Breakfast

Blueberry Buttermilk Scones

~ Lynn ~ 14 Comments

I’ve been trying to cut back on sugar lately (it’s not working but I’m trying). My weakness is baked goods; a biscotti with my latte; a muffin for breakfast; a gigantic piece of mocha ice cream pie drizzled with caramel after drinks…

So I spent some time thinking about what could satisfy my cravings but still keep my blood sugar steady. At first I thought it was hopeless, but then it hit me; scones! I love scones, their slightly crumbly yet somehow buttery texture goes perfectly with a nice cup of tea. The fresh blueberry in these add some moisture.

Blueberry Buttermilk Scones

Yields 12 scones.

  • 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1/2 cup cold butter, cut into cubes
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1 cup blueberries
  • 1 egg
  1. Whisk together flours, baking powder, salt and sugar.
  2. Add butter. Using your finger tips or a pastry cutter, cut butter into flour mixture until it has a crumbly texture.
  3. Add buttermilk and stir with a fork until the dough just comes together.
  4. Mix in blueberries gently.
  5. Using your hands, make a large ball with the dough, then roll it out until it’s about an inch thick.
  6. Using a round cookie cutter that has been floured, cut the dough into rounds and place on a baking sheet.
  7. Whisk the egg yolk and brush on scones.
  8. Bake in a preheated oven at 425 for 12 to 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

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Don’t Put All Your Eggs In One Omelet

~ Lynn ~ 11 Comments

Every day is national something day. I got a list from Janice of what this weeks days are, and was very intrigued by Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Omelet Day. (Strawberry Sundae Day was also pretty awesome, check out the sundae Janice made!)

Despite the heat I figured I could turn the stove on long enough to make an omelet and some filling for it. I had seen Ricardo make an omelet filled with bacon and fiddleheads that looked really good. It’s much too late for fiddleheads, but you can still find some pretty nice looking asparagus out there, so I subsituted some for the fiddleheads.

Since I made this for one, I won’t give out quantities but here is a list of ingredients and how I put it together. I will say that two eggs are more than enough for me.

Asparagus Bacon Omelet

  • Onion, diced
  • Aparagus, blanched then put in an ice water bath (an ice water bath actually sounds pretty good right now..)
  • Bacon, sliced
  • eggs
  • milk or water
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • cheddar cheese, grated
  • butter or oil for frying
  1. Cook bacon until almost done in a small pan over medium heat. Add diced onion and sauté until onions are softened and the bacon is cooked. Add asparagus and cook until just reheated. Set aside.
  2. Whisk eggs with milk/water and salt and pepper. Heat oil or butter in a nonstick pan. Pour egg mixture into pan. When the edges are done, pour the filling onto one half of the omelet and then cover that with cheese. Fold the other half of the omlete over using a spatula.
  3. Enjoy!

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Raspberry Crumb Bars

~ Lynn ~ 22 Comments

I spent a couple of days happily munching on my Quebec raspberries, but I realized I’d have to actually do something with them or they would go to waste. What to do, what to do? A memory of recipe for raspberry bars popped into my mind, and thankfully I had bookmarked it. The recipe for these raspberry crumb bars is courtesy of Smitten Kitchen. I should have realized, most of my bookmarked recipes come from there.

These bars were really easy to make. The recipe says to pulse everything in a food processor, but since I only have a mini one I mixed everything together with my hands. I think a pastry cutter would have worked too. I made a couple of other small changes; I swapped whole wheat flour for all purpose, cut back on the sugar, and baked them in a smaller pan. These bars are deeelicious. The tartness of the raspberries is perfectly cut by the sweetness of the oats. I had a hard time not eating them all as soon as I cut them.

Raspberry Crumb Bars

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen, who adapted it from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

Crust

  • 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 1/4 cup quick oats
  • 3/4 packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
  1. Preheat oven to 375.
  2. Put all ingredients in a large bowl, mix with your fingertips or a pastry cutter until well combined (mixture will be crumbly)
  3. Press half the crust mixture into an 8×8 inch pan lined with parchment paper. Bake 12 to 15 minutes.

Raspberry Filling

  • 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • zest and juice of one lemon
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 tbsp whole wheat flour
  • 1 pound raspberries
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
  1. In a medium bowl, mix sugar, flour, cinnamon, lemon juice and zest, and butter together.
  2. Add raspberries to mixture, toss gently till all the raspberries are covered.
  3. Once bottom crust has baked for 12 minutes, cover with raspberry mixture and then with remaining crumb mixture. Press the crumb down gently.
  4. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes.
  5. Let cool completely before cutting into bars. Seriously. It will be tough, but if you cut them too soon they will just fall apart.

Enjoy!

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A Montreal Breakfast

~ Lynn ~ 4 Comments

Happy Fathers Day!

I’ve got a cake for my dad baking in the oven. In the mean time I thought I would share a classic Montreal breakfast. A Fairmount bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon.

Fairmount and St Viateur both make their bagels fresh all day, every day. I won’t get into a discussion on which is better, as they are both excellent, nor will get into a discussion on Montreal vs New York bagels because that might lead to some serious arguments. All I will say is that Montreal bagels are smaller, denser, sweeter and baked in a wood fire oven which gives them a great flavour.

Enjoy!

A Sunny Sunday Breakfast: Banana French Toast and Poached Eggs

~ Lynn ~ 6 Comments

I’ve been trying to come up with a challenge friendly breakfast that actually seems like a weekend breakfast. It seems as though the typical weekend brunch is unhealthy, but when you think about it, it’s really not. It’s all about what you put in to it, how you prepare it, and how you serve it.

Take french toast for example, sure if you take a couple of slices of wonderbread, fry ’em, and then douse them in syrup they’ll be unhealthy. But if you use quality ingredients and stay away from the imitation maple syrup there is nothing wrong with a slice of french toast (or 2).

To get my protein in this breakfast I had a poached egg. I’d like to thank Janice for this article on silicone egg poachers, before discovering this a poached egg would never have appeared on my plate. And this bistro egg sandwich is delicious.

Banana French Toast

2 slices organic whole wheat bread (I used bread with flax seeds, pumpkin seeds and dried cranberries)
1 very ripe banana , mashed
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 tablespoon clarified butter (ghee)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (for sprinkling on toast)
1/2 teaspoon coconut sugar (for sprinkling on toast)

Whisk mashed banana, egg and milk together. The mixture will be a little clumpy because of the banana. Soak the slices of bread in the egg mixture for 2 minutes.
In a frying pan, heat the coconut oil and butter till a drop of the egg mixture sizzles (otherwise the bread will just soak up all the oil). Fry the slices of bread for 2 or 3 minutes per side. Sprinkle with cinnamon and coconut sugar.

The banana makes the bread very sweet, so there is no need for syrup! The bread is also very filling with all the seeds in it. I was only able to finish one slice of toast and my eggs. I only used 2 slices of bread, but there is enough egg mixture for 4. If you’re feeding a bigger crowd just increase the number of eggs.

Healthy Granola Bars

~ Lynn ~ 1 Comment

I have been trying to master the granola bar for a few weeks now, but so far every batch has had its issues. Batch number 1, too hard. Batch number 2, too soft. Both batches were very tasty though (probably due to an unhealthy dose of butter). Today I decided to try batch number 3.  Martha Stewarts Cookie of the Day a couple of days ago was actually a health bar, which sounded pretty close to what I wanted . It also had the added bonus of giving me a way to use up the leftover pitted dates I had in the freezer. I thought the consistency in batch number 3 was the best, but my brother said they were more like a power bar than a granola bar.

We both thought they tasted..well.. lets just say they tasted healthy.

I changed the combination of nuts and dried fruit and used a combination of oatmeal and quinoa flakes, but otherwise made the recipe as instructed.

Health Bars

  • 1 cup pitted pressed dates
  • 1 cup oatmeal
  • 1/2 cup quinoa flakes
  • 1 cup almonds
  • 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
  • 1/3 cup raisins
  • 1/3 cup dried blueberries
  • 1/3 cup dried apricots
  • 3 tbsp ground flax
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. In a large saucepan cover dates with water and bring to a simmer, mixing often. The water and dates will combine to form a paste.
  3. Add oatmeal, quinoa flakes, nuts, dried fruit, flax and cinnamon to pot. Stir until well combined.
  4. Press mixture into a greased 8 inch square baking pan.
  5. Bake for 25 minutes, until edges are golden.
  6. Allow to cool completely then cut into squares.

Although I realize these are very good for me and will make an excellent mid morning snack, I don’t think I’ll be making them again. The hunt for the perfect granola bar recipe continues.

Do you know the Muffin Man?

~ Lynn ~ Leave a comment

The Muffin Man? Who lives on Dury Lane?

I love that scene from Shrek.

I finally got my hands on some coconut sugar (thanks Frank & Bi!). The sugar is pretty sweet, with an interesting flavour, almost maple like. Because it’s not as sweet as regular sugar, I decided the first time I use it would be in something that doesn’t need to be too sweet. You got it; muffins! Specifically banana muffins.

I have had incidents where I forgot to add sugar to banana muffins. The texture was way too chewy and the tops were kind of soft, but since the banana’s are very sweet the taste was still good. So when it came to my coconut sugar muffins, I figured 1/4 a cup of sugar would be plenty. The muffins came out perfect. They were just sweet enough, they had a lovely fluffy texture inside, and a nice crispy top. Just how I like them!

Banana Muffins

  • 1 3/4 cups flour
  • 1/4 cup oatmeal
  • 1/4 cup coconut sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 ripe bananas
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 tbsp melted butter
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  1. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.
  2. In a separate bowl, combine bananas, eggs, butter and vanilla.
  3. Make a hole in the dry ingredients and pour wet ingredients in.
  4. Fold together. The batter will be a little clumpy looking. Do not beat, or you’ll end up with tough muffins.
  5. Pour into greased muffin tin and bake at 400 for 20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.

Enjoy!

My Condo Smells Like Cinnamon

~ Lynn ~ Leave a comment

My mom had a great cinnamon roll recipe when we were growing up. She found it in a Kahlua recipe pamphlet. A little alcohol makes everything tastier :). I used to love waking up to the smell of cinnamon rolls baking, and the rolls were always devoured quickly. (My mother is clearly not one of these moms) Sadly, somewhere along the way she lost the recipe (and a lot of other great Kahlua recipes, boo!). So my plan with these cinnamon rolls was to recreate that recipe.

I used Anna Olson’s Sticky Bun dough, and attempted to reinvent the filling. It worked out pretty well,. The dough is great, it’s easy to make and yields a soft fluffy bun. I think the cream cheese is the secret. I just don’t know why. And the filling is pretty close to what I remember.

I brought them to an office breakfast and they were all gone by the end of the day. Ok fine, I had to push them on to some people at the end of the day, but no one seemed to mind.

Anna Olson’s Sticky Bun Dough

Click here for her complete recipe

  • 2 teaspoons dry active yeast
  • 4 tablespoons warm water
  • 1/2 cup milk, room temperature
  • 1 egg, room temperature
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup cream cheese

My Kahlua Filling

  • 1 cup butter
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup Kahlua
  • 1 cup nuts or raisins (optional)
  1. Using a mixer, dissolve yeast in water and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
  2. Add milk, egg and sugar and blend. Add flour and salt and mix for 1 minute to combine. Add butter and cream cheese and knead for 5 minutes on medium speed.
  3. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and let rest 1 hour.
  4. While the dough is resting, combine all the filling ingredients in a saucepan. On medium heat stir till the butter has melted.
  5. Pour half the filling mixture in a 9 by 13 in baking dish. Put the rest of the filling in the fridge to cool until the dough is ready.
  6. Once the hour is up, on a lightly floured surface roll the dough into a rectangle, about 1 cm thick.
  7. Spread the remaining filling on the dough. Roll lengthwise. Slice the dough into 12 pieces and place them on the baking sheet.
  8. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.
  9. Preheat oven to 350. Bake for 30 minutes.
  10. Enjoy!

This method is not exactly what I did. I poured the warm filling over the rolled out dough. Disaster. As soon as I started to roll the dough, the filling started to ooze out. It got even worse when I sliced the rolls. I salvaged some of the filling and just poured it into the pan, but a lot of the rolls didn’t have enough filling. I think cooling the filling to a spreadable consistency will solve this problem. Thankfully, there was enough delicious goopiness at the bottom of the rolls to save the day.