Egg-less Pancakes

I know, it doesn't sound that good. But these are, I promise! We all gobbled them up. My kids woke up wanting pancakes last Saturday, and it sounded good to me too, but we didn't have any eggs in the fridge. So I found a recipe, modified it to our liking, and came up with this:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup white flour
• 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
  
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup milk (I used lactose free)
  
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans
• a handful of chocolate chips (oh yes I added that to the recipe)

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, stir together the flours, flaxseed, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Pour in the vanilla, water and milk. Mix until all of the dry ingredients have been absorbed, then stir in the pecans and chocolate chips.
2. Cook pancakes (about 1/3 cup of batter) over medium heat on a large skillet or griddle.

Blender Whole Wheat Pancakes

My friend Kristi posted these pancakes forever ago on the other recipe blog I'm a part of. I finally made them this morning and discovered that I should have been making them all along. They are a good way to use food storage items (you can use your wheat without grinding it!) and they're tasty and healthy and Wes snarfed 'em right up. Kristi told me they freeze well and easily reheat for quick breakfasts and snacks.



1 C whole wheat kernels
1 C milk (or 1 C water and 1/3 C dry milk)
2 Tbs Oil
2 eggs
2 Tbs honey
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder

Put 1 C whole wheat kernels and 1 C milk in blender. Blend 3 minutes. Add eggs, oil, honey and salt, blend for 30 seconds. And baking powder and pulse three times. Make pancakes immediately.

*I also added a little cinnamon and vanilla to my batter since that's how I roll.

Buttermilk Pancakes

I make these probably once a week for dinner.

1 C buttermilk (or 1 C milk +1 T. vinegar)
1 t. salt
2 1/2 T oil
2 T. baking powder
2 1/2 T sugar
1 C. flour
1 egg

Mix together and let batter rise. Do not stir again. batter will be thick. Pour on griddle. Makes 12 small-medium pancakes.

Christmas Sausage Souffle

This breakfast casserole is a Thomson family tradition for Christmas morning.

1 large loaf french bread, cut into 8 thick slices
8 eggs
2 cups milk
1 t dry mustard
1 can sliced mushrooms (I use fresh)
1/2 - 1 pound sausage, browned
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup milk

Arrange slices in 9X13 pan. Beat eggs, 2 cups milk, and mustard, and pour over bread. Top with mushrooms, sausage and cheese. Cover and let soak overnight in the refrigerator.

In the morning, combine 1/2 cup milk with soup and spread over top of casserole. Bake at 350 degrees for 60-70 minutes.

Pumpkin Pancakes

~My cousin Kimi tried these out and her family raved about them so she passed it on to me! Its from Martha Stewart's website. We ate them this morning and they were soooooo good. Canned pumpkin is getting its own spot in our year supply now!

Pumpkin Pancakes

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 TBS sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp each cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp nutmeg

a pinch of ground cloves

1 cup milk

6 TBS canned pumpkin puree

2 TBS melted butter

1 egg

Directions:

Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ground ginger, and salt, nutmeg, and ground cloves. In a separate bowl, stir together milk, canned pumpkin puree, melted butter, and 1 egg; fold mixture into dry ingredients. Melt some butter in a skillet over medium-low heat; pour in 1/4 cup batter for each pancake. Cook pancakes about 3 minutes per side; serve with butter and syrup. Makes 8.

~This recipe was barely enough to feed all 4 of us, so I'll be doubling it next time and freezing any leftovers for the next morning!

~Bethany S.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

These are actually pretty healthy other than the chocolate chips.

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat germ or ground flaxseed
2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
2 ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup milk
1 t vanilla
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (regular is fine too)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease (or coat w/muffin cups) muffin pan. Whisk together flours, wheat germ, baking powder, and salt in large bowl. Combine bananas, eggs, sugar, oil, milk, and vanilla in medium bowl. Pour liquid ingredients over dry ones; stir until moist. Spoon into prepared cups. Bake 15 minutes or until light golden and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Almond Danish Swirls

We had these at my baby shower and they were really fantastic. The recipe is by Paula Deen and I just grabbed it from here to share with you all. Enjoy!

6 oz cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup slivered almonds, finely chopped
2 8oz cans refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
1 egg white
1 teaspoon water

Glaze:
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
4 teaspoons milk
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese, almond extract, and sugar until fluffy. Fold half of the chopped almonds into the cream cheese mixture. Separate 1 can of dough and assemble into 4 rectangles. Firmly press the perforations to seal. Press or roll each piece of dough to form a 7 by 4-inch rectangle, and spread each with about 2 tablespoons of the cream cheese filling to within 1/4-inch of the edges. Starting at the short end, roll each rectangle tightly into a cylinder. Repeat with the other can of dough and remaining filling.

Place on a plate, cover with plastic wrap, and chill until firm, about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F while the rolls are chilling.

Remove from the refrigerator and cut each roll into 4 slices. Place 1/2-inch apart on ungreased baking sheets. In a small bowl, combine the egg white with 1 teaspoon water. Brush over the swirls. Sprinkle with the remaining chopped almonds. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until light brown.

While the swirls are baking, combine the glaze ingredients in a small bowl. Cool the swirls for 3 minutes on wire racks placed over a sheet of waxed paper. Drizzle the icing over the warm swirls.

Baked German Pancakes

For me, this is a lot faster than regular pancakes or waffles, and the kids both like it, which is pretty much the definition of a good recipe these days!

4 eggs
1 cup flour
1 t salt
1 cup milk
3 T margarine

Preheat oven to 425. Place margarine in a 9X13 pan; put it in the preheating oven to melt. In a bowl, mix flour and salt, then whisk in milk, then eggs. Take pan out of the oven, and pour mixture over melted butter. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the edges of the pancake start turning very dark brown. Take out, cut in squares and serve with maple syrup.

*Notes: The original recipe calls for 6 eggs, but it's too eggy for me, so I cut it down. I also cut down the margarine by 1 T from the original recipe. When the pancake bakes, it will puff up and get really big, then fall kind of flat after you pull it out. That's normal!

Cinnamon Rolls

The recipe I tweaked says these should take about 90 minutes. They usually take me a bit longer, but not much. Which is why they're awesome. Makes 14 pretty cinnamon rolls and 2 funky looking ones (don't you hate the ends of the roll?).

Cinnamon Rolls:

3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup margarine (softened)
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 (.25 ounce) package instant yeast
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water
1 egg
1 1/2 cups brown sugar (packed)
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
3/4 cup margarine (softened)

Icing:
4 oz cream cheese (softened)
1/4 c butter (softened)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

Cinnamon Rolls:

Heat milk in small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Mix in margarine. Stir until melted then let cool until luke warm.

In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 1/4 cup flour, yeast, sugar, and salt. Mix well. Add water, egg, and the milk mixture; beat well. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition. When the dough has just pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth (about 3-5 minutes).

Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, beat together brown sugar, cinnamon, and softened butter.

Roll out the dough into a large rectangle (my best batch came from a 24x14 rectangle). Spread dough with the brown sugar and butter mixture*. Working from a long edge, roll up dough to form a log and pinch seam to seal.

Cut into 16 equal size rolls* and place in a greased casserole dish. Turn your oven on to about 150 and let rise in warm oven for 30 minutes. Then crank up heat to 375 and let bake for 15-20 minutes.

Icing:

If you don't have leftover Cinnabon icing kicking around, blend all ingredients. Serve on warm cinnamon rolls.

Kayla's Notes:

-If you're not careful, the brown sugar mixture can make it hard to roll the dough nicely. So I finally figured out that you want to spread it pretty close (within about 1/2 inch) of all edges except one of the long edges (leave like 1-2 inches). Let that edge be the outside of your roll. That way, you're not trying to seal the edge with butter and sugar squishing out (gets messy real quick). Start rolling from the long edge with a 1/2 inch margin and by the time you get to the 1-2 inch edge, it should be easy to pinch it all closed without squishing filling everywhere. This probably seems really obvious to everyone else, but I'm a little slow and was really excited when I discovered how much easier this made things.

-I've heard using dental floss is a really great way to cut this stuff. My serrated bread knife did the trick just fine, but I thought I'd pass that along since a lot of people swear by it.

Pain au Chocolat

A rather non-authentic French pastry that's great for breakfast or dessert. Also, proof that we eat more than just Japanese food at our house. I lost the recipe for this long ago, so I'm kind of approximating. It's pretty hard to screw up though.

1 sheet puff pastry, thawed*
3 Hersheys chocolate bars broken along the lines
1 egg white, beaten
flour
butter for greasing the cookie sheet
powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheet with butter. Unfold puff pastry on lightly floured cutting board. Dust with flour. Roll out slightly with a rolling pin.

Cut puff pastry as follows (more or less..it got really complicated as I tried to write it out so I decided a diagram was probably preferable to my confusing instructions):

Each pastry piece should be about as wide as a piece of the broken chocolate bar is long.

Brush each piece with the beaten egg white and place a square of chocolate about 1/2 inch from the end of the pastry piece. Roll it up into a log, using your fingers to squish the end into kind of a seal. Leave the sides open. Place the log seal side down on the cookie sheet. Repeat with each pastry rectangle.

Brush tops of each log with egg white then pop them in the oven until the tops start browning. Make a note of the time because I have no idea how long these are supposed to bake (15 minutes, maybe?).

Dust with powdered sugar and enjoy!

Kayla's Notes*

-Find puff pastry in the freezer section of the grocery store. Each box usually comes with 2 sheets. It dries out kinda fast, so make sure you wrap up the other sheet in plastic wrap and put it back in the freezer pretty quick so it doesn't get ruined. Make sure it's puff pastry and not phyllo dough (easy to confuse).

-There should be a few squares of chocolate left. Since they didn't make it into the recipe the calories don't count. Enjoy some guilt free chocolate while the the pain au chocolat bakes!

Brazillian Pancakes

-These are way yummy & easy. They're not quite as thin as crepes, but not as thick as regular pancakes either.

2 cup milk
3/4 cup flour
3 tbsp sugar
1 egg
pinch of salt

Whisk all ingredients together. Pour circles onto buttered frying pan on medium-med. high heat (just like regular pancakes). Swirl the pan a little so the batter goes into a big flat circle. Serve warm with butter & cinnamon sugar, or whipped cream and fresh chopped fruit. Awe and inspire your houseguests with hardly any effort at all!

**easiest way to make "crepes"- no special pan needed! (by: Bethany S.)

Creme Brulee French Toast

Although the recipe calls for large slices from a round loaf of bread and remove the crust, you can use a regular uncut loaf of French bread, leaving the crust on or off, and it will be just as delicious… Cut slices about 1 inch thick.

INGREDIENTS:

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons corn syrup
An 8 to 9 inch round loaf country-style bread
5 large eggs
1 ½ cups half and half
2 teaspoons vanilla
¼ teaspoon salt

PREPARATION:

In a small heavy saucepan melt butter with brown sugar and corn syrup over moderate heat, stirring until smooth and pour into a 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking dish. Cut six 1 inch thick slices from center portion of bread, reserving ends for another use, and trim crusts. Arrange bread slices in one layer in baking dish, squeezing them slightly to fit.
In a bowl whisk together eggs, half and half, vanilla and salt until combined well and pour evenly over bread. Chill bread mixture, covered, at least 8 hours and up to 1 day.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bring bread to room temperature.
Bake bread mixture, uncovered, in middle of oven until puffed and edges are pale golden, 35 to 40 minutes.
Serve hot French toast immediately

(This is better than “Mimi’s” famous French toast!) (by Becky)