here.

Easiest Breakfast Danish

I wanted to make this and yesterday couldn’t find this recipe on here. After googling around I finally found it, phew. Super yummy, super easy.

6-8 oz cream cheese
1/2 c powdered sugar
1 t vanilla
1 egg

Mix well.

Unwrap one can of crescent rolls and place on a baking sheet. Pinch seams together. Put the cream cheese mixture  down the middle third.  Sometimes we do just cream cheese, sometimes we’ll put jam or fresh fruit on top. Whatever floats your boat that day.Then you’ll need a sharp knife to make cuts that look like this onto the side thirds:

via

Then you pull the bottom up, and take a piece from the left, piece from the right – wrap it all up nice.

Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes.

Apple Pie Pancakes

Two pancake posts in a row? Kind of funny.

Those are what we call apple pie pancakes. They’re just German Pancakes – or Hootenanny, or Puff Pancakes, or whatever your family calls them – with apple pie filling in them. YUM.

Cube 4-6 T butter in a 9×13 glass dish and place in a 400 degree oven. While the butter is melting take

6 eggs
½ tsp salt
1 c. milk
1 cup flour

and mix WELL. Like, whir it up in the blender, even. No lumps. After the butter melts (don’t let it brown!), remove the pan from the oven and pour the batter right over the melted butter. Evenly plop the can of pie filling into the batter. Bake at 400 for 15-20ish minutes.

We use our own, homemade pie filling, you can use any store bought as well, in any flavor.

Cottage Cheese Pancakes

When I saw this recipe on Denae‘s blog I thought “hmm…1/2 cup of flour in the entire pancake recipe?” We finally made them. They are fabulous, crepe like, velvety and delicious.

2 16 oz. containers of cottage cheese (I use lowfat)
6 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/4 ish teaspoon of salt
1 T sugar

Blend everything together in a blender. Cook on a griddle at 300 (these take longer than regular pancakes, but you do have to cook them slowly to make sure the middle is done). Denae’s photo had them with strawberries and whipped cream, which is always my favorite way to go, but the kids wanted syrup.

Buttermilk Pancakes with Buttermilk Syrup

This was A-MAZE-ING.  Period.  Amazing. Our new favorite breakfast, perhaps.

Pancakes
2 cups flour
2 t baking powder
1 t soda
1/2 t salt
3 T sugar

Mix well and add
2 eggs
3 cups buttermilk
4 T melted butter

BUTTERMILK SYRUP
1/2 cup butter
3/4 c sugar
1/2 c buttermilk

Cook on medium heat until dissolved and then add
1 t baking soda
1 t vanilla

ENJOY. You’ll agree: amazing.

Recipe from Chef in Training.

Cinnamon Burst Bread (think Great Harvest)

We LOVE Great Harvest Cinnamon Burst bread, but at more than $6 a loaf, it’s something we only buy a couple times a year.  Doesn’t it make the worlds best french toast?

This recipe came to our rescue about 3 years ago. We love it. It makes enough for four loaves, and it freezes well if it makes it that long.  It usually doesn’t.  We gave 1 1/2 loaves away and finished off the rest in 2 days. Now, here’s the little issue with this recipe: finding the cinnamon bites for it.  Note: do not let this “little issue” stand in your way. Once you find your favorite way to get the cinnamon bites and start making this recipe, you will never stop.

Cinnamon bites and cinnamon chips are totally different. This recipe DOES NOT USE cinnamon chips, that you buy at the grocery store, which are similar to chocolate chips. Cinnamon bites are tiny, hard bullet-like shapes of compacted, slightly sweetened cinnamon. The place I found them in online at one of my favorite baking sources, King Arthur Flour. They’re called cinnamon flav-r-bites and are $7.95 for 16 ounces, which will be enough to make this recipe 2 1/2 times (10 loaves). It’s just that the shipping isn’t cheap.

Option number two is this product from Allison’s Pantry – they’re called Gerken’s Mini Cinnamon Drops.

I can’t remember how much they were a bag; my friend Heather and I went in on a bunch of bags and I stocked up.  I do remember ordering was kind of a pain because we had to order through a specific girl, not the store, and it took a long time to receive our order.

These are very similar to cinnamon chips, but they are tiny, and they do work really well in the recipe.

Option number three: I had heard since I started making this recipe that Great Harvest gets their cinnamon chips from Honeyville Grain, which has several stores around Salt Lake, and also ships.  Since I have started making this recipe, I haven’t found a Honeyville Grain store that carries the chips anymore, and when I saw a huge Honeyville Grain truck delivering products to our local Great Harvest one morning, I was tempted to get on that truck and do some research. In fact, I SUPER regret not running over to chat with the driver about my little cinnamon chip issue.

If you’re really interested in trying this recipe, especially if you live near me, let’s chat, and perhaps go in on another big order of Allison’s Pantry cinnamon drops.

Are you finally ready for the recipe? This recipe will fill a 6 qt KitchenAid. If you have a smaller mixer, half the recipe. If you have a Bosch, you might be able to double.

3 T. yeast
2/3 cup sugar
4 eggs, beaten lightly
3 3/4 cup warm water
1 1/2 T. salt
3 T. vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups cinnamon bites
10-12 cups flour

Put yeast, sugar and water in the mixer. Let sit for several minutes, until bubbly. Add eggs and 4 cups of flour, and mix until it all combined well. Add salt, oil and cinnamon drops. Mix well. Add 6-7 more cups of flour. Bread flour is best, but you can use all purpose or half fresh ground whole wheat. This will put your mixer through a bit of a work out, and the dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl. You can stop when the batter is still pretty sticky like this:

as long as it’s still pulling away from the sides of the bowl. This is about 10.5-11 cups of flour. The fastest way to make a bread too tough or dense is to add too much flour. Yep, it’s a bit of a mess to work with, but you’ll really like the finished product so much better. You can add up to 12 cups of flour if you need to, and aren’t in the mood for a bit more mess. But I would never ever do that. Ok? Ok.

Put the dough into a clean large bowl and let rise for 1 hour. Here’s a trick on how to do that, since your dough is so sticky: you will want to spray a work surface with cooking spray, then spray your hands. Scrape the dough out of the bowl and onto the work surface. Then I clean out my mixing bowl, spray it with cooking spray, and after kneading the dough a couple times to get it nice and round, plop it back into the bowl. Cover with a towel.

After the 1 hour rise, the dough will not be sticky at all. Turn it onto a work surface and shape into four loaves. Place in well greased pans, and rise until doubled, about another hour. I usually line my pans with parchment or foil that I spray before putting the loaves in the pans.

Bake at 375 for 30 minutes and immediately turn out of pans to cool.

Potato, Ham and Spinach Frittata

We made this for dinner last night and the adults thoroughly enjoyed it. The kid vote isn’t credible around these parts lately because they are serious flip-floppers. This recipe says it serves four. Then it must mean four STARVING adult people. We fed our six (two teeny portions for the girls) and have at least 1/4 leftover for tonight.

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 small russet potatoes (about 3/4 pound), peeled and thinly sliced
1 small onion, thinly sliced or diced
9 large eggs
kosher salt and black pepper
1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed of excess liquid
4 ounces white Cheddar, grated (1 cup)
4 ounces thinly sliced deli ham, cut into 2-inch pieces

Heat oven to 400° F. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large ovenproof nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the potatoes and onion and cook, tossing occasionally, until the potatoes are tender, 12 to 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Mix in the spinach, Cheddar, and ham.

Add the egg mixture to the skillet, stir once, and transfer the skillet to oven. Cook until the eggs are set, 12 to 14 minutes. (Note, it took us much much longer to cook in the oven – probably closer to 25-30 minutes.)

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

I’m trying to figure out why these haven’t taken off like wildfire on the internet.  Don’t bother to count the calories.  They are SO good.  Perfect for a special occasion breakfast, or a really lazy morning.

Pictures and original recipe from recipegirl.com.  The only change we made was to double the pancake batter amount . You’ll still have lots of cinnamon mixture left over.  Make sure you read the tips at the bottom before you get started.  These are really easy and fun!

PANCAKES:
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

CINNAMON FILLING:
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

CREAM CHEESE GLAZE:
4 Tablespoons butter
2 ounces cream cheese
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Prepare pancake batter: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk in milk, oil and egg, just until batter is moistened (a few small lumps are fine).

2. In a medium bowl, mix butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Scoop the filling into a small zip baggie and set aside. You don’t want this to remain super-liquidy. It’s best if it becomes a consistency similar to toothpaste.

3. In a medium, microwave-safe bowl- heat butter and cream cheese until melted. Whisk together until smooth; whisk in powdered sugar and vanilla extract; set aside.

4. Heat large skillet over medium-low heat. Spray with nonstick spray. Scoop about 3/4 cup batter onto the skillet. Snip the corner of your baggie of filling and squeeze a spiral of the filling onto the top of the pancake. When bubbles begin to appear on the surface, flip carefully with a thin spatula, and cook until browned on the underside, 1 to 2 minutes more. Transfer to a baking sheet or platter and keep in a warm oven until ready to serve.

5. When ready to serve, spoon warmed glaze onto the top of each pancake.

Tips:

*Keep the heat low or your pancakes might cook up too quickly. Don’t flip them until you see those bubbles starting to pop on top. Flip them with a wide spatula so you can grasp the whole thing without batter and filling dripping all over the place!
*It’s best if you pour the batter onto your skillet, wait a minute or so and then swirl the cinnamon onto the batter. That’ll give it a chance to set a little before you add the swirl.
*If your baggie of filling begins to get too thick, just pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it up again. On that same note, it shouldn’t be too runny. The consistency of soft toothpaste is perfect. If it’s melty and runny, it will tend to run all over your pancakes. Once you micro it, let it sit on the counter at room temp for a while until it thickens slightly.

Julie Jackson’s 1 hour cinnamon rolls

In the cinnamon roll Olympics, I give these silver, and only because I’ve been converted to Tracy M’s sinful cinnamon rolls.  These are really very good and who can beat a 1 hour cinnamon roll, really now?  Julie has made these for several get togethers I’ve been to, sometimes as cinnamon rolls, sometimes as strawberry cream cheese rolls.  They’re all super good.  She uses lecithin (and says it’s insanely sticky if you have the liquid version, so don’t really measure it, just throw in several ‘blobs’) – but I’ve never bought lecithin.  I use regular old vegetable oil. Last note: Bosch lovers can double the recipe.

5 1/4 flour (bread flour, if possible)

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 heaping Tbsp instant yeast

2 T oil (or 1 1/2 T lecithin)

2 cups hot water

I throw all the ingredients in my mixer and you’re supposed to mix for about 5 minutes (use the dough hook). Dough will be very sticky.

From Julie J (including her finishing touches): I spray Pam on the counter to roll it out (put some on your hands too, to get it out of the bowl).  Roll it out in a rectangle and spread about 1/3 cup softened butter on the dough.  Put brown sugar everywhere and then sprinkle cinnamon everywhere (I don’t measure those).  Roll it up and cut it apart with dental floss.  Let rise 25 minutes.  Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. (Julie P’s note: I might’ve cut mine bigger…both times they took closer to 23-25 minutes.)  This recipe  makes a jelly roll sized pan (about 16-18 generous sized rolls).

Frosting

1/4 cup softened butter

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp water

2 cups powdered sugar

Cream Cheese filling

4 oz softened cream cheese

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

I just put in a spoonful of jam, but I usually make a braid out of the dough and put the cream cheese filling in the middle with pie filling and frosting on top.  Super yum!  I love this bread recipe because it only has to raise once and so I can make bread in about an hour.  I use the dough for pizza, rolls, bread everything

strawberries and cream baked french toast

When I was making this, I realized it sounds almost exactly like another french toast recipe we love – baked peach french toast.  This is another winner. Yum.  I got the recipe here and modified it a bit.

1 loaf french bread, cut into 1 inch slices.
about 6 oz cream cheese, softened

Spread cream cheese between two slices of bread, place sandwiched slices in a glass pan sprayed with cooking spray.  Pierce the bread all over with a small, sharp knive (I used a fondue stabber).

Mix together:
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Pour over bread and let sit for five minutes, then turn bread “sandwiches” over and let sit 5 more minutes to soak up the egg mixture. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.

Whipped Topping:
1 pt whipping cream
1/4 cup sugar

Top with slicked strawberries and whipped cream.

Raspberry White Chocolate Bread Pudding

I should be arrested by a dietician for feeding this to my family…especially for breakfast.  The original picture I found made it look like a great Danish, and I was thinking about Thanksgiving breakfast so I thought “WHY NOT”.  Warning: the recipe as written is very sweet and next time I’m planning on trying just 1 cup of sugar in the custard, but won’t update with that measurement until I try it myself. I did put the notes of the things I used or substituted below.

The original picture is better than mine, so here it is…

The recipe came from Melanie at Sugar Doodle.

6 large French croissants (I used 12 small)
4 egg yolks plus 3 whole eggs
2 1/2 cups heavy cream*
1/2 cup milk*
2 cups big white chocolate chunks (or chips) (I used the chips)
1 cup good quality dried cherries or craisins or fresh raspberries work great too (I used frozen cherries)
1 Tbsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
Butter or PAM to coat baking dish
Raw sugar to sprinkle on top

*I omitted the heavy cream and milk and instead used 3 cups of fat free half and half

1 – Cut croissants on an angle (1-inch slices) and place in the bottom of a buttered 9×13 baking dish.
2 – Add the chocolate pieces and cherries on top of the croissants.
3 – Mix together the yolks and whole eggs, cream, milk, vanilla, sugar, and salt.
4 – Pour mixture over the croissants, pushing them down until all the liquid is absorbed into the bread pieces. There will be lots of liquid.
5 – Sprinkle raw sugar on top.
6 – Bake at 300-350° (depending on your oven) for 30-40 minutes.

This dessert should remain very soft and moist. Start checking after 30 minutes. (Mine took 45ish minutes.) Filling should be soft-set, but not dry. Serve warm.

Pumpkin Pie Cinnamon Rolls

Whoops, I forgot to take a picture.  While they were baking, I was wondering if I should’ve used all AP flour instead of the some AP and some whole wheat that the recipe called for, but they really were great.  If you don’t have access to fresh ground whole wheat flour, I’d probably use all AP flour.  This was a killer easy recipe as far as cinnamon rolls go, and they were pretty great.

1 cup canned pumpkin

2 large eggs

2 T to 1/4 cup (or a bit more) water, lukewarm

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 3/4 c whole wheat flour

1/4 c dry milk

1 t ground cinnamon

1/2 t groung ginger

1/4 t ground cloves

3 T brown sugar

1 1/2 t salt

2 t instant yeast

Mix everything to combine well.  Dough might be pretty sticky and that’s fine.  It just needs to hold its shape.

For the water, I used 1/4 cup PLUS 2 T. We’re in a really dry area. If you’re in a more humid place, you’ll use less.  Start with less and add slowly.

Place dough in lightly greased bowl and let rise 90 minutes.  It won’t rise much, and will NOT double. It might look puffy.

Roll into rectangle that is 14″x22″.  The dough will be really thin.

Combine 1 cup sugar and 1 1/2 – 2T cinnamon.  Wet the dough with a bit of milk and sprinkle on the cinnamon sugar.

Starting at one short end, roll the dough tightly into a log.  Seal closed.  Original directions said cut into 9 rolls, I did 12 and they were decent sized.

Place rolls in a greased pan (my 12 rolls fit perfectly into a 9×13 pan, directions say to use a 9″ square for the 9).

Let rise for 1 hour. Will be a bit puffy.  Bake for 25-30 minutes at 375.  Cool about 15 minutes.  Frost with cream cheese frosting.

Mini Frittatas

I loved the small size of these, that they’re easy to refrigerate and reheat, and they’re easy to make.

7 large eggs
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded cheese
1/2 t chopped fresh herbs (thyme, oregano, whatever)
salt and pepper to taste
add-in’s such as ham, spinach, green onions, mushrooms, vegetables – whatever you like in an omelette or scrambled eggs

Spray a muffin tin VERY well with cooking spray.  Combine the eggs, milk and everything else in a big bowl, and then divide the mixture evenly into the muffin tins.  Bake at 375 for 20 minutes or until puffy, golden brown and just set.  Wrap and refrigerate leftovers, and reheat for about 1 minute in the microwave.

Apple Cider Syrup

Oh, friends.  This is heaven.  Heaven heaven heaven.  We made if for breakfast this morning and oh my goodness.  This is going to be a fall staple in our house now.  It tastes like you’re eating an apple pie, minus the apples and crust.  We used it on waffles, but have plans to use it as an ice cream topping, and who knows what else.  SO GOOD.  Thank you Melanie at Sisters Cafe for the recipe.  She also has a pumpkin pancake recipe on the same post that I think it would be fabulous paired with.

3/4 Cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 TBs cornstarch
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 cups fresh apple cider (or juice would work)
1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup butter

Mix sugars, cornstarch, cinnamon and nutmeg well. Add apple cider, vanilla and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and continue boiling for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Store leftovers in the refrigerator, use within a week or two.

Fluffy Apple Dip

I got this recipe from Real Mom Kitchen, who got it from Simple and Delicious, and I’ve made it twice since Halloween.  It’s yummy and different.

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (I used 1 full teaspoon)
1 jar (7 ounces) marshmallow creme
Assorted apple wedges

In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese, peanut butter and pie spice until blended; fold in marshmallow creme. Serve with apple wedges. Yield: 2 cups.