Bready or Not: Brown-Butter Apple-Cardamom Dutch Baby
Let’s finish up the breakfast theme with a glorious Brown-Butter Apple-Cardamom Dutch Baby.
When I say ‘I’m cooking a Dutch baby,’ I can’t help but marvel at how lewd it sounds. I expect the FBI to come knocking.
I didn’t name the dish, but I can state with certainty that no babies are harmed in the making of this recipe. (Well, not in MY house. You watch your kids around that stove!)
It’s been a while since I posted my more basic Dutch baby recipe. This new version has even more oomph since it includes brown butter and an apple.
A Dutch baby is a fabulous way to whip up a fast breakfast for a couple people. Everyone can ooh and ahh at how it looks when it comes out of the oven… and sigh at how it deflates as soon as it’s cut.
But that’s okay. A deflated Dutch baby is still absolutely delicious. (Go away, FBI!)
Modified from Martha Stewart Magazine.
Bready or Not: Brown-Butter Apple-Cardamom Dutch Baby
Ingredients
- 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon cardamom
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2/3 cup milk or half & half or almond milk
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 medium apple Granny Smith or Gala work well, cored, peeled, sliced into thin wedges
Instructions
- Place butter in a saucepan; a light-bottomed pan makes it easier to prevent overcooking. Heat on medium, swirling occasionally to distribute the butter. Butter will begin to foam, and the color will change from lemony to golden to brown. At that point, it should emit a nutty aroma. That means it's done! Immediately remove from heat and pour butter into a bowl to cool.
- Preheat oven at 450-degrees and place a 10-inch cast iron skillet to heat up as well.
- In a bowl, stir together the sugar and cardamom.
- In a large bowl, beat the eggs on medium-high until they are pale and frothy. Add the flour, salt, milk, vanilla, and a heaping tablespoon of the cardamom-sugar. Beat everything until it's smooth, though expect the batter to be thin.
- Using a potholder, pull the skillet from the oven. Pour in the brown butter and apple slices, stirring a few times to coat the fruit and pan. Spread the apple pieces into a fairly even layer across the bottom and pour the batter over it. Immediately return skillet to oven.
- Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, until the Dutch Baby is puffed and golden. Sprinkle a couple more tablespoons of the cardamom-sugar on top. Serve immediately.
Bready or Not Guest Recipe from Author Wendy Nikel: Continuum Coffee Cupcakes
Today I welcome Wendy Nikel! Her novella The Continuum came out on Tuesday from World Weaver Press. Find out all about all the cool time-traveling twists in her new book, and grab a recipe for some cupcakes that are out of this world!
Elise Morley is an expert on the past who’s about to get a crash course in the future.
For years, Elise has been donning corsets, sneaking into castles, and lying through her teeth to enforce the Place in Time Travel Agency’s ten essential rules of time travel. Someone has to ensure that travel to the past isn’t abused, and most days she welcomes the challenge of tracking down and retrieving clients who have run into trouble on their historical vacations.
But when a dangerous secret organization kidnaps her and coerces her into jumping to the future on a high-stakes assignment, she’s got more to worry about than just the time-space continuum. For the first time ever, she’s the one out-of-date, out of place, and quickly running out of time.
January 23 marks the release day for my first book: a time travel novella entitled THE CONTINUUM. And what better way to celebrate a new book than with cupcakes?
My main character, Elise, is a professional time traveler and — like me — a big fan of coffee, so I knew I wanted something rich and delicious. Plus, I’d been seeing galaxy-swirl treats here and there online and wanted to give this colorful, space-themed frosting a shot. What I ended up with was a death-by-chocolate cupcake, filled with mocha pudding and swirling buttercream frosting.
THE CUPCAKES:
THE FILLING:
THE FROSTING:
Bready or Not Guest: The Continuum Coffee Cupcakes by Wendy Nikel
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cup white sugar
- 3 Tablespoons melted butter
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Filling
- Chocolate instant pudding
- 2 cups milk
- 1 teaspoon coffee extract
Frosting
- 4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 cup butter
- 1-2 Tablespoons milk
- Gel food coloring
- Sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa, salt, and sugar.
- In separate bowl, mix melted butter, eggs, and vanilla.
- Alternate adding the flour mixture and 1 cup milk into the butter & egg mixture until well blended. Add chocolate chips.
- Fill cupcake liners half full and bake for 15-17 minutes. Let cool.
- Make instant pudding according to directions. Add 1 tsp coffee extract.
- Fill pastry bag with pudding and place a filling tip on the end. Stick the filling tip into the center of each cupcake at a 90 degree angle and squeeze in the filling until you can see the top crust bulge.
- Drop a bit of each color of food coloring into a bowl. Use a new paintbrush to "paint" the insides of the pastry bag or decorator with the food coloring.
- After the inside is painted, add the frosting. Using a star tip, apply frosting in a swirling motion. Add sprinkles, and enjoy!
THE CONTINUUM out NOW
paperback via World Weaver Press $8.99 (regular $9.99)
eBook via iTunes
eBook via Barnes & Noble
eBook via Amazon
eBook via Kobo
Wendy Nikel is a speculative fiction author whose short stories have appeared in Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, Daily Science Fiction, AE Sci-Fi, Nature: Futures, and various anthologies and e-zines. She is a member of SFWA and Codex Writers Group and is a managing editor at Flash Fiction Online.
Read MoreBready or Not: Lemon Crumb Mini Muffins (potluck-sized)
I found a lemon muffin recipe and thought, hey, I’ll rewrite this to be original and I’ll do mini muffins instead!
Um. Yeah. The original recipe made a couple dozen muffins. My version? 113.
I swear, I felt like I had created a Bowl of Holding. There was so much batter. So very, very much batter.
The good news? My efforts were not in vain. The muffins were delicious. They were lemony and light, like puffs of flavor, the perfect remedy to the doldrums of winter.
The recipe itself is pretty straightforward. Grease your mini muffin pans well (make SURE you have two pans to bake at once) and don’t overfill them. A touch of crumb topping makes them prettier and extra yummy.
Bready or Not: Lemon Crumb Mini Muffins (potluck-sized)
Ingredients
Crumb topping:
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter 1 stick, melted
Mini muffins:
- 4 eggs room temperature
- 2 cups white sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 large lemon zested and juiced
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 16 ounce sour cream 2 cups
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 375-degrees. Prepare two mini muffin pans with a heavy dose of nonstick spray.
- Combine the topping ingredients with a fork. Set aside.
- In a very large bowl, mix the eggs until they are thick and frothy. Add the sugar and oil, and beat until they become creamy. Add the lemon zest and juice, both extracts, baking soda, and salt.
- At this point, if you are using an electric mixer, you likely need to switch to a big spoon because of the sheer amounts involved. Add the sour cream and flour, pouring in small increments of each to gradually combine everything. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl. The batter might be somewhat lumpy.
- Use a teaspoon scoop to add batter to each muffin cup. Do NOT fill over 3/4 of each cup--these will grow in the oven! Use a spoon to add crumb topping to the tops.
- Bake for 11 to 12 minutes, until muffins in the middle pass the toothpick test. Let them cool about 10 minutes, then use something like a chopstick to pry out each muffin to set on a cooling rack.
- Heavily apply nonstick spray to both pans again, then repeat the process. Using two pans, this will take three batches to bake.
- Store muffins in airtight containers at room temperature. They can also be frozen for weeks.
- OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not Original: (Gluten Free) Vanilla Pecan Granola
The breakfast theme goes healthy this week with my original recipe for Vanilla Pecan Granola!
If you eat gluten-free, this should be of particular interest. Use GF oats and other contaminant-free ingredients, and this will be a delicious, fiber-full option for you.
This is ridiculously easy to make, too. Combine, bake, stir every so often, then let it air out. Ta-da!
The granola keeps well for weeks, and the flavor is just so fresh. The recipe includes a full tablespoon of vanilla, which is a lot, yeah, but I do love that strong flavor. Some of the store granolas are wimpy in that regard.
Use this as a topping for yogurt or ice cream, or in milk like a cereal, or as a snack to munch out of your palm. However you eat it, it’ll be delicious!
Bready or Not Original: (Gluten Free) Vanilla Pecan Granola
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats gluten-free or regular
- 3/4 cup pecans chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- pinch salt
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/4 cup coconut oil melted
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 300-degrees. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, toss together the oats, pecans, cinnamon, and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, coconut oil, and vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry, and stir well to coat completely.
- Spread the granola onto the prepared sheet. Bake for 45 minutes, with a pause to stir every 15 minutes. Then let the granola sit out to cool and dry for several hours.
- Granola will keep for weeks in a sealed container. Can also be frozen for several months.
- OM NOM NOM!
Read More
Bready or Not: Chocolate Almond Biscotti
Continuing the breakfast theme for the month, we now venture into the realm of chocolaty goodness with these Chocolate Almond Biscotti.
These taste like brownies… brownies that are firm enough to dip into coffee or hot chocolate or tea or your waiting mouth.
Almonds go wonderfully with chocolate–a lot of candy bars are proof of that–though they do complicate this recipe in one way. They get stuck on the knife blade when the biscotti are chopped apart.
The good news is, the biscotti at still kind of soft then, so you can press them back together a bit–just don’t burn your fingers!
I can’t say I mind that some chocolate crumbles and almond bits are left on the cookie sheet, either. Oh darn. Can’t let those go to waste.
Do check out other biscotti featured on Bready or Not: Maple Walnut White Chocolate Biscotti and Snickerdoodle Biscotti.
This new recipe was modified from the original at McCormick.
Bready or Not: Chocolate Almond Biscotti
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter 1 stick, softened
- 1 1/4 cups white sugar
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup almonds coarsely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325-degrees. Prepare a large baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
- Melt the chocolate in the microwave, using short, careful bursts. Once it is melted, set aside to cool for a few minutes.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs followed by almond extract. Scrape in the melted chocolate. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients, and add the almonds last.
- Divide the dough in half. Drop each half onto the ready cookie sheet with lots of space between them. Use a spatula to shape them into logs roughly four inches across, eight inches long, and about an inch high.
- Bake 35 minutes, until the logs spring back when gently touched.
- Cool on stove top for 10 minutes. Use a sharp, serrated knife to chop the logs into 1/2-inch thick slices. The almonds will likely get stuck on the blade and cause the biscotti to crumble some; the biscotti is still somewhat soft, so try to wedge almonds back in and reshape the sticks. Do take care, as they are hot!
- Place the slices upright, if they will stay, or lay them on their sides. Bake for another 20 minutes, flipping them halfway, if necessary.
- Allow the biscotti to cool and dry out for several hours before placing them into sealed containers.
- OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: Cato Home-Cured Bacon
We’re kicking off a breakfast theme for a month with a recipe that will step-by-step teach you how to cure your own bacon.
I guarantee this will be among the best, if not THE best, bacon you will have in your life. Fresh really makes the difference.
This recipe is not difficult. In all honesty, the greatest challenge is that the curing bacon takes up a lot of fridge space for about 10 days.
I completely modified this from a Michael Symon recipe featured in Food Network Magazine, March 2014. The only way that I can buy pork belly locally is from Costco (for about $2.69 a lb!), so this is a Costco-sized recipe.
If you can buy a smaller pork belly slab, then just halve the ingredients. Otherwise, buy the big belly and follow all of the steps I provide… which means you’ll have another slab of frozen bacon already seasoned and prepped to cure in a few weeks or months.
After the meat is smoked, slice it up and use it however you want. I find that home-cured bacon cooks much faster than the store stuff, though it can be much thicker, and the bits that look burned aren’t usually burned.
The smoked meat also freezes and keeps for weeks or months. Just thaw it in the fridge when you’re ready, and use it however you wish.
You’ll wish to eat every last morsel. Trust me.
This recipe does require some supplies that you likely don’t have in the cupboard, and might be hard to find locally. Amazon, of course, has everything. I recommend them for buying 2-gallon zipper bags as well as pink curing salt (plus, you get enough salt to last through the apocalypse). Note that pink curing salt is essential here because it has salt and sodium nitrate, which keeps the meat pink and kills bacteria. Normal salts don’t pack that wallop.
Bready or Not: Cato Home-Cured Bacon
Ingredients
- 9 to 10 lb pork belly
- 1/2 cup kosher salt
- 4 teaspoons pink curing salt
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 1/2 cup brown sugar packed
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/4 cup red pepper flakes
- 1/4 cup paprika sweet or smoky
Instructions
- Cut the pork belly slab in half and rinse and pat dry both pieces. Place them in separate re-sealable 2-gallon plastic bags.
- Mix together the spice rub. It'll form a thick paste. Roughly divide it into quarters, and use a quarter on each side of a pork piece. The rub will be very lumpy. Don't worry about a perfect, even coating; the pork will release juices and the flavors will seep in during the curing process.
- Close both bags, pressing out as much air as possible. Freeze one bag for later; as a precaution against holes getting torn in the bag, wrap it well in plastic wrap, too. When ready to start the curing process for this half, add another day or two to the curing time in the fridge to account for thawing time.
- As for the ready piece of pork belly, set that bag in the fridge for the next 7 to 10 days, until it feels firm. Flip the meat once a day.
- Remove the pork belly from the bag. Rinse it well and pat it dry. Set it on a rack on a small cookie sheet in the fridge and let it dry for another two days. No need to flip it at this point.
- Set up your smoker at 200-degrees. Applewood chips are a great choice, but maple and hickory are fantastic as well. Smoke the pork belly for about 3 hours, until the bacon reaches an internal temperature of about 150-degrees.
- From this point, slice and cook the meat as you would regular bacon, but note that this fresher, homemade variety will cook much faster. Use plastic wrap or plastic bags to store the sliced meat in the fridge for upwards of a week, or freeze for up to 2 months.
- OM NOM NOM!
