Take a Megabite

Blueberry Streusel Pancakes

These are basically the lovechild of a certain blueberry pancake and streusel topped coffeecake. They should’ve met years ago. Would you agree?

So my parents came into town this weekend and it was up to my mom and I what we’d have for breakfast. We both happen to love pancakes and all things streusel and I happened to have blueberries, so here you go!

It’s a dreamy concoction really. You might find yourself describing this breakfast with words like: heavenly, dreamy and OMG-SO-GOOD.

I recommend making these immediately. Substitute another berry if you don’t have blueberries. Shnozberries would probably work perfectly!

Blueberry Streusel Pancakes
Recipe adapted from Betty Crocker

Ingredients:

pancakes -

• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup buttermilk*
• 1 T brown sugar
• 2 T vegetable oil
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/4 t salt
• 3/4-1 cup blueberry (fresh or frozen)
• sprinkle of cinnamon
• 1 T butter (for the pan)

streusel -

• 1 T unsalted butter
• 1 T flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• sprinkle of cinnamon

* If you don’t have buttermilk place a tablespoon of lemon juice in the bottom of a 1 cup measuring cup and fill to the top with milk. Stir together and allow to sit out for 5 minutes, and next thing you know, it’s buttermilk.

Directions:

1. Make pancakes! In a medium bowl, beat egg with hand mixer or whisk vigorously until fluffy. Beat in remaining ingredients besides blueberries (flour, buttermilk, sugar, vegetable oil, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) until smooth. Stir in blueberries.
   
2. Melt a tablespoon of butter griddle or skillet over a medium heat. For each pancake pour scant 1/4 cup of batter onto hot griddle. Cook pancakes until bubbly on top and puffed and dry around the edges. Turn and cook other side until golden brown. Place pancakes on a baking sheet in a warm oven (150-200 degrees F) until they are all cooked.
3. Make streusel. Using a fork or your hands rub the cold butter into the flour. Add sugar and cinnamon and rub all together until resembles coarse crumbs.
4. Sprinkle streusel evenly over all of the pancakes and turn the oven up to 350 degrees F for about 5 minutes or until streusel is crispy to the touch and smells fabulous.
5. Promptly stack the pancakes. Drizzle with maple syrup and eat a breakfast you will want to serve for lunch, dinner and dessert.

P.S. My grocery store currently has these:

Heart-Shaped Tortilla Chips

I’m pretty excited about it.

Refried Black Beans

Last night was taco night, and I think it was the best one yet. Not only did we have homemade corn tortillas but we had these amazing refried beans. AND Jake thought of the best cheese combo for on tacos: shredded extra sharp cheddar tossed with crumbled goat cheese. Whoa. Yeah. Best tacos EVER.

These are super flavorful, simple to make and multitalented. They can be a side dish, filling for a quesadilla, layered on a taco, a dunk-able appetizer and more. Rumor has it they are really good at playing the guitar and knitting, also, but they don’t like to brag.

Please promise me you’ll make these for your next fiesta.

Refried Black Beans
Recipe adapted from Epicurious

Ingredients:

• 1 (15 oz) can black beans, including liquid
• 1 or 2 garlic cloves, pressed
• 1 1/2 t canola or vegetable oil
• pinch red pepper flakes, to taste
• ground black pepper, to taste
• cilantro, for garnish (optional)

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl mash beans with their liquid, using a potato masher or the back of a large spoon, into a coarse puree.
2. Heat oil in a medium sauce pan or skillet. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add black beans to the pan and stir together mashing with the back of a spoon.
3. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally until hot. Season with red pepper flakes and black pepper to taste.
4. Serve warm, sprinkled with cilantro.

Lemon Remix Bars

I’m not a rule follower. Betty Crocker says to allow these to cool for a whole hour after baking. I ate one 15 minutes into that hour, and I don’t even care.

Take that, Betty.

These guys are 2/3 lemon + 1/3 orange, and rumor has it they can convert even the lemon bar haters out there.

Jacob went from a hater to a participator. Believe it.

Lemon Remix Bars
Recipe adapted from Betty Crocker

Ingredients:

crust -

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup butter ( 1 stick), softened
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar + more for sprinkling

lemon -

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 t lemon zest
• 2 T lemon juice
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• 2 eggs

{remix} orange -

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 t orange zest
• 1 T orange juice
• 1/4 t baking powder
• 1/8 t salt
• 1 egg

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Make crust. In a medium bowl mix together the flour, butter and powdered sugar until combined. Press evenly into an un-greased 8-inch square pan, and 1/2 inch up the side of the pan. Bake 20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile mix up the lemon ingredients with an electric mixer until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). In another bowl mix up the orange ingredients until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes).
4. Pour the lemon ingredients over the hot crust, then pour the orange ingredients over the lemon ingredients. Twirl the two flavors into each other with a fork. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until almost no indentation remains when you gently press in the center. (If the center bubbles up while baking poke with a toothpick and it’ll settle.)
5. Cool completely (for about an hour). Sprinkle with powdered sugar, cut into squares and eat!

French Bread

When I got my Taste of Home magazine in the mail, [Thanks, Sally!] this recipe caught my eye. It was probably because it said above the ingredients “you can be enjoying fresh bread in less than 2 hours!”

That’s reason enough for me. After scanning the ingredients, I was excited to realize that I still had bread flour in the house from my bagel party last weekend. So there you go! It was destined. And in only 2 hours I was eating delicious fresh bread of my dreams.

So, now, about dough raising… Normally recipes instruct me to place the dough in a large bowl for it’s first rise. But when I do, I never remember how big it was before, and am always unsure of when it’s really “double in size.” Personally, I like placing it in more of a medium-sized bowl. I know it’s ready when the bread dough is coming out of the top of the bowl, and it looks like my bowl has a big belly.

Look at that dough! It’s big-boned, it’s husky, it’s curvy, it’s perfect.

French Bread
Recipe adapted from Taste of Home magazine

Ingredients:

• 2 T or 2 (1/4 oz) packages of active dry yeast
• 2 cups warm water (110-115 degrees F)
• 2 t salt
• 1 t sugar
• 4 1/2 – 5 cups bread flour
• 1 t cornmeal

Directions:

1. In a large bowl sprinkle yeast over warm water. When dissolved, add salt, sugar and 2 cups of flour. Beat until smooth using an electric mixer or with a wooden spoon really speedily. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough, that isn’t too sticky to knead.
2. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
3. Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide in half. Shape into two 12-inch loaves by patting down the dough halves and rolling up long-ways so that the top is smooth and stretched. As you roll it up, stretch it so that it is 12 inches in length.
4. Place seam side down on a greased baking sheet. With a sharp knife, make four shallow slashes across the top of each loaf. Cover and allow to rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Sprinkle with corn meal. Bake at 450 degrees F for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown, rotating halfway through bake time.

I think I need french toast for breakfast tomorrow…

Katie’s Crepes {Dinner + Dessert}

Last night I made dinner for my very best friend, Katie.
Let me tell you a little bit about why we are friends.

We are the kind of girls that love crepes for dinner with Magic Hat #9.
We require coffee. Always. Morning and night. Don’t judge us.
We mutually love brownies, puppies and Lady GaGa.

We are both jealous of Zoey Deschanel’s bangs.
We have the same birthday, exactly one year apart.
We both consider nutella to be magic.

Basically we go together like brie and pesto.
Like coffee and chocolate.
Like dinner and dessert.

But really though. These crepes are ridiculously good. The combination of the melty brie with pesto and the sun dried tomatoes make these savory guys irresistible.
And the dessert crepes are dreamy in that strawberries plus chocolate way. Which, I’d have to say, is probably one of the very best ways.

Katie’s Crepes {Dinner + Dessert}
Crepe filling ideas came from my love for Good Girls go to Paris Crepes in Detroit.

Savory - crepes filled with pesto, brie, sun dried tomatoes and chicken
(Leave out the chicken and they are a vegetarian delight!)
Sweet - crepes filled with nutella, sugary sweet strawberries and whipped cream

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 T sugar
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t salt
• 2 cups milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 T butter (melted + cooled slightly)

savory -

• 3 T basil pesto
• 1 small wedge of brie, cut into pieces or strips
• 1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes in oil, drained and diced
• 1 to 2 small chicken breasts, cooked and cut into bite size pieces and sprinkled with salt and pepper

sweet -

• 1 cup strawberries, quartered
• 2 T sugar
• 1/3 cup nutella
• whipped cream

Directions:

1. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. In a smaller bowl whisk together the milk, eggs and melted butter.
2. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and whisk until smooth and no lumps remain.
3. Meanwhile heat a frying pan/nonstick skillet on the stove at medium heat and spray with cooking spray. Pour batter into the pan scant 1/3 cup at a time twirling the pan so the crepe batter thins and spreads out covering the pan. Flip when top is almost set. Remove from pan 30 seconds after flipping and place on a cookie sheet in a 200 degree oven. Spray the pan with more cooking spray every few crepes to prevent sticking.
4. When all crepes are done*, fill half of them for dinner. (Leave the rest in the oven to be warm for dessert, but turn the oven off to prevent the crepes from getting crispy unintentionally.) Spread a teaspoon of pesto along the center of the crepe. Sprinkle with a brie, followed by sun dried tomatoes and chicken. Roll up and place seam side down on a plate. The crepes will be nice and warm from the oven making that brie perfect and melty.
5. When you’re about ready for dessert, stir the quartered strawberries with sugar and allow to sit in the fridge for at least 5 minutes. Fill the remaining crepes! Spread a heaping teaspoon of nutella along the center of the crepe. Top with strawberries and whipped cream. Roll up and place seam side down on the plate and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Recipe makes 12-13 crepes. Enough for dinner and dessert for two very hungry people or three casually hungry people. Simply half the recipe if you want just dinner or just dessert for two.

* You can always make 6 crepes and then leave the batter at room temperature until after dinner and make the remaining crepes fresh for dessert.

Peaches {cookies in disguise}

Maybe someday I’ll live somewhere where my cactuses can live comfortably and not shiver on my windowsill. They are really mad it’s not summer. I’m kinda mad it’s not summer. Especially when I want to make a peachy fruity dessert of my dreams.

Don’t worry though guys, it is really possible to have super delicious peaches despite the cold. While they may be cookies disguised as peaches, they are pretty and summery in a way that’s making my cactuses really jealous. AND they are filled with nutella instead of a wriggly pit.

I happen to love these cookies. I maybe wish I had some marzipan leaves and teeny stems to make these even peachier, but I do think that these guys look just peachy enough without a leafy accessory.

So what are you waiting for?! Make some cookies that look like fruit, but taste like a dream!

Peaches
Recipe from Cafe Chocalada

Ingredients:

cookies -

• 4 eggs
• 1 heaping cup sugar
• 1 t vanilla
• 250 ml vegetable oil
• 4 T flour + 2 cups flour (separated) (500 g)
• 2 t baking powder

filling -

• 2/3 cup nutella (the majority of the 2/3 cup container of Nutella)
• cookie crumbs from discarded centers of cookies

coloring and coating -

• 1 cup milk, divided
• yellow + red food coloring
• 1/2 cup sugar

Directions:

1. In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, sugar and vanilla. Add oil, 4 tablespoons flour and baking powder. Mix well. Allow to sit at room temperature for an hour.
2. Fold in additional 2 cups of flour (500 g) gently with a rubber spatula until there are no patches of flour.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Using a teaspoon make little cookie dough balls, and arrange on cookies sheets about an inch apart. Bake for about 9-12 minutes, rotating at 5 minutes. They should remain white in color. ( My first batch had a tan. Oops.)
4. When they are cool, use a small paring knife, gently “core” the cookies, cutting a shallow circular hole out of the flat side and digging a bit of crumbs out, keeping the discarded crumbs for the filling. Repeat with all the cookies as they cool.
5. Make filling. In a medium bowl mix together 2/3 cup nutella and all the discarded crumbs. Stir together until no longer runny at all. Fill the cookies with about 1/2 t on each side and gently press together.
6. Meanwhile divide a cup of milk between two bowls. In one bowl but 2-4 drops of red food coloring and in the other 2-4 drops of yellow food coloring. In another small bowl place about 1/2 cup of sugar. Dip each paired up cookie quickly in both colors of milk. Being careful not to soak them. Then gently roll them in the granulated sugar. Place in an airtight container or large ziploc bag. They are somehow even better the next day!

Pink and yellow milk makes for magical peach-like cookies.

Chocolate Oatmeal Drop Cookies

I’m working on growing up. Sometimes I wear bright red lipstick.
I (try to) wear high heels despite the icy sidewalks.
And rumor has it adults eat oatmeal. If I’m an adult, and I can do what I want, I will have my oatmeal in a cookie and feel very mature about it.

These cookies are brownie-esque since there is both cocoa powder and bittersweet chocolate involved. So yeah, they can’t help but be related to their hip to be square cousin.

(Hey Elliot, are you peaking at me? Are you peaking at me or the the cookies? I’m gonna guess the cookies.)

I made a half recipe of these little chewy morsels. The whole recipe makes 50 cookies! That’s a lot of cookies… So I opted for closer to 25 cookies, to match my age, or something. If you need 50 cookies in your life, just simply double the recipe below.

Chocolate Oatmeal Drop Cookies
Recipe adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From my Home to Yours

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 t baking soda
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/4 t ground cinnamon
• 1 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
• 1 1/2 t water
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 4.5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 cup old-fashioned oats + a few for sprinkling

Directions:

1. Position your oven rack to the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 35o degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper, or spray with cooking spray.
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
3. Meanwhile, melt together butter, water, brown sugar and chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Stir occasionally until everything is just melted together, immediately removing from heat, so as to make sure the butter doesn’t separate from the sugar and chocolate. Don’t even bother being concerned if the mixture looks grainy.
4. After removing the bowl from heat, whisk in the egg. The dough will get super shiny. Whisk the dry ingredients into the melted chocolate mixture, stirring only until the powder disappears into the dough. Stir in the oats. Drop the dough by the tablespoon onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between each spoonful. Sprinkle a few bits of oatmeal on top to bring some contrast and flair to an all brown cookie.
5. Bake for 8-9 minutes, rotating half-way through, until the cookies are dark around the edges and just slightly soft still in the center. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool to room temperature. Repeat with remaining dough.

Bagels

I’m thinking of asking these bagels to be my valentine, since I love them and all.

The only thing that could have made this morning better would be coffee. (I ran out yesterday.) But the goodness of these bagels makes me not even care. And that’s saying a alot too, because I REALLY like coffee.

This recipe makes exactly twelve (4.5 oz.) bagels and one really little bagel for Elliot.

Bagels
Recipe from Smitten Kitchen + The Bread Baker’s Apprentice

Ingredients:

Sponge (dough starter)  -

• 1 t rapid rise yeast
• 4 cups unbleached bread flour
• 2 1/2 cups water, room temperature

Dough -

• 1/2 t rapid rise yeast
• 3 3/4 cups unbleached bread flour
• 2 3/4 t salt
• 1 T brown sugar or honey

Finishing -

• 1 T baking soda
• cornmeal (for dusting the baking sheets)
• sesame seeds, poppy seeds, kosher salt, dry herbs, cinnamon sugar*, or cheese for topping

* If you choose to top any bagels with cinnamon sugar, chances are the stuff that falls on the baking sheet will burn. If you want to avoid that, simply brush the bagels with butter when they are done baking, but still warm, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar then.

Directions:

1. Day one: make the sponge. Stir yeast into flour in a large mixing bowl. Add water, whisking or stirring until it forms a smooth sticky batter. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for approximately 2 hours, or until the mixture becomes foamy and bubbly and has swollen to near double in size.
2. Make the dough. In the same mixing bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer, add the additional yeast to the sponge and stir. Then add 3 cups of flour, salt and brown sugar or honey. (Add the flour slowly if using an electric mixer, or the flour will go everywhere!) Stir or mix on a low speed with a dough hook until the ingredients form a ball, slowly working in the remaining 3/4 cup of flour to stiffen the dough.
3. Transfer the dough to the counter and knead for at least 10 minutes by hand or 6 minutes by machine. The dough should be firm, stiffer than your average bread dough, but still pliable and smooth. There should be no raw flour. (Kneading this dough is a workout. Halfway through I had to drink water. Relay dough kneading, for real.)
4. When you’ve kneaded the dough for 10 minutes, grab a few tablespoons of dough and stretch it. If it rips, add a few drops of water to the dough and continue to knead. If the dough is stretchy and sticky and out of control sprinkle the dough with a bit more flour and knead in. When it’s stretchy, but not sticky and pliable, not dry it’s ready!
5. Immediately divide the dough into twelve 4.5 ounce pieces for standard bagels. Form the pieces into rolls. (I weighed the dough so my bagels would be consistent in size and bake evenly, but if you simply divide the dough into 12 even pieces that works too.)
6. Cover the rolls with a damp towel and allow them to rest for 20 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, line two baking sheets with parchment paper and mist lightly with cooking spray. Shape the bagels. Poke a hole in the the center of a ball of dough and gently rotate your thumb around the inside of the hole to widen it approximately 2 inches in diameter. The dough should be as evenly stretched as possible. Try to avoid thick and thin spots. Place each of the shaped pieces 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Mist the bagels very lightly with cooking spray and cover lightly with plastic wrap. Let the pans sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes.
8. Check to see if the bagels are ready to go into the fridge by using the “float test.” Fill a small bowl with a few inches of room temperature or cool water and drop a one of the shaped bagels into the water. If it floats immediately (or within 10 seconds) they are ready! If not check back and test another bagel in 10-20 minutes. Pat the test bagel dry and place back on the baking sheet.
9. Day two: (the following day or when you are ready to make the bagels), preheat the oven to 500 degrees F with the rack in the middle of the oven. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add baking soda. Have a slotted spoon or skimmer nearby, as well as all the delicious toppings you have in mind.
10. Remove bagels from the refrigerator  and gently drop them into the water, boiling only as many as comfortably fit. (They should float.) After 2 minutes flip them over and boil another 2 minutes. (If you like your bagels a little less chewy boil and flip for only 1 minute on each side.) While the bagels are boiling, sprinkle the same parchment-lined sheet pans with cornmeal. (If you decide to replace the parchment paper, be sure to spray the new paper lightly with cooking spray to prevent the bagels from sticking to the surface.) If you want to top the bagels, do so as soon as they come out of the water.
11. When all the bagels have been boiled and topped, place the pans on the middle shelf in the oven. (I had to bake mine in two different rotations. Once 6 were boiled and topped I baked those ones and then followed up with the second batch.) Bake for 5 minutes then rotate the pan. Lower the oven temperature to 450 degrees F for an additional 5-8 minutes. The bagels should be golden brown, but you can bake them longer if you desire them to be darker.
12. Remove from the oven and allow the bagels to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Elliot was pretty excited that I made him a tiny bagel too.

Corn Bread Crackers

Don’t you just hate when you’re super excited about a recipe and then it just turns out ugly. Delicious, but ugly. This happened to me last night. I’m sure if I would have served them to a crowd of people they would have exclaimed, “I’m sure these cupcakes have really good personalities…” And beside their unfortunate looks, they baked up in a completely unpredictable way.

I want to say it was my oven’s fault. I want to say it was my tiny oven that probably gets just as hot as it wants instead of following the rules, but I won’t. Mostly it was just sad that such a pretty batter could turn on me.

So instead, here is a recipe for a cracker that I have wanted to taste promptly upon knowing it existed. And they’re good!

AND if crackers are misshapen they’re referred to as “rustic” not ugly.

Corn Bread Crackers
Recipe adapted from Recipe Zaar

Ingredients:

• 1 cup corn meal
• 1/2 t sea salt
• 1 t granulated sugar
• 1/8 t fresh ground pepper
• 2 T flour
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 T butter
• 2 T grated gruyere (or parmesan if you’ve got that on hand)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. In a medium bowl, mix corn meal, sea salt, sugar, pepper, flour, and baking powder.
3. Pour boiling water over this and mix well. Incorporate egg, butter and cheese. Stir until butter is melted.
4. Drop by tablespoon onto a parchment lined baking pan and spread thin (the thinner the better) with a flat knife. Sprinkle with additional salt and/or pepper if you’re feeling spicy. Which I am, so I did.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until firm throughout, and darkening along the edges. (The longer you bake them, the crispier they will be. I found that some of mine were a bit chewy, and the ones that were darker were crispier.) Allow to cool for 30 minutes.

Serve these with your favorite cheese (perhaps dill havarti) around 3 pm when you’re starving at work or at home or in the car.

French Macarons {a tasting}

Even though I made Vanilla Macarons last week, I’d never tasted the authentic Parisian cookie. Until then I was simply in love with a cookie I’d never met. So today Jacob drove an hour to Cecilia’s Pastries to get real French macarons for us to sample so we could know for sure what they are supposed to taste like.

They are amazing. Dreamy. Magical. Light. Pretty.

chocolate + vanilla + coffee

Now when I make macarons again (and I plan on trying chocolate this time) I know what they are supposed to be like.

Thanks to Cecilia, Jacob, France and our mutual love of food.