Pancakes for Breakfast

As a child, I was a really big fan of the Tomie dePaola book Pancakes for Breakfast. Do you all know this book? It has no words, just illustrations, and depicts one woman's quest to make.... pancakes for breakfast. Her road to pancake paradise is not easy-- after she collects all of the ingredients (including tapping a maple tree for fresh maple syrup) they are ruined and her dreams are dashed. (Don't worry, though-- she finds a way to get those pancakes she's been dreaming of.) I don't what it is about that book that I loved so much-- maybe it was an early sign of my interest in cooking. Or maybe it's because I just happen to REALLY like pancakes. (And I do-- more on that in a second). Regardless, Pancakes for Breakfast was a must have on our baby registry-- I am really excited about sharing this book with our daughter (sounds so crazy to say)...who incidentally,  is "scheduled" (as much as due dates can be considered a schedule) to make her appearance in a little less than 8 weeks. Eek!

I always think of this book whenever we make pancakes at home, which is actually pretty often (most weekends in fact). After several years of trying various mixes and recipes, we've found a from scratch recipe that is now our go-to. I am pretty sure I've shown you pictures of the fruits of this recipe in the past, but never shared the recipe itself. And I thought this (very hot) Sunday morning would be a good time to let you in on our secret, so that you too can enjoy pancakes for breakfast.

Sorry for the repeat picture, I was sure I had taken pictures of pancakes in the past but can't seem to find them this morning!

The Best Buttermilk Pancakes
From The Kitchn

Note: The only update I've made to this recipe is to halve the original amount of butter-- from 5 TBL to 2.5-- and salt--from 1 teaspoon to just a half. If you decide you want your pancakes super buttery, add the full amount of salt. Other than that, it is all thanks to the The Kitchn. If you don't have buttermilk, you can substitute some yogurt per The Kitchn's suggestions; we've tried that to varying degrees of success. Instead, we pretty much buy buttermilk on a weekly basis. It really does make a huge difference! They say this serves 2-3 people. I'd say 2 hungry pancake lovers at best! They are great with blueberries too!

Ingredients:
2 1/2 TBL butter
1 1/4 cups flour
1 TBL sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg, white and yolk separated
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup milk

1. Melt the butter and set aside. Meanwhile, combine dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda) in a large bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together buttermilk and regular milk. Add egg yolk and butter, mix until everything is incorporated.
3. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir until all the dry ingredients are moist. Add egg white and mix until everything is just combined. DO NOT OVERMIX! Seriously-- this is an important secret to making good pancakes; it is ok if the batter is lumpy looking. If you overmix, you will end up with tough pancakes. And nobody wants that!
4. Heat a griddle (we like to use an electric griddle for even heating) over medium heat (325 if you are using an electric); coat with cooking spray. Cook pancakes per usual (or have your partner do it; in our house, I make the batter and Jason cooks the actual pancakes!).

Pregnancy Cravings and Blueberry Muffins

Of all the questions I get asked about my pregnancy, the most frequent (among my friends at least) tend to be around food preferences. People are just fascinated by the cravings for and/or aversions to various foods that often occurs as part of the whole baby-baking process. I have been pretty boring on this front for the most part-- I still eat pretty much everything that I am allowed to eat (with mushrooms the one exception-- my pre-pregnancy love for them has faded to ambivalence bordering on disinterest) and have not really had a strong craving for anything in particular (outside my short-lived pickle obsession in the first trimester). Until this week at least. I spent much of last week thinking about the perfect blueberry muffin, so much so that I actually went up to my cafeteria at work two mornings to see if they had any to offer. But, alas, their muffin selection was restricted to banana nut and chocolate chip. So I made up my mind to make some this weekend instead.

I decided to try out the classic blueberry muffin recipe from The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion. It was a pretty straightforward and easy recipe to whip up this morning. I was pretty happy with the results-- the blueberries did sink a little bit during the baking process (despite the fairly thick batter which I was hoping would help keep them afloat) but not so much that I would hesitate using this recipe again. Next time I might add a little lemon zest to the batter and perhaps sprinkle a little turbinado sugar on the top for some added crunch. On Jason's suggestion I decided to make these "bakery style" by baking them up in my jumbo muffin pans. And let me tell you, a jumbo muffin and half a grapefruit make a delicious and filling breakfast indeed!

Classic Blueberry Muffins
From The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion
(makes 12 normal size muffins or 6 jumbo muffins)

Ingredients:
1 stick butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups flour
1/2 cup milk
1 pint fresh blueberries
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 375. Grease a muffin tin or line with paper liners.
2. Cream butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Mix in baking powder. Alternate flour and milk until everything is well incorporated.
4. Mash up 1/2 cup of the fresh blueberries and mix into the batter. Switch to a spatula or spoon and fold in vanilla and remaining blueberries.
5. Fill muffin tins 3/4 or so of the way full. Bake for 25-30 minutes (for regular muffins) or 30-35 minutes (for jumbo muffins) until a tester inserted into the middle of the muffin comes back clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes and then either remove from pan or tip the muffins on their sides (to avoid steaming the muffins). Eat and enjoy.

Breakfast of Champions

Homemade toast + iced coffee + grapefruit = perfect summer breakfast.

And it was truly a team effort. Jason cold-brewed the coffee overnight last night (using a recipe similar to the one on SmittenKitchen’s website), and we made toast from the bread I made a couple of days ago.

We have to talk about that bread.  I came across the recipe in the King Arthur Flour catalog several months ago but just got around to trying this week. So easy. So incredibly good.  The oats and honey give it a slightly sweet taste and the most intoxicating aroma. Just cutting into it, even a couple of days after it’s been baked, and you can smell the yummy goodness.  It’s so good that Jason insisted on having three slices of it this morning. (I cut a couple of them super thin so he wouldn’t overdose on carbs.)

My loaf turned out pretty good, I think, much better than the one I made last month—thanks to this little video I found on the internet.

If you are thinking about trying your hand at homemade bread, this is a great one. I will definitely be making it often! Next time I might add some cinnamon and raisins to it as well for an even better breakfast bread.

Oatmeal Toasting and Sandwich Bread
From King Arthur Flour

Ingredients:
3 cups unbleached bread flour
1 cup rolled oats (also called old-fashioned oats)
2 TBL butter or margarine, melted
1 ½ teaspoons salt
3 TBL honey
2 teaspoons instant yeast (or 1 packet active dry yeast—if you use the active dry yeast be sure to dissolve it in the warm milk before combining with the remaining ingredients)
1 ¼ cups lukewarm milk

1.In  a large mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients, mixing to form a shaggy dough. Knead dough for about 10 minutes until it is smooth and no longer sticks to your counter or board. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover and allow it to rest for 1 hour. It will become quite puffy but may not double in bulk.
2.Transfer dough to a lightly oiled surface and shape it into a log (see video above for tips and tricks). Place into a lightly greased 9x5 loaf pan, cover the pan with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow to rise for 60-90 minutes until it’s crested 1”-2” above the rim of the pan.
3.Bake at 350 degrees for 35-50 minutes until golden brown and an instant-read thermometer registers 190 degrees.