Cinnamon Roll Pumpkin Pancakes: A Yummy Disaster

When I saw these cinnamon roll pumpkin pancakes I had to try them.  They were so beautiful and looked so delicious.

After making them, I decided that Kevin at Closet Cooking must be a super culinary genius.  The perfect-looking pancakes on his blog are either the result of a thousand tries or mad talent.  Judging from the rest of Kevin's blog, I'm going to go with mad talent.

Because I wanted Steve to actually eat these pancakes, I used canned pumpkin instead of the delicata squash I had in the fridge (Steve has an aversion to all things squash, except canned pumpkin).  Canned pumpkin is usually in our village store in the fall.  It's also available at Wal-Mart in Anchorage when we do our annual shopping trip.




The pumpkin batter is topped with a cinnamon-sugary butter mixture.  Not looking too bad at this point, but...




flipping is where the disaster part came in.  Steve is usually an excellent pancake flipper.  We're not sure what went wrong with these.  Steve called them roadkill pancakes.




One victory of the meal was the caramel cream cheese frosting.  I used Kevin's caramel sauce recipe, and per his instructions, mixed it with some cream cheese.  The caramel sauce itself was so yummy that Steve was eating it out of the pan with a wooden spoon.  True story

We didn't bother drizzling the frosting over the pancakes in an artful manner because at this point, we weren't going for aesthetically pleasing.  We smeared the frosting on with a spoon.  And it was delicious that way.  Like eating pumpkin cake for breakfast.

Verdict: Delicious recipe worth making again, even if the final product isn't at beautiful as we'd hoped!

Pumpkin Muffins

Each Fall, we like to have a pumpkin or two flown in from Nome. We cook them up and freeze it in two cup quantities. This is just the right amount for most any pumpkin recipe. But no worries if you don't go through all that hassle, a 15 oz can of pumpkin works perfectly in this recipe.



We love all things pumpkin but these quick and easy muffins are one of our favorite pumpkin concoctions.



In a small bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.



Whisk together the pumpkin, eggs and applesauce. I replace the oil in the original recipe with applesauce and actually prefer the texture and taste to oil.



Add in the baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, sugar and salt. Another change I made was in the amount of sugar. The recipe calls for 1 1/4 c. of sugar. I don't even put an entire cup and they're perfectly sweet.

Then whisk in the flour mixture until just combined.



Pour into muffin cups and sprinkle with a cinnamon and sugar mixture.

Bake at 350 for 25 - 30 minutes.



And that's what it's all about.

Pumpkin Muffin recipe at Smitten Kitchen.

~AnnMarie

Monkey Bread

I saw this monkey muffin recipe on The Pioneer Woman's blog the other day and was just about to give them a try when I remembered a monkey bread recipe I have been carting around for years. I originally got the recipe from Lyn Aro of Zim, Minnesota when I was about 15 or 16 years old. She would make it for the after church goodies and conversation in the church basement. I have many fond memories of looking forward to her Sundays for hosting so I could dig into this gooey goodness. She told me it was super easy to make, turns out she was right.

Speaking of Lyn, she was also the person who encouraged me to take a job at the local living history museum. This was the place where I eventually met my husband. I guess I owe quite a bit to this woman, a great recipe and a husband!



I started with basic white dough made in the bread machine. Lyn's recipe calls for three cans of Pillsbury biscuits cut into quarters but it's not an item carried at our store.



Pinch off small balls of dough. I probably should have made them about half this size but I didn't feel like "monkeying" around that much.



Roll each ball in a cinnamon and sugar mixture.



Place the cinnamon dough balls in a Bundt pan. If you have a silicone one like mine, there's no need to grease the pan. Otherwise, butter that baby well. My Minnesotan roots are coming out pretty strong here, church basements, Bundt pans, an excessive use of butter . . .



Melt these two magical ingredients together in a sauce pan.



Pour the caramel mixture over the top of the dough.
Bake at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes.



Flip over and let the caramel drip down for a minute before removing the pan.






It's surprisingly easy to eat with your hands, so dig right in. Monkey bread makes a great breakfast, snack, dessert or potluck dish.

Recipe can be found here.

~AnnMarie

Mini Frittats

I ran across this recipe for Mini Frittatas yesterday on Pinterest and decided to give them a try.



The recipe begins with three basic ingredients.



Whisk together.




If you have a four year old on hand, they're very good at doling out muffin liners. I got these very handy silicone muffin cups from my mother-in-law. They're great because they don't need to be greased or oiled and they're reusable.




Fill your muffin tins or muffin cups about 1/2 to 2/3 full of the egg mixture.

Sprinkle your favorite egg dish ingredients into the partially filled muffin cups.



This morning we happened to have peppers, cheese, onions and left over breakfast sausage available.




Serve in the muffin cups or they pop right out.

The recipe made quite a bit less than I was expecting. Next time I think I'll double or triple the recipe. The original recipe calls for 1/2 tsp. salt and turned out to be too much, cut that amount in half and add a bit of pepper instead.

~AnnMarie

Blueberry Breakfast Bake

My very favorite weekend breakfast food is this little dish. I involves a few steps but is well worth it in my opinion.




It starts with one large baguette. The store doesn't carry baguettes so I make my own. I cheat a little by making the dough in the bread maker.




When the dough is done in the bread machine, form into baguette shapes and let raise until doubled. I'm sure placing the loaves on a cookie sheet would work fine if you don't have baguette pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes.






Once the bread has cooled, cut into one inch thick slices. Cut enough to cover the bottom of a 9 X 13 in buttered pan. I have C.O. do the cutting since his ability to slice uniformly is a thousand times better than mine.




Whisk together 6 eggs, 3 c. of milk, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg, 1 tsp. vanilla and 3/4 c brown sugar. Pour evenly over bread. Cover and chill mixture until all liquid is absorbed by the bread, at least 8 hours. In other words, I do the steps up until now on Saturday and continue the rest on Sunday morning.

Roughly chop one cup of pecans.

I buy various nuts in bulk during the summer months. I store my bags and bags of nuts in the freezer so they last longer.



Toast the pecans (walnuts or almonds also work well) in some butter and a sprinkling of salt until nice and brown.






Sprinkle one cup of locally grown tundra blueberries and toasted pecans over the bread mixture.

Cut 1/2 stick butter into pieces and in a small saucepan heat with 1/4 cup brown sugar, stirring, until butter is melted. Drizzle butter mixture over bread.


Bake at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes or until the bread is golden brown and puffed up nicely.





I have to stop myself from taking thirds.


The complete and printable recipe can be found here.

~AnnMarie

German Pancakes

I don't make breakfast very often.  But, I was inspired by this post.  I was also inspired by the fact that I got up before 11:00am on a Saturday.





It started with six eggs in a bowl.  Due to a very unfortunate incident involving an egg and a blackish brown spot on the inside of the shell,  I had to make a trip to the store.  Sigh.





Next was cinnamon.





Milk.

Note to readers: You may have noticed that my milk is being poured out of a box.  That's because it's nearly impossible to get fresh milk out in the bush.  Steve and I buy tons of it in Anchorage every year and have it mailed up to us.  We get it in 2% and whole.  It's great for cooking, and we've even gotten to the point where we can drink it straight from the box (it's better cold).

Additional Note to Readers: I may or may not have spilled milk on the floor while taking the above photo.





Believe it or not, all I had was kosher salt.  Well, that's not true.  I had some sea salt in a grinder,  but I was a little worried about the accuracy of the grinder with a small measuring spoon.  Pouring out of a box was much easier.





A little vanilla....





And whisk it all together.





Pour the mixture in a pan coated with melted butter.

Note to readers: I attempted to take an interesting photo of the melted butter in the pan, but they all turned out ugly.  You're welcome for not sharing them.






Bake until puffy (if you want specifics of time and temperature, you can go to Missy's blog).





Top with whatever you can find in the fridge makes you happy.  In my case it was raspberry jam and vanilla pudding.

Definitely worth getting up for on a Saturday morning!

Berry Muffins- the Batter is almost as good as the finished product!

When I saw Pioneer Woman's Recipe for blueberry muffins using plain yogurt, I knew I had to try them. Unfortunately, I don't keep blueberries on hand. However, I always have Craisins.




I soaked the Craisins in water overnight, and they plumped up pretty well. I wouldn't go so far as to call them the equal of fresh berries, but they were sufficient.





The muffins feature a pretty standard assortment of dry ingredients. I didn't have nutmeg (I know, who doesn't have nutmeg, seriously), but I used cinnamon, and that seemed to work just fine. The real secret ingredient is plain yogurt.





I stirred the yogurt, oil, an egg, and vanilla into the dry ingredients exactly ten times (as specified by the recipe). This is the point in the recipe where I will inevitably start tasting the batter. Then I will carry the bowl across the house (it isn't far) to Steve, and he will also start tasting the batter. It is good. For real.





I sprayed my muffin tin with my Misto. A Misto is a glorious little contraption that lets you convert any oil into cooking spray. I love my Mistos, all three of them (I have one for olive oil, one for canola oil, and one for sesame oil).




This is how full I filled the little spaces in the muffin tin. It was the perfect amount.





Muffins cooking in the oven





While the muffins were baking, I started making the sauce. I threw some more of the rehydrated cranberries in a saucepan with some sugar and cooked it over medium heat. I didn't think it would ever thicken, but it eventually came through. (Don't you just love the avocado green spoon. We inherited it when we moved into our house in Alaska. Can you believe somebody actually left it behind?)




When the berries were sufficiently syrupy I took them off the heat and added plain yogurt.




Stirred all together, it makes this splendiferousness. :)

Splendiferous sauce + warm muffins = happy everybody (even if there's no picture to prove it).