Baked French Toast with Blueberries and Cream

This baked french toast is perfect for a slow morning

You can assemble it the night before and bake it in the morning.

The house will smell amazing as it bakes.

Baked French Toast with Blueberries and Cream

(wholefoods.com)

1 (12 ounce) day-old baguette, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (I used marble rye)

1 1/2 - 2 cups blueberries, divided 

12 ounces (about 1 1/3 bricks) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar, honey, or maple syrup

8 eggs

1 lemon, zested (optional)

1 cup sour cream or yogurt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2/3 cup milk

Maple syrup, for topping

Place bread cubes in a greased 9- x 13-inch baking dish. Sprinkle with blueberries, reserving a few for garnish. 

In a mixing bowl, beat cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, lemon zest, sour cream, vanilla and cinnamon. Gradually add milk until blended. 

Pour over bread. 

(If you are making this the night before, cover and chill overnight or up to 24 hours. Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking.)

Cover with foil and bake at 350ºF about 30 minutes. Uncover and bake about 25 minutes longer, or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Sprinkle with reserved blueberries. Let stand 5 minutes. Serve with maple syrup, if desired.

An Old Standby and A New Favourite

No Knead Dutch Oven Bread, that so many people rave about, deserves all the accolades.

It comes together with little effort and has wonderful texture and taste.

We have been eating it for breakfast toasted and buttered with scrambled eggs.

Toady I cut a slice to go with my favourite lunch of chickpea-lemon salad.

You'll need to plan ahead with this bread, it isn't instant but its very low-effort...

fun, even!...

Alicia, from the posy gets cozy blog, adds cinnamon and raisins to the dough. (I'm trying that next time.)

No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread

(motherearthnews.com)

1/4 tsp active dry yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water

3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting. You may use white, whole wheat or a combination of the two.

1 1/2 tsp salt

Cornmeal or wheat bran for dusting

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Add the flour and salt, stirring until blended. The dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest at least 8 hours, preferably 12 to 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

The dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it. Sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let it rest for about 15 minutes.

Using just enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to the work surface or to your fingers, gently shape it into a ball. Generously coat a clean dish towel with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal. Put the seam side of the dough down on the towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another towel and let rise for about 1 to 2 hours. When it’s ready, the dough will have doubled in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

At least 20 minutes before the dough is ready, heat oven to 475 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in the oven as it heats. When the dough is ready, carefully remove the pot from the oven and lift off the lid. Slide your hand under the towel and turn the dough over into the pot, seam side up. The dough will lose its shape a bit in the process, but that’s OK. Give the pan a firm shake or two to help distribute the dough evenly, but don’t worry if it’s not perfect; it will straighten out as it bakes.

Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake another 15 to 20 minutes, until the loaf is beautifully browned. Remove the bread from the Dutch oven and let it cool on a rack for at least 1 hour before slicing.

P.S--Wasn't yesterday wonderful.

We spent a lot of time at the park, opened all the widows and savoured the warmth.

French Sandwich Rolls

"...just two people that like warm rolls."

Ok, four people that love warm rolls.

There have been a few kitchen moments that have made me jump up and down with excitement.

These buns made me really excited!

Why I'm excited about these warm rolls:

1. They smell and taste like those perfect little french rolls you can buy in a fancy bakery.

2. They're easy.

3. They are going to be perfect for the BLTs we are having for dinner.

4. Most importantly, they look like a baby's bum while they bake! (Clara and I sat the whole 12 minutes in front of the oven door giggling...)

This recipe comes from Mel. She has great tutorials on working with yeast and how to roll these perfectly.

These would be a perfect burger bun.

Warm Rolls, "...I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

French Bread Rolls

(from melskitchencafe.com)

Makes about one dozen rolls (see Mel's tutorial on shaping these rolls)

1 1/2 cups warm water

3/4 tablespoon instant yeast (or 1 tablespoon active dry yeast)

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 teaspoon salt

4 cups all-purpose flour, give or take a few tablespoons

In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl by hand, combine the warm water, yeast, sugar, oil, salt

and 2 cups of the flour (if you are using active dry yeast instead of instant yeast, let the yeast proof in the

warm water and sugar for about 3-5 minutes until it is foamy and bubbly before adding the oil, salt and flour).

Begin mixing and continue to add the rest of the flour gradually until the dough has pulled away

from the sides of the bowl. Judge the dough not by the amount of flour called for in the recipe but in how the dough feels.

The dough should be soft and smooth but still slightly tacky to the touch.

Knead the dough in the stand mixer or by hand until it is very smooth and elastic,

about 5 minutes in a stand mixer or 8-10 minutes by hand.

Lightly spray a large bowl with cooking spray and place the dough in the bowl.

Cover the bowl with lightly greased plastic wrap.

Let the dough rise until it has doubled (this usually takes about an hour).

Lightly punch down the dough and turn it out onto a lightly greased countertop.

Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and form the dough into round balls.

Place the rolls on a lightly greased or silpat-lined baking sheet about an inch or two apart.

Cover the rolls with lightly greased plastic wrap taking care not to pin the plastic wrap

under the baking sheet or else the rolls will flatten while rising.

Let the plastic wrap gently hang over the sides of the pan to fully cover the rolls but not press them down.

Let the rolls rise until doubled, about 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bake for 12-14 minutes until lightly browned and cooked through.

...With Jam and Bread

Clara's spring swimming classes have begun and will be right at dinner time. So, for the next few months we will be having sandwiches for dinner on Wednesdays.

This morning we made a nice sandwich loaf and some strawberry jam.

I usually make a slow rise bread from this book, but I forgot to put it together last night. In a pinch, I tried Ina Garten's Honey White Bread. The 2 egg yolks give the bread a pretty light yellow colour and a great texture and taste.

My mum came to visit us today bringing a few pints of strawberries.

The two of us got a batch of strawberry jam made really quickly. Thanks mum!

A jar of the jam is going to be donated to a certain jam hiding sparrow I know of.

Jib says, "I could eat the whole loaf."

Peanut Butter Bread

Well it seems that day has come.

Jibs no longer needs to start his day with a banana.

It is always a striking to me when little routines change. Routines that seem so definitive of a certain time.

Baby Jib loved bananas, toddler Jib does not. (Though I'm sure he will always love Caroline's Banana Gelato!)

We have moved on to bigger, better, and more mature things such as peanut butter.

Peanut butter on apple slices, crackers, toast. Peanut butter in cookies and now in bread.

This bread has tons of rich peanut butter and banana flavour .

The house will smell amazing while it's cooking!

Peanut Butter Banana Bread

(adapted from Cooking Light)

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (3-4)

1/3 cup buttermilk

heaping 1/3 cup crunchy peanut butter

3 tablespoons butter, melted

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup ground flaxseeds(optional)

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

Preheat oven to 350* and grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.

Whisk together flours, wheat bran, soda, salt, cinnamon and allspice in a large bowl. (I used my kitchenaid.)

Mash banana in a medium bowl. Stir in buttermilk, peanut butter and butter. Add eggs and sugar.

Beat banana mixture into flour mixture, just until combined.

Bake for 1 hour or until cake tester comes out clean.

**I don't think this bread needs anything else, but Cooking Light suggests making a peanut glaze.

If you want to try it, here is the full recipe.

A Baker Came to Call

A sweet friend and terrific baker came to visit us today. Much like the last baking day, it was cold and rainy outside, but delicious and warm inside.

Lots of laughs, jazz, mishaps and art later...we ate some delicious cinnamon pull-apart bread.

We love you.

Thanks for fixing all my mistakes!

...next time I watch, you bake!

PS.- Happy New year.

That Bread's Flat Bread

A warm, black speckled, sweet smelling tortilla is something special. Jim lived in Texas for a while and so he knows a good tortilla when he sees and tastes one. I ran out of our regular PC tortillas that were suppose to host Alton Brown's Guacamole and some of Gwyneth's refried beans. (Recipes for theses two are coming soon.) Instead of calling Jimmy to stop and pick some up on his way home from band practice, I tried something new. I've talked about The River Cottage Cafe cookbooks here before. This is their easy recipe for flat bread.

Easy Flat Bread

1 2/3 C All Purpose Flour (plus extra for dusting counter top)

1 tsp salt

1Tbsp Olive oil

2/3 C warm water

Mix together flour and salt in a large bowl. Pour oil into a measuring cup with the warm water.

Pour the water/oil mixture over the flour mixture slowly, stirring with your finger tips. Bring flour and water together to a sticky dough.

On a lightly floured surface work the dough into a ball and kneed for 5 minutes. (or have your eager assistant knead for 5 minutes) Stretching the dough, folding over and quarter turning as you go.

Cover the dough with the mixing bowl upturned on top of it. Let dough rest 15 minutes. In the mean time, prepare fillings for your bread.

Remove dough from under the bowl, roll it into a sausage shape and cut into 8 equal parts.

Flour counter top and rolling pin and roll out your dough pieces until they are the size of a salad plate (about 6-8 inches across).

Place a dry frying pan over high heat and get it really hot. Decrease heat to medium low and add your first flat disc. Flip when the bread starts to puff up and get speckley brown on the one side.

Have a clean tea towel ready to wrap warm bread in as you go.

Top cooked bread as soon as you can. They are so good warm!

Jim loves his bread straight out of the pan with a healthy smear of butter.

A few new things

~My first zucchini was harvested today...so beautiful.

~Clara and I were feeling adventurous today so we decided to try something new- Hand kneaded, rolled and cut pasta from the River Cottage Family cookbook. We plan on eating it with a certain roasted zucchini and this sauce. This recipe for pasta gives a really nice pictured tutorial with an identical recipe to ours.

~Sunday Suppers has a great recipe for an Herbed Flatbread...we made that too.

Clara made this bread almost entirely by herself. I read the recipe to her and got out the ingredients and she went to it kneading and rolling, forming and topping. She proudly served her daddy and baby brother the bread she made herself.
Clara rolling out the dough for the flat bread.
Loving the zucchini.

Rows of beautiful pasta.

Eating Prairie Food

Tonight's meal make me think of the Ingalls family. Clara and I have been reading the Little House on the Prairie books a lot this winter and, boy, they ate a lot of corn bread. For dinner, we stuffed ourselves on Sweet Potato {Chicken} Hash and Moosewood Cornbread. (I suppose the Ingalls would have used Prairie Hen in the hash but we used some roasted chicken breast.)

Moosewood cornbread calls for whole flaxseeds (I grind mine in the coffee grinder
) and whole grain cornmeal, which hasn't had its delicious germ and bran removed. Jim and I both agreed the whole cornmeal makes a far superior bread than the more processed stuff. Clara ate hers loaded with butter and a drizzle of maple syrup, Jim's just had butter and mine was plain.

The hash recipe came from a cookbook my mum got me for my birthday this year. Not Your Mother's Weeknight Cooking has become my go to book when I need something to make for dinner and I haven't planned ahead. I always have everything the recipes call for in my pantry. However, tonight I did plan ahead and still used the book because I've been wanting to try this recipe for a while.

Moosewood Cornbread

5 T Whole Flaxseeds (ground just before using)
1C Whole Wheat Flour
1/2t salt
1/2t baking soda
2t baking powder
1C Whole Grain Cornmeal
2 Large Eggs
1C Plain Yogurt
1/4C Olive Oil
1/4C Honey, Maple Syrup or Agave Syrup (optional but highly recommended)

1. Heat oven to 375*. Oil a 9-inch square or 10-inch round baking pan.
2. Grind up flaxseeds to a consistency similar to the cornmeal.
3. Mix flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder, stir in the flax and cornmeal.
4. In a separate bowl beat eggs, yogurt, oil and sweetener.
5. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the wet. Stir just until blended; don't overmix.
6. Spread batter evenly in the pan and bake 20mins or until cake tester comes out clean.

*Serves 9.

Sweet Potato Chicken Hash

2 Large Sweet Potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice)
1T butter
1 small red onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 chicken breast (roasted in the oven with olive oil, salt and pepper at 350* for 40mins), or other cooked meat.
Salt and freshly ground pepper
4 Large eggs
1 1/2 T chopped chives or scallions
1 1/2 T chopped parsley

1. Place potatoes in a saucepan with water enough to cover by 1-inch. Bring to a boil and cook 4 minutes or until barely tender. Drain well and set aside.
2. Heat butter in a large skillet over med-high heat. Add onion, and bell pepper and cook for 5 minutes. Add drained sweet potatoes. Cook, stirring for 8 mins or until potatoes are crispy and slightly browned.
3. Add cooked chicken and season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Make 4 wells in the potato mixture (3-inches in diameter each) and break 1 egg in each well.
5. Reduce heat to low and cover. Cook 4-5 minutes, until eggs reach desired 'doneness'.
6. Sprinkle with herbs and serve immediately.

*This could easily be done without the meat, adding mushrooms with the onions instead.