Whole Wheat Blender Pancakes

These pancakes are kind of a classic in my family. Anytime anyone cooks breakfast at my parents' house (as opposed to pouring cereal or making smoothies in my dad's pride and joy--the Vita-Mix), it invariably includes these pancakes. They are superdelish, and provide an excellent way to rotate wheat berries and dried milk that some of you may have about a year's worth of. You start with whole wheat berries and use your blender to grind them up into the batter.

Put in the Blender:
1 Cup of wheat berries
1 1/4 cups of water
1/4 cup Dried milk
(Or of course you can use 1 1/4 cups of milk)

Blend for three minutes (I actually like to do it for about 2.5 min. so it's a little more coarse)
Then add:
1 egg
1 tbsp. honey/sugar
1 tbsp. oil
1/4 tsp salt

Blend to combine everything,
then add:
1 tbsp. Baking Powder
and pulse it a few times.
Then cook it like any other pancakes (I'm assuming you've done that before).
Adding blueberries or pecans on top of the pancakes before flipping them is highly recommended.

Coffee Cake

This recipe is straight out of the The Joy of Cooking (the cookbook I recommended you all own) and executed by Anne (thanks dear).
I share the authors' sentiment that putting nuts on top turns cake into a suitable breakfast food. The streusel topping is wonderful, but the cake by itself is also a great recipe for a basic yellow cake.
I think coffee cake is a perfect breakfast treat for a morning when you have a little extra time.

Prepare the streusel topping by mixing together
2/3 cup flour
2/3 cup chopped pecans
2/3 cup brown sugar
5 tbsp. of butter (melted)
1 tsp. of cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt


For the cake,
Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a 13 x 9 inch pan or two 8 inch rounds
Whisk together:
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

In another bowl, combine:
1 1/4 cups sour cream or yogurt
1 tsp. vanila

in another bowl, beat on high speed for 4 minutes:
1/2 stick butter
1 cup sugar
Then beat in:
two eggs

Ad 1/3 of the flour mixture and start mixing on low, then add half the sour cream mixture, then another third of the flour, then the other half of the sour cream and the last of the flour. Pur the batter in the pan(s) and spread it smooth, then sprinkle the streusel on top and bake for 25-30 minutes (until a toothpick comes out clean).

Aebleskivers (able skavers)

Aebleskivers are a Danish treat cooked in a special cast-iron pan that looks like an egg poacher. They're kind of like little doughnuts and they're really fun to make. The trick of course is finding a pan. If you happen upon one at a garage sale or thrift store or something, buy it! Even if you're not Danish, aebleskivers will make a fun little family tradition for Sunday morning breakfasts, or holidays or something. I found this pan in my grandma's house and was so excited because I love old, unique cookware.

It snowed here yesterday and so even though our house is currently decorated with pumpkins, gourds, and glittery spiders, we turned on some Christmas music, made hot chocolate, and started our family aebleskiver tradition.

So, here's the recipe:

2 egg whites

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking pwder

1 tbsp. white sugar

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 egg yolks

4 tbsp. butter, melted

2 cups buttermilk

vegetable oil for frying

1. Beat the egg whites in a bowl until they hold stiff peaks

2. Mix together all the other ingredients in another bowl until smooth, then gently fold in the egg whites.

3. Heat the pan over medium/medium-low heat and pour about 1 tbsp. of oil into each cup in the pan (the oil should be hot, but not smoking). Pour about 2 tbsp. of the batter into each cup and cook until they looked cooked around the edges (the middle will not be done yet). Use a fork to flip them over and continue cooking until they are done-- you may need to keep flipping them so they don't burn.

Serve them with powdered sugar, jam, honey, or whatever else you like.

Yummiest Muffins

These muffins are my favorite. My sister found the recipe in Martha Stewart. The secret ingredients are vanilla and orange zest. Both flavors are subtle but the combination is divine. It just gives the muffins that certain je ne sais quois.

There's nothing tricky about the recipe, although it will probably require a special trip to the store as most people don't keep all these ingredients around

In a large bowl, combine:

11 tbsp. melted butter (no wonder they're good)

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. buttermilk

2 large eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 tbsp. orange zest

In another bowl, stir together:

2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups wheat bran

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

Stir the dry into the wet, then gently fold in:

1 1/2 cups berries (I used mixed frozen berries, but you could use whatever you can find--cran, rasp, blue, straw, scnozz (for all the fans of the original Willy Wonka movie))

Spoon the batter into 18 muffin cups and bake in a preheated oven at 350 for 30 minutes.

Danielle--Anne got me the same cake plate for Christmas that Travis got you for your anniversary. Hmmmmm.