Category Archives: breakfast

Baked brie

breakfast, lunch 7 Comments

Due to the great camera debacle of 2010 I’m afraid I don’t have a picture of this. You’ll just have to trust me on its deliciousness. Or, you know, make it. It is the yum.

There are a thousand variations of this recipe floating around, but this is how we do it — always Christmas morning breakfast, and sometimes New Year’s morning breakfast as well (because, hey — more cheese!)

Baked brie

Ingredients

  • 1 sheet frozen puff pastry (I use Pepperidge Farm; no they do not know I exist)
  • One 8 ounce wheel brie cheese
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup cranberries, pecans or walnuts, optional
  • Platter of crackers and or apple slices
  • 1 egg
  • 1 Tbsp water

Instructions

  1. THAW THE PUFF PASTRY (what? I may have forgotten this once or twice). When I remember I do it overnight in the fridge so it is ready to go in the morning

  2. Lay the pastry sheet flat and slice the brie in half so you have two wheels of roughly equal thickness

  3. Put one half-thick wheel on the sheet of pastry and top with brown sugar and any nuts or cranberries you want to use, then top with the other half of brie. Fold the pastry up around the brie and pinch the seams closed. If you feel so inclined you can tie it shut with a bow of cooking twine; pretty and helpful

  4. Whisk the egg and water together and brush over the pastry; this will help the seams seal and give the whole thing a lovely shine

  5. Bake on a cookie sheet (the cheese could overflow a little) at 375 for 20-30 minutes or until pastry is browned and brie is all melty. Serve with crackers and or apple slices

Go make it! Let me know how you love it. And, uh, take a picture for me. 😉

Sweet breakfast polenta

breakfast 1 Comment

I came across this recipe a while back at Joy the Baker. Comfort food for breakfast? I’m obviously in for that. And I like that it’s something a little different; not that breakfast casserole is anything to turn your nose at (duh), but it’s fun to shake things up every once in a while, right?

Sweet breakfast polenta

Ingredients

  • 1 cup polenta
  • 3 cups cold water
  • 2 cups whole milk
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • sprinkle of cinnamon

Instructions

  1. Measure polenta into a small bowl and add 1 cup cold water; stir and set aside
  2. In a medium saucepan bring 2 cups cold water and 2 cups milk to a low boil; stir in salt, then slowly add the polenta/water mixture, whisking to keep the lumps away
  3. Simmer until the polenta is thickened, stirring frequently; this can take anywhere from 10-40 minutes depending on how coarse your polenta is, so keep an eye on it
  4. Add sugar, vanilla and cinnamon to thickened polenta, then serve topped with milk and an extra little bit of brown sugar (because, hey, why not?)

Keep warm, kids!

Pumpkin muffins

baking, breakfast, kids 10 Comments

Behold: my breakfast from now till Christmas!

These are such a lovely start to the morning. Warm and comfort food-ey and delicious even without any butter on them. I’m afraid this is another one of my scrawled-on-a-piece-of-paper recipes so I’m not sure where I originally got it, but I’ve been making them forever.

 

Pumpkin muffins

Yield: 36 muffins

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup oil
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1 tsp. nutmeg
  • 2/3 cup water
  • 1 can pumpkin
  • 3 1/2 cups flour
  • 2 tsp. baking soda

Instructions

  1. Mix all ingredients till just combined — lumps are okay — and fill prepared muffin cups 1/2 to 2/3 full; bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean

Some easy edits if you have the urge to health these up a bit:

  • Cut the sugar — these are lovely and sweet but would still be yummy with less sugar (although when you divide the sugar by 36 muffins it’s not so bad)
  • Replace 1/2 cup of the oil with 1/2 cup applesauce
  • Replace half the flour with whole wheat flour

These freeze wonderfully! I freeze them flat on a cookie sheet then drop them in a zip top bag; I take out one every night and it’s thawed by morning when the coffee is ready. You can also pop it in the microwave for a couple seconds to warm it up. Quick and easy comfort food!

Edited to add 11/12/10: Ooh I just found something! For a decadent version of these involving cream cheese check out these from Family Bites!

Fritatta

baking, breakfast 3 Comments

When we signed up for our CSA this year we knew we weren’t veggie-adventurous enough for the produce share, so we went with the meat and eggs option.

Eggs. Oh my moly the eggs. The EGGS! They are so good but they are taking over my house. It’s like kale, but the carnivore version.

In an attempt to use up some a bunch of them at once I came up with this ridiculously easy little number. It was SO quick, and crazy filling with all the protein in there.

Fritatta

Ingredients

  • 1 pound breakfast sausage
  • 1 cup shredded cheese
  • 6-8 eggs
  • Salt and pepper

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350F
  2. Brown sausage in a non-stick skillet, crumbling as you go; drain out grease
  3. Sprinkle in cheese
  4. Beat eggs and add some salt and pepper, then pour over sausage/cheese mixture in the skillet; adjust amount of eggs for size of your skillet, obviously
  5. Bake at 350 for about ten minutes until eggs are set in the center. Breakfast is served!

Craisin peach crumble bars

baking, breakfast, dessert 5 Comments

Ohhhhh my moly.

If I were the demanding type I’d demand that you make these immediately. I’m not, of course so I’ll just strongly suggest it.

The peaches are so good this year and I bought more than I’ll ever be able to eat, so I wanted to some up with something to do with them. This is based on the apple crisp recipe, but with more of the crumble part so that you end up with a crust. It is OH so good.

Craisin peach crumble bars

Ingredients

  • 2 medium-to-large peaches, chopped
  • 1/3 cup Craisins
  • 2 Tbsp. cornstarch
  • 2 Tbsp. sugar
  • 1/3 cup butter
  • 2/3 cup brown sugar
  • 2 tsp. vanilla
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 cup old-fashioned oats
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp. baking powder

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350F and chop the peaches, then put them in a saucepan with the Craisins, cornstarch and sugar. Bring it all up to a nice bubble and let it cook till it thickens, then set aside
  2. Cream butter and sugar, then mix in remaining ingredients — it will look coarse like a crumble topping
  3. Take two cups of crumble mix and press into a greased 8×8 dish and bake till it’s lightly browned, around 10-12 minutes, then spread fruit mixture over crust. Sprinkle the rest of the crumb mixture over the top and bake till that’s lightly browned, about another 15-18 minutes or so

Fast and good! How can you beat that?