Recipe - Blueberry Oatmeal Streusel French Toast

So this mornings menu consisted of

Mango and cherries topped with Cherry Sorbet, 

Jelly Doughnut Muffins

Blueberry Oatmeal Streusel French Toast

drizzled with Warm Maple Rum Sauce

Honey Mustard Sausage links

The votes came in that everything was great especially the blueberry french toast and all three guests requested the recipe. So below find said recipe!

BLUEBERRY OATMEAL STREUSEL FRENCH TOAST

serves 8

12 1- inch thick slices french bread 

1 pint blueberries

8 large eggs

3 cups half and half

1/4 cup light brown sugar

1 T. vanilla extract

1 T. ground cinnamon

1. Coat a 9 X 12 inch baking dish with non-stick spray.

2. Cut bread into 1 inch cubes and layer evenly in baking dish.

3. Sprinkle blueberries on top of bread cubes

4. Combine eggs, half and half, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon and beat for 2 minutes on med. speed. Pour mixture over bread.

TOPPING

1 cup toasted pecans

1 stick softened butter

1 cup packed light brown sugar

2 T. dark corn syrup

1 cup old fashioned rolled oats (not instant or quick)

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1. Place pecans in single layer on cookie sheet and bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 5-10 minutes or until lightly browned.

2. Combine butter, sugar, and corn syrup and mix on medium high speed for about 2 min. until creamy.

3. Fold in pecans, oats, and nutmeg and mix just to combine.

4. Dollop topping on top of  bread. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning:

1. Bring the dish to room temperature while preheating oven to 375 degrees

2. Place dish in oven with rimmed baking sheet underneath to catch drippings (It will drip!)

3. Bake covered with foil for 45 minutes.

4. Remove foil and bake another 10 - 15 minutes until set.

5. Lower oven temperature to 275 degrees and leave for another 10-15 minutes.

6. Remove from oven and let rest for at least 20 minutes until firm.

7. Drizzle with warm Maple Rum Sauce

MAPLE RUM SAUCE

Makes 2 cups

11/2 cup heavy cream

1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup plus 3 T. spiced rum

3 tsp. cornstarch 

1. Combine the cream, sugar, maple syrup, and 1/3 cup rum in sauce pan and bring to a boil SLOWLY over low heat.

2. Dissolve corn starch in remaining 3 T of rum.

3. Whisk the cornstarch mixture, lower the heat, and cook for another 2 minutes, until thickened.

4. Remove from heat. Serve warm. Store in refrigerator for few days or freeze up to 3 weeks.

 Recipe adapted from The Art of Breakfast by Dana Moos

Pancakes!!

Happy National Pancake Day! Have you had your pancakes yet? Well if you missed them at breakfast this morning have no fear for you can have them for dinner! But stop!! Don't open that box of pancake mix! With so many recipes to be found in cook books and on the internet it doesn't take all that much more to make your very own from scratch. They will taste oh so much better! So to get you started, I am posting a fast and simple recipe to get you started. Be creative with this. Think of the possibilities!

Quick and Easy Pancakes

 Prep Time - 5 min.     Cook time - 6-8 min. Yield: About 8 or 9 pancakes using a 1/4 cup to dip batter

Ingredients:
     1 cup flour (all purpose, whole wheat, soy)
     1 tablespoon sugar
     2 tablespoons baking powder (yes, you read that right - tablespoons!)
     1/8 teaspoon salt
     1 cup milk (whole, 2%, skim, soy, almond, rice)
     2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions:
     1. Begin by setting all ingredients and needed equipment out on the counter
     2. Preheat an electric skillet to 350 degrees or skillet on range unit to medium.
     3. Measure and combine the first 4 ingredients in bowl.
     4. Measure and add milk and oil to dry ingredients
     5. Mix to incorporate but don't overmix
     6. When a splash of water sizzles on the pan then it is hot enough
     7. Dip out 1/4 measuring cup of batter and pour it into the hot skillet
     8. When bubbles appear in center of pancake and edges become firm, then flip them over very carefully
     9. Cook on second side until brown and cakes are firm.
    10. Repeat till all are cooked; keep others warm in oven.

This recipe allows you to be your creative self! Add fruit, cinnamon, nutmeg, other flavorings, use different flours, milks, non dairy, gluten free. Experiment! Have fun! And don't forget to drizzle some Ohio Maple Syrup all over the top!

Recipe for Cheddar Bay Biscuits

When was the last time you visited Red Lobster where you enjoyed the overwhelming experience of eating a scrumptious cheddar bay biscuit? This morning our guests enjoyed these homemade biscuits that were served with a creamy sausage gravy.  The biscuit recipe came to us from Top Secret Restaurant Recipes so we thought we would share with our guests. Every plate was returned to the kitchen free of any crumbs telling us that this entree was good to the last drop!

CHEDDAR BAY BISCUITS

2 1/2 cups Bisquick baking mix
1/4 tsp. garlic powder (for breakfast you could leave this out)
4 T. (1/4 stick) cold butter
3/4 cup cold whole milk
1 heaping cup grated cheddar cheese

Brush on Top after biscuits are removed from the oven
Mix together all of the ingredients below
2 T. butter, melted
1/4 tsp dried parsley flakes
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
pinch of salt

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Combine Bisquick with cold butter using a pastry cutter or large fork
     Mix just enough to incorporate the Bisquick. Butter chunks should be about the size of peas.
3. Stir in cheddar cheese and garlic.
4.  Add milk and mix with hands until just combined. Don't over mix.
5. Drop about 1/4 cup of dough onto an ungreased baking sheet. An ice cream scoop works great.
6. Bake for 15 - 17 minutes or until the tops of the biscuits begin to turn brown.
7. After removing biscuits from oven, brush tops with the melted butter mixture.

Yield about 8- 10 biscuits, depending on size you want. Happy eating!

Recipe - Cream Scones

A recent guest has requested our recipe for the Cream Scones that we served at breakfast so I thought I would share it with everyone on the Blog!  So here goes!

3 cups of  bread flour
1/2 cup of sugar
2 T. baking powder (yes, that is tablespoons!)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups heavy cream (very cold)

Amount below is based on baking all 12 scones. If you bake less, then adjust the milk and sugar accordingly.
2 T. milk
3 T. coarse sugar (may use regular sugar)

1. Cut two 10 inch circles of waxed paper.


2. Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together into a mixing bowl.

3. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture.
4. Add the cream to the flour mixture and stir by hand just until the batter is evenly moistened. ( I do use a good stand mixer with a dough hook and mix on very low speed just until cream is incorporated.)
5. Place the dough onto one of the 10 inch wax paper circles and press out dough to the edges.
 
6. Cover the dough with the second paper circle.
7. Place dough on flat surface that can go into freezer.
8. Freeze until very firm, at least 12 hours.
9. Thaw dough for 5 minutes at room temperature.
10. Place on a cutting board and cut into 12 wedges. 
11. Now you can bake the number of scones that you need and freeze the rest for later.
12. Place scones on GREASED baking sheet about 2 inches apart. They will spread.
13. Brush with milk and sprinkle sugar on top.
14. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.
15. Serve with Devonshire Cream and jam. (We do make fresh, homemade Hallauer Devonshire Cream!)
And  now grab some coffee or tea, sit back, and ENJOY!

Baked Blintz Recipe

If you visit our Facebook Page today you will get a mouthwatering treat of what we served our guests for breakfast this morning. Be sure to take a look! I did promise to post one of the recipes on the Blog so here it is!!

BAKED BLUEBERRY BLINTZ

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 X 13 inch baking dish.





FILLING:
6 ozs. softened cream cheese
1 cup cottage cheese
1 egg, beaten
1 T. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

• In a small bowl, beat cream cheese
• Add cottage cheese, egg, sugar, and vanilla
• Beat well and set aside

BATTER:
1/2 C. butter (softened)
1/3 C. sugar
4 eggs
1 C. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 C. plain or vanilla yogurt
1/2 C. sour cream
1/2 orange juice

• In large bowl, cream together butter and sugar
• Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition
• Mix flour and baking powder together and add to batter
• Combine sour cream, yogurt, and orange juice and add to batter. Mix well.
• Pour 1/2 of batter into prepared baking dish
• Carefully layer all of filling on top of batter
• Top with remaining batter
• Bake 40 minutes or until browned and knife inserted in certer comes out clean
• Slice into squares.
• Top with fresh blueberries
• Drizzle with blueberry syrup or Ohio maple syrup.

Serves 6 to 8 depending on size of serving you desire.

Can be made the night before, refrigerated and baked the next morning.

ENJOY!

A Crowd Pleasing Breakfast Menu with Recipe!

With Thanksgiving less than a week away, you may be wondering what to serve the crowd for breakfast or brunch before the big turkey dinner. Let us make a suggestion!
Our Thanksgiving breakfast for six guests will consist of the following bountiful feast foods:

Mini Loaves of Spicey Pumpkin Bread with Creamy Cinnamon Cream Cheese Spread
Frothy Cranbery-Raspberry Soup topped with Dollop of Frozen Vanilla Yogurt and Raspberries
Apple-Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast highlighted with Confectioners' Sugar and Toasted Almonds and topped with Warm Maple Syrup
Herb Encrusted Sausage Patties
Freshly Brewed Coffee
Tea Assortment
Chocolately Hot Chocolate

On a previous post, I shared my experience making the Pumpkin Bread recipe, so now I'll take you through the process of making the Apple-Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast. It has been voted a winner among guests who have enjoyed it at breakfast here at the B & B.

Apple-Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast

Ingredients:
20 slices freshly baked bread
8 eggs
2 cups half and half
2 cups milk
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Filling:
16 ounces cream cheese
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
21 ounce can apple pie filling

1. Mix the first four Filling ingredients together until well combined. Fold in the apple pie filling.
2. Spread cream cheese mixture over 10 slices of the bread and top with the other 10 slices, forming a sandwich.
3. Place bread sandwiches in a large baking pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray.
4. Combine the eggs, half and half, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Beat until well mixed.
5. Slowly pour the egg mixture over the top of the sandwiches until all the bread is soaked.
6. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
7. Bake at 350 degrees covered for approximately 40 minutes.
8. Then uncover and bake for an additional 20 minutes.
9. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting and serving.
10. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar and toasted almonds. Serve with warm maple syrup. (We use Ohio Maple since it's the best!)

As you can see, this recipe can be made the night before so it' preparation won't interfer with the turkey prep! So gather the ingredients and prepare for a great breakfast. You won't be disappointed!

New Pumpking Bread Recipe

In honor of Fall I decided yesterday that I would make a Pumpkin Bread recipe for this weekends guests. And wouldn't you know that last week I cut out from the Sunday paper just such a recipe! So, as all good ex-Home Ec. teachers do, I assembled the ingredients, preheated the oven, and began preparation. But this recipe used only 1 cup of pumpkin and I had a 30 oz. can. So instead of putting the leftover pumpkin in the refrigerator where it would probably be forgotten until it was ready for the compost, I decided to go ahead and adjust the recipe to accommodate the entire can. Thus, this required increasing the recipe times 4. No problem! My trusty math brained husband was close by so he shouted out the necessary increases for each ingredient and I diligently made the changes on paper.

Well increasing the pumpkin was easy - 8 ozs. changed to 32 oz. The spices went from 1/2 tsp. to 2 tsps. The water from 3/4 cup to 3 cups. Okay so far. But then I began wondering about the accurracy of this entire recipe! I needed to increase the brown sugar from 1 3/4 cup to 7 cups! Now, I've never made a recipe with 7 cups of brown sugar in it! Needless to say, I now am out of brown sugar! Had just enough! Then I added the increased amount of vegetable oil which amounted to 2 cups. By this time the mixture resembled a very dark bowl of spicey smelling liquidly goop! And I'm beginning to think that this is going to be a very expensive mistake! Then instead of the 2 eggs called for in the original recipe, I needed to add 8 eggs for the quadruple. Ok, now it really looks like dark brown, spicey, liquidy soup! Well, in for a penny, in for a pound! Might as well keep going and see what happens!

Next up was to add 7 cups of flour mixed with 4 tsp. of baking soda and 3 tsp. of salt. After mixing the dry ingredients just until blended, I found I still had a rather soupy mess! Well, I decided that I would just have to go ahead and fill the pans, bake the 'bread' and see what would happen and how it would taste. I had a muffin mix waiting in the wings that I would make for the guests just in case this recipe really flopped! Since we like to serve a mini loaf of bread to share between 2 guests, I decided to go ahead and bake this liquid batter in my mini loaf pans. And believe me, it was a liquid batter! Well, the original recipe said it would make 3 mini loaves so with the quadruple I figured I'd get 12 mini loaves (3 X 4 = 12, right?). I ended up with 20 mini loaves! Instead of a bread batter, I had more of a liquidly cake batter! Oh well. I had too much invested to deep six the entire mess, so I went ahead and baked all the loaves, expecting the worst and figuring that I would have a really messy oven to clean up once these things all overflowed! The baking time was supposed to be 50 minutes but I adjusted that to 40 min. and then if not done, I could continue baking.

They were done after the 40 min. and lo and behold, they did not over flow! They actually looked and smelled great! Well, the test is in the taste! Sliced one open. Smelled great! Sliced more like cake than bread but at least it didn't crumble apart! Joe took a bite. I took a bite. Great taste! Great texture! Great aroma! Can you believe! I almost threw the entire mess away! Now I have 15 loaves of cake/bread in the freezer. We used 5 already! The five guests this morning did not leave any leftovers and gave their stamp of approval. So, goes to show - don't jump to conclusions. Follow through, keep going, and see what happens!


So here is the ORIGINAL RECIPE! Give it a try and let me know what the batter looked like, how it baked up, and how it tasted. If you have another Pumpking Bread recipe you'd like to share, email and let me know.

PUMPKIN SPICE BREAD

8 oz. minus 2 T. pure pumpkin
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 cup water
1 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large leggs, lightly beaten
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Heat pumpkin, and spices in a small pan over medium heat until steamy, stirring continuously. Cook until pumpkin is stiff and starts to stick to the pan bottom, about 3 minutes.
3. Transfer pumpkin to a bowl and stir in 3/4 cup water, then brown sugar, then oil, then eggs and blend until smooth.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together remaining dry ingredients, then fold into the pumpkin mixture until just combined.
5. Scrape batter into 3 greased mini loaf pans or 1 9-inch loaf pan.
6. Bake until firm and golden brown, about 50 minutes for mini loaves and about 70 minutes for large loaf.
7. Let bread stand for a few minutes. Turn onto a wire rack and cool to room temperature.
Recipe freezes well.

New Fruit Recipe

It's Sunday and the Cleveland Browns are losing to the Pittsburg Steelers! It's raining outside and the bugs are absolutely terrible. So while the game drags on and the bugs will eat me if I go outside, I thought I would share a new recipe that we served to our guests yesterday. It was completely devoured by all, so we deemed it a keeper. It's based on a Blueberry-Kiwi Fool recipe but I changed it to fit the ingredients that I had on hand. We now need a new name for it. Anyone have a suggestion?

Blueberry-Kiwi _____________________

2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries, thawed
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup frozen vanilla yogurt
1 T. sugar (optional)
3-4 kiwi, peeled and cut up (about 1 cup)

1. In a bowl, mash 1 cup of blueberries or puree in a blender.
2. Stir cinnamon into blueberries
3. Fold the frozen yogurt into pureed blueberries
4. In parfait glasses or other serving bowls (about 6-7 ounces), layer
yogurt-blueberry mixture, remaining blueberries, and kiwi.
5. Top with a small scope of frogen yogurt and one blueberry.
6. Garnish with a sprig of lemon mint
7. Serve immediately
Makes 4-6 servings

One thing about this recipe - looks best if served on a white plate. We started with a red service and the colors clashed! Enjoy!