Category — Bread, Biscuit, + Dough Recipes

I know what you’re thinking: cake? For breakfast? I say yes, yes, unequivocally yes. If it helps, you can think of it as a giant blueberry pancake. It’s just the thing for a lazy summer Sunday, and is so full of berries that it’s practically health food.

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We have been getting the most gorgeous strawberries from a local farm stand out near Petaluma. In fact, we bought a 3-pack on Sunday morning and they were gone within a few hours. We stopped back at the stand for a full flat that afternoon, and after eating, sharing, and cooking pounds and pounds of strawberries for 24 hours – by Monday night they had all somehow disappeared.

One of the best things to come out of this strawberry extravaganza was these brown butter shortcakes. With the strawberries baked right into the fluffy, slightly sweet biscuits, all you need is a little ice cream or whipped cream and you’re good to go.

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This blog has been on a serious sweet streak lately – and when I look back, I see I haven’t posted anything savory here since January! Let me get back in the good graces of those who love salt and butter more than sugar and chocolate with these delicious, flaky, buttery scones with cheddar and green onions.

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I have a sister who’s lactose intolerant – she just can’t do the cow’s milk dairy. So I try my best to make things that she can eat and we can all enjoy. Ergo, duck fat biscuits with chives. Regardless of your relationship with lactose – these are a winner.

Duck fat is perhaps the finest fat there is, and in biscuits it really sings. I found a recipe (British, naturally) and did some adaptation and experimentation to get it just right. Since the original recipe called for milk, I substituted sheep’s milk yogurt which provides a little tang and is still fully allowable for those who can’t handle bovine products. You can serve these with tomato jam, some fresh honey, or just a big pat of butter.

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And now I present an old-fashioned recipe  from the inimitable Miz Crocker that manages to combine sausage, cheese, and Bisquick in a pretty delicious (yet a tiny bit disgusting) way – a BALL.

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And now for something completely different: the GINGERBREAD CASBAH.

The gingerbread casbah came into being because every year, we throw a themed Christmas party for around 100 of our closest friends. Since we just took a honeymoon to the Middle East, we thought we could try out some new tricks at a Middle East-themed Christmas party. After all, that is where the whole Christmas thing started, right? An evite full of bad puns later (“we are Beiruting for you to come”, and so forth) we had our “Christmas at the Casbah” party ready to go, and all we needed was an impressive centerpiece.

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I have been really busy lately, but one of the bright spots of my recent days was making this cornbread and then eating it all.

Cornbread can be too sweet or too mealy or too dry or too boring, but this cornbread is none of those things. I’m guessing it’s largely because of the copious amounts of bacon and bacon grease that go into it, but there could be other reasons. I like it warm out of the oven or lightly toasted. With all the fat in it, even I don’t need to put butter on it… and that’s saying quite a lot since I like to put butter on EVERYTHING. But it’s not solely enhanced by the pig products- it’s rounded out with caramelized onions and a measure of parmesan cheese just for the heck of it. So swine up your cornbread- one bite and you will wonder why you have spent all these years eating stupid regular non-porked cornbread.

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My friend Lori raved about a french toast panini she had at a restaurant in the Hamptons,  called the Elvis. She described it as “2 slices of french toast peanut butter and bananas inside, smooshed together in a panini press.” I was sold on the idea, and she had just had a baby so I was trying to be nice and stuff because having a baby is hard. So I offered to try and recreate it, with a few twists of course.

This is a pretty heavy dish, obviously- sweet and filling. It’s definitely more of a Sunday brunch than a 7 AM weekday kind of thing. Mostly because you’ll go into a food coma after eating it and might need to lie down.

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I made Heidi’s Salt-Kissed Buttermilk Cake from 101Cookbooks last week, and want to encourage you to try it! The cake came out incredibly moist and delicious, and was easy to make.

I made it as a dessert, which was OK, but I think it would be an absolute knock-out for brunch. Next time I’m going to cover the entire top with berries. I used big smooshy blackberries and wished I had one in every bite!

I love banana bread, but sometimes it’s a little ho-hum. I spiced this one up by incorporating coconut milk and fresh ginger, which add moistness as well as a subtle but delicious flavor.

I made the banana bread to serve at the clothing swap I recently hosted. If you’ve never done one, I highly recommend it! This tanking economy is the perfect time and place for you to swap clothes with your friends, because you get to clean out your closet and give to charity while picking up some new duds for yourself- all for free. This time around I scored a bunch of great items, including a pair of jeans that fit perfectly, a super-hawt Marimekko-ish FCUK top, and an adorable pair of Marc Jacobs heels with little hearts all over them. For info on how to host a clothing swap, check out this handy guide from RookieMoms.

Coconut-Kissed Banana Bread
makes 1 loaf

Ingredients:

• 6 T soft butter
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup lightly packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 ripe bananas
• ½ c coconut milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp fresh grated ginger
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup oat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• large pinch salt
• ¼ cup toasted coconut*

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
• Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about three minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time and combine completely after each addition.
• Add bananas, coconut milk, vanilla, and ginger and mix to combine.
• Add dry ingredients and mix just until blended. Don’t overmix. Fold in coconut.
• Pour into a lightly greased loaf pan and bake about 1 hour, until a toothpick comes out clean.
• Cool on a rack. Serve warm if possible.

* to toast coconut: spread out on a parchment-covered sheet. Toast in 350 degree oven just until it begins to brown, about 3-6 minutes. Keep a close eye on it as it can go from raw to burnt very quickly!