Pull-Apart Cinnamon Sugar Bread

I found this recipe on a couple different sites and it seemed like such a cool looking alternative to a cinnamon roll. If this doesn't make you hungry for breakfast I don't know what will! 

INGREDIENTS

2 3/4 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 ounces butter

1/3 cup milk

1/4 cup water

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

FILLING INGREDIENTS

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoons nutmeg

2 ounces butter, melted

1. Whisk together flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Set aside. 

2. Whisk together the eggs and set aside. 

3. In a sauce pan, melt together the milk and butter. Remove from heat and stir in the water and vanilla extract. 

4. Pour the milk mix into the dry ingredients. Mix. Then add the eggs and stir. Mix until the dough comes together. It should be sticky. 

5. In a greased bowl, set the dough and cover with plastic wrap. Leave for about one hour. 

6. Remove the dough and let rest for half an hour. 

7. Meanwhile, whisk together the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl and melt your butter for the filling. 

8. Here is where it gets fun. Roll out the dough 20"x12". Or close to. 

9. Brush the dough with the melted butter then sprinkle all the sugar mix over the dough. It seems like a lot but do it anyway. Trust me.

10. Slice the dough into 6 strips 12 inches long. If you're looking at the picture above, it was six strips cut from bottom to top with a pizza cutter. Stack the slices.

11. Cut the dough into six pieces again.

12. Stack the dough squares on top of each other and place in a bread pan.

13. Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes or until the top starts to brown.

This was a fun recipe to make and even more fun to eat. You peel the pieces apart from the end and in between each layer is lots of sugar and cinnamon stuck to the soft inside of the dough.

YUM!

Lemon Waffles

Lemon waffles... doesn't that just sound light and fresh for the morning?! I loved these. Not as easy as a box mix but definitely worth it! 

INGREDIENTS

1 cup cake flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup buttermilk

juice of two lemons

3 eggs, separated

1. In one bowl combine flour, salt, baking powder and nutmeg. Set aside. 

2. In a second bowl combine buttermilk and lemon juice well. Whisk in three egg yolks. 

3. In a mixer, whisk three egg whites until stiff peaks form. 

4. Mix the buttermilk mixture and flour mixture until there are no clumps. 

5. Gently fold in the egg whites. Do not over mix. You will see streaks of white in the batter. 

6. My machine uses 1/2 batter for each waffle. I made about 8 waffles. Use a hot iron, greased, and a warming plate in the oven to keep them warm. 

I have to say, these were light and crispy and didn't weigh me down. They would be perfect with some berry syurp!!! I'll have to find a recipe! 

Also, we had some left over. I wrapped them individually and put them in a zip lock bag to freeze. They toast up in the toaster very nicely. Just in case you don't need 8 full size waffles! 

Enjoy! 

5 Ingredient Brown Butter Banana Bread

Yes, I'm using my 5 Ingredient Fix cookbook again. I had no choice! I had bananas going bad!!!!

INGREDIENTS

1 stick butter
4 ripe bananas
1/3 cup honey
1 large egg
1 3/4 cups self rising flour*

* I don't have self rising flour and you may not either but you can make it! For this recipe, mix 3 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp salt to 2 cups all purpose flour and use only 1 3/4 cups of it. Easy!

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the it turns a golden brown and smells nutty. Remove from heat and let cool.

2. In a bowl, mash the bananas well. Stir in the honey and egg. Slowly whisk in the butter then fold in the flour. 

3. Pour into your muffin pan, mini loaf pan or bread pan (pre-greased of course).

4. Bake for 15-18 minutes.* I baked according to direction which was 25 min and they were way too dark and crispy on the edges for me.

I love that these aren't too sweet. In the morning I don't want a piece of cake so these are great. A little butter or peanut butter and I'm in love. Definitely keeping this recipe!

Next time, I might add mini chocolate chips or chopped walnuts... the possibilities are endlessly yummy!

Apple Walnut Raisin Cookies

Yes, it is that time of year. Just last week I went to the apple orchard, had some cider, ate a donut and dreamed of all things apple.

I found this recipe at Food.com which is one of my favorite spots to look for new recipes.

Here is my overindulgent version!

INGREDIENTS

3 cups crisco
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3 cups quick oats
1 cup peeled and diced apple (I needed about an apple and a half but the other half was already diced so it went in the batch as well!)
1 cup raisins
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Combine crisco, egg, milk, sugar and vanilla in a mixer until creamy.

2. Add in cinnamon, salt, soda and nutmeg. Slowly add in the flour until well combined.

3. Fold in oats, apples, raisin and walnuts by hand.

4. Drop onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes for a softy doughy cookies, 12-13 for firmer cookies.

These definitely smelled like heaven when they were baking. Next time I might press them down a little bit. They didn't spread very much, but they tasted amazing!

They were naturally sweet, had a crunch with the nuts and the oats made a nice firm "muffin" type cookie.

The best way to eat them... microwave them for about ten seconds and enjoy with your morning tea... or coffee!

PS Isn't my cookie jar too cute?!

Grand Hotel French Toast

When I was young my parents took my brother and I to The Grand Hotel on Mackinaw Island every few years or so and one of the best things about the Grand is the food.

Something I remember vividly is the french toast. This is my rendition with... what I had on hand. I'll put some additions and suggestions at the bottom!

Remember the cream cheese frosting from two posts ago? This is a great way to use the rest of it!

INGREDIENTS

3 eggs
a splash of milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a few shakes of cinnamon
4 pieces of whole wheat bread
cream cheese frosting
chopped walnuts
pure maple syrup

1. First whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla and cinnamon.

2. Heat a skillet to medium high. Dip bread in egg mixture and put in the skillet. Brown on each side.

3. "Fill" the toast with frosting and walnuts. Put the other piece on top and drizzle with syrup!

YES I used a piping bag to fill the french toast! So sue me!

These were delicious but here are some Grand Hotel ideas and changes you can make to jazz them up...

*use cinnamon raison toast
*add dried cranberries to the frosting
*who doesn't love a little powdered sugar?!
*any kind of fruit you just love
*toast the walnuts in a pan with some cinnamon

Oh the list could go on!

Chewy S'more Granola Bars

I love these! And even better, my BF, who won't eat granola bars, LOVES these!!

These are quick and easy and soooo tasty!

INGREDIENTS

1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cups plain granola
1 cup rice cereal
2 TBS graham cracker crumbs
1 cup mini marshmallows
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. First, melt butter and honey together over low/med heat.

2. Add the brown sugar and stir until dissolved.

3. Take liquid off heat and add in granola, cereal and crumbs. Stir until coated.

4. Next, add in the marshmallows and fold in.

5. Press mix into a 9x13 un-greased pan. Sprinkle the top with chocolate chips and press in with a spatula.

6. Put in the fridge or on the counter until cooled and ready to cut. I swear these were easy to get out of the pan. They fell right out! Cut and eat!

Here is the original recipe with some other versions too!!

Peanut Butter Pancakes with Honey Butter

What to do what to do??? I've been looking at this can of evaporated milk for a while now, trying to figure out what to do with it. At Christmas I made a lot of fudge and had one lonely can left. So I searched... and found a great recipe at Recipe Zaar which I love!! Here is the original recipe. 

INGREDIENTS

1 cup pancake mix

2 TBSP sugar

1 egg

1/3 cup peanut butter

5 ounces evaporated milk

1/3 cup water

Also, I did try the Honey Butter

1/4 cup butter (softened)

2 TBSP honey

1. In one bowl, mix pancake mix and sugar.

2. In a separate bowl mix egg and peanut butter.

3. Add evaporated milk and water to egg mixture then slowly stir in the dry mix.

4. On a medium heat pan, pour the batter and flip when bubbles start to form.

At this point they smelled amazing!!

5. For the honey butter simply mix softened butter with honey and spread on... anything! Delish!

They were a bit heavy but the flavor was amazing and not too peanut buttery or sweet. I ate the whole plate and thought about eating my BF's extra pancake! I even made extra batter and put in in a tupperware in the fridge for tomorrow!!! And the butter would be great on cinnamon raison toast!! 

YUM!

Banana Bread

Sometimes you just want a nice sweet baked good with no frosting. I know, sounds crazy. Who doesn't love frosting? I do, I really do but sometimes... eh. So... mmmmmm... banana bread.


Usually I make THIS recipe but alas... I had no yellow cake mix. Try it though, so easy!!!


Alright, fine, I'll get out the flour and all that jazz...


Here I go.

INGREDIENTS


2 cups flour (I used half AP and half Whole Wheat)
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs (I know there are four in the pic... it was a quick staged thing. I was doing too many things at once... typical!)
2 1/3 cup mashed ripe bananas
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 F and grease a loaf pan. 

2. Combine flour, salt and baking soda in one bowl and set aside. 

3. In a mixer, cream together butter and brown sugar. 

4. Add in eggs, bananas, vanilla and cinnamon. Combine well. 

• Mash Mash Mash Mash!!

5. Stir in the dry ingredients set aside earlier. 

6 Pour into loaf pan and bake for 60 minutes... 

Now don't laugh at my bread... for some reason I thought the recipes I was combining would make two loaves so my loaf is a little... vertically challenged... 

Be kind... 

I still love it and it is mine! It was really good too. I wish I could have put in some walnuts or something but the BF is a nut hater. Oh well. Spread some real butter or some peanut butter on it and it is a delish breakfast or snack!

Oh, and the second loaf froze wonderfully... until I ate that one too. Like I said... you put the peanut butter on it and ..... Oh my!