Sunday Brunch

Waffles and bacon make Sunday morning a bit extra special.  My favorite waffle/pancake mix has to be the Golden Malted from Williams Sonoma.  It makes the best belgian waffles (and circus animal shaped waffles) I have had.

Bon Appétit,
Margaret

Banana Bread Breakfast

This semester, Monday nights are often one of the easiest of the week: no meetings, no rehearsals, and no homework due the next morning.   So for the past two weeks, Monday nights have been baking nights.  This week it was banana bread.

I used this recipe from Food Network- it was easy and quite delicious.  The hardest part is waiting for it to cool enough to slice it when it smells so good!  Leftover banan bread also makes a wonderful breakfast.  I spread a bit of maple butter on my slice, which made it even better.

Happy Baking,
Margaret

Scrumptious Scones

Now, don't get me wrong, I love baking desserts and cupcakes, but often the baked goods that I appreciate the most are my breakfast pastries.  It is always wonderful to start the day with a delicious, home-baked scone or muffin.

In the past couple weeks I have made a couple different kinds of scones and muffins.  First, I made dried cherry and lemon scones, using the delicious dried cherries from Cherry Republic in Charlevoix.  The recipe is exactly the same as my blueberry scone recipe, except I used chopped dried cherries instead of dried blueberries.

Those were soon gone, so today I decided on a batch of cinnamon scones.  Again, I used the same recipe mentioned before, but to make them stand out as cinnamon scones I used brown sugar (instead of regular white sugar), 4 tsp of ground cinnamon, and a pinch of nutmeg.

They definitely have a good, strong cinnamon flavor to them, and will make a perfect breakfast for the next few days!

Happy Baking!

Margaret

Marvelous Muffins

Baking for breakfast is my absolute favorite.  It always makes for a happier day when you can start out at breakfast with a delicious home-baked pastry.  I have already gone through blueberry scones and blueberry pancakes, so the next move had to be blueberry muffins!

I have made blueberry muffins numerous times, but often they end up more like a cupcake with no frosting.  (Think butter, sugar, eggs, flour, milk.... basically exactly the same as a cupcake recipe.)  So this time I was looking for a recipe that would give me that cherished rustic muffin top.  This recipe did just the trick.  I found one from Canadian Living that used yogurt and had an option for whole wheat flour.

These muffins made a delicious AND healthy breakfast!  I would love to try these again with white flour and lemon (instead of the orange used in the recipe), and I think this recipe would also make delicious chocolate chip muffins (I might add a bit of extra oil in this case since you wouldn't have the juice from the berries).

Enjoy!
Margaret

Another Blueberry Breakfast

As I have mentioned before, breakfast is probably my favorite meal of the day.  Since the scones are long gone and it was a beautiful Saturday morning, I decided to make a batch of blueberry pancakes.  It was a really lovely start to the day.  My sister woke up just in time to grab a plateful as they were coming off the stove, and we dug in right away.

I used this mix and threw a couple handfuls of blueberries in, so there is really no special recipe to post.  Enjoy the pictures though, and happy weekend!

Margaret

Baking for Breakfast

Breakfast is one of my favorite meals of the day- especially when it's sweet and filled with fruit. These scones do just that. I have used this recipe for plain scones at least three times in the last month or so, but today I decided to throw in a little extra something. Today it happened to be dried blueberries and lemon zest, but really any fruit would work nicely. Enjoy!

Mini Blueberry Scones

Adapted from Gourmet

Makes about 16 (I got 20 since mine were smaller)

1/2 cup heavy cream plus additional for brushing the scones

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 tablespoons sugar

Additional raw sugar for sprinkling scones

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising)

1 tablespoon double-acting baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter

1/2 cup dried blueberries

1 tablespoon lemon zest

In a bowl whisk together 1/2 cup of the cream, the egg, the vanilla, and 6 tablespoons of the sugar until the mixture is combined well. In another bowl stir together the flour, the salt, the baking powder, and the baking soda. 

Using a cheese grater that yields large pieces, grate butter directly into flour mixture and stir in with a fork. (I find that this is easier than cutting it and then trying to blend it into the dough.)  

Stir in the blueberries, lemon zest, and the cream mixture with a fork until the mixture just forms a sticky but manageable dough. 

Knead the dough gently on a lightly floured surface for 30 seconds, pat it into a 1/2-inch-thick round, and with a 1 1/2-inch fluted cutter cut it into rounds (or other fun shapes!). 

Gather the scraps, repat the dough, and cut out more rounds. On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper brush the scones with the additional cream and sprinkle them with the additional sugar (I like to use raw sugar here). Bake the scones in the middle of a preheated 400°F. oven for 15 to 18 minutes, or until they are golden.