One of our Favorite Fall Breakfast Treats

Once Labor Day passes it seems the mornings instantly get cooler and the days get a little shorter.  Although we love those hot summer days, there is nothing like a crisp fall morning in Maine, especially when paired with your favorite warm breakfast and cup of coffee.  Here is one of our favorite recipes to make this time of year - Maple Applesauce Coffee Cake - enjoy!

Maple Applesauce Coffee Cake
Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground clove
• 1/2 cup pecans, plus 2 tablespoons, chopped & toasted
• 2 cups Stonewall Kitchen Maple Applesauce (our Product of the Month for September - save 10% in stores and online)

For the Maple Glaze

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 cup Stonewall Kitchen Maine Maple Syrup
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1-2 teaspoons milk, if needed

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour a 10 cup Bundt Pan (or two 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pans)
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter with sugars on medium speed for 3-4 minutes, until light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping down sides when necessary.  Add vanilla.
4. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices together.  Slowly add flour mixture to mixer on low.  Mix until incorporated.  Fold in raisins, 1/2 cup toasted pecans and Maple Applesauce until uniform - do not over mix.
5. Place batter in prepared pan(s).  Bake 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Remove from oven and cool on rack 15 minutes.  Gently remove coffee cake from pan and cool completely.
6. Combine glaze ingredients in a medium bowl.  Add milk if needed.  Drizzle glaze over coffee cake and garnish with 2 tablespoons toasted pecans.  Serve.

Adorable Mini Pancake Stacks

In honor of National Pancake Day, we have created these adorable mini pancake stacks using some of our favorite products.  These are easily created using our pancake & waffle mixes.  Simply prepare the pancake mix according to the directions and spoon 3/4 tsp of batter onto the griddle, resulting in mini pancakes about the size of a quarter.  Stack them four high, top with a topping of your choice, add a little garnish, insert a toothpick through the middle and serve!

Buttermilk Pancake Mini Stacks

These adorable brunch-style stacks use our new Buttermilk Pancake & Waffle Mix, Lemon Curd, fresh berries, a mint leaf and a quick dusting of powdered sugar.  These would be great served at a wedding or baby shower or any weekend brunch.

Double Chocolate Raspberry Mini Stacks

Pancakes for dessert?  You bet! We used our Double Chocolate Pancake & Waffle Mix topped with a dollop of our Chocolate Raspberry Jam, fresh raspberries and a little powdered sugar for an easy bite-sized dessert.


Here are some other great combinations to try;

• Maple Pancakes topped with a small piece of bacon and a drizzle of Maine Maple Syrup
• Blueberry Pancakes topped with fresh blueberries and a little Wild Maine Blueberry Syrup
• Strawberry Pancakes topped with Chocolate Strawberry Jam and fresh strawberries
• Gluten Free Pancakes topped with your favorite flavored jam and/or syrup

What would your favorite combination be?

Have You Tried?...Cinnamon Caramel Monkey Bread

After hearing about the amazing flavors of one of our newest mixes, Cinnamon Caramel Monkey Bread, I decided to test it at home. And I must say, it is fantastic.

Since this mix requires using yeast, you must allow enough time for the dough to rise to give it a nice texture. If you are planning to bake this bread as a breakfast treat, you should probably, either make it the night before and warm it up in the oven in the morning, or save it for brunch or dessert. Overall this Monkey Bread mix took me about two and a half hours to three hours to create but - I am being totally honest here - it was completely worth it.



The first thing you have to do is purchase our Stonewall Kitchen Cinnamon Caramel Monkey Bread Mix which can be found at any of our nine East Coast Company Stores or on our website here.

On the back of the box there is a list of the ingredients you will need as well as step-by-step directions. Here is a combined list of ingredients you should grab from the store or your pantry before you start.

Unsalted butter (2 sticks)
Milk
Egg (you will only need 1)
Half & Half (for the caramel, milk works just fine as well)

You will find three packets inside the box; the bread mix, the cinnamon sugar mix, and a packet of yeast.

To start we will make the bread. You will need:

¼ cup lukewarm water
1 large egg
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
½ cup lukewarm milk

Pour the yeast it into a small bowl of lukewarm water. Stir to combine, set aside and let stand for 5 minutes.

Pour the bread mix into a stand mixer bowl (or a regular mixing bowl if you do not have a stand mixer). A waft of nutmeg will dazzle your senses as the mix falls into the bowl. The scent reminded me of a fresh glass of egg nog.




Add the yeast/water mixture, egg, melted butter and lukewarm milk to the bread mix.

Take a spoon and mix by hand to combine the ingredients.

Attach a dough hook to your mixer and knead on medium speed until the dough forms into a ball, then continue for 3 more minutes. However, if you are like me and do not own a stand mixer, you can knead by hand for about ten minutes.

Now place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap and place in a draft- free warm place for an hour. I keep my apartment pretty chilly so I turned my oven on to its lowest setting (170°F) let it warm up, then turned it off and let my dough set for an hour. It really helps because yeast needs to be warm (about 100°F to activate) so you can achieve perfect textured breads and pastries.

After putting your dough away to set, grease and flour a 10" Bundt pan. If you do not own a bundt pan (like me) you can get a pack of two aluminum ones at your local supermarket.

After about an hour it is onto the coating! For this part of the recipe you only need:

2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Pour ¼ cup of the cinnamon sugar topping into a small bowl. Take your dough and roll it out onto a lightly floured board, into a ½" round.

Next cut your dough into quarters.

Take each quarter and roll it into a tube shape, about 1" in diameter. Then cut each into twelve equal pieces.

Roll each piece into a ball and coat in the cinnamon sugar you set aside.

After coating each piece layer them into the Bundt pan.

Then slowly pour the cooled, melted butter over the dough balls, so each one is covered. Follow this by placing the Bundt pan back into that warm, draft free space for an hour or until the balls have doubled in size.

Now for the oozy, gooey, sticky, luscious, yummy, cinnamon caramel. For this you will need:

4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 Tbsp. water
¼ cup milk or half & half

To start preheat your oven to 350°F. Then place the remaining cinnamon sugar into a small sauce pan. Add butter and water. Cook over medium heat until butter and dry mix melt together.

Now add the milk or half & half and continue to heat until the mixture boils.

Remove from heat and slowly pour over the cinnamon caramel over the monkey bread. If you have extra caramel put it into a container and put it in your fridge. It tastes fabulous warm over vanilla ice cream.

Time to bake! Place your bundt pan into the oven and bake for 30-33 minutes. If you are using a aluminum bundt pan I would highly recommend putting a cake pan or tray below it just to support the pan.

After baking, remove and let bread sit in pan for five minutes.

After five minutes remove bread from pan and flip onto a plate or serving platter. Beware though, there is hot melting, lovely caramel at the bottom of the pan, so as you are removing the monkey bread make sure all the caramel is out of the bottom. It is after all, what makes it a monkey bread.

There it is, your beautifully delicious Monkey Bread. I would let it sit for another five minutes before you dig in since the interior will still be hot.

Cinnamon sugar fills each bite, followed by a surge of nutmeg and other spices. The texture is fluffy but chewy with a nice caramel accent. And speaking of the caramel, you would think with the amount drizzled onto the bread, it would be overpowering, but it is not. It is the perfect balance of sweetness and spice. I would recommend this mix for your Easter or Mother's Day brunch.

Until next time. Enjoy!

11-3-10 Wordless Wednesday

http://bit.ly/9Bo5JM

Can I get the recipe?

This post is inspired by our Facebook fans Cyndy & Heather who were asking about scone recipes from scratch. These Apple and Apricot Buttermilk Scones are from our 2009 Breakfast cookbook published by Chronicle Books. So yes ladies, you CAN have the recipe. Enjoy!

Easter Eggs

I'd like to apologize in advance for the shameless, horrible egg puns that I'm inevitably going to shell out over the course of this blog.

I thought I'd tackle one of the simplest, yet most vexing everyday challenges of the home kitchen: perfectly boiling an egg.

Nearly every basic cookbook offers conflicting techniques on how it should be done—start the egg in cold water, or gently lower it into boiling water; add vinegar to the water to lower its pH, or add baking soda to the water to raise it; cover the pot, don't cover the pot; use old eggs, or use new eggs, and on and on—but very few offer evidence as to why any one of these techniques should work any better than your average old wives' tale. Apparently, boiling is not...ahem...an eggs-act science.

What Factors Matter When Boiling Eggs?

Age of the Eggs - "Old eggs are for boiling, fresh eggs are for frying," is what my mother told me. Well, it's true...to a degree. As anyone who's had fresh-from the hen eggs will tell you, they do fry up beautifully, giving you tall, tall yolks, and tight whites, and trying to peel a very freshly laid boiled egg is difficult—the inner membrane of the shell has a tendency to stick to the white, giving the peeled egg a pockmarked appearance. But these differences disappear within a few days after the egg has been laid. Since eggs in the supermarket can spend up to 30 days before they even hit the shelf, followed by a further 30 days before they hit their expiration date, the point is pretty much moot. So long as you don't keep your own chickens, you can boil eggs with impunity.

Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs

Hard boiled eggs are a little complicated. The goal is to have both your white and your yolk at the point where they are opaque, but not rubbery. I was taught to place the eggs in cold water, bring them to a simmer, shut off the heat, and wait for a prescribed period of time (about ten minutes).

The best part about using this method is that even if you accidentally forget about your egg and leave it sitting in the water, there is no chance that it will overcook, because by the time the egg is done (about ten minutes), the water temperature has dropped far enough that the egg will stop cooking.. But for most practical purposes, this will deliver perfect hard boiled eggs every time.

Perfect eggs, but the yolk's on me—all this egg boiling has left me fried.

Or you could just use our electric egg cooker . . . .

Have a great deviled eggs recipe? Please share with us!

Happy Pancake Day

We love holidays that give us a good excuse to eat lots of pancakes and International Pancake Day does just that. It takes place every year on Shrove Tuesday, aka Fat Tuesday. This holiday goes back several centuries when the English prepped for fasting during Lent. Back in the day the strict rules prohibited people from eating dairy products during Lent. Therefore pancakes were made to use up all the eggs, milk and butter before the fasting season of the 40 days of Lent.

On Pancake Day, pancake races are held in villages and towns across the United Kingdom. The tradition is said to have originated when a housewife from Olney was so busy making pancakes that she forgot the time until she heard the church bells ringing for the service. She raced out of the house for church while carrying her frying pan and pancake in hand. Since that day in 1445, the women of Olney have continued to race on Pancake Day.

When the town of Liberal, KS heard about the annual events in Olney, the women of Liberal challenged the women of Olney Buckinghamshire England . For the past 61 years, the women of the two towns have competed. They wear the traditional dress, apron and scarf, while carrying and flipping a pancake in a skillet along a 415-yard S-shaped course. To me the hardest part of the competition would be carrying the pan. My set of All Clad pans work great for cooking, but to carry it 415 yards while running seems impossible. The fastest runner is said to receive the "Kiss of Peace" from the Verger or Bell Ringer in the Church. To date the women of Liberal are ahead 34 victories to Olney's 25.

As much fun as that competition sounds, we have something a little more subdued. In honor of International Pancake Day we would like to offer the first 5 people who comment on this blog post a free 16oz Farmhouse Pancake and Waffle Mix.

Frozen Pancakes

Have you promised yourself to eat breakfast this year? Even though I confess I was well into my thirties before I mastered the breakfast habit, I was surprised at the number of comments from people who confessed that they rarely (if ever) eat breakfast. Everyone knows they “should” eat breakfast, many people just don't manage to fit it into their busy morning routine. Below is a great way to enjoy pancakes or waffles on the fly.

A breakfast tip from my niece. Make a bunch of pancakes on the weekend, let them cool, and then stack them with a sheet of wax paper between each. Finally wrap the stacks in plastic bags, label and freeze. To serve: Put the frozen pancake in the toaster and toast once or heat briefly under a broiler or in a toaster-oven. Our Farmhouse Pancake and Waffle Mix

A Simple Breakfast - Perfect for the holidays!

At this time of year, I often have guests staying over—and at my house, that means making sure that everyone is well fed. But with a full house, I usually shy away from cooking anything too complicated. (The pressure!)

This weekend I was inspired by a recipe that I stumbled across while thumbing through our Stonewall Kitchen Breakfast cookbook: (it's on sale too) Provencal Style Baked Eggs in ramekins. The ingredient list couldn’t be shorter: olive oil, scallions, thyme or basil, tomato, favorite hard cheese, eggs and cream. You just add the tomato mixture (scallions, thyme, tomato) sprinkle with cheese, add an egg, a little more cheese, and a little more tomato mixture. The trick is not overcooking the eggs, but otherwise, it really couldn’t have been easier. And you can add other fun flavors to the ramekins, if you like (I put in some sautéed artichoke hearts, zucchini or peppers right before adding the eggs.) Served with toast on the side, the dish was simple, but really special.

So I think this is my new drop-dead easy yet elegant breakfast dish (Now what about lunch and dinner? Hmmmm.) It'll be making its second appearance at Christmas. In the meantime, I’d love some more inspiration for super-fast yet impressive recipes, so please post your ideas.