Cornbread Muffins

 

Nick's been asking me to make cornbread muffins for a month now, and I've been trying to find the perfect one.  It's odd that most of the cornbread recipes out there seem to have very little cornmeal and a lot of flour.  This recipe has half cornmeal and half flour and uses butter rather then vegetable oil.  It's now a staple in our home and made weekly, and best of all... it takes less then half an hour to make from start to finish! 

Corn Bread Muffins

Makes: 12 muffins

approx prep time: 10 min

approx cook time: 15 mins

 INGREDIENTS:

- 1 cup of all purpose flour
- 1 cup of cornmeal
- 2/3 cup of sugar

- 1 large egg

- 2.5 teaspoons of baking powder

- 1 teaspoon of salt

- 1 cup of milk

- 1/3 cup of melted butter

HOW TO MAKE IT:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
- Brush melted butter on the muffin pan

- In a large mixing bowl, mix milk and cornmeal together, set aside.

- In a medium size bowl, mix flour, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt (the dry ingredients).
- Add egg and melted butter to the cornmeal and milk mixture, then add in the dry ingredients.
- Mix until combined.
- Spoon batter evenly into the greased muffin pan.
- Bake for 15 minutes, until sides are golden brown, top is golden yellow, and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the muffin comes out clean.
- Serve with butter or a dollop of your favourite jam.  
- Store in room temperature for up to one week.

Fluffy Wild Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

"It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!!! It's so fluffy!!!"  

 -  says the little girl, Agnes, from the animated film Despicable Me. 

And I repeated that when I took my first bite of these pancakes.  It's SOOO fluffy!!!  Wild blueberries were in season so we put a few handfuls of that into the batter, but with or without fruit....these are definitely a winner for me.  I will never need another pancake batter recipe.  It generously feeds 6 very hungry people.

Fluffy Wild Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

Serves: 6 very hungry people

approx prep time: 15 min

approx cook time: 45 min

INGREDIENTS: 

- 4 cups of all purpose flour
- 4 tablespoons of white sugar
- 4 teaspoons of baking powder
- 2 teaspoons of baking soda
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 4 cups (1 liter) of buttermilk
- 2/3 cups of milk
- 4 eggs
- 1/4 cup + 3 tablespoons of butter, melted
- 2 cups of wild blueberries, or normal blueberries, whatever you wish (optional)


HOW TO MAKE IT:
- In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
- In a separate bowl, beat together buttermilk, milk, eggs, and melted butter.  Keep the two mixtures separate until you are ready to cook.
- Heat a non stick pan over medium high heat
- Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, add blueberries now, and stir until just blended together.  Do not over stir.
- Ladle batter onto the hot pan (to whatever size you prefer, we like small pancakes), once the batter has bubbled for a bit, flip the pancake onto the otherside and cook both sides to a golden brown.  
- Serve hot, with fruit, berries, syrup, whipped cream, eggs and bacon, whatever you desire!

Dutch Baby

People say it is the thought that counts when it comes to gift giving, and my thoughts were on this recipe when I picked out Nick's Christmas present. For Christmas, I gave Nick an All Clad stainless steel 10 inch frying pan.  The only reason I did this is so we could make a Dutch baby together *no pun intended*.  The recipe is dead easy and it is a lot of fun to watch the batter grow and rise up in the oven.  This recipe is basically an egg pancake recipe with the egg as the rising agent and it is just so simple that I couldn't resist trying this out.  The result is a crunchy exterior, soft and chewy interior, and perfect with either macerated strawberries and ricotta, or if you like it simple like me, just drizzled with some good maple syrup and served with a side of fruit.  It was absolutely delicious and now one of my breakfast favorites! 

DUTCH BABY

Serves: 2

approx prep time: 10min

approx cook time: 20min

INGREDIENTS: 

2 eggs

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

pinch of nutmeg

1.5 tablespoons butter

10 inch frying pan that can go in the oven

HOW TO MAKE IT:

1) Set the oven rack set in the middle of the oven and preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2) Place a 10-12 inch frying pan into the oven with the butter.
3) Once the butter melts, pour the batter into the pan and return it to the oven for about 15 minutes or until golden brown and serve immediately. 

Sunday French Toast

Lazy Sundays....what could be better then rolling out of bed at 10am, or 11am or my personal favorite, after 12 noon.  This would be the easiest breakfast with no fuss.  Use a good non-stick pan and you don't even need to butter the pan (unless you want to).

 

SUNDAY FRENCH TOAST

Serves: 2

approx prep time: 2min

approx cook time: 10min

INGREDIENTS: 

4 Slices of bread (photo is of a french bread loaf, but our personal favorite is Cobs Bread:  white bread loaf)

4 Eggs (Eggs vary depending on how absorbent the bread is)

Toppings:  Fruit, butter Syrup, Cinnamon, or my personal favorite: melted Lindt Bittersweet dark chocolate or Toblerone Dark bars.

Non stick frying pan

HOW TO MAKE IT:

1) Whisk eggs in a wide shallow bowl with a fork.

2) Dip bread in eggs lightly on both sides.

3) Place dipped egg bread into pan and cook each side until golden brown.

4)  Serve with a side of fruit and your french toast topping of choice.

Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes

Scenario:  It's a gloomy Sunday morning, the grey skies cause us to sleep in undisturbed by light, alarm clocks, or annoying fire alarms, and we accidentally wake up at 11am.  The time for breakfast is long over, I mean, even McDonald's stop serving breakfast at 11am, but we're hungry!  What do we do? 

Sunday brunches have long been my favourite occasions.  Past brunches we've made waffles and french toast, but today Nick craved pancakes.  So I went to make them.  Well...I made the batter, and Nick cooked them...I can't take all the credit. 

The buttermilk + baking soda + baking powder made them the lightest, fluffy pancakes we've ever had!  It's not too bad for you either health wise, as the entire recipe only has 2 tablespoons of butter, and if you use a good non-stick skillet, you don't even have to grease the pan. 

This is definitely a Sunday brunch staple from now on.  Served with ripe pineapple, raspberries, blackberries and thick sliced crispy bacon...they make any gloomy day brighter. 

Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes

Serves: 4
makes approximately 22 (3 inch wide) pancakes

approx prep time: 10min

approx cook time: 10min

Ingredients:

1 cup of buttermilk + a bit more for adjustment

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

2 tablespoons butter, melted

2 mixing bowls (small and large)

How to: 

1)      Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small mixing bowl.

2)      Whisk egg and melted butter into 1 cup of buttermilk into the large mixing bowl.

3)      Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and whisk until lumps are gone.  If the batter looks too thick to pour, add more buttermilk until it is a pourable pancake mixture texture.

4)      Heat a large non stick skillet over medium heat.  Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with a spatula, and cook until browned on the other side. 

Serve immediately, with a pat of butter and maple syrup, and side of bacon and fruit.

Modified from original recipe here. 

Breakfast at Raffles Cafe Las Vegas

Food at a Las Vegas conference is disappointing to downright disgusting sometimes. After 6 years of the same yearly conference, I've learned to not even bother going to eat at a conference and just spend the extra money and dine out.

Since Raffles Cafe at Mandalay Bay was close by, myself and my coworker decided to head there for breakfast.

We shared:

Custard french Toast
This was MASSIVE, it was 2 slices of light and fluffy toast that was about 8x8x2 inches with custard filling and then dipped in egg and pan fried. It was really good.  I need to make this at home.

Raffles Exotic Coconut Pancakes
This was okay, it had coconut and mango on it.


Hashbrowns:
Normal - but always a tasty side.