I’ve made these twice now, and was more pleased with the second batch.  The first time I used only 1/2 cup of pecans, and this time I just covered the bottom of my dish and probably used close to a full cup.  It was great to have the extra sugary coated guys to snack on from the pan.  Feel free to use less or you could use walnuts.  I used vanilla pudding the first time, and butterscotch the last time.  Both were good, so use what you like.

A 9×13 pan is fine for these, but I used a smaller baking dish, 10×10, this last time.  A smaller area meant more gooey goodness which is never a bad thing in my opinion.  I only used 12 rolls for the smaller pan.  If I do these again in a 9×13 I would add a little more butter and sugar.  Because if you’re already going to eat these, what’s wrong with a little more fat and calories?  Enjoy!

Gooey Pecan Breakfast Rolls

Ingredients

• 1/2-1 cup pecans, chopped
• 18 frozen dinner rolls
• 1 small box (3.5 ounces) Cook and Serve pudding
• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar

Thanks to Ina Garten, one of my favorite Food Network people, for this recipe.  Her recipe calls for sour cream, which I did not have.  I substituted 3/4 cup of buttermilk and 1/3 cup softened butter.  I think it would have been fine to use 1 cup of buttermilk without the additional butter.

This cake can be eaten for dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or for breakfast.  Enjoy!

Cinnamon Sugar Peach Cake

Courtesy of Ina Garten, foodnetwork.com

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup + 1/3 cup of softened butter
• 1 cup + 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 large can of peaches, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup pecans

This past Saturday I was up first and managed to throw together these muffins for breakfast.  They came together so quickly!  Buttermilk makes these muffins wonderfully moist.  The berries provide a burst of tart sweetness.  A little sprinkle of raw sugar gives a nice crunch without the extra work of making a streusel.  Yes, I am too lazy to make a simple steusel.

I used a combination of fresh raspberries and blueberries, about a cup of each.  Blackberries would also be delicious.  This recipe comes from The Joy of Baking.  Enjoy!

Buttermilk Berry Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• zest from 1 lemon
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 2/3 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups fresh berries
• 1/4 cup raw/turbinado sugar

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I’ve made another overnight French toast before, and it was much sweeter than this one, but not in a bad way…just different.  They’re different enough that I can’t choose which one I liked better.  The lemon adds a nice tartness to the slight sweetness of this one that doesn’t require any syrup, so the berries are a perfect accompaniment.  The other French toast is one that welcomes a generous pour of syrup and a side of crisp bacon.  Don’t ask me why sugar goes best with more sugar.  It just does.  Both are tasty and can be prepped the night before and baked in the morning.  I love that.

The recipe called for brioche, but my rather poor choice of buying groceries at Wal Mart meant that we had to use a loaf of French bread.  It is French toast though, and we found it to be a great bread to use in this recipe.  The brioche would probably have yielded a denser and more rich breakfast.

We served the French toast with fresh blueberries and raspberries.  The original recipe (found here) from the kitchn has a lovely sounding mixture for the berries of dry cava wine and mint, but we played it simple.  We also decided not to dust the French toast with powdered sugar because of the sweet lemon glaze.  It was plenty sweet for me, but serve some on the side if you have a sweet tooth.  Enjoy!

Lemon Glazed French Toast

(courtesy of thekitchn)

Ingredients

• One 16 to 20-ounce loaf of French bread (brioche or challah)
• 3 large eggs
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 cups 2% milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 lemons, juiced
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar

Directions

1. If planning to bake immediately, preheat the oven to 425éF. Grease a 9×13-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray or butter.
2. Slice the bread into 1/2-inch-thick slices, then cut each slice in half. Arrange half of the bread in overlapping layers in the baking dish.
3. Whisk the eggs in a large bowl until well mixed, then whisk in the brown sugar. Whisk in the milk, vanilla, salt, and nutmeg. Pour half of the custard over the bread. Layer the rest of the bread on top, and pour the rest of the custard over to coat. (At this point the casserole can be covered and refrigerated for up to 24 hours.)
4. When ready to bake, take the casserole out of the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for at least 10 minutes before baking. Heat the oven to 425°F. Bake the casserole for 30 minutes, or until slightly golden on top, and puffy.
5. Whisk the lemon juice with the confectioners’ sugar and drizzle the glaze over the hot casserole.
6. Let the casserole cool for at least 15 minutes before serving. Serve in large slices, with fresh berries on the side.

Back to the cinnamon bread.

I made this for a neighbor who I made some cinnamon Amish friendship bread for a while back.  He kept asking me to make more of it, but I’d let my starter die and couldn’t do it.  I found this to be a great substitute and I can make it without having to keep feeding the friendship starter and making more loaves than I could ever hope to eat.

The recipe is from allrecipes.com, here is the link to the original recipe.  I changed the method for mixing the batter together to something I was more comfortable with.  I doubt it makes much of a difference, if any.  For the topping I used 2 tablespoons of melted butter and about 3 tablespoons of cinnamon sugar I already had mixed up.  Maybe this mixture swirled on top of the batter made it rise up all weird in the center but not on the edges?  I don’t know.  It isn’t pretty, but it is good.  Enjoy.

Cinnamon Bread

Courtesy of allrecipes.com

Ingredients

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and sugar one 9×5 inch loaf pan.
2. Beat the oil and sugar, then add in eggs and vanilla.
3. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, and salt then mix into wet ingredients, followed by the buttermilk.  Beat 3 minutes. Pour into prepared loaf pan. Smooth top.
4. Combine 3 tablespoons white sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and butter. Drizzle topping over smoothed batter. Using knife, cut in a light swirling motion to give a marbled effect.
5. Bake for about 50 minutes. Test with toothpick. When inserted it should come out clean. Remove bread from pan to rack to cool.

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

I managed to get the coffee cake made this week despite the fact that my son has not been a fan of napping for more than 30 minutes at a time.  At the moment I am trying to get this post written before he wakes up!  So, forgive me if this one is short and sweet.

The dough wasn’t too difficult to put together, but even after an hour and a half rise it hadn’t really doubled in bulk.  I do not have a great relationship with yeast.  I added 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and 3/4 teaspoon of cardamom to the flour mixture.

The filling.  Oh my goodness.  The filling.  How can you argue with this?  Sweet meringue, chopped pecans, cinnamon sugar and chocolate chips.  I did one ring with chocolate, and one without.  I prefer the one without if I’m enjoying this for breakfast.  I found that the chocolate hides the other flavors too much.

Rolling this up was easy, but when I went to form the ring I couldn’t get the edges to completely seal together.  I also didn’t have much filling on the edges, so a section of my ring was just bread…which still tasted delicious.

After baking, the meringue puffed out of the vents and got nice and brown.  It is so lovely!  I couldn’t resist breaking off a piece of it to enjoy.  Yummy.

I made the coffee cakes the day before and sent half of each one to work with Ben the next morning.  I was worried that it wouldn’t stay fresh overnight, but I had a piece the next afternoon and it was quite good.

Here is the link to the recipe.  I am too pressed for time to put the recipe on this post!  Ok, now off to get the kitchen cleaned before the little man wakes!  Enjoy!

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book………and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.

The dough for the stollen was quite easy to prepare and work with.  While I was given the option to let my imagination run wild in what I added to the dough, I just used cranberries and sliced almonds.  As a new mom I decided it was OK for me to opt out of making the candied citrus peel.  It would have been quite nice in this bread though, so I wish I’d taken the time to make it.

I used orange juice instead of rum to soak the cranberries and it was a good substitute.  The citrus flavor was subtle, but nice.  If you’re really into citrus then definitely use the juice, more zest and the candied peel as well.

I froze half of the wreath and plan to bring it down to my parents for Christmas.  The other half I have been snacking on over the past week.  It is incredibly tasty toasted with a little spread of butter.  Now, the only issue I had was the bottom of the bread.  It was beyond browned.  It was beyond dark.  It was burnt.  Solution?  Slice off the bottom before enjoying!

You can find the recipe and photos here.  Merry Christmas!

I had some blackened bananas that needed to be put to good use, and fast.  So I decided to try them in these muffins instead of the firmer chopped banana I’d used the first time.  Here are the other changes I made.

• Added 1 teaspoon of cinnamon to the dry ingredients
• Used skim milk (mixed with lemon juice) instead of buttermilk
• Used half whole wheat and half AP flour
• Used half golden raisins and half regular raisins
• Substituted pecans for the walnuts
• Used the orange zest

The result was yet another yummy bran muffin.  They do not photograph well though, so I used this photo courtesy of foodtv.com.  I liked the subtle flavor of the orange zest.  I definitely like the pecans better than walnuts…but that’s just a personal preference.  The texture was a bit heartier with the wheat flour.  The skim milk might have made the texture or moistness of the muffins a bit different, but not to a degree that I really noticed.  The combination of golden and regular raisins is nice, but not necessary.  I had some extra golden ones left over, so I used them.  I wouldn’t buy them just for these muffins as the plain raisins are great.

You can change a lot of things in these muffins to make them your own.  I would not leave out the banana though since I am sure that gives some necessary moisture.  Next time I might use cranberries instead of raisins.  I think that would be nice with the orange flavor, which I might bump up more by using more zest and some orange juice.  If you think of or try anything else, let me know.  Enjoy!

Banana Bran Muffins

Adapted from Chunky Banana Muffins by Ina Garten

Ingredients

• 1 cup unprocessed wheat bran
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ¼ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 6 tablespoons unsulphured molasses
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ¾ cup all purpose flour
• ¾ cup whole wheat flour
• ¾ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ cup raisins
• ½ cup golden raisins
• 2 very ripe bananas, mashed
• ½ cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place paper liners into 1 (10 or 12-cup) muffin tin.
2. Combine the bran and buttermilk and set aside.
3. Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for about 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low, add the eggs, 1 at a time. Scrape the bowl and then add the molasses, orange zest, and vanilla. (The mixture will look curdled.) Add the bran/buttermilk mixture and combine.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the batter just until combined. Don’t overmix it!
5. Fold in the raisins, bananas and walnuts with a rubber spatula.
6. With an ice cream scoop or large spoon, fill the muffin cups to the top and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Ben is not a sweets person, but he really liked this cake.  He even ate it for breakfast on 2 mornings last week, and he always has cereal.  When I make something that Ben eats without being asked to or having a piece served to him, I am pretty excited about it.  The cake is moist, the raisins and pecans add nice contrasts, and it is delicious.  Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Cake

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 cups cooked mashed sweet potatoes or yams, fresh or canned
• 1 stick butter, room temperature
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup chopped raisins
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Directions

1. Grease and sugar a bundt pan.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
3. Beat sugar, sweet potatoes and butter until smooth.
4. Add eggs and blend well.
5. Sift together flour, baking powder, spices and salt.
6. Add alternately with milk to sweet potato mixture, stirring just to blend. Do not overmix.
7. Fold in raisins and nuts.
8. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until firm to the touch, and cake tester comes out clean.

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

There were quite a few donut options for this deep-fried challenge.  All the Daring Bakers could choose from a yeast donut, a buttermilk cake donut, filled bomboloni or pumpkin donut.  I was quite close to choosing the pumpkin since I have been on a pumpkin kick lately, but chose the buttermilk cake donut and added some grated apple and cinnamon to the dough.

The recipe says the dough will be sticky.  I was not prepared for the level of stickiness.  Use as much flour as you need to keep the dough from sticking to the cutters and your counter.  I even found that after my first cutting and re-rolling the donuts cut and handled much better thanks to the additional flour that had been incorporated.  Do not be shy with the flour.

After frying these beauties to a golden brown, let them drain on paper towels.  After cooling you can glaze them.  I used a simple glaze of powdered sugar, cinnamon and milk.  If you don’t want to glaze, you could dip the donuts in cinnamon sugar while they’re still warm and get a nice crunchy exterior.  Or just sprinkle them with powdered sugar.

My only mistake here was choosing to make some extra donut holes that I knew would be ugly.  When you have ugly scraps of food, you know what happens, don’t you?  You can’t give them to anyone or serve them, so your only other option is to eat them.  And if you’re anything like me you will walk by that plate of ugly donuts and take a nibble here, a nibble there, and before you know it you’ve eaten the equivalent of about 5 full sized donuts.  Then you feel very happy and full of sugary, deep-fried goodness.  Pure donut bliss!

The apples provide a nice texture to the interior and made for some funky looking donuts, but don’t add an incredible amount of flavor.  I would maybe try applesauce in addition to the apple pieces if I try these again.  These really come together quickly, so they would be do-able on a Saturday morning and a much appreciated change from cold cereal I am sure.  Enjoy!

Apple Cinnamon Buttermilk Donuts

Adapted from Nancy SIlverton

Ingredients

• Sour Cream ¼ cup
• All Purpose Flour 3 ¼ cup
• White Granulated Sugar ¾ cup
• Baking Soda ½ teaspoon
• Baking Powder 1 teaspoon
• Kosher (Flaked) Salt 1 teaspoon
• Nutmeg, grated 1 ½  teaspoon
• Ground Cinnamon 1 ½ teaspoons
• Active Dry Yeast 1 1/8 teaspoon
• Buttermilk ¾ cup + 2 Tablespoon
• Egg, Large 1
• Egg Yolk, Large 2
• Pure Vanilla Extract 1 Tablespoon
• Grated apple 1 ½ cups

Directions:

1. Microwave sour cream on low power for 20 seconds.  Keep heating on low until sour cream is lukewarm.
2. Heat vegetable oil in large pot to 375°F/190°C.  Oil must be at least 3 inches deep.
3. Over a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon; make a large well in the center. Place the yeast in the well; pour the sour cream over it. Allow it to soften (if using packed fresh yeast), about 1 minute.
4. Pour the buttermilk, whole egg, egg yolks, and vanilla extract into the well. Using one hand, gradually draw in the dry ingredients. The mixture should be fairly smooth before you draw in more flour. Mix until it is completely incorporated. Mix in the grated apple.  The dough will be very sticky. Wash and dry your hands and dust them with flour.
5. Sift an even layer of flour onto a work surface. Don’t be afraid to use a lot of flour. You don’t want the doughnuts sticking to your counter. Scrape dough out of bowl onto the surface; sift another layer of flour over dough. Working quickly, pat dough into an even 1/2-inch (12.5 mm) thickness. Dip cutter in flour and, cutting as closely together as possible, cut out the doughnuts and holes. Place holes and doughnuts on a floured surface. Working quickly, gather scraps of dough together, pat into 1/2-inch (12.5 mm) thickness, and cut out remaining doughnuts and holes.
6. Drop three to four doughnuts at a time into the hot oil. Once they turn golden brown, turn them and cook the other side. Cooking times may vary.  Watch them closely, but 20-30 seconds per side should be enough time.
7. Once cooked, place on a baking sheet covered with paper towels to drain.