Chai Spiced Cinnamon Rolls ~ #BreadBakers

These cinnamon rolls are a win-win situation for everyone.  The dough is prepared the night

before, so no getting up at the crack of dawn, just pull them out of the refrigerator in the morning

and in a little over an hour you can have piping hot cinnamon rolls ready to serve. #thiccbuns

Pączki with Lemon Cream Filling - #BreadBakers

Doughnuts. Is there anything they can't do? Probably not.

Cream Cheese Coffee Cake ~ #TheCakeSliceBakers

Life is too short not to eat cake for breakfast.

Italian Breakfast Cookies ~ #CreativeCookieExchange

Life is short.  Eat cookie for breakfast.

Christmas Morning Crown ~ #Twelve Loaves

I had truly forgotten how wonderful dough can feel in your hands.  Soft little pillows of goodness, so light to the touch, with the promise of the deliciousness to come.

It has been quite a while since I have participated in Twelve Loaves, but the group has remained in my thoughts and I missed the camaraderie and encouragement that all the wonderful bakers in the group provide.  At the last moment I decided that I needed to bake - because it is what makes me happy - so I had to quickly find something that fits this month's theme.

Banana Pecan Breakfast Cake + Giveaway!

Everyone loves a good breakfast cake, I mean really, who doesn't like cake for breakfast?  The recipe for todays cake, Banana Pecan Breakfast Cake, can be found in Lick the Bowl Good, a new cookbook by blogger extraordinaire Monica Holland, who also has a blog by the same name. I have followed Monica's blog for quite a while, so I was excited to hear that she was writing a cookbook. Lick the Bowl Good is just as amazing as her blog. I love that the recipes are accompanied by photos - gorgeous ones too. The recipes are familiar, and very do-able, but have a little twist that makes you want to keep working your way through the book to the next yummy recipe.

I made the Banana Pecan Breakfast Cake a couple of days ago and it just disappeared off the plate in record time. I've had other banana cakes before, but there is something special about this recipe.  Family members were giving each other accusing looks as they tried to figure out who had more pieces than someone else, and how they were going to split that last piece into six even pieces. Calming everyone down I explained and could buy more bananas and make another one, although the next time I will definitely make two so I get more than one piece before it is gone.

A group of us were so excited about getting the book, that a Facebook Group, Baking Through Lick the Bowl Good, was formed and we will baking one recipe on the 15th of each month. Some people will post via their blogs, some will post on Facebook, and everyone is invited to come and check it out. Of course I will be baking other recipes from the book too.  It got to the point that I stopped putting sticky notes in the book because there was one on every page, and I recommend that you visit Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Jessica's Biscuit/ecookbooks or your neighborhood bookstore and pick up a copy as soon as possible.

And now to the giveaway.  A few weeks ago I was very lucky and won a copy of Lick the Bowl Good from the author herself, along with some other goodies.  Since I had already purchased the book in preparation to start baking from it, I found myself with an extra brand-new copy.  It seemed like the perfect idea to pay it forward and have a giveaway for the book.  Since we are all still catching our breath from the busy holiday season I am going to make this giveaway super simple to enter - just visit Monica's blog Lick the Bowl Good and leave me a comment telling me what recipe you would like to make from it and I will enter you in the draw.

The Fine Print

• Leave me a comment as per the instruction above.
• Deadline for entry is January 22, 2014 at 6:00PM HST.
• Sorry, this giveaway is open only to US addresses.
• Please leave a valid email address where I can contact you if you choose to publish anonymously.
• One winner will be chosen at random using Random.org. I will send the winner an email, and they will have 48 hours to respond, if I do not hear by then another winner will be selected.
• The winner will receive a copy of Lick the Bowl Good by Monica Holland
• The prize for this giveaway to one of my readers is being provided by me. I was not compensated personally for this post.

Good luck everyone!

We have a winner!  Congratulations to Holly who is the winner of Lick the Bowl Good.  I hope you enjoy the book and it will be in the mail tomorrow.

For another amazing idea for this cake please visit my friend Kim at Ninja Baker  - her Banana Pecan Breakfast Cupcakes would certainly make me eager for breakfast in the morning!


Banana Pecan Breakfast Cake
(Printer Friendly Recipe)

Ingredients
Cake ~

• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ teaspoon baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ ground cinnamon
• ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup mashed ripe banana
• ¼ buttermilk

Pecan Topping ~

• ¼ cup brown sugar, packed
• ⅓ cup chopped pecans
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preparation
Cake ~

1. Preheat oven to 350℉
2. Grease an 8x8-inch baking pan with nonstick spray and set aside
3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and whisk to combine.
4. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy.
5. Add the eggs, vanilla, and mashed banana and blend till incorporated.
6. Add half of the flour mixture to the banana mixture and mix until just combined. Stir in all of the buttermilk and mix until just incorporated, then add the remaining flour and mix once again until no traces of flour remain.
7. Scrape the batter into the prepared baking dish and smooth the top.

Topping ~

1. Combine the sugar, pecans, and cinnamon in a small bowl.  Stir together, then evenly sprinkle the mixture over the cake batter.
2. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
3. Cool slightly. Serve warm or at room temperature.
4. Store at room temperature.

Recipe from Lick the Bowl Good by Monica Holland/Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

Crumpets ∼ #TwelveLoaves January 2014

Welcome to 2014! Can someone please slow this year down a bit since it seemed like 2013 went by in the blink of an eye. I have decided to make 2014 the year that I will become a confident bread baker - including all kinds of bread. I have been very fortunate in being able to join the #TwelveLoaves baking group. If anyone can help me achieve this goal it is this group of amazing bakers. It is going to be challenging for me, but I am so excited to get started. I hope that anyone else who wants to achieve this goal will follow along as I attempt each months theme - it will be fun and we can learn together.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Scones

There is a place quite close to Waikiki Beach that sells the most amazing scones.  Diamond Head Market & Grill is quite well-known to locals and tourists alike. They have a great variety of gourmet foods that are packaged in to-go containers, so it is the perfect place to stop and pick up a picnic lunch. They also have a great selection of baked goods including pies, cakes, cookies, and their famous scones.  Blueberry was the original flavor and is probably their most popular, but they have added a few new flavors over time including banana, apple crumb, and pineapple. Once you have had one of their scones you are hooked for life.

Since they sell hundreds of these scones every day, it is not surprising that the owner is keeping the recipe a secret.  Of course that has not stopped people from trying to copy it, including me.  In my quest to find a recipe for these scones I came across an article that had been written back in 2003 by Betty Shimabukuro (food writer & recipe guru in Hawaii) in the Honolulu Star Bulletin that seemed pretty close.  I decided to give it a try, with a few small tweaks.

Every time I that I have eaten these scones they seemed to have a very soft, pillowy crumb and I would always wonder how they got them so soft. I decided to replace some of the all-purpose flour with cake flour to achieve a softer and finer texture.  One of my favorite things about these scones was the glaze on top, so I omitted sprinkling the berries with sugar and added a glaze that was brushed on liberally with a pastry brush as soon as they came out of the oven. I also decided that I wanted to use fresh blueberries. I found that the easiest way to incorporate the berries and cream cheese pieces was to leave the dough in the bowl, poke a few berries and cream cheese pieces into it and then gently put my hand underneath the dough and fold it in half, repeating this until all were incorporated. Also, the recipe did call for cutting the cream cheese in pieces, which I have left in the recipe below, but I found it easier to just break off pieces by hand as I was incorporating it.

My scones were a little smaller than the ones you will find at Diamond Head Market, but I have to say that the taste was a perfect replica.  Warm from the oven, with a little glaze over the top, they were melt-in-the-mouth good.  I found myself breaking off just a piece here and there throughout the day, until I finally thought to myself this is ridiculous, so I made a cup of my favorite coffee and sat down to relax and enjoy one.  And I am so glad that I did.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Scones
(Printer Friendly Recipe)

Ingredients

• ⅓ cup butter, cut into small pieces
• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cake flour
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ⅓ cup milk
• 3 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 egg, beaten
• ½ cup blueberries
• 2 ounces cream cheese, cut in 1/2-inch pieces (see note above)
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• ¼ cup hot water

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400℉.
2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment.
3. Combine butter, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl and cut with a pastry blender or two butter knives until crumbly (I like to use my hands for this).
4. Whisk milk into softened cream cheese (3 oz), add egg and continue to whisk until well-combined. 
5. Stir cream cheese mixture into flour mixture until dough forms a ball - if the dough is a little wet sprinkle some additional flour on top and gently knead).
6. Gently push blueberries and cream cheese pieces (2 oz) into the dough to incorporate evenly. Be careful not to crush the berries or mash the cream cheese pieces.
7. Using a large spoon or (ice cream scoop) drop mounds of dough onto a cookie sheet to make 8 scones. Tuck berries and cream cheese pieces into the dough as much as possible.
8. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until golden. 
9. While the scones are baking make the glaze; place the powdered sugar in a small bowl, gradually add the hot water, and whisk until smooth. Once the scones are removed from the oven glaze them generously with this mixture.

Recipe adapted from The Honolulu-Star Bulletin by ATLATC.

Red, White & Blue Waffles

Happy 4th of July!  Hope you all have a wonderful day that includes family, friends, fun, fireworks and lots of yummy food.

We decided to start our morning off with some patriotic red, white and blue waffles.  It was a little bit of a mad rush because I also needed to get the baked beans into the slow cooker (recipe to come a little later). In a very short amount of time I managed to use a good number of bowls, measuring spoons, pots, and utensils.  Usually I try to clean as I go but that wasn't an option this morning.  Luckily for me a magic genie appeared and washed up everything for me.  Well, really it was my wonderful husband, but it was magical.  In between doing this he also whipped up a White Sangria (another recipe to follow soon), and had it in the fridge to chill.

These waffles were inspired by ones that appeared on Kita's blog, Pass the Sushi.  Her post made me laugh because it was entitled "Blueberry Sour Cream Waffles for When Gerard Butler Visits".  The waffles sounded amazing, and who doesn't want an amazing recipe when someone like Gerard visits?  I mean you have to be ready don't you?

My refrigerator contained a plethora of berries - blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries - but I decided to use blueberries and raspberries for my waffles.  I used only all-purpose flour, mainly because I did not have any whole wheat pastry flour, and I added some cinnamon to the mix.  A little dusting of powered sugar gave them the red, white, and blue look.  I do agree with Kita that a dollop of cream, or even sour cream, would make an excellent addition but these were gobbled up too quickly to do so today. All that accompanied them was some maple syrup.

I wanted to pass on a tip for transferring the batter to the waffle maker.  I have always used the little cup that came with the waffle maker.  It holds about one cup, but it is always difficult to get all of the batter out of it.  Previously I have resorted to using a mini spatula to scrape the sides as I pour the batter into the waffle maker.  This morning I decided to grab my largest ice cream scoop and measure how many scoops equaled the amount of batter in the cup.  It worked out to two full scoops.  I cannot tell you how much easier it is to use an ice cream scoop to transfer the batter, and the built in scraper means that all of the batter is transferred with a squeeze of the handle.

Red, White, & Blue Waffles

(Printer Friendly Recipe)

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 3 eggs
• 8 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
• ¾ cup blueberries
• ¾ cup raspberries

Preparation

1. Preheat your waffle iron on medium-high heat.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the milk and sour cream, and then whisk in the eggs. 
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and stir just until combined. 
5. Fold in the butter, and then the blueberries and raspberries, stirring minimally.
6. Pour 1/4 cup of batter per waffle onto the iron and cook until the waffles are a light golden brown. Keep cooked waffles warm on a platter in the oven.
7. Serve waffles with a dusting of powdered sugar and maple syrup (a dollop of whipped cream or sour cream would be great too). 
8. Makes approximately 6 waffles.

Recipe adapted from Pass the Sushi.

Mark's Ricotta Hotcakes with Honeycomb-Crunchie® Butter

Well, I was totally spoiled by my amazing husband for Mother's Day.  Not only did he bring me a piping hot mug of my favorite Ka'u coffee and the newspaper in bed, but he also made me ricotta hotcakes a la Bill Granger - but better, so much better.

I went to Bill's on my recent trip to Australia.  It is always a dilemma trying to decide what to order because everything sounds (and tastes!) so good.  Both my daughter and I settled upon the ricotta hotcakes with honeycomb butter.  It is one of those dishes that, if no one was looking, you totally want to lick the plate clean.  The honeycomb is not the usual comb you would find in honey, but rather a confection made from sugar, golden syrup, water, and baking soda.  It is also the basis for two iconic candies from Australia - the Violet Crumble and the Crunchie.  The Violet Crumble is available in some parts of the U.S., but I have never seen a Crunchie bar here.

Upon my return I told my husband about the restaurant visit, mentioning that we would have to try making them sometime.  Little did I know that he absorbed this little request and put a plan in place to make them for me on Mother's Day.  This is a huge deal because my husband does not cook very often.

Not only did he make hotcakes that totally rival Bill's, but he also had to overcome the obstacle of not having access to honeycomb here in the U.S.  His solution was to use a candy bar from Australia called a Crunchie when making the butter.  I am gob-smacked at how resourceful he was.  This butter melted over the top of the hotcakes and was a chocolate-honeycomb dream.  I realize that Crunchies are not readily available here, so to make this butter you have a few choices - make honeycomb from scratch, buy a Violet Crumble bar if they are available in your area, or lastly I think a SKOR bar would work well in this too.

Along with the ricotta hotcakes, he and my daughters also made some french toast from Punalu'u Sweatbread and a beautiful platter of tropical fruits.  The cherry on top was a glass of pink champagne and guava juice.  What an truly wonderful Mother's Day.

I barely had time to grab my camera and take a quick photo before they were devoured.

Ricotta Hot Cakes With Honeycomb Butter

(Printer Friendly Recipe)

Ingredients
Hotcakes
1 ⅓ cups ricotta
¾ cup Milk
4 eggs separated
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch of salt
50 g butter
fresh strawberries halved (I prefer banana)
icing sugar for dusting

Honeycomb Butter
250 g unsalted butter softened
100 g sugar honeycomb crushed with a rolling pin or a Crunchie bar
2 tablespoons honey

Preparation

Hotcakes  

1. Place ricotta, milk and egg yolks in a mixing bowl and mix to combine.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
3. Add to the ricotta mixture and mix until just combined.
4. Place egg whites in a clean dry bowl and beat until stiff peaks form.
5. Fold egg whites through batter in two batches, with a large metal spoon.
6. Lightly grease a large non-stick frying pan with a small portion of the butter and drop 2 tablespoons of batter per hotcake into the pan (don't cook more than 3 per batch).
7. Cook over a low to medium heat for 2 minutes, or until hotcakes have golden undersides.
8. Turn hotcakes and cook on the other side until golden and cooked through.
9. Transfer to a plate and quickly assemble with other ingredients.
10. Stack 3 hotcakes on a plate and top with strawberries and a slice of honeycomb butter.
11. Dust with icing sugar.

Honeycomb Butter

1. Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.
2. Shape into a log on plastic wrap, roll, seal and chill in a refrigerator for 2 hours.
3. Store leftover honeycomb butter in the fridge for up to 24 hours, or in the freezer - it's great on toast.

Recipe from Bill's Sydney Food by Bill Granger.

I thought I would also include some photos from my trip to Bill's in Surry Hills.

Bircher Müesli

 

Oatmeal is a popular breakfast in our household, especially when my husband is training.  Not only does it have a multitude of health benefits, but is inexpensive and quick to prepare. It is also very filling and keeps me from snacking before lunchtime. My favorite additions are a sliced banana and a little drizzle of golden syrup.  

Once the weather starts to get a little warmer I find regular oatmeal a little heavy for breakfast so I start thinking about Bircher Müesli.  It is based on uncooked rolled oats, fruit, and nuts and was developed by Maximilian Bircher-Benner, a Swiss physician around 1900 to help improve the health of his patients.  I have heard a few different pronunciations of "Bircher" - BIR-ker-, BIR-chur, and BEER-chur, but I don't know anyone who is Swiss to confirm which one is correct.

The first time I ever tasted this müesli was at Bill Granger's restaurant, Bill's in Surry Hills (Australia) and I immediately fell in love with everything about it. Actually it isn't hard to love everything on his menu, but this just seemed so rich and creamy, but healthy at the same time.  At the restaurant the ingredients change with the season, and right now it is served with apples, dates, and almonds. 

For my müesli I decided to add half apple juice and half pear juice.  I really like the Kern's brand of nectar and usually have a few different flavors in my pantry.  This müesli is so versatile and can be adapted to whatever is in season, or just use the fruits and nuts that are your favorites.  I love the tartness of Granny Smiths so they were my apple of choice in this recipe.  I also had blueberries and almonds on hand so these provided my toppings.  Dried fruit or even a trail mix would be good too.  The varieties of this recipe are endless, all you need is your imagination.

The recipe below made about six servings.  It really depends on the ratio of the oat mixture you serve to the fruit you use on top.  It also lasts longer if you don't keep grabbing a spoon during the day for just another little taste.  I kept mine covered in the refrigerator for three days.

Bircher Müesli
(Printer Friendly Recipe)

Ingredients

• 2 cups rolled oats
• ¾ cup pear juice
• ¾ cup apple juice
• 1½ Granny Smith apples, peeled and grated
• ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
• ½ Granny Smith Apple, skin on and julienned
• ½ cup blueberries
• ¼ cup flaked almonds
• honey to taste

Method

1. Place oats and apple/pear juice in a bowl and soak for at least 1 hour, or overnight.
2. Add grated apple and yogurt to oat mixture and mix well. 
3. Spoon into serving bowls and top with blueberries and apple.
4. Sprinkle with almonds and drizzle with honey. 

Recipe adapted from Bill's Food by Bill Granger