MITCH IN THE KITCHEN

oatmeal muffins with fresh apricots

Lazy weekends are meant for baking sweet things for breakfast while sipping hot coffee and catching up on music podcasts. I found this recipe on 101 Cookbooks (an ever-reliable source for healthy-but-not-boring food). The muffins are sweet but not too sweet, and you can add whatever fruits (dried or otherwise) and nuts you’d like. I halved the recipe and gently folded in about a 1/2 cup of chopped fresh, tart-sweet apricots (4-5 small apricots) at the very end. The muffins ended up being very moist (even though I used a little bit less yogurt), so next time I might try tossing the fruit pieces with a bit of flour before mixing them into the batter.

strawberries

I usually eat fresh fruit with nothing more than a good rinse under cold water. Good for my reputation as a Healthy Person (stop snickering, those of you who have ever watched me exercise) and nutritionist, but if that was all I ever did it would make for a pretty boring food blog. So sometimes I combine very photogenic seasonal fruit with things like alcohol, fat, and sugar.

Strawberry Ginger Fizzy Drink
If you’re not the most super-careful person (like me), a few strawberries are bound to tumble out of the basket (ok fine, or maybe the whole basket will turn upside down because you couldn’t tell where the bottom of the reusable bag was) in transit. Simple fix: when you get home, take these and other smooshed berries, slice them, lightly muddle them in a glass, then pour vodka and ginger ale over them. You’ll feel better about the red stains on everything in no time. Another excellent option: pour beer over the muddled strawberries.

Strawberry Shortcake
For breakfast, not dessert. I mean, it’s biscuits with fruit… why not? All you have to do is whip out your favorite biscuit recipe and spoon macerated strawberries (cut-up berries that have been softened by a sprinkling of sugar) and whipped cream, crème fraiche, or Greek yogurt (like I did for breakfast) on top. If you’re going the dessert route, you can also top it off with ice cream or make a dessert sandwich.

Sfoglia’s Strawberry Spaghetti
Strawberry pasta sauce sounds strange, I know, but there’s a reason this thing has become a signature dish at a reputable New York City Italian restaurant. The recipe is here. I can see little kids liking it too. Good ingredients go a long way in this simple dish, so use the best stuff you can get your hands on. I busted out the expensive olive oil to finish it.

homemade granola bars

I may never buy packaged granola bars at a grocery store ever again. (Unless you count the plastic-wrapped ones priced by weight in the Whole Foods bakery section.) These do not taste like cardboard. Or pure sugar. And they don’t contain any freaky ingredients like soy protein isolate. The other best thing about homemade granola bars is that you can have exactly the types of mix-ins you like, in exactly the right proportion. I added dried cranberries, dried apples, sliced almonds, wheat germ, and flax seeds. They are so good that they’ve crossed over into “healthy dessert”/hungry daydream territory. Recipe and inspiration here (I’ve had this bookmarked for a long, long time).

ricotta pancakes

Ahh, nothing quite like warm pancakes and warm sunlight in the late morning (or let’s be honest, an early afternoon) on a lazy weekend. I used this recipe as a guide, ignoring the cherry sauce part and using some chunky store-bought cherry jam instead. Freshly grated nutmeg in the batter is also a nice touch. Beating the egg whites and yolks separately seems a bit fussy, but the light and airy results are worth it. Also, you can split up the tasks and have one person beat the whites while another does the rest of the stuff.

banana mocha chocolate chip muffins

These are my favorite muffins ever. The recipe is from The Cheese Board, one of my favorite places in Berkeley. It is impossible for me to separate these muffins from memories of sunny weekend mornings with John, back when we were just a couple of scruffy little college kids (who have since become slightly less scruffy little semi-adults). He makes these better than I do, probably because he is naturally heavy handed with coffee (you need really really strong coffee in the batter for these to taste good) and gentle handed when it comes to mixing things (I am a notorious over-mixer). This was my best attempt to date, probably because I used the stand mixer our friends got us. And even though my love for these muffins is inextricably linked to my own romance-fogged nostalgia, I’m pretty confident that they taste good even without the cheeseball background stories.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan.

In a medium bowl, combine: 1 egg, 1 egg yolk, 2 mashed ripe bananas, 1/2 cup really strong brewed coffee (cooled off), 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 cup plain yogurt or sour cream

In a large bowl (or stand mixer bowl), sift together: 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, 2 teaspoons baking powder

Add to dry ingredients: 1/4 teaspoon salt, 3/4 cup sugar

Cut in (using the paddle attachment of a mixer, or a pastry blender): 1/2 cup (1 stick) of cold unsalted butter

When the butter is the size of small peas, mix in: 1 cup chocolate chips

Make a well and gently fold in banana-coffee mixture.

Scoop batter evenly into muffin pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown and springy. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then on a rack.

stuffed french toast and stuff

I’m halfway through winter break right now, which means I get to pull off/get away with things like waking up at 10:30 everyday, catching up on but a fraction of non-required reading, never having to change out of sweatpants, and enjoying things like stuffed French toast for breakfast on random weekdays.

To make it: slice bread about 1 1/4-inch thick (I used challah, but I also like brioche and soft sourdough) and make a crosswise slit into each slice. Carefully spread softened cream cheese and jam (I recommend Aw Yeah Jam if you’re feeling adventurous) in the little pockets. Dip slices in a mixture of eggs, milk, a pinch of salt and a little bit of sugar (maybe a little cinnamon too), letting them soak through on each side. I usually do about 2 large eggs and 1/2 cup of milk for every 3 slices of bread.

Speaking of French toast, the absolute best French toast I’ve ever made was embellished with bananas, pecans, and rosemary (and is pictured above). I used yogurt instead of milk because I was out of milk. Nothing I’ve made since then has been as good (including attempts to re-make the same thing). I posted this on an old blog a couple years ago, but here it is again:

French Toast with Bananas and Pecans

for topping:

1 tablespoon butter
1/3 cup maple syrup
juice of 1/2 an orange
1/4 tsp dried rosemary
pinch of salt
2 bananas, sliced
1/4 cup pecans

Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Add syrup, orange juice, rosemary, and salt. Bring to a simmer. Once mixture thickens a bit, add sliced bananas and pecans. Toss to coat, and let bananas heat through for a few minutes.

for French toast:

1/2 tablespoon butter
8 ounces brioche loaf (about 6 1-inch slices)
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
pinch of salt
powdered sugar for dusting

Combine eggs, yogurt, vanilla, cinnamon, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Dip brioche slices in mixture, making sure to coat both sides evenly. Add butter to a heated pan over medium-low heat. Add French toast slices and cook for 3 to 5 minutes on each side, until golden brown. Top with banana-maple mixture and powdered sugar.

cream cheese rolls with kiwi jam

I love cinnamon rolls, but I thought I’d improvise and make use of a lonely block of cream cheese whose bagel friends had already been eaten. And it’s like 100 degrees outside, so of course I felt like ripping the battery out of the smoke detector and cranking up the oven.

These little buns weren’t yeasty and gooey the way my favorite cinnamon rolls are. Instead, they were fluffy and biscuit-y and oh god do I love buttermilk in baked goods. A perfect accompaniment to yummy kiwi jam made by Jocelyn, Ashwin, and Hayes.

To make the filling, I combined 8 ounces of cream cheese (softened at room temperature) with 3 tablespoons of sugar, 1/8 teaspoon of salt, and a little bit of lemon zest.

For the dough, I followed this recipe from Cook’s Illustrated (favorite food magazine by the way, thanks Mom!), swapped in my cream cheese filling for the brown sugar cinnamon mixture, and omitted the glaze. I am currently fantasizing about a savory, cheddar-crusted version of these pull-apart rolls. Hang on to your pants people, it’s gonna be good.

cream biscuits

I woke up this rainy Sunday morning and thought, “Let’s make oatmeal for breakfast.” When I discovered that we had only a scant 1/2 cup of steel cut oats left I thought, “Let’s make biscuits for breakfast. And then slather them with butter and honey.” Don’t be fooled by the whole wheat pastry flour; these biscuits are pretty fluffy and fatty (the whole batch has around 1900 calories, around 60 percent of which are from fat) and don’t really need extra butter slathered on top, in my opinion. You could also skip the whole wheat pastry flour and just use 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour.

(recipe adapted from Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Cooking)

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour*
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
up to 4 teaspoons sugar (optional. I used 2 teaspoons and the biscuits were just a little bit sweet)
3 to 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces (I find that 3 tablespoons make them plenty rich, and 6 is just too too much)
3/4 cup cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Combine flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar in a bowl. Add butter and combine using a pastry blender, until the butter is the size of small peas. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the cream, and pour the rest into the flour and butter mixture. Using a fork, mix just until combined. If the dough isn’t coming together and seems too dry, add a little bit of the reserved cream.

Knead the dough lightly in the bowl until it seems smooth-ish, then put it on a lightly floured cutting board or counter. Roll dough about 3/4-inch thick, then cut into squares or circles (I used a shot glass to make little biscuits). Arrange biscuits on a parchment-lined baking sheet, then brush the tops with reserved cream. Bake for 17 minutes (for my tiny-sized biscuits), or until tops are golden brown.

* Pastry flour contains less gluten (the protein component of wheat) than all-purpose flour. Gluten is what makes things like pizza dough elastic and bread chewy (which is why bread flour is on the other end of the spectrum from pastry flour: it has a higher gluten content than all-purpose flour). Gluten is also the thing in wheat that those with celiac disease react to. Okay fine, I guess I should save this for a wheat post someday.