Fabulous French Toast

So I got this new cookbook the other day and this was the first recipe that I just had to try. Brenan finally had a day off so I woke him up with this for breakfast. I only had sandwich bread on hand, but thick bread is a must for this french toast. I also halved the recipe and it still made enough for the two of us (we each had 3 pieces).

French Toast

4 eggs
2/3 cup whole milk
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 slices thick bread (such as Texas toast) -- I found out that this is a MUST
3 tablespoons butter

1. Whisk together eggs, milk, flour, sugar, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl (I use a pie dish because I think it's easier to dip the bread in...)

2. Heat a large cast-iron or nonstick skillet over medium/low heat (don't ignore your heat level, it does need to be at medium-low). When the pan is hot add 1 tablespoon butter. If the butter smokes your pan is too hot.

3. Drop each bread slice into the batter for about 30 seconds per side. Let some of the batter drip off then drop the bread into the buttered pan. Cook each battered bread slice for 90 seconds to 2 minutes per side, or until golden brown. Add more butter to the pan as needed to cook all of the french toast.

*One thing I observed was that the batter seemed to settle in between dippings, so I would recommend re-stirring it each time.

This recipe is supposedly based off of Denny's Fabulous French Toast

Mother's Day flower bouquet

Many moons ago I came across this recipe on Smitten Kitchen and have wanted to try it ever since. I decided to try to use the recipe to make a cookie bouquet for the mom of the fmaily I work for. I may or may not have eaten half of the batch myself.... (not all in one day). Just the ones that didn't stay on the sticks...

Brownie Roll-out Cookies They're like chocolate sugar cookies. To DIE for... I'm suggesting that we swap these out for regular sugar cookies for Christmas plates, they're that good.)

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup lightly salted butter, softened (Deb note: I don’t really see “lightly salted” much these days, so I used one stick salted, one stick unsalted)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

Whisk dry flour, salt and baking powder in bowl and set aside. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa in mixer. Gradually add flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least one hour.

Roll out cookie dough on floured counter.1/4" thick plus. Cut into desired shapes, brushing extra deposits of flour off the top. (secret trick: roll the cookies out with excess cocoa powder rather than flower to keep the cookies brown.) This is the part where I used wooden skewers to make them flowers.

Can we please talk about how cute this kid is? I <3 him already!

Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 8 to 11 minutes (the former for 1/8-inch thick cookies, the latter for 1/4-inch cookies) until the edges are firm and the centers are slightly soft and puffed.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

At this point you can eat the cookies as they are. You could sprinkle with powdered sugar, or you could frost them with some good old butter cream frosting.

The Decorators:

And here are the decorator's final products

Add a dollar store pot, some floral foam, some crumpled tissue paper and a ribbon. Voila!

I think, if I were a mom, I would be very happy with coming downstairs to one of these.

One for my boss, one for the neighbor (who is amazing)

Adventures in High Altitude Baking with Whole Wheat.

I arrived in Colorado Saturday Evening, exhausted and, having fully adapted to breathing "real" air in Seattle a little out of breath. I'm still working on getting into a "normal" routine, which is soon to be broken in 2 weeks when we move into a hotel and have to get a new routine!

Upon moving in I found 4 brown bananas and a bunch of baking supplies in the pantry that need to be used prior to the move (the Movers will only move unopened food, I guess...)

I decided to try my hand at baking muffins, and, well, one guess as to where I went looking for a recipe. (Maybe I ought to branch out a little, or not.)

The kids LOVED the muffins, especially the mini ones, but enjoyed the other muffins as well. I think they were delicious, especially for whole wheat muffins.

Whole Wheat Banana Chocolate Chip Walnut Muffins

1/2 cup butter (1 stick or 4 ounces)
1/2 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs
2 cups whole wheat flour
2/3 Cups chocolate chips  1/2 c walnuts chopped!

Preheat the oven to 350. Line or grease a 12 cup muffin pan. I got 15 big muffins and 24 mini muffins.

Beat together the butter, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla in a medium bowl until smooth. Add the banana, honey and eggs, beating until smooth. Add the flour and chocolate chips, stirring until smooth. Divide batter into the muffin cups, they’ll be nearly full. Bake the muffins until a cake tester inserted in the center of one comes out clean, 23-28 minutes. Remove from oven and after a couple of minutes transfer the muffins to a rack to cool.

I was so excited because I didn't really make any adjustments for altitude, and they are so good!