Food

This is something my mom made occasionally on weekends for breakfast. We loved it! She got a recipe from a friend visiting California from Bulgaria. And we usually served it with cut up fresh peaches or strawberries.

Honey Puff Pancake for 4

Ingredients
1 c milk
1 c flour
6 eggs
zest of one lemon
1/2 tsp. salt
4 T. honey
1/2 tsp. baking powder
4 oz cream cheese
3 T. butter

Serve with:
* Lemon cut up into quarters
* powdered sugar
* strawberries, peaches or other fruit, dusted with a tiny bit of powered sugar to bring out the juices

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Put milk, eggs, lemon zest, honey, salt, flour, cream cheese and baking powder into a blender.
3. Blend at high for about 2 minutes.
4. Scrape sides and blend again for another minute.
5. Put 8 or 9" cast iron skillet into oven until hot, then add butter to melt.
6. Pull out the pan, swish the butter around.
7. Pour the batter from the blender into the pan.
8. Bake 25 minutes, until puffed and golden brown.
9. While the pancake is baking, pull together the toppings in little bowls:
lemon wedges, powered sugar and in a larger bowl, cut up fruit.

Pancake is like a souffle and will fall some after being removed from the oven, but don't worry. Set the table. Get everything ready, including having a hot pad on the table, so you can immediately serve it. Slice the pancake into about 8 slices and serve with the toppings. I like to poke (with a fork) a few times into the middle of the the slice of pancake. Then squeeze lemon, then dust with powered sugar, then put the fruit on top.

Posted by Mary Hodder at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When you want to have a nice breakfast on a weekend, these are light (half whipped egg whites!) and very special. We keep blueberries (purchased from the farmer's market during the height of summer season) along with organic low fat ricotta, purchased at the occasional sale, in the freezer. Then in the winter on a weekend, when you have time to hang around and enjoy them, you're ready to go and it's easy.

Ricotta Blueberry Pancakes (via my mom)

3 organic eggs, separated
1 tsp. baking powder
Pinch salt
zest from one lemon (prefer meyer, but you need a fine plane zester to avoid the pith, but it tastes deliciou)
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 lb. organic lowfat Ricotta cheese
2/3 c. organic milk
1/2 c. organic flour

reserve for cooking:
1 cup organic blueberries

Separate eggs and beat whites until stiff. In another bowl, mix other ingredients well. Fold in egg whites. Cook on hot griddle as for any pancake turning when bubbles. Place about 6 - 8 blueberries around each pancake. Cover top with a tiny bit more batter. Turn and cook until center is light but firm.

Serve hot with real maple syrup or cinnamon sugar hot off the griddle. These don't keep, even for 5 minutes. These are very light pancakes! Recipe may be doubled.

Posted by Mary Hodder at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So.. I know what you're thinking. Granola, like Hippie Do Berkeley 60's tie-died granola? No.. this is a bit more hip, gourmet, delicious and yet you can still have it for breakfast and not really need lunch until say, 2 or 3pm.

I like it because it's got all the goodies but costs the same to make as that overly sweet, overly fatted but not very interesting organic granola from Whole Foods or Trader Joe's.

Granola

Dry Ingredients:
4 cups thick whole rolled oats
1 cup flax seeds (golden or brown or mix)
1 cup wheatgerm or coconut flour (optional)
1 1/2 cups pumpkin seeds (or some kind of seed, could be sunflower seeds)
8 oz slivered almonds (Trader Joe's sells an 8oz pkg)
1/2 cup (packed) brown sugar
2 Ts Nutmeg
1 teasp. salt

Wet Ingredients:
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup EV olive oil (I use one that is pressed with oranges when the press the olives.. gives an added orange oil flavor)
1/2 cup water
2 Tablespoons Vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray or lightly oil a 22" x 15" x 1" cookie sheet or pan large enough to hold about 10 cups of granola by the end of it.

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Bring wet ingredients to a low simmer in a pan, then pour over the dry ingredients, mix well. Spread the mixture evenly into the pan. Bake for 30 minutes.

Turn the mixture carefully. Add (up to) about 5 cups of some mix of extras evenly across the cookie sheet and turn the whole mixture again. Bake for 15 more minutes. Cool. Makes about 8 cups granola.

Goodies:
2 cups walnuts or pecans or cashews or hazelnuts or brazilnuts or almonds -- chopped or broken up
2 cups cacao nibs (I get these at Whole Foods .. organic at $6.99 a 1/2 lb)
2 cups dried fruits: cherries, golden raisins, cranberries, plums, peaches, apricots, pears, white figs, dates, prunes -- chop up larger things like dried figs or apricots or plums into quarters
1 cup dried or fresh coconut meat (large shreds are sold at the Berkeley Bowl as well)

Good flavor ideas (I buy all this stuff organic at either the Berkeley Bowl or Whole Foods or Trader Joe's:
Sour Cherries - Chocolate (cacao nibs) - Pecan or Walnut
Figs - Chocolate (cacao nibs) - Walnut
Plums - Coconut - Cashew or Almond
Golden Raisins - Apricot - Pecans or Hazelnuts
Fig - Coconut - Brazilnuts or Almond
Cranberries - Chocolate (cacao nibs) - Pecans

Note: the mix in the picture is Sour Cherries, Cacao Nibs and Pecans.

Posted by Mary Hodder at 07:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)