Pumpkin-Nut Doughnuts
For doughnuts:
2 3/4 cups flour
2/3 cups almond flour (finely ground almonds)
3 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup whole milk
2 heaping Tbsp sour cream
heaping 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 stick melted butter
For cinnamon-sugar coating:
1 heaping cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and salt.
In a medium bowl, stir together the pumpkin, milk, sour cream, sugar, eggs and melted butter. Gently stir this mixture into the dry ingredients until it begins to hold together as a soft, sticky dough. It’s OK if it’s a bit lumpy.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead just until you have a smooth dough. Sprinkle a little more flour over the top of the dough and roll it out to a 1/2 inch thickness. Using a doughnut cutter (or two round cookie cutters – one about 1 inch across and another about 4 inches across,) cut out the doughnuts and put them on a cookie sheet dusted with some flour.
Pour at least 2 inches of canola oil into a large, deep frying pan and heat it over high heat until it reaches 375 degrees (this takes a while!) Fry about 4 to 5 doughnuts at a time, depending upon the size of the pan. Do not crowd the pan. The doughnuts will sink to the bottom of the oil, then float back up to the top. When they float to the top, turn them over and cook them for another 1 to 2 minutes until uniformly browned. Be careful not to overcook them.
Fry the doughnut holes separately, watching them carefully, as they will cook VERY quickly.
Drain the doughnuts and holes on paper towels for a moment and then, while still hot, coat them with the cinnamon sugar. Coat the doughnuts a few at a time, as they come out of the oil, rather than waiting to coat them all at the same time.
Yummy spices!
Category: Breakfast
Glazed Buttermilk Cake Doughnuts
It seems like doughnuts are everywhere lately, maybe because lots of the food blogosphere is involved in testing recipes for Lara Ferroni’s new doughnut book (coming next Fall.) It seems like every food blog that I read is talking about doughnuts, posting recipes for doughnuts, etc So, I’ve had them on the brain lately, as well. It was kismet when I saw
this recipe on Serious Eats and just happened to have a bit of leftover buttermilk in the fridge. These require quite a bit of advance prep (the dough must be made, then chilled, then cut out, then chilled again, then brought to room temperature and then fried), but they were quite yummy and not overpoweringly sweet. The only criticism that I have was that the glaze was a little…meh. Just nothing special about it, just sweet. Next time I might use buttermilk to make the glaze instead of water (or maybe just regular milk or cream) and would add a pinch of cinnamon and maybe a drop or two of vanilla, just to give the glaze some character of its own.
Cut out dough, waiting to be fried.
Completed doughnuts (well, there might be just one or two missing…)
Oatmeal-Buttermilk Pancakes
This recipe is another that I originally read about in a magazine recipe-request column. It appeared in Bon Appetit’s RSVP column MANY years ago. I cut the recipe out because it was from a restaurant (Tres Joli Bakery Cafe) in Oakton, VA, which was just a few miles from where we lived at the time. Unfortunately, Tres Joli closed (or has evolved into a catering-only business, I believe) before I got a chance to eat there, but I finally got around to trying these pancakes recently and they were delicious. Light and crusty and lacy and hearty… One thing that I dislike about pancakes for breakfast is that they fill you up and weigh you down for a little while, but are made of such simple (quickly processed by your body) carbohydrates that they really don’t stick you very long. If you have blood-sugar issues, as I do (I’m borderline hypoglycemic,) then you will appreciate the oatmeal in these pancakes, because they’ll give you a little more complex carbs so you won’t have that “crash and burn” feeling after a few hours.
Cornmeal Waffles
When I read a column in Gourmet magazine that mentioned these waffles from Brown Sugar Kitchen in California as “the best I’ve encountered in over 80 years of dining,” I knew that I had to try them. The reader that wrote the letter said that they’re so light that they almost float off the plate.
We did, in fact, love these, but they didn’t rise up quite as much as I expected them to. I think that I determined the problem to be faulty yeast (not past its expiration date, but close to,) rather than a problem with the recipe.
They were flavorful and crusty and delicious, though, and I will be eager to try them again soon, now that I’ve acquired some fresh yeast.
Gourmet magazine doesn’t have the specific article online that I read (one where readers can write in to request their favorite restaurant recipes and the mag will track them down,) but here are two articles that I found about the waffles (the second one has the recipe):
Gourmet review of BSK
Carmen Cooks: recipe
To Die For Blueberry Muffins
We recently had our niece and two nephews over to spend the night with Boy and Girl. I asked the kids what they would like for breakfast in the morning and niece suggested blueberry muffins. She sweetly said that she was sure that any I would make would be fabulous. Ruh-roh! That’s when I realized that I really didn’t have a “go to” blueberry muffin recipe…so I went searching. When I found this one on AllRecipes, I hoped the muffins would live up to their name. Luckily for me (and all 5 of the little morning cousins!,) they did. They were wonderful! I used frozen blueberries, because I had them on hand and the muffins were fine; just toss them in directly out of the bag – no need to even thaw them.
This photo doesn’t really do them justice, but they were VERY tasty and the crumbly topping was divine. Be sure to have a glass of cold milk or juice (or hot cup of coffee) ready to go with them!
Orange Cinnamon Rolls
Mmmm…we were recently introduced to canned orange rolls. I had never bought them before, but recently succumbed (if you hadn’t noticed, I am an absolutely sucker for anything orange…) and tried some. They were tooth-achingly sweet and delicious and filled with tender, creamy saturated fat goodness. They were pretty amazing, but not something that I am likely to EVER buy again; they were just a jumping-off point, an inspiration; I knew that I could do better, so I went searching for recipes and came across this one that looked promising.
Mmmm…pretty darned good. I think that it would be impossible to get the canned-roll texture (sort of a combination of white bread and marshmallow fluff?), but the flavor of these was fantastic. I will DEFINITELY be making these again. They were, of course, more trouble to make than the canned version, but not too bad. I made them a day ahead, because of all of the rising time, etc, and then reheated them in the morning. I think that they would be better fresh out of the oven, but I’m not willing to wake up early enough to have them that way.
Baked Blueberry French Toast
This is a recipe that I came up with when I had some leftover French bread on hand and wanted to use it up. It turned out pretty well as it was, but I will probably adapt it the next time that I make it to make it a little more flavorful. I also wasn’t super crazy about the texture, so I will probably lightly toast the bread cubes before mixing them with the custard next time. All in all, though, a pretty good recipe and definitely something that I will try again.
Baked Blueberry French Toast
1/2 pound French bread, cut into into bite-sized cubes
(I buy the “French Sticks” from HEB frequently and each “stick” is about 1/2 pound)
4 oz cream cheese (half of a “brick”), cut into small dice (about 20 pieces)
1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup half and half (or an additional 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup heavy cream)
1/4 tsp Cinnamon Spice Blend
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp sugar
Cinnamon Sugar (Cinnamon Spice Blend mixed with sugar)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a medium-sized (7″ by 11″ inches?) baking pan with cooking spray. Layer half of the bread cubes into the pan, then sprinkle with half of the cream cheese and half of the blueberries. Repeat layers: bread, cream cheese, blueberries. Whisk together the remaining ingredients (except the cinnamon sugar) and pour over the bread, cheese and fruit. Sprinkle the top generously with the cinnamon sugar. Bake until a knife inserted into the casserole comes out clean (eggs are cooked through) and the top is lightly golden browned (start with 20 minutes and then just watch it; I don’t remember exactly how long it took to cook). If the top starts to burn, cover it lightly with foil.
The Greatest Waffle Recipe Ever?
Click here for recipe.
When I saw this recipe billed on Serious Eats as the “Greatest Waffle Recipe Ever,” I knew that I had to give it a try. There are quite a few steps to preparing the batter, and I wasn’t crazy about having to dirty three mixing bowls to make it (one for the wet ingredients, one for the dry and one for the egg whites,) but you really can’t argue with results; they were delicious. They were rich, but light, crisp and tasty, the perfect foil for your choice of syrup and/or topping (powdered sugar for Girl, birch syrup for Boy, boysenberry syrup for me and maple syrup for Hubby.)
I added a bit (1/4 to 1/2 tsp?) of McCormick’s Vanilla, Butter & Nut extract and a shake or two of Cinnamon Spice Blend to the batter, just to punch up the flavor a little. If that’s not your style, then a tiny bit of plain vanilla would still be nice, I think. The batter is VERY thick and must be evenly spooned onto the waffle iron; it will NOT pour. At all. In fact, you almost have to spread it a little to get it on over the whole thing. Worth the effort, though.
Dorie Greenspan’s Ricotta-Berry Muffins
These muffins are absolutely delectable. They are a tiny bit “fussier” than regular muffin recipes (some very specific batter-mixing instructions, no liquid, such as milk), but the tops are crusty and buttery, while the insides are moist and tender. They have delicious, rich flavor and are a great way to use up the rest of a container of ricotta that you might hve on hand from something else. Yum. I will definitely be making these again. I used lemon zest, instead of lemon, because was what I had on hand at the time and I also sprinkled about 1/4 tsp of coarse sanding sugar on top of each muffin before baking, to add a little extra sweetness and crunch. The batter, at least for me, turned out VERY thick (almost crumbly), so I just sort of packed it into the muffin tins and hoped for the best, but they turned out great.
Cap’n Crunch French Toast
Seriously, really. I really did make this. I saw the recipe on Serious Eats and was intrigued, but when I saw Cap’n Crunch was on sale at the grocery store, I knew that I had to try it. Boy and Girl both had a friend spend the night, so we had extra taste-testers around that morning. This was a HUGE hit with everyone, including the grown-ups. I didn’t crush the cereal completely, but left just a few recognizable pieces of Cap’n Crunch, so that everyone would know what it was. The kids thought this was hysterical. I didn’t serve it with the whipped cream or blueberries, as specified in the recipe, but just did regular maple syrup, instead, for the kids. I like mine with Knott’s Berry Farm boysenberry syrup. Mmmm…
Breaded French toast, before cooking.
Update: Ooooops! I forgot to include the recipe! Here’s the link: Cap’n Crunch French Toast from Serious Eats