apples « (y)our food choices™

It’s Sunday morning, and there’s no better reason to sleep in. With little to do this morning, and with breakfast being a quick and easy fix, why wake up and spend the time cooking? Yesterday, I made a batch of waffles while Steve fried up some bacon. We had plenty left over and we even reserved the pan the bacon was fried in so we could sauté some pears and apples in the leftover fond. Our breakfast yesterday was a simple waffle and bacon with maple syrup. This morning though, we upped the ante for brunch with a sauté of apple and pear, a couple of waffles, crumbled bacon, with a drizzle of maple syrup and yogurt topped with blood orange segments on the side. It was such a feast we definitely needed to take a long walk in the park to work off some of the calories.

Saturday’s Simple Breakfast: Waffles and Bacon

I used Bittman’s quick buttermilk waffle recipe from How to Cook Everything, substituting ½ of the flour with whole wheat flour to make it a little healthy. Frying the bacon is a pretty easy thing to do. The only thing to remember is patience. You’ll want to render the bacon slowly so it doesn’t burn. A quick tip we picked up from America’s Test Kitchen is to roll each slice individually and then freeze the rolled slices for a latter use. This way you can purchase a large quantity of bacon and always have it on hand. If you own a microwave oven just pop a few slices in and defrost. If you’re like us, and don’t own one, just place the frozen bacon rolls in the pan on very low heat. As they defrost, unroll using two forks. It’s a bit time consuming but it’s well worth the effort.

Blood Orange Yogurt

After the bacon is cooked, pour the grease in a small ceramic container for later use. Never pour hot grease in a plastic container. (It’s great to fry potatoes in, or sauté onions, or substitute the grease for anything that you would normally fry in butter.) Add a little butter to the pan and sauté a couple apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, or chopped pineapple (whatever fresh fruit is in season that goes well with bacon). Allow the fruit to brown slightly and soften.

Enjoy your breakfast with the Sunday paper and a cup of coffee. It’s Sunday after all and there’s no better day to relax and indulge.

Cheers!

Jason & Steve

Rich Buttermilk Waffles (from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything)

2 cups all-purpose flour (or up to half whole-wheat, graham, rye, buckwheat, etc.)
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 ¾ cups buttermilk or 1 ½ cups sour cream or plain yogurt thinned with ¼ milk
2 eggs, separated
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, melted and cooled
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Canola or other neutral oil for brushing on waffle iron

Preheat the waffle iron and brush lightly with oil.

Combine all the dry ingredients. Mix together the buttermilk and egg yolks. Sir in the cooled butter and vanilla. Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients. Whisk the egg whites to form soft peaks. Gently fold the egg whites, in two parts, into the waffle batter.

Depending on the size of the waffles, use an ice cream scoop or ladle to add enough batter to fill the waffle maker, but not too much so that it oozes out the sides. Cook for 3-5 minutes and keep the waffles warm in the oven.

The waffles can also be cooked, cooled, and frozen for a quick and easy breakfast any day of the week.

Ah, Sunday! Sleep in, wake up to a steaming cup of coffee and J’s unbelievable muesli pancakes. We’ve developed our own muesli blend and we think it puts all others to shame. This wonder mix acts as the base of the pancake batter. The resultant pancakes are rich, moist, fluffy yet substantial, full of flavor and extraordinarily nutritious. Think whole grains, dried berries, a variety of raw nuts and a couple of nut meals, flax seed and flax meal … you get the picture (below). We’ve been eating this muesli for a couple of years now. Our typical consumption is fairly straight forward: a half cup of the muesli mix and enough kefir to make it soupy goes into the fridge the night before. By morning, the mix has thickened and the rolled grains have softened. With a little chopped fresh fruit of whatever variety, this breakfast is complete.

J adapted a great America’s Test Kitchen whole grain pancake recipe to include our homemade muesli. The adapted recipe calls for some of the muesli mix to be ground fine in a food processor. The batter includes the ground muesli as well as a bit of whole muesli mix, some whole wheat flour, butter and eggs, milk and yogurt. After the batter rests a while, the pancakes are cooked on our griddle and topped with fruit compote, a little maple syrup or yogurt.

This well-tested pancake recipe never disappoints. The time from prep to table is shorter than you might guess and reminds us that packaged pancake mixes are for the very confused. If you have a box of pancake mix in your pantry, throw it out. Now, clear that space in the cupboard and fill it with a nice hand-mixed batch of muesli. You’ll use it for more than just pancakes, but this breakfast treat is a perfect place to start!

– Steve

Muesli Pancakes

[Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated, by Matthew Card. The official recipe is only available to premium subscribers.]

I usually hate pancakes. And don’t even get me started on Bisquick® pancake mix or the kind that you find at Denny’s or any of the chain diners. They’re usually gummy and bland and soaked in artificial “maple” syrup leaving you needing to brush your teeth and feeling a bit queasy after you eat them.

I found this recipe when I was subscribed to Cook’s Illustrated and I had just discovered my muesli recipe. I now can recite the recipe by heart, that’s how many times I’ve made it. And even though I’ve never made the original Cook’s Illustrated version I think my version is just as good if not better.

1 ½ cups kefir
½ cup whole milk
2 eggs
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups (8 ounces) original muesli mix
¾ cup (3 ¾ ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup (2 ¾ ounces) whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt

Mix the kefir and milk together with the eggs, butter, and vanilla. Set aside. Finely grind the muesli in a food processor, add to a large bowl with the flours, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix dry ingredients together then add the wet ingredients. Mix until fully incorporated. Let the batter sit while you heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add a little vegetable oil to the skillet and a small amount of the batter to test the pan. If it’s too hot reduce the heat, not hot enough, raise the heat. After the heat is sufficient and consistent, add a ladle full of batter 2-3 ounces into the oiled pan. Cook for a few minutes on the first side before flipping them over.

If you have made pancakes before you know the routine. If you’re new to making them it might take a few tries before you get the hang of it. Trust me, its not that hard. The worst thing that can happen is that the pancakes get smooched together or fall on the floor. If they fall on the floor, pick them up and brush them off, if your floor is clean, or throw them away if you have a dirty floor. These pancakes freeze wonderfully and make a great weekday breakfast that’s just as quick as a bowl of cereal and milk. Give them a try and let us know what you think of them.

– Jason