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Orange-Cinnamon French Toast

Kirsten — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 16:38:17 +0000

This french toast recipe brings me back to my childhood, and it’s not because I ate a lot of extremely delicious french toast as a kid. In fact, I think the only french toast I ate was either something I whipped up using slices of sandwich bread once I was old enough to experiment in the kitchen or french toast sticks on rare trips to Burger King. The real reason that this french toast reminds me of childhood is the orange flavor. In our house, special mornings were celebrated with a tube of orange danish rolls, which might sound like kind of a dud of a special breakfast, but as a kid, there was nothing like waking up to the scent of sweet orange rolls and running into the kitchen to confirm your suspicions. I probably haven’t had an orange danish roll in ten years, but after making this french toast I realized that if there’s one thing that’s been missing from my life lately, it’s orange-flavored breakfast foods.

When I baked a loaf of challah last weekend and saw how huge it was going to be, I knew that a portion of it was destined for french toast. I stuck several slices in the freezer until the mood struck, and less than a week later (or from the second that I pulled that loaf of bread from the oven) I was in the mood for french toast! I looked up a few recipes, and ultimately worked off of an Ina Garten recipe because I couldn’t resist her addition of orange zest. I made a few changes to the recipe – scaling it down slightly, zesting a blood orange because it was all that I had, skipping honey, and adding cinnamon. My only regret is not setting aside more of the challah so I can wake up to this every weekend morning. Looks like I have some baking to do…

Orange-Cinnamon French Toast

4-6 large pieces of day old bread
4 eggs
1 cup milk
Zest of 1 small orange
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
Pinch of salt

Whisk together the eggs, milk, orange zest, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt in a large, shallow dish.

Add as many slices of bread as you can fit to the egg mixture. Soak for two minutes, flip, and soak for two more minutes.

Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium heat with 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp vegetable oil. Add the bread, and cook until evenly browned on each side. Transfer to a pan in a 200-degree oven to keep warm while you cook the remaining toast.

Serve with powdered sugar and maple syrup.

Filed under: Breakfast

Weekend Eats – 3/28/11

Kirsten — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:27:26 +0000

Hello, Monday!

Want to see what I made this weekend?

Yes?

I hope so.

Oat Pancakes with Strawberries

I love breakfast. I love waking up in the morning and starting my day by deciding what I want to eat. I love breakfast every day, but you know what I really love? Weekend breakfast. Even though my entire life is a weekend, I like to differentiate actual weekends by making something for breakfast that I wouldn’t make on a weekday. This weekend I made pancakes, and I felt like trying a new recipe that wasn’t my usual Sour Cream Pancakes, so I made Oat Pancakes. We topped them with strawberries and maple syrup. I love breakfast.

Brown Rice Krispie Treats

In my cupboards were half of a box of puffed brown rice cereal that was best by February 2011 (oops), half a bag of stale marshmallows (oops), and a tiny bit of marshmallow fluff, which were the exact amounts needed for Rice Krispie Treats. In addition to having the necessary ingredients, I had a very high level of stress from watching the second half of the Butler-Florida game after having put a great deal of faith in my fellow DePauw alum and Butler coach when creating my bracket. I needed something to keep myself busy instead of just staring at the TV screen and shaking with nerves, so I made Brown Rice Krispie Treats.

Challah before the final rise

I also had the urge to bake bread, and challah was on my list of 31 things to make in 2011. So, using the recipe from Peter Reinhart’s The Break Baker’s Apprentice, I baked Challah. Then I spent the rest of my day trying to correctly pronounce “challah.” I’m not quite there yet.

Baked Challah

Like I told my aunt in an email, it’s exciting to pull any homemade loaf of bread out of the oven, but it’s even more exciting when the bread is woven into a fancy braid.

Holla!

Filed under: 31 in 2011, Weekend Eats

Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting

Kirsten — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:06:00 +0000

It took me a long time to figure out how food advertising works. I always thought that commercials for McDonald’s or Wendy’s were so pointless because there was no way I was going to run out and buy a cheeseburger after watching one. Even on the day in college when my roommate and I saw ad announcing the return of the McRib and she exclaimed, “Oh my god! The McRib is back!” I chalked it up to her being an employee of the corporation rather than food advertising actually working. After spending hours upon hours (not) considering the effectiveness of food advertising I’ve come to the conclusion that although McDonald’s advertising doesn’t work on me because I don’t like their food and no advertisement would get me to eat there (Sorry, Amy.), it probably works on a certain audience. If Ruth’s Chris starting flashing pictures of medium-rare filet mignons on my television screen, I might be persuaded to run out the door and eat one for dinner. I would at least put that on the top of my list of places to go the next time my parents are in town. And no, Mom and Dad, let’s not tell the waiter that Sean Hannity sent us.

So maybe McDonald’s commercials don’t do anything for me, but I’ve discovered something else that has the same desired effect: food blogs. Whether I’m scouring food blogs for something to make for dinner or just perusing them because I am putting off reading about tax law I can always find numerous things that I want to eat. The main thing preventing me from weighing 500 lbs. is the fact that I have to go out, buy the ingredients, and cook in order to eat what I see on a blog. I’m slightly more in control of the situation.

And then our friend Kate had to go and make big, beautiful cinnamon rolls and post them on her blog. I saw the pictures, and I wanted one so very badly that I started contemplating making a batch. I quickly talked myself out of it, though, because cinnamon rolls are the last thing I need sitting around my kitchen. I had completely pushed them out of my mind when Matt walked in a few hours later and said, “Did you see the cinnamon rolls that Kate made?” We were helpless to the power of the cinnamon rolls, and the last day of our long weekend was spent mixing, rolling, sprinkling, slicing, and, eventually, indulging. Kate (and Zach), if I put on some 300 lbs. in the near future I am going to blame it on you and your blog for planting the idea and making it look like such a wonderful thing to do.

Like Kate, we used Martha Stewart’s Truck Stop Cinnamon Roll recipe. I cut the recipe in half hoping to end up with just six rolls, but I somehow ended up with eight. [Shrug.] I had originally wanted to make the recipe from Pioneer Woman, but it yields seven pie plates full of cinnamon rolls. Seven. I know a little math could have made the PW rolls a viable option, but who needs math when the alternative is Martha Stewart?

Here are the ingredients I used:

For the dough:

1-1/2 tsp active dry yeast

2-1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees)

Between 5 and 6-1/2 cups flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1-1/2 tsp salt

For the filling:

2-3 tbsp melted butter

1/2-3/4 cup brown or white sugar

1/3-1/4 cup ground cinnamon

For the frosting I combined about 3 oz. of softened cream cheese and 2-3 tbsp. of softened butter in the bowl of a stand mixer. I used the whisk attachment to beat them together for a few minutes, poured in a little vanilla, and then added powdered sugar (maybe a few cups) until it was thick and frosting-like.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or just a big bowl) dissolve the yeast in the water. Add 2-1/2 cups flour, and stir to combine. Add the brown sugar and salt, and stir to combine.

Keep adding flour, 1/2 cup or 1 cup at a time, until the dough is sticky and starts pulling away from the edges of the bowl.

Look, Mom, I got a haircut.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and knead it until it comes together and is smooth and elastic. Add more flour if needed.

This was the easiest dough I’ve ever worked with. It was light, fluffy and very pliable, making the kneading a piece of cake.

Lightly oil a big bowl with a little vegetable oil and add the dough. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it rise for an hour or two.

This is a good point to take a walk around town for a couple hours like Matt and I did. Once you get back you’ll feel like you’ve earned your right to eat a sweet, doughy coil of goodness. While we were out walking around I came up with about 15 ways I want to tweak this recipe and add in other ingredients, so once I run about 50 miles to work off this batch I’ll try out some of the ideas and let you know how they go.

Here’s the dough about 2 hours later. Super gigante.

Roll/press it out on a lightly floured surface into a big rectangle or square. If you get to a point where it’s not stretching out as much as you’d like it’s helpful to let it rest for a few minutes and then try to work with it again. I wasn’t really trying to make this any particular size, and it ended up being about 17″ long and 12 or 13″ wide.

Martha tells you to drizzle the dough with oil or melted butter. The idea of using oil for it kind of skeeves me out, so I chose butter. I used 2-3 tablespoons and it was plenty.

Sprinkle the dough generously with sugar – white or brown. I stopped with the measurements at this point. Just add a bunch and when you think you have enough, add a little more.

Do the same with cinnamon, except add a lot more than this. I thought I was being pretty generous, but once the rolls had baked I wished I would have added about twice as much. This looks a lot like my dad’s favorite way to eat toast – piled high with butter, cinnamon and sugar.

Roll the dough up length-wise as tightly as you can.

Mr. Squirrel is checking it out from afar.

Slice the log into uniform pieces, somewhere between two and three inches long.

Add them to a lightly oiled/buttered pan, cover them with plastic wrap, and let them rise for 30 minutes or so.

Preheat your oven to 400 at some point in here.

Make sure you use a pan with room for the rolls to grow, because after 30 minutes they will be fighting each other for space.

I had to use an overflow pan for some stragglers. I didn’t plan well and slightly underestimated the size of pan I would need.

After growth spurt number one.

Bake the rolls on the top 1/3 of your oven for somewhere between 25 and 40 minutes, depending on their size. You want the tops to be golden, or slightly paler if you’re going for a doughier version. These took 30-35 minutes to brown and bake through.

After growth spurt number two. I don’t know how much you can tell from this picture, but if the rolls have room to expand they certainly will. This dish is 8″x11″ at its widest points, so these guys got huge. The others were in a 9″ cake pan, and they grew quite a bit but maybe not as much as the ones in the oval pan.

You may think these are pretty now, but just wait until we get to the frosting.

YUM! The cardinal rule of frosting (cream cheese or otherwise): Don’t skimp. Matt just told me that I look like a cinnamon roll, so I guess I’d better lay off these puppies. I don’t know that I have it in me, though.

Posted in Breakfast

Caramelized Onion Quiche

Kirsten — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:14:00 +0000

Quiche may be my new favorite thing to make. It starts with a delicious crust made of simple ingredients you always have around. It’s yet anouther device for transporting cheese into my mouth. Eggs! Who doesn’t love eggs? You can eat it for any meal of the day. Much like pizza, it’s a great way to use up leftover odds and ends. Most of all, there are few things more rewarding in the kitchen than pulling a pretty creation out of the oven, be it a quiche, a pie, or even a whole roasted bird. Quiche is worth making for presentation alone.

The recipe for the crust comes from an awesome cookbook I got while I was in Portland a few weeks ago: Savory Baking by Mary Cech. Unlike your standard crust this one incorporates thyme, which gives the quiche a huge flavor boost. Depending on what you’re using for your filling you could swap the thyme for something like dill or oregano. This cookbook has some amazing recipes in it (like White Cheddar-Zucchini Pancakes and Sweet Potato, Golden Raisin and Cranberry Strudel), and I can’t wait to try more of them.

For the filling I just used things I had around: an onion, a little spinach, and Emmentaler.

Caramelized Onion Quiche

Crust recipe from Savory Baking

For the crust:

1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2″ cubes
1 tsp dried thyme (or 2 tsps fresh)
3/4 tsp salt
1/3-2/3 cups cold water

For the filling:

4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups of a combination of cream, half & half, or milk
1 large white or yellow onion, sliced into strips
1 cup or more Emmentaler, grated
A few handfuls of spinach (optional)
Salt & pepper

Put the flour, butter, thyme, and salt in a food processor.

Pulse until the largest chunks of butter are pea-sized.

Slowly add water until the mixture forms into a ball.

Like this.

Transfer the dough to a floured surface.

Knead it a couple times, and then shape it into a disc that’s about an inch thick. Making this dough was insanely easy and took maybe five minutes from the time I started measuring ingredients to the time I formed the dough into a disk. Working with any dough is pretty easy after making homemade pasta and dealing with very dry, crumbly dough.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes. I let it rest for over an hour while I went to pick up my awesome new toy.

When you’re ready to start baking, preheat your oven to 400 with a rack in the lower third of the oven. Dust whatever surface you’re going to roll the dough out on with flour.

Place the dough on the floured surface, and roll it out until it’s 12″ around. My silicone mat has rulers along the edges, which makes this part very easy. I’d say that makes it worth the investment. Depending on the surface you’re using, you may need to keep moving the dough around to ensure that it doesn’t stick to that surface.

Fold the dough in half and transfer it to your pie pan or baking dish. I believe I used an 8″ glass pan, but the actual crust recipe is for a 9″ pie pan.

Unfold the dough and press it firmly into the bottom and edges of the pan. You can chop off the excess dough around the top if there’s a lot. I started to even out the edges, but then changed my mind and started to reattach them. I figured I’d rather bake all of the crust that I made instead of discarding bits of it just to make it look better.

Cover the crust with a layer of aluminum foil, and fill the foil 2/3 full with dried beans or pie weights. I didn’t have enough of a single kind of bean, so I made a foil boat of black beans to fill half of the crust and filled the rest with garbanzos. I saved myself from painstakingly separating bean varieties later on, and I successfully reproduced the title of a Michael Jackson song in a legume on foil medium.

Place the baking dish or pie pan on a baking sheet, and bake for about 30 minutes. Carefully lift up the foil and check the bottom of the crust; it’s ready when it’s beginning to brown. At that point remove the foil and the beans and continue to bake the crust until it’s golden brown, probably 5-10 more minutes. Remove the baking sheet and the baking dish from the oven, place them on a cooling rack, and reduce the oven temperature to 325.

While the crust is baking, you can get the filling ready. I had a little bit of spinach sitting around that I decided to use, so I started by sautéing that. Then I squeezed out as much moisture as I could before chopping it into smaller pieces.

Heat a little oil in a skillet over medium-high heat, and then add the onions and a little salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until they soften and brown. Set aside. I guess mine are more towards the raw end of the caramelization spectrum, but they were done enough for me.

In a large bowl combine the eggs, the milk, and the cream. I am ashamed to admit this, but I used about 1 1/3 cup cream and a tiny bit of skim milk. I thought I had more milk than that and was planning on doing more of a 50/50 mix, but as I poured the milk into the measuring cup I realized I had less than 1/4 cup of it. Sorry, arteries.

Whisk the eggs and cream together as well as a little freshly grated pepper.

Add the onions and spinach to the crust, and spread them around so they’re evenly distributed.

Top the onions with a layer of grated cheese. I used Emmentaler, but you can use anything you have around.

Pour the egg mixture over the onions and cheese. You could also add the other ingredients to the egg mixture and pour the filling in all at once. Layering ensures a little onion, a little cheese, and a little egg with every bite, though.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the eggs are mostly set and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the quiche rest for at least 10 minutes before slicing.

Here’s a nice view of the layers: onion, cheese, and egg. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Posted in Breakfast, Vegetarian