Banana Chocolate Chunk Waffles

When I was a kid, my mom required me to eat breakfast every day before leaving for school.  It's a habit I've pretty much kept up, and it's rare that I skip the morning meal.  On Valentine's Day, I wanted to make something out of the ordinary for breakfast.  Since our weekend breakfasts typically involve bacon, eggs, and toast, I thought waffles would fit the bill.

I have this Cuisinart waffle maker, and the recipe I'll share with you came with it.  If you already have a Cuisinart waffle maker, you've got this recipe, but if you don't...well yay!  You can make Banana Chocolate Chunk Waffles too!

Banana Chocolate Chunk Waffles
adapted from Cuisinart

2 c. AP flour
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1-2/3 c. skim milk
1 medium banana, mashed
6 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1/2 c. chocolate, chopped into small chunks

Combine all ingredients.  Preheat your waffle maker and cook the waffles according to manufacturer instructions. 

I found that I needed to grease my waffle maker between each waffle.  I also needed to keep the waffles cooking for a bit longer than the red and green lights told me to.  In the end though, I ended up with 9 delicious waffles (one more than Cuisinart said I'd get!).  We ate one each, and I froze the rest in a gallon-size zip-top bag with a piece of wax paper between each waffle.  When you want to eat them, you can just put them into the toaster oven straight from the freezer, just like an Eggo.  Only a million times better!

The Best Pancakes

The book The Best Recipe was put together by the editors of Cooks Illustrated.  They basically tried a bunch of recipes for each dish they wanted to make and chose...the best one.  Tada!

Andrew and I recently spent a weekend with his grandparents at their beautiful home on the shore of Lake Erie.  On Sunday morning, Grandma and I made pancakes and sausage patties for breakfast.  The pancake recipe we used was, of course, from The Best Recipe.  These pancakes are light, fluffy, and delicious - the perfect breakfast food.

The Best Pancakes
from The Best Recipe


1 c. All Purpose flour
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 c. buttermilk
1/4 c. milk
1 egg, separated
2 tbsp. butter, melted
oil for griddle

Whisk flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together in a medium sized bowl.

Combine milks and egg white.  Mix the egg yolk with the melted butter.  Add the yolk mixture to the milk mixture.

Gently whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.  You want the ingredients to be just combined - do not overmix.

Heat oil on a griddle or in a large frying pan.  Cook pancakes 2-3 minutes on the first side, 1-2 minutes on the second side.

Serve with warm maple syrup.

Maybe also serve with sausage patties!

Goodbye Grandma & Grandpa!  See you soon!

Apple-Smothered French Toast

Earlier this week, I was complaining to my friend Heather that I was "soooo hungry", which is typically a twice-a-day conversation for Heather and I, and she suggested I make myself French toast. I couldn't remember the last time I had French toast, and it sounded SO good right then. I had been planning to eat an apple as a snack, to hold myself over until lunch, but the lure of French toast was too strong. I opted to incorporate the apple into my dish, it just ended up being a little less healthy than I had planned! Apple-Smothered French Toast is an indulgence that is worth every single calorie.

Apple-Smothered French Toast

makes 1 big serving

2 pcs. whole wheat bread

1 egg

cinnamon

nutmeg

splash of milk

1 tbsp. maple syrup

1 apple, peeled and cut into slices

1/2 tbsp. butter

1/4 c. brown sugar

Start by cracking an egg into a plate with a lip.

Add several shakes of cinnamon and a shake of nutmeg. Squirt a little maple syrup on too.

Scramble it all together, and add a splash of milk.

Heat a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Spray the pan with nonstick cooking spray. Dunk your bread into the egg mixture, then flip it over to coat the second side. Plop it into the pan.

Cook until French toast is nice and brown on both sides.

Now, for the smothering! You will want to do this before you cook the French toast so the apples have time to cook down. Take a pretty red apple - I used Gala. Peel, core, and cut it into slices.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan.

Add the apples and brown sugar, stir to coat, then let cook over medium heat. Stir occasionally.

As the apples soften and the sugar cooks down, the juice from the apples mixed with the brown sugar will create a syrup.

Doesn't that look good?

Broccoli Gratin Omelette

Whether you spell it omelet or omelette, eggs stuffed with veggies, meat, and cheese are always a hit. Last Valentine's Day, I posted the recipe for a fantastic broccoli gratin in a creamy, cheesy bechamel sauce. I love to repurpose leftovers, and this broccoli gratin makes a delicious omelette the next day.

Andrew and I love to make a big breakfast on the weekends, and a giant omelette is an easy way to feed both of us quickly.

Broccoli Gratin Omelette

4-6 eggs, beaten

splash of milk

2/3 c. leftover broccoli gratin

4 slices cooked bacon, chopped

1 tsp. butter

salt & pepper

Melt butter over medium heat in a large (9" or so) saucepan. Combine eggs and milk, pour into saucepan, and turn heat to medium high. Allow eggs to cook a few minutes - you want the edges to set.

Top eggs with leftover broccoli gratin and bacon. Season with salt and pepper. Allow eggs to cook another minute - this will also allow the broccoli to heat. Using a large spatula, gently fold omelette in half so that broccoli-bacon filling is covered.

Cook a minute longer so that eggs meld together, cheese melts, and omelette cooks through. Depending on how much filling you have, you may want to press the omelette down so the eggs can touch and cook together.

You can make any type of omelette this way - just throw in different ingredients. Omelettes are so easy to prepare and they provide a well-rounded meal that you can enjoy at breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Breakfast Muffins

My mom cut a recipe out of The Hartford Courant for Breakfast Muffins. We decided they would be a great breakfast to grab and eat on the way to work.

Whenever I go to the trouble of baking, I want to make it worth my while. It’s rare that I turn the oven on and drag all the ingredients out for six muffins. Since we wanted three people to eat these muffins for a week plus have some to freeze, we opted to double the recipe. Through some synergistic cornmeal craziness, we ended up with way more than double the muffins the recipe promised to yield – 16 instead of 12!

Breakfast Muffins

adapted from Meal In A Muffin from The Hartford Courant

2 boxes Jiffy corn muffin mix

2 eggs

1 c. fat-free milk

1 c. chopped cooked ham

1 c. finely chopped onion

1 c. shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottoms only of muffin tins.

Stir first three ingredients to combine. Fold in ham, onion, and cheese. Allow batter to rest 10-15 minutes. Stir gently, then spoon batter into muffin cups.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

*Note: My sister said the batter picture looks gross, but I wanted to show you the thickness and consistency of the muffins. So hopefully you're not turned off by the photo!

If you’re questioning some of the directions, such as greasing the bottoms only of the muffin tins, I'd like to invite you to check out Bridget’s research on The Way the Cookie Crumbles. Through experimentation, she discovered that greasing the bottom only caused the muffins to rise much higher. The Jiffy box actually suggests resting the batter, and through my own trial and error, I have found that allowing muffin batter to rest before spooning it out helps the crowns rise much higher, producing muffins that are fluffier and less dense.

These muffins are a great breakfast on a busy weekday morning. I microwave mine for 20 seconds, wrap in a paper towel, and take along in the car. These muffins are very filling – I eat one in the car around 7:30 and I don’t get hungry again until 10:30. Next time, I might add some tasteless fiber powder to make them even more filling.

This recipe is well suited to any number of ingredient swaps. Some good combinations would be crumbled sausage with Monterey Jack cheese, or bacon with crumbled Gruyere. The original recipe called for chopped apples instead of onion, which I didn’t want to do. I was concerned the sweetness of the cornmeal combined with the sweetness of the apple would be overwhelming, and I love onions, so that was an easy switch.

Muffin-palooza

After the success of my experiment freezing my Banana Carrot Muffins, I decided to bake several different kinds of muffins for easy weekday breakfasts.

A coworker of mine has a family farm in Pennsylvania, and every time she visits, her mom loads her up with fruits and veggies to freeze. Last week, Joyce gave me two gallon size Ziploc bags of shredded zucchini and two vacuum-sealed bags of blueberries. I decided to work with both of these for my weekend baked good blitz. I will post on the Zucchini Bread I made later - today, we're all about muffins!

Muffin #1 - Blueberry Crumble

I found an awesome blueberry muffin recipe on AllRecipes.com. Stuffed with fresh blueberries and topped with a sweet crumb topping, these muffins really live up to their moniker - they're "to die for!"

One thing I love about AllRecipes is the way you can adjust the quantity of the recipe to what you need. I increased the given yield of 8 to 16, then made some alterations. Below is the exact recipe I used.

Blueberry Crumble Muffins

adapted from AllRecipes

Muffins

3 c. all-purpose flour

1-1/2 c. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. baking powder

2/3 c. canola oil

2 eggs

2/3 c. milk

3-1/2 c. frozen blueberries, thawed

Topping

1 c. white sugar

1/2 c. butter, cubed

1 tbsp. cinnamon

2/3 c. flour

Preheat oven to 400. Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.

Mix all topping ingredients together in a small bowl. Combine with a fork and set aside.

Mix dry muffin ingredients together. Combine oil, eggs, and milk in large measuring cup. Add to the flour mixture and stir gently to combine.

Fold in the blueberries.

Fill muffin cups, top with crumb mixture. Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes or until done.

Makes 18 large muffins.

As you can see in the photo above, if you double the muffin recipe, it's definitely not necessary to double the crumble recipe too. I had more than half of the topping left over after I had generously piled it on all the muffins.

I added WAY more blueberries than the recipe called for. I wanted to use everything that was in the vacuum-sealed bag, because I was not in the mood to come up with another blueberry recipe.

I was nervous about the bright purple batter, but amazingly enough, once the muffins were baked, the purple color had miraculously disappeared. I'm not sure how that's even possible, but you can see the pictures for yourself.

These muffins are fantastic. The sweet crumb topping is counteracted by the tartness of the blueberries, the muffin is light and delicious. I will definitely make these again.

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Muffin #2 – Banana Walnut

About two weeks ago, I rescued two brown bananas from their fated meeting with the garbage disposal and froze them so that I could repurpose them as banana nut muffins – one of Andrew’s favorites, and mine too.

My mom has a great banana bread recipe, but it's extremely dense, so I didn't think it would work well for muffins, which I expect to be fluffy and light. I went a-Googling and found Tyler Florence's recipe for Banana Nut Muffins.

Banana Walnut Muffins

adapted from Tyler Florence's recipe

2 c. all-purpose flour

1-1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 overripe bananas

1 c. brown sugar

3/4 c. (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 eggs

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

2/3 c. walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 and grease your muffin tins. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Whisk the bananas and sugar together for three minutes (I went up to 6 on the KA Mixer)

Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla and beat another minute. Fold in the dry ingredients gently - only stir until they are just incorporated. Fold in the nuts.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tins and bake for 18-20 minutes.

Makes 12 medium-sized muffins.

We really enjoyed these muffins as well. I subbed walnuts for the pecans Tyler's recipe called for and didn't add the additional two mashed bananas for texture. The muffins have plenty of banana flavor, and I much prefer walnuts paired with bananas anyway. I'll save this recipe for the next time I want to make banana muffins instead of banana bread.

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Muffin #3 - Corn

I have yet to attempt "homemade" corn muffins. I used a Jiffy mix to make the corn muffins. After mixing the ingredients according to the instructions, I always let the muffin mix sit for 15 minutes or so before baking them. This seems to allow the batter to rise a bit, and my muffins are always a bit fluffier when I let the batter rest.

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I've posted on the best way to freeze muffins in the past, but here are my instructions again.

Cool muffins completely. Wrap each muffin tightly in plastic wrap. Put all muffins into a gallon Ziploc bag or an airtight container. When you're ready to eat a muffin, take it out of the freezer a couple hours prior to desired consumption.

Do NOT thaw muffins in the microwave - it's okay to reheat them, but don't attempt to thaw them this way. Baked goods frozen and thawed using this method are always even yummier than they were when they went into the freezer.