#98 - Breakfast Pizza

It's New Year's Eve, and we still have three recipes to go! That's what happens when you're away from home from Christmas morning until December 30th. Nothing we can do about that now - that's why we're up early making a new breakfast for #98.

Breakfast Pizza

From Smitten Kitchen This is another Smitten Kitchen recipe, and it's one we've been planning on doing all year. Good thing we had this resolution to actually get us to finally make it. So you roll out your dough, and cover it with Parmigiano cheese, mozzarella, and bacon. Then you crack some eggs on top and put the whole thing in the oven. Once it's out of the oven, you top it off with some parsley, scallions, and shallots. Ooooh, this was delicious. The concept of breakfast pizza was always intriguing, and this did not disappoint. The eggs were runny, the scallions and shallots added a lot of flavor and texture, the Parmigiano and mozzarella went incredibly well with the eggs and bacon, and the pizza crust was the perfect alternative for breakfast toast. We can't say enough about this breakfast. Don't wait a year to make this. You don't know what you're missing.

Ingredients

• 1 lb pizza dough
• 3 strips bacon
• 1/4 cup grated Parmigiano cheese
• 1 cup grated mozzarella
• 3 large eggs
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 Tbs flat-leaf parsley, minced
• 1 scallion, thinly sliced
• 1 shallot, minced

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 500 and adjust the rack to the lowest position.
2. Fry the bacon in a large saute pan over medium-high heat until crisp.
3. Cool on a paper towel-lined plate, then roughly chop.
4. On a lightly floured surface, pat the dough into a disc and then carefully stretch it out to form a 12-inch circle.
5. Flour the surface of of a pizza stone and place the stretched dough on it.
6. Sprinkle the dough with the Parmigiano, mozzarella, and bacon.
7. Crack the eggs over the top and season with salt and pepper.
8. Bake the pizza for 8-10 minutes, rotating after 5 minutes.
9. When the crust is golden, the cheese is melted, and the egg yolks are cooked, remove from the oven.
10. Sprinkle the parsley, scallions, and shallots on top.
11. Let stand for 2 minutes, slice, and serve immediately.

#88 - Breakfast Biscuit Sandwich

If you take the best part of breakfast - the eggs, cheese, and meat - and you take the best part of lunch - the sandwich - and you put them together, then you're on to something.

Breakfast Biscuit Sandwich

From Food & Wine This is a ham, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich on a biscuit. If you don't have ham, we suppose bacon will be just as good. Or better. So you start out with the biscuits, making the biscuit dough, rolling it out, and baking for half an hour. Once those are ready, you cut them open and heat them with a little butter while you're frying up an egg. These sandwiches were definitely tasty. They were kinda hard to assemble because you want to make it right when the egg is finished and melting the cheese on the biscuit is a tough feat.

They also were kinda hard to eat. These might have been better as an open face sandwich because the biscuits are a little big, and that's a lot of bread for one egg. But for flavor, the biscuits were really delicious, and if you can get the proportions right, it tasted great with the ham, egg, and cheese. If you want a breakfast sandwich or you just want to learn how to make biscuits, you'll find what you're looking for below:

Ingredients

• 4 cups flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 1/2 Tbs salt
• 1 1/2 Tbs baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, cubed and chilled, plus more for spreading
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 10 oz sliced ham
• 10 oz sliced cheddar cheese
• 10 fried eggs

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 400 and position the racks in the upper and lower thirds.
2. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
4. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut the butter until it is the size of small peas.
5. Add the buttermilk and stir until a shaggy dough forms.
6. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface.
7. Knead until it comes together.
8. Pat the dough 3/4-inch thick.
9. Using a 3 1/2-inch round cutter, stamp out as many biscuits as possible.
10. Reroll the scraps and stamp out more biscuits.
11. Transfer the biscuits to the baking sheets.
12. Bake for about 30 minutes, until golden and risen, shifting the pans halfway through baking.
13. Let the biscuits cool.
14. Split the biscuits and spread with butter.
15. Preheat a griddle and cook the biscuits, cut side down, until golden.
16. Fill the biscuits with ham, cheddar, and fried eggs; close and serve.

#87 - Banana-Pecan Bread

Besides the chorizo strata, we also made this new recipe for Emily's aunts and uncles - banana-pecan bread.

Banana-Pecan Bread

From Sophia Renda This is the third recipe that we've tried from Emily's cousins. The first two - Celina's coffee cake and Tessa's zucchini bread - were big successes, and we expect nothing less from Sophia's banana-pecan bread. How could it not be though? Look at the tasty ingredients.

There are chopped pecans. And ripe bananas. And those two ingredients are delicious no matter how they're prepared. But look at this bread! This thing was delicious. We're big fans of all sweet breakfasty breads, we're big fans of bananas and pecans, and this was the perfect combination of all of the above. Need a new addition for a family brunch? Make this. And invite us over.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 6 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 cup pecans, finely chopped

Preparation

1. Grease 2 loaf pans and set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 325.
3. Cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.
5. Sift together the salt, flour, and baking soda.
6. Incorporate the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture.
7. Stir in the bananas and chopped pecans.
8. Pour mixture into the two greased loaf pans.
9. Bake for 1 hour an 15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean.

#86 - Chorizo Breakfast Strata

Today, we had some of Emily's aunts and uncles over for brunch, and so we had to take the opportunity to cook up some new breakfast recipes. One of which was this chorizo strata.

Chorizo Breakfast Strata

Adapted from Bon Appetit We made a strata once before - remember the bacon, egg, and cheese one from March? Well this one takes the flavor profile of a couple of our other breakfasts - chorizo and eggs. And the steps are pretty much what you'd expect: Cook the chorizo and set on paper towels.Layer the chorizo with bread, cheese, and an egg and milk combo. Top it off with the last of the bread and cheese, and bake. This was an okay strata. It has chorizo and egg and cheese, and it's baked, so it has to be good. But we feel like if we want to have a strata, we'd prefer the other one we mentioned earlier, and if wanted chorizo, we'd prefer the quiche or just chorizo con huevo.

So while this was tasty, we probably won't be making it again anytime soon due to even tastier alternatives. If you feel like giving this a shot, here's how to do it.

Ingredients

• 1 lb chorizo sausage, casing removed
• 2 1/2 cups whole milk
• 5 large eggs
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 6 1/2-inch slices sourdough bread, crusts trimmed
• 1 3/4 cups Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

Preparation

1. Butter an 8-cup baking dish.
2. Saute the chorizo in a large skillet over medium-low heat until cooked through, about 15 minutes.
3. Using a slotted spoon, remove chorizo to a plate lined with paper towels and drain well.
4. Whisk milk, eggs, cumin, salt, and pepper in a large bowl to blend.
5. Place 2 bread slices in the bottom of the prepared pan.
6. Sprinkle with 3/4 cup cheese and half of the chorizo.
7. Pour 1/3 of the egg mixture on top.
8. Repeat layering with 2 slices of bread, 3/4 cup cheese, and remaining chorizo.
9. Pour half of remaining egg mixture over.
10. Top with 2 bread slices.
11. Pour remaining egg mixture over and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup cheese.
12. Cover and chill overnight.
13. Preheat oven to 350.
14. Bake strata uncovered until puffed and golden, about 55 minutes.
15. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

#82 - Perfect Blueberry Muffins

We've kind making a lot of Food & Wine / Bon Appetit recipes lately, but as you know, we're big Smitten Kitchen fans, so we decided that this time we'd go back to her site and pick out another one of her recipes to make.

Perfect Blueberry Muffins

From Smitten Kitchen We're making blueberry muffins this morning, so the recipe calls for both muffin-related ingredients and blueberries. This was a pretty simple recipe, so instead of boring you with the steps, we'll just show you the pictures. These were some pretty tasty blueberry muffins. Were they as perfect as the name suggests?

Um.... maybe?

They were easy to make, and they came out nice and fluffy and blueberry-y and sweet but not too sweet. Pretty much all you can ask for in a blueberry muffin. If you're looking for a simple breakfast, these are worth the half an hour to prepare.

Ingredients

• 5 Tbs unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 cup plain yogurt or sour cream
• 1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup blueberries

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Line a muffin tin with 10 paper liners.
3. Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
4. Add the egg and beat well, then add the yogurt and zest.
5. Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a sifter and sift half of the dry ingredients over the batter.
6. Mix until combined.
7. Sift remaining dry ingredients into batter and mix just until the flour disappears.
8. Gently fold in the blueberries into the batter.
9. Fill each muffin tin about 3/4 full with an ice cream scoop.
10. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the tops are golden and a tester inserted into the center of muffins comes out clean.
11. Let cool slightly on a rack before serving.

#79 - Super-Stuffed French Toast

We watch a lot of Food Network. One show we kind of watch (Johnny didn't watch this season) is The Next Food Network Star. The first season that we watched ended up with Aaron McCargo, Jr. winning his own show, Big Daddy's House. We watched the premier, and thought that one of his breakfast recipes sounded pretty good. It only took us three years to try it out ourselves.

Super-Stuffed French Toast

From Big Daddy's House So this is a French toast recipe, but before pan frying them, you take two slices, put some fruit filling in between them, and make a little sandwich. We have canned cherries and apples, the stuff usually used for filling pies. So, you start off with the usual French toast ingredients - eggs, cream, vanilla, and cinnamon. But before dipping that bread, make a little pocket, and fill with the fruit. Then you dip the whole thing in the egg wash, cook on a griddle. and top with some powdered sugars.These were a nice new breakfast option for us, as we've never made French toast before. But except for the filling, which kinda got lost in the middle, the French toast weren't as sweet as we would have liked. So maybe having a different recipe for the toast but keeping the fruit filling would work a little better. Do you have what it takes to cook like Big Daddy?

Ingredients

• 6 jumbo eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 Tbs vanilla
• 2 Tbs ground cinnamon, plus more for topping
• Salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 12 slices brioche bread, about 1/2-inch thick
• 6 oz apple pie filling
• 6 oz cherry pie filling
• Cooking spray
• Powdered sugar, for topping

Preparation

1. Preheat griddle pan over medium heat.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, cream, vanilla, cinnamon, pinch of salt, and sugar until well combined.
3. Lay 6 slices of the bread out and lightly brush egg mixture around the edges.
4. Press a "pocket" in the middle of each slice of bread for the filling.
5. Heap 2 Tbs of apple or cherry pie filling in the middle of each bread pocket.
6. Take the remaining 6 slices of bread and brush the edges with egg mixture.
7. Place pieces of top of the bread with filling and seal the edges with the fingers.
8. Dip stuffed bread in the egg mixture and place on sprayed griddle.
9. Cook for 6 to 8 minutes, turning once, until lightly browned.
10. Sprinkle with cinnamon and powdered sugar.

#71 - Zucchini Bread

We already talked about our Joy of Cooking book with the personalized recipes on the cover from when we made Celina's coffee cake. Now it's time to try out Tessa's recipe.

Zucchini Bread

From Tessa Piantadosi Tessa shared her recipe for zucchini bread with us, so since we had some of those lying around, we thought it was a good time to give it a shot. We also thought it was a good time to start taking better care of our vegetables instead of just leaving them lying around like that. The first step to this recipe is to mix all of the ingredients.

It's not pretty. But it gets much prettier when you add the shredded zucchini and get it all well-mixed. See what we mean? Those Renda cousins know their cakes! Two for two. This zucchini bread was sweet and delicious and even though we made it at night for a little dessert, this will definitely be a wonderful breakfast in the morning. If you have zucchini lying around, either put it away where it belongs or use it to make this bread.

Ingredients

• 3 cups flour
• 2 cups zucchini, shredded
• 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 Tbs baking powder
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 4 eggs

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Spray 12-cup star-shaped bundt cake pan with cooking spray.
3. Mix all ingredients with a spoon until well blended.
4. Pour mixture into prepared pan.
5. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 44-45 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
7. Turn pan upside down onto wire rack and remove pan.
8. Let cool completely on wire rack, about 1 hour.

#70 - Cornbread

Cornbread is delicious. If you want to eat cornbread as often as possible (and who doesn't?), you have to know how to make it yourself. Here's our shot at it.

Cornbread

From The New York Times We like our cornbread to be more on the sweet side rather than savory, and so we scoured the Internet for recipes and finally settled on this one from The New York Times. To get started, you melt some butter in the pan you're going to cook the whole thing in, and then you start mixing the cornmeal and other dry ingredients. You add some eggs and milk, and then you pour the batter into the melted butter. Then you put the whole thing in the oven for half an hour. Overall, this recipe was pretty good. The original recipe called for 1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar, and we went with the half cup, and it still wasn't as sweet as it could have been. It was also a little grittier than we'd like, and that might have had to do with the choice of cornmeal. So while it may not be the best cornbread we've ever had, it was still tasty, and maybe we could learn to adjust it a bit to make it just right. If you want to try cornbread at home, this deserves a shot.

Ingredients

• 4 Tbs butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups medium-grind cornmeal
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups milk, more if needed

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Put butter in an 8-inch square baking pan, and place pan in oven.
3. Meanwhile, combine dry ingredients in a bowl.
4. Mix eggs into milk, then stir this mixture into dry ingredients, combining with a few swift strokes.
5. If mixture seems dry, add another Tbs or two of milk.
6. When butter and oven are hot, remove pan from oven.
7. Pour batter into pan and smooth out top.
8. Return pan to oven, and bake until top is lightly browned and sides have pulled away from pan, about 30 minutes.
9. Remove from oven and serve hot.