Category Archives: Breakfast

Mar22

Pull Apart Cinnamon Rolls, AKA Monkey Bread!

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Pull Apart Cinnamon Rolls, AKA Monkey Bread!

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I went searching for two things this weekend. One, was a breakfast snack to take to church, the second came after I made a baking decision. That is, what does a biscuit (or yeast bread), butter, sugar and cinnamon have to do with monkeys? Well, to be honest I really didn’t search very long for that last answer, but I did make a wonderful cinnamon breakfast bread, curiously known as “Monkey Bread”. You can do it too… even the least skilled baker can make these, here’s how.

Monkey Bread

Ingredients:

  • 3 rolls Grands Buttermilk Biscuits (or 4 packs of smaller biscuits)
  • 1/2 cup cinnamon sugar (maybe more)
  • 1/2 cup butter (that’s 1 stick)
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted
  • 4 ounces cream cheese
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray the inside of a 12″ fluted or tube pan with cooking spray.

Chop pecans and place on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Bake for about 5 -7 minutes, or until they become fragrant.

In a sauce pan, melt butter, then add brown sugar. Simmer butter mixture while preparing biscuits…stir regularly. The longer the butter mix stays on the burner, the better the caramel flavor. While the mix simmers, combine the cream cheese and 1/4 cup brown sugar. Open one of the biscuit packages and cut each biscuit in half. Flatten each one slightly and place about a teaspoon of the cream cheese in the middle and wrap the biscuit into a ball, enclosing the cream cheese. Set these aside.

Open the other biscuits and cut into quarters. Roll each biscuit in cinnamon sugar. Place the toasted pecans in the bottom of the pan. Begin placing quartered biscuits in the pan. Once you have a single layer, roll the cream cheese halves in the cinnamon sugar and place around the pan. Finish with remaining quarters. Finally, pour the melted butter/brown sugar evenly over all of the biscuits.  **see note

(Does this make sense? Maybe the following will simplify it)

  • Layer 1:   Toasted Pecans
  • Layer 2:   Layer of Biscuit quarters (not the cream cheese filled)
  • Layer 3:   Now, place the filled biscuits around the pan
  • Layer 4:   Finish with the remaining biscuits
  • Layer 5:   Butter, brown sugar mixture

Bake for 35 minutes, then cover with foil (to keep the top biscuits from browning too much). Bake for another 20 minutes… The bread will be “firm” if you shake the pan. Remove from oven and cool pan on wire rack for 10 – 15 minutes. Flip bread onto large plate… then pull apart and enjoy… Milk is suggested too.

Now for me, the cream cheese was an addition. I also only used about 2 1/2 rolls in one pan, the rest I put in a 8″ cake pan for us to have at home. Thus, you may not use all three packages of rolls. You don’t have to add the pecans or the cream cheese, I usually don’t, I just wanted to spiff this one up a bit.

**Regarding the pouring of butter/brown sugar mixture. Don’t put any in the pan before layering the biscuits or the biscuits will stick to the pan. Pouring the mixture over the top keeps this from happening, but trust me, it will coat all of the pieces well.

You can also find this recipe and similar ones at Pillsbury.com:

Feb28

Hash Brown Frittata (echo, echo…)

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Hash Brown Frittata (echo, echo…)

 

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This recipe was one of my first posts. I have been wanting to update it, and post some decent photographs. The opportunity to recap the recipe came this morning. This is a very simple recipe, and a good healthy option, as it uses egg beaters and incorporates veggies.

Frittata’s are a great way to serve an easy, scrumptious meal with many possible variations. It is also a way to introduce new veggies to your kids, without them really knowing… :) BTW, the Southwestern Style Egg Beaters has a little zing to it. If you choose to use regular egg beaters, you will want to add some salt and pepper, or other seasonings.

Hash Brown Frittata

Ingredients:

  • 1 Small Onion, diced
  • 4 slices cooked bacon, chopped or broken into small pieces – divided
  • 1 Bag Simply Potatoes Hash browns, with or without onions
  • 1 Carton Egg Beaters Southwestern Style
  • 1 – 1/2 cups shredded cheese
  • 1 – 2 Roma tomatoes, sliced
  •  Optional Toppings: Salsa, sour cream, grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Set oven to broil.

Spray a 10″ oven proof skillet with cooking spray. Saute onions and 2 slices of bacon pieces until tender, you may have to add some water to keep from burning (or oil). Add hash brown potatoes and cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until potatoes are tender and “mostly” cooked. Spread mixture out evenly in pan and pour in Egg Beaters. Cook for about two minutes – lifting the edges to allow the “runny” part of the egg beaters under the sides (like you do an omelet). Top with shredded cheese and “strategically”  place the sliced tomatoes on top of the cheese. I like to make it proportional – so I can cut slices in the frittata without having to cut the tomatoes. Sprinkle remaining bacon pieces the top and place under broiler until the cheese begins to melt and the center is set. Remove from oven and let sit for 2 minutes, then slice and serve with optional toppings.

Finally – this is a lower calorie food – Using the Egg Beaters, the potatoes, veggies – and I use 2% cheese… Eight servings runs about 200 calories without the extra toppings.

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Feb20

Make Bread, Not War ~ Amish Friendship Bread

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Make Bread, Not War ~ Amish Friendship Bread

 

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Sweet Friends!

 First off, let me say that many people snub their nose to participating in this “chain recipe”. After making it tonight, I am thinking it is the way to go! Unless you are originating the chain with the starter yourself, it is practically painless to pull of this sweet bread. AND, there are tons of variations to use with this sourdough starter. I am hooked now… bring on the friends!

Well, I have only eaten Amish Friendship Bread once a long time ago. All I remember was that it was really good. That same day I went home with my own starter bag, only to completely forget to do anything else with it. Hence, this is my first time ever actually “following through” with the recipe. To be completely honest, I almost didn’t make this one either. I was already about 36 hours after the 10 day mark; however, some internet research re-assured me that it would be ok to use.

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Amish Friendship Bread

The bread was fabulous, not to mention very easy to combine and bake. It baked perfectly in exactly one hour (as the directions stated).  Now I have 4 more starters, and 10 days to make tonights two loaves last. I do plan to use one of the starters in the morning to make some Amish cookies. I will certainly post those results tomorrow.

Amish Friendship Bread (a.k.a. Sourdough Starter)

(You either need a friend with a starter, or to make your own. I found several decent looking recipes in my searches)

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1-1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 – (5.1 oz) box instant vanilla pudding
  • 1 cup Amish starter
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2  cup oil
  • 1/2 cup applesauce
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Topping:

  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease two 9 x 5″ loaf pans and dust bottom and sides of pan with cinnamon sugar mixture.

In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients, make a well in the center of the mix and set aside. Combine the wet ingredients and mix well, pour into well of the flour mixture and stir until batter is well combined, but don’t over-mix. Pour batter evenly into pans and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon sugar. Bake for one hour, or until toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool in pans for about 10 minutes, then remove and serve, or cool completely and store in a airtight container.

*I always store my sweet/quick breads in the refrigerator. I think they taste better that way.

**I read numerous reviews stating you can freeze the starter, defrosting it in the fridge for 3 hours, then continuing with the proper daily sequence.

 

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View from the top!

 

Feb15

Sorry Kelloggs, these Pop-Tarts will make you crumble!

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Sorry Kelloggs, these Pop-Tarts will make you crumble!

Homemade Pop-Tarts

 

We are all guilty of consuming the cardboard treasures (Pop-tarts) at some point in our lives. Hey, it is better than no breakfast at all, just not much on the taste side. My favorite would probably be the brown sugar cinnamon, and it has to be toasted. Pop-Tarts are not often consumed at my house, thus, I don’t regularly buy them. We do the frozen toaster strudels sometimes, but just usually when I don’t feel like making breakfast and the kids decide to be independent. These treats however didn’t even last an hour at our house.

I saw this recipe at Peabody’s site a long time ago. Then again at Honey & Jam… and a couple of other places. Since I had a break this morning I whipped some up. Now yes, I did Honey and Jam’s version using a refrigerated pie crust. Now that I know how well they turn out, I will try the pastry recipe next time. I used Strawberry preserves from Harry & David. This is a great, easy recipe – don’t waste your money on the store bought version and bake up some of your own.

Homemade Strawberry Pop Tarts

Ingredients:

  • Pie crust, refrigerated or homemade (see below)
  • Jam or Preserves
  • Glaze or Egg Wash
  • Sparkling Sugar 

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. (I went by the temp setting on the box, the original recipe calls for 450.)

Unroll one of the pie crusts and square the edges. Cut into rectangles. Place 1 tsp of jam in the center of a rectangle and top with another piece of crust. Crimp all four edges. Repeat until all of the pie crust is used. I also took the rounded edges that I cut off and rolled them together to form more pop-tarts. They weren’t as “pretty” as the others, but I hate to waste food.

Bake the pop-tarts for about 7 – 8 minutes or until slightly brown. Once cool, pour glaze over and decorate with sugar. If you don’t want to add extra sugar with the glaze, you can use an egg wash on the tops  with some white sugar.

Take one pie crust rectangle, fill with a tsp of jam. Cover with another piece of pie crust. Crimp all four edges. Repeat until you run out of pie crust. Bake at 450F for abou7-8 minutes or until slightly brown. Set aside to cool. Once cooled, pour glaze on to Pop-tart and decorate with sparkling sugar.

To Make the Glaze:

  • 1 cup powder sugar
  • milk to thin

Place powdered sugar in bowl. Pour milk slowly until it has a consistency of really thick syrup.

 

Peabody’s Pie Crust Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1-1/2 cups sifted flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup shortening
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter
  • 3 tablespoons cold water

Directions:

Combine flour and salt in bowl. Add shortening or butter and blend with fork, pastry cutter or your fingers until mixture is fairly coarse. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, gently mixing dough after each addition until dough forms a ball. (Dough can also be prepared in food processor. Use the pulse button just until it starts to pull away from the sides. Be very careful not to overwork the dough.) Place dough on a lightly floured surface and roll into a square/rectangle. Cut out long strips about 2 inches wide, and 3 inches long. Repeat till you run out of dough.

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Feb8

Homemade Granola Bars

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Homemade Granola Bars
Homemade Granola Bars 2 Y

Peanut Butter Granola Bars

During some recent surfing I found these bars at Stephanie’s Kitchen. I have really wanted to try making my own granola bars, but never got around to purchasing all the necessary ingredients. However, when I saw that this recipe only four ingredients and essentially no baking time I placed the recipe on my to do list. This recipe is quick and easy and turned out quite nice. Since I pack my hubby a granola bar everyday for a snack, this is a great start to cutting costs (and calories…).  You can see her post here, and I have added the recipe below. Enjoy!

 Peanut Butter Granola Bars

(from Stephanie’s Kitchen)

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups granola
  • 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used a Ghirardelli Bar)

Directions:

In a bowl, mix together the honey and peanut butter until smooth. Add the granola and mix until well coated. Pat into a 8X8 greased pan and sprinkle chocolate chips on top. Place in a 350 degrees for 2-3 minutes or until chocolate is melted. Smooth out chocolate over the top of the granola. Chill until set. Cut into squares

Quick, easy and wonderful.

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Yum!

Jan25

Fruity Cream Cheese Loaves

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Fruity Cream Cheese Loaves
Apple Cinnamon Cream Cheese Loaf

Apple Cinnamon Cream Cheese Loaf

 

Blueberry Cream Cheese Loaf

Blueberry Cream Cheese Loaf

 

I have had a particular post bookmarked on my “to bake” list for a while now and finally got the opportunity to make use of it. This wonderfully easy recipe comes from My Kitchen Snippets and this post (which has wonderful photo illustrations). I made two slight changes to her recipe for the Blueberry Loaf and I made a second loaf filled with an apple cinnamon mixture. Both loaves turned out wonderfully – and were so easy and convenient. I served them for snacks at church this morning. I will post the recipe, but you should really go to her blog and check out her other recipes too.

Both loaves turned out beautifully with a golden brown, flaky crust. It is such a great idea to use breadsticks as they are already pre-sliced perfectly making braiding the loaf a cinch.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Loaf

Ingredients :

  • 6 oz of low fat cream cheese
  • 1 egg – separated
  • 3 tbsp of powder sugar
  • 1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberry
  • 1 (11 oz) tube of bread stick dough

Glaze

  • 1/2 cup of powder sugar
  • 2 tbsp of lemon juice ( I used milk for this)

Directions:

Preheat over to 350 degrees.

In a bowl combined soft cream cheese, powder sugar and egg yolk. Mix until well combined.

Remove breadstick dough from the tube, unroll it and separate the dough and you will have two rectangles. Join the dough up by placing both dough rectangles horizontally on a lightly greased baking sheet. Press the steam together. Spread cream cheese mixture onto the centre of the dough. Sprinkle the blueberry on top of the cream cheese. Separate the dough perforations up to the cheese mixture (You might need a scissors for this) Slightly pull and stretch the dough strips. Start from the top and bring and braid dough strip to cover the filling. Make sure to tuck and seal both ends of the loaf.

Beat the egg white and brush it all over the loaf, (I sprinkled sugar on top too). Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool the loaf.

Combine the powdered sugar and lemon juice (or milk). Whisk until smooth. Drizzle all over the cool loaf before serving.

For the Cinnamon Apple, I used pie filling (mixed w/sugar and cinnamon) instead of the blueberries and cut the apple pieces very small. I didn’t measure, I used layered the top of the cream cheese with apples.

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Beautiful Braids!

Jan17

Alton Brown’s French Toast

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Alton Brown’s French Toast
Alton Brown's French Toast

Alton Brown's French Toast

It is COLD here in Florida. I think our low last night was in the 20′s, making it very hard to get out of a nice warm bed. Reluctantly I did, and headed to the kitchen to make breakfast. Saturday is the day I like to prepare a nice breakfast, as opposed to the less time consuming toast and jelly that school mornings entail. I wanted to do some type of french toast. I recently saw a recipe for french toast waffles on Baking Bites, but all I have is a Belgium maker, and a regular waffle maker is recommended. So I set out to find another recipe that was different than your everyday recipe.

Enter, Alton Brown. I have always been pleased with my version of french toast, but I do have to say that I never cared for the soggy center. So I was excited about trying this method. Basically, you prepare your classic french toast, but once it is cooked, you place it in a 375 degree oven for 5 minutes, which helps firm the toast up. I followed his recipe to a tee and enjoyed the results. I will certainly use this method from now on. I will spare myself the extra typing – here is the link to AB’s recipe.

Dec22

Gift Giving Personalized

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Gift Giving Personalized

 

Hello Frosty!

Hello Frosty!

Last week I was desperately trying to figure out what to give my kids teachers for Christmas. Gift giving at school has become too extravagent for me. Often, it is a contest for parents to see who can out-do the other. And kid gifts? What can you actually find for $5 or less that isn’t a piece of junk? I would rather give $5 cash to go to charity. Anyway.

My goal was to give something to the teachers that wouldn’t be tossed in the back of a cabinet, or given as a white elephant gift! (Or break the bank)… Baking is always a solution. Time was not on my side however, so this is what I found… I love the snowman jar!

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Muffin Mix 

(Thank you Mr. Breakfast!) 

  • 1 one-quart wide-mouth jar
  • 2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Pour this mixture into the jar and pack it down. Next combine the two sugars and cinnamon and place over flour layer, pack again…finally, end with chocolate chips and top your jar. If you are able to find a cool jar like this one, even better!

Note, on the website Mr. Breakfast, the directions split the flour layer… but it later suggests to prepare the mixture in the jar as I listed above…it worked much better.

 

Finally, attach these directions to the jar. I printed a nice little card and laminated it (at my office),  and attached it to the jars.

 

 

 Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Muffins
(12 servings)

  • 1 jar muffin mix
  • 2 eggs – beaten
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare 12 muffin cups with cooking spray or muffin papers.

Pour the muffin mix into a large bowl and stir to combine. In a seperate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the mix and stir until just moistened. Distribute the batter evenly into muffin cups. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.