A Long, Long Time Ago, in a Kitchen, Far Far Away...

So the second item I bought at the Williams Sonoma was a set of pancake molds. And not just any pancake molds, they were Star Wars Pancake molds! They are so much fun to make, even if it is a little time consuming.

Start with a Pancake recipe - this is my family's favourite:

3 cups flour
2 tbsp baking powder
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
3 cups milk
4 tbsp oil

Mix together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. In another bowl (preferably one with a spout) beat together eggs, milk and oil. Add dry ingredients to liquid and whisk until almost smooth.
Pour onto grill 1/4 cup a a time. Cook until bubbles break through on the top side, flip and cook until the other side is brown.

Then, instead of using the regular grilling instructions, take your pancake molds and grease them. Then put them on your pancake grill and pour in enough batter so that it will spread to fill the mold (you may need to thin out the batter a bit with a tablespoon or so of extra milk) and use a knife to make sure batter gets into all the corners.

Then wait until the bubbles come through to the side you can see, remove the mold and flip the pancakes over. Wait until they brown, then serve them hot or put them in the oven (on warm) to keep them warm until everyone is ready to eat!

And enjoy biting off Yoda's ears!

Blueberry Muffins

Yesterday I made two different types of blueberry muffins, one from my muffin cookbook that my grandma gave me and another that was an adaptation of my mother's blueberry lemon cake.

Blueberry Muffins from the 'Mad about Muffins' cookbook

1/2 cup margarine, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1/2 cup milk
2 cups blueberries

Preheat oven to 375. Prepare 18 muffin cups. Cream together margarine and sugar. Beat in eggs. Add vanilla, baking powder and salt. Mix in the flour and milk gradually, alternating between the two. Stir in the blueberries. Spoon batter into muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Lemon Blueberry Cake - in cupcake form

3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 tbsp baking powder
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp lemon rind (about how much comes off one lemon)
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups blueberries

Glaze
2 tbsp lemon juice (about how much comes from juicing one lemon)
1/2 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare 24 muffin cups. Beat butter until creamy. Beat in sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. In another bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Stir into the liquids alternately with milk. Stir in lemon rind and vanilla. Fold in blueberries. Spoon into muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes or so. While they are baking stir together lemon juice and sugar and let stand while the cupcakes bake. Spoon over warm cupcakes when they come out of the oven.

I took the cupcakes to work today and they went over quite well. Of course it took everyone most of the day to figure out who brought them. Apparently one of the guys tried to take credit for baking them, until his girlfriend pointed out that he probably doesn't even know how to turn on an oven. :P Finally someone figured it out at about two in the afternoon. So I heard people telling me how awesome they were both before and after they knew I'd made them. :D

Buttermilk Pancakes with Cherry Sauce

Yesterday for breakfast my family made buttermilk pancakes with cherry sauce. Don't they look delicious, all that's missing is the whipped cream.

Buttermilk Pancakes

2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt

3 eggs
3 cups buttermilk
3 tbps oil or melted butter

Preheat pancake grill. Combine dry ingredients. Combine wet ingredients. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, whisk until well combined. Drop spoonfuls of batter onto pancake grill, cook one side until it begins to bubble then flip it over and cook until the other side is golden. Serve with syrup of cherry sauce.

Cherry Sauce

1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp corn starch
1/8 tsp cinnamon
2 cups sweet cherries, pitted and halved
1/2 cup orange juice
1 tsp grated orange zest

In a saucepan combine sugar, corn starch and cinnamon. Then add the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil over medium heat and boil until thickened.

This was pretty good but the orange flavour overpowered the cherry. I think next time I make it I will omit the orange zest and cut down on the orange juice. It is pretty good though.

Crepes and Crack Bars

Originally posted on Facebook June 28, 2009

This morning I was up a little early. So I made Crepes. Crepes have always been a special treat breakfast in our house because they take so long to make. When I was little I always thought that was because they took hours to chill. But it turns out it only takes one hour to chill. Anyway, so if you're up early and want to make a tasty breakfast or brunch, these are pretty awesome. (Although not filling at all)

Crepes
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp melted butter
1 cup flour
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt

In a mixing bowl beat together eggs, milk, water and butter. Then add flour, sugar and salt. Stir until smooth. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour. Stir before cooking.
(I don't actually know how to do the cooking part, the following is my best description of how my parents cook these things) Drop a small amount of batter into the pan. Tilt the pan around to spread the batter. Cook until bubbles form on one side. Carefully flip and brown the other side. Transfer onto a plate for serving. Serve with lemon juice and icing sugar. (Or your favourite crepe toppings)

These are amazing and get eaten far to fast for a picture to be taken.

Originally posted on Facebook, June 7, 2009

These are a family favourite of ours. The boys and their friends call them crack bars because you can never eat just one. They're good for breakfasts, lunches and swapping with your friends to get better lunch food. They're great because they're so tasty and filling.

Peanut Butter Granola Bars

1 egg
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1/3 cup margarine
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup raisins
1/3 cup wheat germ
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9x13 pan. Beat together peanut butter, sugar, syrup, margarine, egg and vanilla until smooth. Stir in remaining ingredients. Bake for 20 min, cool before cutting.

All the ingredients after the rolled oats are optional. I usually use sunflower seeds, wheat germ and chocolate chips.

Toad in the Hole

This was my brother's special birthday breakfast request. He found it in the cookbook that I was given for my birthday decided the he had to have it. And so... onward with the weird British food!

3/4 cup flour
pinch of salt
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups milk
2 tbsp oil
8 sausages (or more or less depending on the size)

Combine flour and salt in a bowl. Whisk in eggs and 1/2 cup of milk. Gradually whisk in the rest of the milk until smooth. Let stand for 30 min.

Preheat oven to 425. Pour oil into 9x13 pan, turning to coat all sides of the pan. (More oil may be needed, we used 3 tbsp) Add the sausages and turn to coat in the oil. Bake for 5-10 min ntil they are coloured and the fat is hot.

Reduce temperature to 400. Carefully pour the batter around the sausages. Continue baking for another 30 min or until the batter is golden and crisp. Serve hot.

Batter can be prepared up to 24 hours in advance.

These were pretty tasty. Sausages in Yorkshire pudding basically. We've decided that these are going to be our new Christmas morning breakfast, replacing sausage rolls from a box which not everyone likes. They were a hit, my brother loved his birthday breakfast and everyone was happy. There were 6 of us and this made the perfect amount of breakfast food, not too stuffing and greasy but not too light that you're hungry in an hour.