Adventures in Food
Posts tagged breakfast
Chef Q&A with Julie Zak
Nov 11th
Close up of Cherry Stuffed French Toast
Chef Week continues with a visit to the White Gull Inn, which has been greeting guests since 1896. Located in Fish Creek part of Wisconsin’s Door County, the area draws visitors year round with its rich history, farm-fresh food and plenty to do with Green Bay to the west and Lake Michigan to the east.
The Inn, located just down the street from Sunset Park—so named for the gorgeous views of Green Bay in the evenings—does have overnight lodging, but many people are drawn to its doors for one reason: breakfast. In 2010, the Inn won of Good Morning America’s Best Breakfast Challenge with one of their signature dishes.
Julie Zak, the Breakfast Chef and kitchen manager describes the Inn’s cooking philosophy this way: “keep it simple, but use the freshest ingredients possible, emphasize local ingredients in season, don’t be afraid to innovate and experiment, and always put quality and consistency first.” Below, find out more of Zak’s kitchen experiences. And for a taste of one of her favorite recipes, try the White Gull Inn Breakfast Rice Pudding.
What three ingredients do you always keep stocked in your pantry?
Flour, maple syrup, dried cherries!
Your favorite meal to make or serve?
Although we are well known for our breakfasts, our lunches also have a large following. As a special at the Inn and at home, I really love making lasagna, made from scratch with my homemade sauce using vegetables from my own garden and real ricotta cheese and Wisconsin mozzarella.
We all have a favorite indulgence, for a chef like you it must be something spectacular?
I love our Eggs Benedict, but limit myself to an order once every two or three months.
What’s one of your worst cooking mistakes?
My first time cooking Thanksgiving Dinner for my in-laws, I forgot to take the giblets out of the turkey. Although it was embarrassing, we all laughed. I knew I wasn’t the first and wouldn’t be the last to make that mistake.
What do you suggest for first-timers? What menu item should they make sure to try?
Definitely the Cherry and Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast. The combination of Door County sour cherries with Wisconsin cream cheese stuffed in egg bread, then grilled and served with maple syrup, is by far our most popular item at our breakfasts and was voted winner of Good Morning America’s Best Breakfast Challenge in 2010. Turkey hash with Dijon gravy would be a great accompaniment.
Don’t forget to enter the hand-crafted oak cutting board giveaway!
White Gull Inn Breakfast Rice Pudding
Nov 11th
White Gull Inn in the wintertime Photo credit: White Gull Inn
A special thanks to Julie Zak, the Breakfast Chef and Kitchen Manager at the White Gull Inn for providing this recipe. The White Gull Inn is located in Fish Creek, part of Wisconsin’s picturesque Door County area.
Recipe
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
4 cups cooked basmati rice
1 lb. frozen peaches, thawed and coarsely chopped
1 cup pitted, frozen tart cherries, thawed and drained
1 cup heavy whipping cream
½ cup brown sugar, divided
¼ cup rolled oats
¼ cup shredded, sweetened coconut
¼ cup chopped pecans
¼ cup (½ stick) butter, melted
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 1 ½ quart casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray.
- Combine rice, peaches, cherries, whipping cream and ¼ cup of the brown sugar in a large bowl. Spoon mixture into prepared dish.
- In a small bowl, mix remaining ¼ cup brown sugar, rolled oats, coconut, pecans and melted butter; sprinkle over rice mixture. Bake uncovered 25-30 minutes, or until top is golden brown.
Homemade hasbrowns
Nov 2nd
Okay, let’s just get this out of the way—I know that picking up a bag from the freezer section in the grocery store and making those hash browns might be easier. But tastier? Not close.
I’m all for taking shortcuts in the kitchen, especially if it tastes just the same—or better–as when you make it from scratch. Case in point: green bean casserole. That ever-present Thanksgiving favorite topped with French’s onions. I’ve gone so far as to fry my own onion pieces for the topping and crafted a cream of mushroom soup. And the results weren’t worth the effort. But hash browns are another story.
First off, I have no idea what kind of potatoes they’re using in the store-bought versions, and I’m picky about my hash brown potatoes, I like to use either red or Yukon gold. Both are softer and have more flavor than your standard Idaho potato. I also like to leave the skin on the outside of the potato.
I also take an extra step to the hash browns by boiling them in water first (as you would for mashed or potato salad) before frying. I cook them until they’re just soft, before throwing them on the skillet. My goal—soft hash browns on the inside, crisped on the outside.
Still not convinced it’s worth the effort to slice a bag of potatoes? One last try—I double the batch so that I can use the potatoes in other dishes throughout the week. We make breakfast burritos, thick chowders, and other meals by mixing in some of these pre-cooked potatoes.
Recipe
Prep time: 20 minutes + cooking
Servings: 4
Ingredients
5 medium-sized red potatoes
½ cup onions, diced
3 Tablespoons oil, divided
1 Tablespoon butter
salt and pepper
Directions
- Place a pot of salted water on the stovetop and heat to boiling.
- Wash and dry the potatoes.
- Dice into pinky-sized pieces.
- Place the potato pieces into the boiling water.
- Cook for about 10 minutes or until the potatoes are just barely soft.
- On a large griddle, alternatively—two large skillets, heat the 1 tablespoon oil to medium-high. (The more heated surface area you have the more crisped the potato pieces will be.)
- Add the onions and cook until translucent, set aside.
- Add 2 more tablespoons oil to the griddle.
- Place the potato pieces onto the hot oil on the griddle.
- Let the potatoes cook, without stirring often, until they start to crisp and add the butter halfway through cooking (about 5 minutes in).
- Sprinkle the potato pieces liberally with salt and pepper, stir to crisp all sides and mix the onions back into the hash browns.
- Serve.
Creme brulee french toast from Betsie Bay Inn
Jul 8th
Perkins sent me this from her camera phone
My mouth is watering just looking at this picture and checking out the ingredients for this recipe–homemade caramel sauce hugging pieces of whipping cream-soaked sourdough bread. Scottish born Lesley Perkins, owner of Betsie Bay Inn & Restaurant in Frankfort, Michigan, graciously passed along this recipe to me when I was interviewing her for MetroParent’s Crumbs column. So if you want to indulge yourself a bit for breakfast–although I think this would be an amazing dessert–here you go. (Perkins told me this is one of her guests’ favorites.)
Recipe
Caramel Sauce
- Melt 1 pd. butter in a saucepan (take care to do this slowly so butter does not brown).
- Add 3 cups brown sugar.
- Whisk together over low heart until sugar is completely dissolved.
- Add 1 pint of heavy whipping cream.
- Mix well, set to the side.
Egg Mixture
- Whisk together 1 dozen eggs, 2 pints whipping cream and 1 teaspoon vanilla until well mixed.
- Fill large mixing bowl with bite-sized chunks of good quality bread (we use our homemade sourdough which had a orange zest added to it ).
- Pour egg mixture over the bread until the it’s absorbed.
Assembly
- Grease glass baking dish with butter, approximately 8” x 14”; we do single servings in a skillet.
- Ladle caramel sauce into dish, then fill dish with soaked bread chunks and the rest of the egg mixture.
- Bake in oven until golden (about 10 – 12 minutes).
Cheesecake pancakes
Jun 14th
One breakfast meal that’s quick to put together and a kid-pleaser around our house is cottage cheese pancakes. (I may even make these for Father’s Day breakfast.)
Cottage cheese…in pancakes? Let me explain. Pancakes can sometimes be, well, boring, thin, even with a little buttermilk there’s just not much too them. But this version pumps up the batter with the cottage cheese that becomes creamy once you bake it in. The little cheesy curds have a hint of mozzarella stringiness to them, but none of the cheese flavor. They’re more like cheesecake pancakes than savory ones. In fact, if you top these with jam or fresh fruit along with syrup they’re even better. A few words of caution—remember to buy small curd cottage cheese instead of large. The bigger curds are overpowering and tend to trigger the “ews” from my kids.
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Recipe
Doubled from a recipe which appear in Cuisine at Home
Prep time: 10 minutes
Servings: About 14 3 ½” pancakes
1 cup milk
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
4 T butter, melted and cooled
2 cups flour (1/2 whole wheat works great too)
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup small curd cottage cheese
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Directions:
- Preheat your griddle to medium-high.
- Mix the milk, sugar and eggs together in a large bowl. In another bowl combine the dry ingredients.
- Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ones and then mix in the cottage cheese.
- Spray the griddle with cooking oil.
- Cook the pancakes 3-5 minutes, flipping once.
- Serve warm.
I served the pancakes with agave instead of syrup
Ideas for Easter morning breakfast
Apr 21st
Sweet. Savory. Or both? I’ve been flipping through cookbooks and clicking through some of my favorite blogs to figure out what I want to do for Easter morning breakfast.
Here are a few ideas I’ve been thinking about from MKES and some of my favorite blogs.
Savory
Mini-quiches. I let my kids decide what they want to put inside. Best part? They can be made ahead.
Baked apple french toast. There’s a light version of this one! From Words to Eat By
Yeasted waffles from MKES
Sweet
Baked donuts from Martha and Me
New York style coffee cake from Fake Ginger
Banana sour cream muffins from Cafe Johnsonia
Nutella cinnamon rolls from MKES
Yeah, notice my sweet list is a little longer than my savory:) I’ve also been toying with an idea my husband keeps talking about–breakfast pizza. Follow me–pizza crust, fresh salsa instead of red sauce, breakfast sausage, scrambled eggs, cheese on top? (Maybe even a few roasted potatoes)
I still haven’t decided, anyone else making something tasty for Easter?
Pretty mini-quiches
Dec 28th
A few weeks ago I tried out crustless quiche on a whim and it was a big hit at my house. I became a fan too–the recipe was so versatile and fast that I could make a meal in under 10 minutes (well, baking time took longer, of course). Serve a slice of quiche with a generous salad and dinner is done.
But then I wanted to get a little creative, try out spinach in the quiche, or maybe roasted veggies, breakfast sausage in some and ham in another. I wondered if I could use ramekins in place of a pie plate so that each person could have their own quiche and choose what ingredients they wanted. It was kind of like make-your-own pizza, but with quiche.
Putting the ramekins together takes a little more work than a single quiche, but not much. You’ll need to lightly coat each ramekin with baking spray. Put about 1/8 cut of ingredients into the bottom of the ramekin and then pour the egg mixture on top.
I filled a pan with various ramekin sizes (4 and 7 ounces) and quiche flavors–spinach and gruyere, cheddar and sausage, ham and potatoes. And yes, you can make these a day ahead and reheat them. Plus they slide right out of the ramekin so if you want to serve them out of the dish, you can.
So if you’re looking for something fun for New Year’s Day to serve to your crew, try out these mini-quiches. (And then next week when you need a quick dinner–yup, you can try these out again just with different fixins.)
Here’s a few tweaks to the crustless quiche recipe to make the mini version.
- Instead of greasing a pie plate, use 6, 7-oz ramekins or 8, 4-oz ramekins (or a combination)
- Fill each ramekin with about 1/8-1/4 cup fixins of your choice (sausage, spinach, roasted veggies, diced ham)
- Pour the egg mixture on top of the fixins.
For more fun brunch ideas perfect for New Year’s Day (or breakfast for dinner)–like french toast fondue, check out these Come To Brunch ideas. I’ve been looking through the site as part of the Motherboard team. Once a week, I’ll be posting about the exciting things not to miss on the their site, and their affiliates.
Quick Crustless Quiche
Dec 4th
Santa, please bring me a better camera so I can take decent pictures...
Quiche is pretty much a glorified omelet. But you can only have omelets for dinner so many times before it gets dull.
I like the standard quiche, but there’s something about the crust that just makes me think dessert instead of dinner. It could be that I once tried to save myself some time by buying the crust instead of making it from scratch and I inadvertently bought a dessert dough (not the savory, sugarless variety). Hey, I like to try new flavor combos, but ew. Just ew.
My solution? Go crustless.
Without the crust, quiche becomes a lot more versatile. And leftovers are literally soaked up with an egg custard and a generous helping of cheese. Pair yesterday’s ham and roasted potatoes with sharp cheddar cheese for a quick comfort food dish. Or spruce up spinach and bacon with some Swiss cheese.
Are you seeing where I’m going with this–easy dinner during the holiday rush that also cleans out the fridge? Ah, now you’re starting to brainstorm how to use what you’ve got and refashion it in a pie tin.
I’ve included a recipe with specific directions, but I like to think of this as a guideline, so let me explain crustless quiche construction. First, you need to grease your pan, easy enough. And don’t feel like you have to stay with the pie shape—an 8×8” square pan works well too (this recipe doubles well too). Then it’s all about what your family likes—add ham, sausage, bacon, or veggies to the bottom of your pan. Once that’s in the pan you pour the egg mixture on top to seal the ingredients together, of course the cheese in the eggs helps with keeping things together. I also like to add a little extra cheese and herbs (fresh or dried) on top of the quiche, just to spruce up the appearance.
The quiche doesn’t cook quickly, but while it bakes you can do a little online shopping or wrap a present or two. I usually serve a hearty slice of crustless quiche with a salad and a muffin.
Recipe
Servings: 4-6
Prep time: 20-30 minutes
Ingredients
4 eggs
1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 cups milk
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon onion powder
pepper to taste
¾ cup-1 cup shredded cheese
1 cup chopped ham, cooked sausage, bacon or cooked veggies like broccoli, mushrooms
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, milk and flour using a hand mixer. Add the spices and ½ cup of shredded cheese (I like to use a combination of Parmesan and sharp cheddar).
- Grease a 9” pie pan or small casserole dish.
- Place your cooked meat and/or veggies on the bottom of the baking dish. Pour the egg mixture over the top.
- Add the remaining cheese.
- Bake for 35-45 minutes or until cooked through and browned slightly on the top.
- Cool for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.
Cinnamon Rolls take two–Nutella Rolls
Oct 16th
Ah, any excuse to use Nutella, right?
Well, not exactly. I really like cinnamon rolls, but Mr. Squid, not so much. Whenever I make cinnamon rolls I tend to be the one to finish off the pan (even the kids get a little bored with the standard variety). I wanted to craft a roll that my crew wouldn’t be able to resist. In the past, I’ve tried adding golden raisins instead of regular ones, dried cranberries, orange frosting instead of the powdered sugar glaze. But nothing seemed to really set the cinnamon roll apart from something you could get at pretty much any decent bakery.
Then, I opened the cupboard–Nutella.
For the uninitiated, Nutella is a creamy mixture of chocolate and hazelnuts. And like many tasty discoveries, Nutella came about by accident.
In the 1940s, Pietro Ferrero, a pastry maker in Italy, was trying to make his rations of chocolate go just a little bit farther so he added in crushed hazelnuts, which were plentiful in the area. I learned more about Ferrero when I visited Nutella’s website. Along with historical tidbits, I found that if I saved 5 proofs of purchase, I could get a Nutella t-shirt (I’m going to start clipping!).
So here’s the deal on making the Nutella cinnamon roll. I have the complete details below, but for a quick summary, just spread Nutella in place of butter on the dough before rolling, then sprinkle with chocolate, coconut, almonds, walnuts, cinnamon that you’ve pulsed in a food processor. It’s almost like a German chocolate cinnamon roll. I finished these off with–what else–a glaze made from Nutella.
These are good without frosting too!
Recipe
Servings: 24 rolls
Prep time: 45 minutes + 1 ½ hours rising + 30 minutes baking
Ingredients
I jar Nutella
2 Tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup coconut
1 teaspoons cinnamon
dash of salt
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup almonds
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
Frosting ingredients
2/3 cup Nutella
2 Tablespoons milk or heavy cream
1 1/2 to 2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 batch of easy-to-make bread
- Prepare the bread recipe above, substituting one of the cups of warm water with warm milk (for a total of 2 ½ cups liquid—so 1 ½ cups water, 1 cup milk). Proceed to the step where you divide the dough into two equal parts. Instead of making loaves of bread, divide the dough into 4 pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 9 x 13” rectangle.
- In a food processor, pulse the filling ingredients (except for the Nutella) until the mixture is crumbly.
- With a kitchen knife gently spread the 3-4 tablespoons of Nutella over the dough (straight from the can:).
- Sprinkle 1/4 of the coconut blend over the first dough rectangle. Going from one long side to the other, roll up the dough, careful to make the dough tight enough so that the filling will stay in but not so tight that it can’t rise.
- Cut the rolled dough into 6 equal pieces Place the pieces onto a large cookie sheet that has been lightly greased.
- Repeat with the remaining dough.
- Let the rolls rise for 30 minutes. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the rolls are lightly browned. Let the rolls cool for at least 30 minutes in the pan before frosting.
- In a small bowl whip together the frosting ingredients, adding more powdered sugar until the glaze has a slightly thicker consistency than corn syrup. Drizzle over rolls and let the frosting set before removing from the pan.
Fast, Light Cinnamon Rolls
Oct 15th
My mom never made a pan of cinnamon rolls–she’d make 4 or 5. There would be a couple pans draped with cotton kitchen towels on every counter and the table would disappear underneath a cinnamon roll shroud. The whole house would be bathed in the aroma of yeast, cinnamon, butter. Mom’s rolls were always about 2 inches across, golden on all sides and peppered with dark raisins and bits of walnuts and topped with a powdered sugar frosting. It seems every baker has a slant on how to craft rolls. Some like to use the buttery, rich brioche roll for the dough. Some swear by melting butter for the gooey interior, others don’t use butter at all—just cinnamon and sugar. And raisins—that’s a matter of debate at our house. I’m not a fan of raisins in my rolls—in cookies, yes, cinnamon rolls, big chunks of walnuts please. And as far as cinnamon roll construction—well, I loved my mom’s rolls, truly, but I like a bigger roll. I don’t use a cookie sheet like my mom, I use a casserole dish so that I can have tall, thick rolls that push together as they rise and bake.
Now maybe my cinnamon roll philosophy differs because I don’t have leftovers. I make two pans, 18 rolls and that’s it. My mom would make enough rolls to feed my brothers and sisters (all six of us!) for a couple breakfasts and then she’d fill the freezer with leftovers.
My rolls differ from my mom’s in another way too. They’re fast and foolproof. I borrowed my no-fail bread recipe to craft these rolls. The recipe goes together quickly and isn’t as heavy as a standard roll. I save the butter for the filling—there’s none in the dough making this a lighter, but still good-sized, breakfast treat.
Recipe
Servings: 16 LARGE rolls
Prep time: 45 minutes + 1 ½ hours rising + 30 minutes baking
Ingredients
4 Tablespoons butter, softened, divided
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
dash of salt
½ cup chopped walnuts
Frosting ingredients
5 Tablespoons butter, softened
2 ½-3 cups powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons milk or heavy cream
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 batch of easy-to-make bread
Directions
- Prepare the bread recipe above, substituting one of the cups of warm water with warm milk (for a total of 2 ½ cups liquid—so 1 ½ cups water, 1 cup milk). Proceed to the step where you divide the dough into two equal parts. Instead of making loaves of bread, roll out each piece of dough into a 9 x 13” rectangle.
- In a small dish blend the brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. With a kitchen knife gently spread the 2 tablespoons of the butter over the dough. Sprinkle half of the cinnamon and sugar blend over the first dough rectangle. Going from one long side to the other, roll up the dough, careful to make the dough tight enough so that the filling will stay in but not so tight that it can’t rise.
- Cut the rolled dough into 8 equal pieces—dividing it first in half, then in half again and each piece in half. Place the pieces onto a 9 x 13” casserole pan that has been lightly greased.
- Repeat with the second piece of dough.
- Let the rolls rise for 30 minutes. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the rolls are lightly browned. Let the rolls cool for at least 30 minutes in the pan before frosting.
- In a small bowl whip together the frosting ingredients, adding more powdered sugar until the glaze has a slightly thicker consistency than corn syrup. Drizzle over rolls and let the frosting set before removing from the pan.
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