Breakfast Sandwich

For a while now I have been on the hunt for a protein filled breakfast that my son would enjoy. His current favorite breakfast is a single pancake. I felt that we could do better for this growing boy. So I was elated when he tried a breakfast sandwich made from my homemade sourdough english muffins and pronounced it a winner. 

Awhile back, I had purchased this little doohicky in the hopes that it would help me make breakfasts for my son that imitate the egg on the McGriddle sandwiches that he enjoys. So I dug that back out, and spritzed it with a little cooking spray.  (The picture below is when I was making a second sandwich, which is why the left side of the container has steam droplets on it. You needn't put water in there with your egg unless you want to.)

Put an egg in the bottom of the container, and pierce the yolk with a fork.

If you do not pierce the yolk, your egg (and microwave) will end up looking something like this.  This is how not to cook your egg in the microwave.  I provide this non-example as a warning.  What a mess!

Add a bit of salt and pepper, or some bacon bits, if you like

Close the lid and put it in the microwave.

Set the microwave for 37 seconds and start cooking the egg.

While the egg cooks, go ahead and pop your english muffin in the toaster, and spread it with butter.

This will take longer than 37 seconds.  This is good.  Leave the egg in the microwave, finishing off cooking in its own steam. Then remove the container from the microwave.

Now you have a tasty egg to go on your breakfast sandwich.

If you can have cheese, I strongly recommend you either add a slice now, or put some shreds in with the ingredients above.  Yum!

I'm curious, what are some good breakfast suggestions for growing kiddos?  If you have any recommendations, leave them in the comments below.

Happy cooking!

Sourdough English Muffin Reprise

Today I went back and made a recipe I think I only made one other time before: Sourdough English Muffins.  

I printed out a hard copy of the original recipe I had gotten from another person's food blog.  And I pulled up my own last blog entry about this particular recipe.  I got out my starter and mixed up the dough. I placed a post-it note on there so I knew when it would be ready for the next step.

And then I stayed up way to late playing with this blog, and all the food pictures I had taken, and subsequently slept in.  So 15 hours later (instead of the 7 to 10 hours recommended by the recipe) I assembled my ingredients.  Sugar, whole wheat flour, AP flour, baking soda, salt, and cornmeal.  For the recipe and step by step instructions, please see my previous post.

Telling myself that my house is chilly (since it was a modest 18 degrees outside this morning) and that the extra time was probably warranted for the sourdough to bulk up, I began to mix the other dry ingredients in. The dough deflated substantially as I added these things in.

I think I probably had the right idea last time, using the whole wheat flour in the initial dough, but either way works.

The dough came together and was no longer sticky.

I did the final mixing by hand, and then prepared my workspace with flour, and the baking tray generously sprinkled with cornmeal (could have probably used less, but it didn't harm anything).

After I used a cup to make these the last time, I was given biscuit cutters.  I am sure that I have used them at some point, but was thrilled to get them out again today to revisit this recipe. I dipped it in the flour so it wouldn't stick to the dough.

I used my new bench scraper to measure the dough when rolling it out.  I had made it a bit thin, so I actually scrunched it back together so it was the desired height. How handy to have a way to measure it so easily!

I got ready to cut out the first biscuit, and then suddenly decided I didn't want to cut directly on my tabletop.

So I grabbed this mat instead and cut on that.

It didn't seem like there would be room for very many biscuits with the dough at the prescribed thickness, and the recommended size cutter. 

I had my son come and cut one out, just for fun.

I placed them on the baking sheet, and continued cutting.  I balled the left over dough up and cut again.

I ended up with nine circles of dough on the tray when I was through.

I sprinkled cornmeal on top of each one.

I covered them up and let them rest for about an hour.  (The recipe says 45 minutes, but as I mentioned, it is chilly here today, so I gave them some extra time.)

Here's what they looked like after their rest.

Next, they went into the non-stick skillet, careful not to touch.

The first batch I did based on time.  There were no little bubbles on top to show me when they were done, as the dough had seemed to dry like a skin on the top while resting.  Based on the time, they ended up a little darker brown than I liked.

So I went easier on the next round, turning the heat down just a bit (medium on my gas stove top seems to be a bit hotter than medium on my electric range was) and cooking them a little less time on each side.

It was fun to cook along with "past me" by having my blog up to look at.

However, this time there was no rejoicing in those "big beautiful holes" because the crumb was not that open.  I am not sure if my baking soda is old and had an effect on the rise, or if it is the temperature of my kitchen.

However, they look and taste like english muffins, were not as labor-intensive as I had remembered, and were tasty with homemade jam, as well as in a McMuffin-style with meat and egg.

Enjoy!

Breakfast with Bacon

Yesterday morning I made Bryan and I a traditional breakfast. You know the kind: eggs, bacon, toast - type thing? I decided to try the bacon on the Forman Grill because the package says I'm supposed to drain the grease from the skillet as I go along. (Yeah right! Someone as prone to getting burned as I am should not be pouring oil out of a hot skillet and trying to keep the bacon inside!)
It worked pretty well. Though the bacon wasn't quite crisp enough when the eggs and english muffins were already ready to eat. So I tossed it in the microwave to finish it off. I think I 'bout killed it! (See below.)

Anyone have any tips on cooking bacon or juggling cook times so everything is hot at once?

Thanks!

Monochromatic Breakfast

You know how healthy food is supposed to be an array of beautiful, fresh colors?

Behold:

Steel cut oats and chai tea with soy milk should be healthy right? So how come my breakfast is all the same color?

Hmmm...

Cinnamon Rolls

Last night I got the urge to bake. So I visited All Recipes and did a quick search for cinnamon roll recipes. I ordered them by their ranking, and printed off the first 5 star recipe I found that didn't call for cream-cheese frosting. The recipe was submitted by Julie Sterchi and can be found here.

I put on my apron, rolled up my sleeves, put the first two ingredients in the bowl and then... ran out to buy yeast. Mine was way past its expiration date, and wouldn't proof.

When I got home, new jar of rapid rise yeast in hand, I made up the dough. It was very sticky (there isn't a picture of that, because my hands were completely covered). I am not sure why it was that way, but I did not enjoy kneading it and kept adding flour.

Below is a picture of the dough before its first rise. In the background, Dioji looks a bit bored.

I covered it with cling wrap and put it into the oven. I had heated it to the lowest setting, and then turned it off. I just wanted the dough to have a warm place to rise, so that it would go more quickly. (That trip to the store really put my start time back!)

After the rise:

Rolling out the dough, on the nice mat that my Nana gave me. It actually has inches marked off so I could have rolled it into a 14 in by 10 in rectangle as directed. But it got a little out of hand.

Adding the goodies. For half of the batch I did white sugar, for the second half I used brown sugar like you see below. (The recipe didn't specify.) I followed the suggestions of those who had commented that there should be more cinnamon. I applied it liberally without measuring.

Here it is all rolled up and ready to cut. If you notice by the (empty!) cinnamon container, there is a dental floss. I use this to cut off the individual rolls. You just slide the floss beneath the dough and then pull the two ends together above the dough where you want it cut, and cross them as you slice through the roll with the floss.

Here are the rolls ready for their second rise.

When they came out of the oven:

Here they are with frosting drizzled on top:

So what did I think of this recipe? I thought that they tasted more like doughnuts than cinnamon rolls, which is probably due to the cake mix in the recipe. They are good, and I'm glad I made them, but they weren't my favorite cinnamon rolls ever.

So... who out there has a recipe for cinnamon rolls that they really like? I'm looking to try another one. Leave me a comment with the recipe or a link, k?