Category Archives: Breakfast

Jul 20 4 comments
Bread, Breakfast, Dessert, Recipes

Blueberry Amish Friendship Bread

amishbreadslice

Have you heard of this bread before? It’s like a baked goods chain letter. When a starter is given to you, you’re given a baggie of creamy liquid with directions on what to do for the next 10 days. It comes off as a bit bossy, I know. All of a sudden, you have a yeasty little pet on your hands that smells a bit like an old beer bottle. To be honest, I tried getting out of this baking obligation. We were on our way out of town and it seemed like the worst time to acquire something that needed care. When it was apparent that my excuses were not working, I accepted my fate and took the baggie with a smile. My new friend did not require much care, though and sat happily on a table that weekend. Instead of baking with it, though, I gave this first starter away and told my victim that if she needed someone to take a starter off of her hands, I would take one.  This is where the friendship part of the name comes in. After 10 days you bake 2 loaves of bread and give away 4 new starters, continuing the string of excuses from one friend to another.

A few days after I gave away my starter, it was back in my hands to do with what I’d like. Part of the Amish friendship bread guilt-trip is that you always tell the friend that they can just throw it away if they don’t want to make it. I could see myself throwing it in the trash and feeling guilty every time I passed the garbage. Thinking of my little pet bubbling away among discarded coffee grounds while I neglected it. Nope, couldn’t do it. However, out of rebellion I decided to test how flexible the recipe is. No, I wouldn’t intentionally throw it away, but if it got ruined while I played around, well, it seemed more palatable. The directions say to “get creative” by adding nuts or dried fruit. People have tried omitting an egg, decreasing the sugar, adding applesauce and the bread was still good. Those tidbits were scribbled in the margin of my directions.

It was my turn at this recipe and I had lots of ideas. First, I knew I wouldn’t have much time to make it on a Monday night, so guess what? I made it a day early. Scandalous! Then I took a look at the ingredients and first thing was first, I was in no way going to add jello vanilla instant pudding to the bread. I highly doubt the first maker of this Amish yeast bread had that ingredient to work with. Maybe I’m wrong, but it did not seem right to me. I halved the sugar, cut back on the oil, used half white and half whole wheat flour, increased the vanilla extract and added 2 cups of fresh blueberries. You know what happened to my yeasty friend? It became a delicious, nutty and moist bread. I was glad I decreased the sugar because with the addition of fresh blueberries it was in my sweetness comfort zone. I sent a loaf to work with Marc and he said there was 1 slice left when he grabbed his lunch from the refrigerator. I think it was a hit. I hope so, anyway, because tomorrow he’s bringing little starter friends.

amishbreadabove

Amish Friendship Bread

makes 2 loaves

Starter recipe

Starter Instructions

  • do not refrigerate your starter
  • the yeast will create air in the bag, let it out periodically

Day 1 – do nothing

Day 2, 3, 4, 5 – mash the bag

Day 6 – add to the bag 1 C. flour, 1 C. milk, 1 C. sugar, mash the bag

Day 7, 8, 9 – mash the bag

Day 10 – Pour the entire contents of the bag into a non-metal bowl. Add 1 1/2 C. sugar, 1 1/2 C. flour and 1 1/2 C. milk and whisk. Measure out 4 starters of 1 C. each and put into 4 gallon-size baggies. Keep one for yourself and give the remaining 3 to friends with these directions. If you keep one starter, you can bake this bread every 10 days. If you do not pass the starter on the first day, make sure to indicate which day of the process the starter is on.

Baking Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

To the remaining batter in the bowl, add (these are the ingredients I used):

3 eggs

3/4 C. oil

1 C. white flour

1 C. whole wheat flour

1/2 C. skim milk

1/2 C. sugar

1 t. vanilla

2 t. cinnamon

1 1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

2 C. fresh blueberries

1. Grease 2 loaf pans and pour half of batter into each loaf pan. Bake about 1 hour.

2. Cool until bread loosens from sides of the pan and remove. Cool completely and dig in.

Jan 23 8 comments
Breakfast, Recipes, Vegetarian

Best Waffles, Ever?

waffles

I’m on the hunt for the perfect waffles to serve at a bridal breakfast I’m throwing for my sister-in-law. I now have tried 4 different waffle recipes in the past couple of months and I think I’ve found a winner. Obsessed much? Yes. If you can believe it, the winning batter is entitled “The Best Waffles Ever” from King Arthur Flour. These waffles are crisp on the outside, tender on the inside and barely sweet. They are the perfect waffles to drizzle with my all-time favorite Blueberry Maple Syrup. What? I never shared that recipe with you? Well, that changes today. It’s sweet from the real maple syrup and brown sugar, bright and fresh from the addition of lemon juice and the touch of nutmeg really sends it over the top. And for Joy the Baker fans out there, I’m adding brown sugar bacon to the batter. She is the queen of breakfast, so I had a feeling some of my research would take me there.

wafflebatter waffleiron

Best Waffles Ever

Recipe from King Arthur Flour adapted with KAF reader tips

Makes 2 waffles (each waffle has 4 sections)

2 large eggs, separated

1 1/2 C. buttermilk

2 T. water

2 T. unsalted butter, melted or oil (ATK Twitter tip: use oil for extra crispiness)

1 C. unbleached all-purpose flour

1 T. yellow cornmeal

1 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. sugar (you can add more if like your waffles sweeter)

1. In a large bowl, beat together the egg yolks, buttermilk, water and oil or butter until well combined.

2. In a separate bowl sift together the dry ingredients and then gently stir them into the wet ingredients.

3. Beat egg whites until stiff and then gently fold them into the batter (fold in your bacon bits at this time, too, if using. Recipe below).

4. Cook waffles according to the directions on your waffle maker. KAF commenter tip: If you don’t have a fancy waffle iron that flips, he suggests flipping your waffle iron upside down for the first 2 minutes and then flip back for the rest of the cooking time. Make sure to use your oven mitts, it gets steamy!

Note: The recipe from KAF says that it makes 3 waffles and I’m not sure if it’s because their waffle iron was different than mine. I have a pretty standard Krups waffle iron, but I’d love to hear if you have different results.

bacon

Brown Sugar Bacon

Recipe from Joy the Baker

10 slice of high quality bacon

1/4 C. brown sugar

fresh cracked black pepper (if you’re feeling adventurous)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil.

2. Arrange bacon in single layer on foil. Sprinkle with brown sugar (and cracked black pepper, if you want).

3. Place in upper third of your oven and bake until sugar is caramelized and bacon is brown and crispy, about 15 minutes. Remove from oven.

4. Immediately remove the bacon slices using a pair of tongs. Place them on a cutting board (not on paper towels, they will stick!) to cool before chopping.

5. Once cool, chop into bite size bits. Add to the batter along with stiff egg whites and fold gently. Do not overmix or you’ll have tough waffles on your hands.

Note: Joy also has a waffle recipe if you follow her link. Her waffles are great, but the KAF recipe is my new favorite. This amount of bacon is enough for a double batch of the above recipe.

May I be so bold as to call this next recipe…

Best Maple-Blueberry Sauce Ever!

Recipe from Krups recipe booklet

Serves 4 (depending on how much you like syrup)

1/4 C. brown sugar

1/2 C. real maple syrup (sorry Aunt Jemima)

2 C. fresh or frozen blueberries (frozen works great)

1 T. cornstarch

1/2 C. water

1 T. lemon juice

1/8 t. nutmeg

1. In a saucepan, combine brown sugar and cornstarch. Gradually blend in maple syrup and water.

2. Cook, stirring until thick and bubbly, about 1 minute. Stir in blueberries, lemon juice and nutmeg. Cool slightly. Pour over waffles. Bask in breakfast euphoria.

Aug 03 3 comments
Bread, Breakfast, Dessert, Jam, Recipes

Recreating Oma’s Plum Jam

finished-jam

My Oma (German for Grandmother for those that may not know) was a wonderful lady. She emigrated to New York in 1953 when my mom was very young and the details of her life fascinate me. Oma didn’t speak much about her personal life because it was typical for a German woman of her generation to keep that part of her life very private. However, she was always happy and very  generous with hugs, kisses and tasty food. She passed away when I was a sophomore in High School and I still miss her terribly. My mom always says that I remind her of my Oma and I think I learned from her a passion for cooking good food and the joy of entertaining.

My Opa passed away before I was born and my Oma lived as a widow from 1977-1994. By the time I was in elementary school, my Oma was living in a white 2-story home in Waterloo, Ontario and we visited her every summer. While we were in town, she would invite her Candian friends (all of German descent) over and have a big dinner party. My brother and I helped gather fresh herbs from her garden and helped bring in the cloth tablecloths drying on the line in the backyard in preparation for the dinner party. She made amazing roasts, potato salad and delicious desserts. She adorned her table with beautiful tablecloths and her best China. Since we were kids and couldn’t understand a lick of German anyway, we ate our food upstairs and watched Canadian television (usually the highly inappropriate for kids our age, “Kids in the Hall”) while the adults dined in the large finished basement.

One of my most memorable food memories from my Oma is the breakfast she made for us. Every morning she would walk (she never had a driver’s license) to the corner store and get a fresh loaf of crusty bread. This corner store also had an amazing selection of penny and nickel candy, score! She would serve the bread with softened sweet cream butter and her plum jam. The jam was a rich dark purple and was the tastiest stuff on earth. My Oma never used recipes, so unfortunately I do not have her original recipe. When a few weeks ago I saw a recipe for homemade plum jam on Holly’s blog, I was excited with the possibility of recreating my Oma’s plum jam. I was downright giddy when I picked up 2 lbs. of ripe red plums and teetering between bliss and insanity as the chopped plums cooked into a thick and delicious jam. Oh boy is this stuff good. It is the perfect mix of sweet and tart. I will be trying the next batch with prune plums because I think that is the variety she used, but the red plums were very, very good.

diced-plums jam-cooking

Easy Plum Jam

From Holly of Phe/MOM/enon

2 lbs. firm ripe plums (red, black or prune) halved and pitted

1/2 C. sugar

1/2 C. water

1 (3 inch) cinnamon stick or 1/2 t. ground cinnamon

Coarsely chop plums and stir together with sugar, water and cinnamon in a 2-quart heavy saucepan. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally (more often toward the end of cooking to prevent sticking), until thick and reduced to about 2 1/2 cups, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Discard cinnamon stick and cool preserves. Transfer to an airtight container** and chill, covered. Preserves keep, chilled, 1 month. You can also follow through with the complete canning process.

**I used Ball pint-sized jars and it filled 1 and 1/4 jars, but they worked perfectly. Before adding the plums to the pot, I filled it with water, brought the water to a boil and sterilized the jars and lids in the water for 15 minutes. Transfer to a towel to dry, then discard the water and proceed with the plum jam ingredients.

jam-on-bread

THEN, I went on Twitter to thank Holly for sharing this lovely recipe and she proceeds to tell me that she has a Jam Crumb Cake recipe that I just had to try. Of course, I agreed that I HAD to try it and made the cake that weekend. Sure enough, amazing. The fresh jam peaks through the soft cake and the crumb topping adds the perfect amount of sweetness without being too sweet.

Plum Jam Crumb Cake

Brown Sugar Plum Crumb Cake

From Holly of Phe/MOM/enon

Makes 1 – 9″ cake, 6 jumbo muffins or mini loaves (I made a 9″ round cake)

For cake:

1 C. all-purpose flour

1/4 C. granulated sugar

1/4 C. packed brown sugar

1 3/4 t. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted

1/2 C. milk

1 large egg

1 t. pure vanilla or almond extract

1/2 C. homemade plum jam

For crumb topping:

3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted

1/4 C. granulated sugar

1/4 C. packed brown sugar

3/4 t. cinnamon

1/8 t. salt

1 C. plus 2 T. all-purpose flour

Make cake:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F with rack in the middle. Generously butter a 9 inch cake pan,  muffin cups or mini loaf muffin cups.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

Whisk together butter, milk, vanilla and egg in a large bowl, then whisk in flour mixture until just combined. Pour batter into cake pan. Dollop jam all over surface, then swirl into batter with a spoon.

Make crumb topping: Whisk together flour, butter, sugars, cinnamon, and salt until smooth. Stir in flour, then blend with your fingertips until incorporated. Sprinkle crumbs in large clumps over top of the cake.

Bake cake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and sides begin to pull away from pan, about 25 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 5 minutes.

And because I can’t keep well enough alone, I decided to try out a recipe from America’s Test Kitchen for the Best Drop Biscuits with visions of this beautiful jam glistening on a warm biscuit, mmmm. The biscuits were tasty, but I unfortunately messed up the recipe. I halved the ingredients appropriately to make half a batch, but forgot to cut the butter quantity in half, oops! They were buttery and still delicious, but it probably affected the overall shape. In the end, it reminded me of a buttery jam thumbprint cookie.

jam-on-biscuit

Best Drop Biscuits

From America’s Test Kitchen

Makes 12 biscuits

2 C. (10 oz.) unbleached all-purpose four

2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1 t. sugar

3/4 t. salt

1 C. cold buttermilk

8 T. butter, melted and cooled slightly (about 5 minutes) plus 2 T. butter for brushing the tops of the biscuits

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 475 degrees F. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Combine buttermilk and 8 T. melted butter in a medium bowl, stirring until butter forms small clumps.

2. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir with rubber spatula until just incorporated and batter pulls away from sides of the bowl. Using greased 1/4 C. dry measure, scoop level amount of batter and drop onto parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet (biscuits should measure about 2 1/4  inches in diameter and 1 1/4 inches high). Repeat with remaining batter, spacing about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until tops are golden brown and crisp, 12-14 minutes.

3. Brush biscuit tops with remaining 2 T. melted butter. Transfer to wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving.

Whew! Long post, but it had to be shared. For those of you that don’t have the time to read my ramblings, here’s the synopsis…

Grandmas/Omas=GREAT!

Plum Jam, Plum Jam Cake and Drop Biscuits=Oh so good! Go make now.

Holly of Phe/MOM/enon=A wonderful and sweet person. I think you should be Twitter friends with her and visit her Blog often.

May 24 3 comments
Breakfast, Recipes

Choose Your Own Adventure, I Mean, Breakfast Burrito.

open-burritoIs there anything more versatile than the breakfast burrito? I guess one could argue the little black dress, but lately I’ve had breakfast burritos on the brain. You could really make several kinds of breakfast burrito all day and unlike the Choose Your Own Adventure books, you do not have to choose between going into the creepy hallway or approaching the shady man in the other room. You can have the win-win choice of a pepper, sausage and onion burrito or try a fancier sweet potato, golden beet and goat cheese burrito. Hmmm…must try that one next! A few months back, friends of ours were talking about their love for the breakfast burrito and how easy it was to make and I thought, why in the world haven’t I tried that?? Here’s the back-story on me, my husband and breakfast. My Dad is the breakfast king. He enjoys nothing more than a large multi-dish breakfast in the morning. Want to get together with my Dad? He’ll probably pencil you in for a Saturday morning breakfast meet-up. In 2004 when I married Marc, all breakfasts came to a screeching hault. Marc Dula *gasp* hates breakfast! The only thing he touches is the horrible-for-you breakfast meats and so we just don’t “do” breakfast because I just can’t have him eating a plate of bacon or sausage for breakfast. You know what Marc likes even more than breakfast meat? A burrito. Marc would probably do just about anything for a burrito. He could possibly be 1 or 2 burritos away from turning into a burrito himself and then a light bulb went off. I think Marc might like a breakfast burrito!

burrito-veggies burrito-fixins

And you know what? Marc loves the breakfast burrito. I have now made it a few times and breakfast is now something we enjoy in the Dula household. You can throw in whatever you like, but try to take it easy on the toppings. You can add quite a few types of vegetables, just don’t add too much of each kind. I went a little heavy on the veggies for the burrito pictured here because I had a bounty of produce available, but it was still delicious. The thing you have to watch out for is that the vegetables release water and it could make your eggs runny and take a while to cook the eggs and they could become tough in the process. In the recipe below I’ll give you the recipe I made minus one small potato.

The other grand thing I have to tell you about is Cholula hot sauce. Sure, I’ve seen it around on tables at Mexican places, but I now have it as a staple in my pantry. We bought a small trial bottle and Marc made short work of getting through it. He thinks it adds zip to almost anything. I must admit that it has some advantage over our old favorite, Tabasco. Tabasco still has its place to add nice heat to chili and other recipes, but Cholula has a bit less heat and a really nice tang. Try it out if you see it around. After we went through our small bottle fast, I asked my Mom to go to the Mexican market near her house to see if an economy bottle of Cholula could be found. As usual, my Mom did not fail me. We now have a very large bottle of its tangy goodness at the ready.

burrito-scramble cholula

Breakfast Burrito

My Recipe www.dulanotes.com

Dice the potatoes small so that they cook quickly. I didn’t have any cheese on hand, but cheese is very tasty on these. I like this vegetarian version, but you can add meat if you like. You can mix up the vegetables and top with salsa and sour cream instead of Cholula.

Serves 3-4, makes about 5 burritos

4-5 large fresh eggs

1 leaf collard greens stem removed and chopped

2 spears asparagus chopped into 1″ pieces

1/4 of a yellow or orange pepper diced

1 small russet, yukon or red potato diced small

1 T. olive oil

1/2 a small onion (I used vidalia, but white, yellow or red works too)

4-5 tortillas, regular size (I REALLY like Whole Food’s 365 brand traditional tortillas)

Kosher salt and ground pepper to taste

Cholula to taste

snipped chives for garnish

Put the finely diced potato in a large non-stick skillet with 1 T. of olive oil and a generous pinch of salt over medium heat(you can use a regular pan, but I like to use non-stick with eggs, just grease well). After about five minutes, add the onion and a small pinch of salt. When the potatoes are tender add the rest of your veggies and a small pinch of salt and a generous pinch of pepper. Cook until your greens get bright green and all of your veggies are slightly tender but not too soft. Beat the eggs and pour over vegetable mixture. Using a spatula, move the eggs around to form large curdles and let cook until they are just no longer wet. If you like your eggs more wet or dry go ahead and prepare them the way you like. Once your mixture is done, turn the burner off. I heat the tortillas on my gas burner, but you can also wrap them in foil and heat in a 350 degree oven for 5-10 minutes. If using your gas burner, turn on the burner so that there is a small flame going. Using your tongs put the tortillas directly on the burner. It only takes about 30-40 seconds for the tortilla to warm and brown in spots, flip and repeat. Transfer the tortilla to the plate and add a generous scoop of the egg/vegetable mixture. Roll the tortilla and add some Cholula over the top if you like it a little spicy and a bit of snipped chives. Continue with the rest of your tortillas and mixture until mixture is gone. Enjoy!

tortilla finished-burrito

So easy, right? Marc doesn’t even miss his breakfast meats. He’s so excited about the warm tortialls and Cholula that he doesn’t even care that there are only vegetables and egg inside.