Category Archives: Breakfast

Chicago Food Tour Day 2: The battle for the best cupcake

March 16, 2012 – 1:18 pm

It seems like every city, no matter how big or small, has a cupcake shop. It amazes me that a bakery can make it only selling one item and it also makes me very curious to sample these items to see what all of the rage is about.

I have told you before about my love for Magnolia Bakery and when I was in Chicago this past week, I naturally had to wander in to the Magnolia there to see if the standards that NYC set were held up. Everything that I have come to expect from Magnolia was just as it should be. In addition to their cupcakes, Magnolia offers other confections that people rave about such as pies, icebox desserts, cookies and bars. I have only sampled the cupcakes, but the other desserts look just as drool-worthy.

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I have never tried Sprinkles Cupcakes and felt that it was my sweet tooth duty to compare the other popular cupcakery to my already beloved Magnolia. Sprinkles prides themselves on having celebrity fans and using high quality ingredients for their cupcakes which are topped with their signature “modern dots”.

While the cake was incredibly moist, and the frosting was just fine, I just felt that the cupcakes were nothing to write home about. I detected no overwhelming flavor sensations and the vanilla and chocolate cake may as well have been from a box mix. Please don’t stone me to death devoted Sprinkles fans, I’m just telling it how I experienced it!

There was an unexpected contender in this battle for the country’s best cupcake. This quaint little place literally just snuck up on me.

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Even though this place was a sleeper to me and I had never even heard of it, I made two trips in the 4 days I was in Chicago just so that I could be sure of what I am about to proclaim: Crumbs Bake Shop officially makes the best cupcake I have ever tasted!

What makes these little babies earn the top spot on my list? Well these aren’t just any old cupcake. Almost every cupcake is not only frosted and topped with wonderful things like candies, cookies or nuts but also filled with fruit preserves, buttercream, fudge and many more tempting fillings. I also love the Crumbs philosophy of celebrating the simple things in life, like the best cupcakes on earth, for example!

This cupcake was my love at first bite. It is called the Baba Booey and is a peanut butter lover’s dream come true: chocolate cake filled with peanut butter frosting and topped with peanut butter and chocolate cream cheese frosting and miniature peanut butter chips. Are you booking your trip to Chicago yet?

The bakery also offers inciting breakfast options such as scones and ginormous muffins that looked splendid, but even I only have so much room in my tummy for treats, so those will have to be a reason for me to revisit Crumbs (like I needed another reason )!

The day we left Chicago, we made one final stop and my husband and I each chose a cupcake for the road. Before I forget to mention, Crumbs cupcakes come in 4 different sizes: Taste (a mini cupcake to tease you a bit), Classic (your traditional-sized cupcake), Signature (Crumb’s most popular size and the size that you want if you are a serious sweet tooth like me) and Colossal cupcakes (perfect for a party: serves 6-8). My husband chose the Salted Caramel Cupcake which was a deep chocolate cake filled with melty salted caramel and topped with fudge sauce and I chose the Cookie Dough which was vanilla cake with chocolate fudge filling and topped with cream cheese frosting studded with cookie pieces. I regret to inform you that possibly our favorite cupcake, the Salted Caramel variety never made it to it’s photo debut. You can use imagination as to why that tragedy may have happened……

But it’s Cookie Dough friend made it far enough to introduce himself:

The cake is so moist and flavorful and that fudge filling and perfect frosting just puts these cupcake over the top into my new favorite bake shop dessert.

Don’t worry, Chicago is not the only place you can find a Crumbs cupcake of your own. There are bakeries on both coasts and you can also order your very own assortment of cupcakes and have them delivered to your door.

I hope you enjoyed my cupcake tour of Chicago (FYI: they actually have formal cupcake tours of the city that you can go on!). I always love to get new inspiration on my travels and you can bet I will be trying to replicate some of these incredibly scrumptious creations!

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Chocolate-swirled Banana Bread

March 10, 2012 – 6:00 am

How are we supposed to decide what we want to be when we grow up? By our second year of college, we are supposed to have some idea about which profession we would like to pursue to make our mark on the world. Now, even high school students are encouraged to choose a track to set them up for their college careers. We job shadow and interview professionals and we think that these exercises give us some idea of what that professional’s day-to-day life is like. But until we have truly taken on the responsibilities ourselves, we really don’t have a clear sense of all that comes with being a teacher, lawyer accountant or dentist. All the years of studying, researching and working so diligently to earn a degree and a living and do what we think will make a difference only to realize that we lost our happiness somewhere along the way.

Sometimes I wish I could be a professional student. I love the academic environment and find pure bliss in watching a student understand something for the first time and have an “AHA” moment. Nothing makes me feel more fulfilled. Sometimes we don’t discover the paths we are meant to be on until much later than we were “supposed to”, but the revelation is worth the wait.

That is my insight for the day.

Now, onto the sweet of the day.

I love my mom’s banana bread. It is so moist and has the perfect mix of bananas, nuts and chocolate. This is not my mom’s banana bread. This bread is made with white whole wheat flour and has more of a sponge cake texture. I love to heat up each piece that I eat and sop up the melty chocolate chips with the spongy cake. Yum, I am beginning to salivate just talking about it!

Chocolate-swirled Banana Bread

Keywords: bake bread breakfast snack banana chocolate

Ingredients (1 loaf)

1/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3 overripe bananas
2 large eggs
1/3 cup plain greek yogurt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. cocoa
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large bowl and with an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, yogurt, vanilla and bananas and mix well. Add flour, salt and baking soda and mix.

Pour half of the batter into another bowl and add cocoa powder and chocolate chips.

Pour half of plain batter into prepared pan and smooth. Top that batter with half of the cocoa batter and smooth. Repeat once more with plain batter and chocolate batter and smooth top of batter.

Bake about 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of bread comes out clean.

Adapted from Babble Family Kitchen

cream butter and sugar

add eggs, yogurt, vanilla and bananas

mix in dry ingredients

place half of the batter into another bowl and add cocoa powder and chocolate chips

pour half of the plain batter into the prepared pan

pour half of the cocoa batter on top and smooth

repeat again with plain batter and top with cocoa batter

bake until toothpick inserted comes out clean

cool before removing from pan and slicing

What did you (do you) want to be when you grew (grow) up?

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Tags Bananas, Chocolate, quick bread | Comments (4)

Superfood Smoothie

February 3, 2012 – 6:00 am

Even though I am not a person who makes New Year’s resolutions, I do always find myself thinking of the things I can do better or new things that I wan tot try when January comes around. One conscious change I have been trying to make this year is to eat more fruits and vegetables. I love almost all produce, I just don’t feel like I know how to get enough of them everyday in my diet.

One way I have been trying to remedy this is by drinking “superfood” smoothies. It is a simple way for me to efficiently get an extra 3-4 servings of fruits and veggies in 1 smoothie and the rest of my daily servings I can easily get in with my meals.

All I do is load up my Vitamix with 8 ounces of water (you could also use milk and or a splash of juice), a cup of fresh or frozen mixed berries, one banana and 2 cups of spinach and blend away. Other great options to add are greek yogurt, kale and any other fruits and vegetables of your choice.

And no need to be scared off by incorporating greens into your smoothie. All you taste is the wonderful freshness of the berries and bananas!

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Triple Berry Streusel-topped muffins

January 12, 2012 – 8:00 am

In my last post I shared some of the reasons that I love brunch. One of the reasons that I failed to mention was that I have so many recipes in the “Breakfast/Brunch” section of my recipe collection that I am dying to try! I need excuses like hosting or attending brunches to make these recipes because while I do eat breakfast everyday, it is usually not something quite as indulgent as most of the recipes that I want to try are.

My mother-in-law made these muffins with fresh blueberries and the reason that I loved them so much was because of how cakey they were. Fresh berries can be more expensive this time of year so I made these with a frozen berry blend of blueberries, raspberries and blackberries and they were just as delicious. The really special part is the crumby streusel topping which provides a nice crunch and extra sweetness.

Triple Berry Muffins with Streusel Topping

by Mercedes Porter

Keywords: bake breakfast dessert blueberry fruit raspberry muffin

Ingredients (12 muffins)

1 1/2 cups flour, plus 1/3 cup for streusel
3/4 cup sugar, plus 1/2 cup for streusel
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup canola oil
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 cup berreis (fresh or frozen berries, thawed)
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease or line muffin pan with liners.

In a large bowl, combine 1 1 /2 cup flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder.

Add oil, egg and milk and mix with an electric mixer until well blended.

Fold in blueberries.

To make streusel, in a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, butter and cinnamon with a fork.

Fill muffin cups 1/2-2/3 full of batter and sprinkle tops with streusel.

Bake 22-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into muffin comes out clean.

combine dry ingredients for muffins

add oil, egg and milk and mix

fold in berries

combine streusel ingredients in a small bowl

fill muffin pan 1/2-2/3 full

sprinkle the streusel over the batter

bake

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Monkey Bubble Bread and why brunch is the best

January 10, 2012 – 8:00 am

Is there anything more fabulous than brunch? It is two meals in one which is a perfect excuse to eat more and really indulge. In my opinion, a good brunch has both savory and sweet offerings, which can also be a reason for over-indulging. For example, I can only eat 3-4 bites of something sweet like pancakes or a yogurt parfait

and then my palate wants a bite of something salty to cut the richness. So then I will have a bite or two of eggs

or a salty starch, and what do you know? I am ready for something sweet again! It is a deliciously vicious cycle!

I also love brunch for another reason. When else (after your college years have passed ) is it acceptable to have a cocktail before noon? I love a refreshing bellini or mimosa to wash down my sweet and savory bites.

I was invited to a brunch this past Sunday and I was asked to bring “some type of bread” which in my mind meant a sweet bread. I wasn’t feeling scones and muffins just seemed a little blah so I turned to my good friends Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito and their book Baked Explorations. Ok, Matt and Renato are only my friends in my imagination, but I can still always count on them to offer something perfectly scrumptious for any occasion.

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Since I purchased this book, I have been waiting for a reason to make the Monkey Bubble Bread. I have had Monkey Bread many times before, but in this recipe, the dough is made from scratch and each dough ball is dipped in melted butter followed by a roll in a cinnamon sugar mixture which then makes a caramel while the bread is baking. Are you drooling yet? This Monkey Bubble Bread not only tastes amazing but it looks very impressive and is a fun dish to share because everyone can just pull apart as many pieces as he or she wants. And trust me, you will want many pieces.

Monkey Bubble Bread

by Baked Explorations

Keywords: bake breakfast bread caramel cinnamon

Ingredients (10-inch bundt pan)

For the bread

1 1/4 cups milk
2 tsp instant yeast
4 cups flour
5 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 egg
5 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

For the cinnamon sugar coating

1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick or 8 Tbsp) unsalted butter, melted

Instructions

For the bread

Liberally spray a 10-inch bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Place milk in microwave-safe liquid measuring cup and microwave for 45 seconds or until lukewarm, but not hot. Add yeast and whisk to combine. (Do not heat milk above 110 degrees or you will kill the yeast.)

In a large bowl and with an electric mixer and paddle attachment combine the flour, sugar and salt.

Add egg and mix to combine.

Add the milk and yeast mixture followed by the 5 Tbsp melted butter and mix until combined.

Switch mixer attachment from paddle to dough hook and mix on medium speed for 8-10 minutes or until dough mounds together but is not sticky. Dough should form easily into a ball and pull away from bowl.

Spray a large bowl with nonstick cooking spray and place dough into the bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place it in a warm area to rest until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Punch down the dough with your hands. Use a clean kitchen scissor to cut the dough into 1-1 1/2 inch pieces. Roll the pieces into rough balls and place balls on a baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap.

For the cinnamon sugar coating and to assemble the bread

Combine ingredients for cinnamon sugar coating in a small bowl. Melt 1 stick of unsalted butter in a separate bowl or liquid measuring cup.

Dip each piece of dough into the butter, allow excess to drip back into the bowl, then drop dough balls into bowl of cinnamon sugar and roll to coat. Place coated pieces of dough into bundt pan.

Wrap bundt pan in plastic wrap and again, set the pan in a warm place and allow the dough balls to raise and double in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Remove plastic wrap from pan and bake for 30 minutes.

Let cool 5 minutes in pan and then invert onto serving dish. Serve warm.

NOTE: Dough can be made a day ahead and stored in refrigerator until ready to bake. To do this, after dipping dough balls into butter and cinnamon sugar, cover pan with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator. Remove pan and let it come to room temperature before baking.

combine warm milk and yeast