Category: Recipes

Breakfast, Pancakes, Recipes

SRC: Puffed Blackberry Pancake with Cinnamon-Maple Syrup

Sarah

This sweet, eggy puffed pancake is stuffed full of yummy blackberries and topped off with a sweet cinnamon-maple syrup. It is the best breakfast treat! 

This sweet, eggy puffed pancake is stuffed full of yummy blackberries and topped off with a sweet cinnamon-maple syrup. It is the best breakfast treat! #secretrecipeclub

Can you believe I’ve never made [or tasted!] a puffed pancake before? Or a Dutch Baby or a German pancake or whatever you call this delicious egg-baked pancake treat. I did a little internet sleuthing on a puffed pancake’s origin, and basically like all recipes… there’s disputes. Surprise, surprise. Some say Seattle, but others say they’re similar to traditional baked “pancakes” served in Germany and other parts of the world or similar to a popover. No matter the origins, this breakfast is wonderful! And it’s made even more wonderful by the fact that I made this for the Secret Recipe Club!

This sweet, eggy puffed pancake is stuffed full of yummy blackberries and topped off with a sweet cinnamon-maple syrup. It is the best breakfast treat! #secretrecipeclub

This month for Secret Recipe Club, I had the pleasure of being assigned to Amy’s blog, Savory Moments. I don’t know when I first started reading Amy’s blog, but it’s been awhile so it was so fun to peruse her archives and choose a recipe to make for y’all today! Amy is such a creative cook, let me say. She lives with her husband and pets [including a cute kitty!] in New York state and her recipes run the gamut from healthy dinners to indulgent desserts to classic food skills that have been lost along the way like preserving, fermenting, and canning. I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that every recipe I’ve seen on her blog looks like a treat and I had a hard time just picking one recipe to make and share today. In the past I’ve made a few of her recipes, most recently this Bacon Cheeseburger Pie. This time though, since Amy’s blog is so unique, I wanted to try something I had never made before. Some options I considered included stovetop kettle corn, watermelon-cucumber-mint aqua fresca [obviously with another fruit since it’s not quite watermelon season!], rustic potato bread, Thai-style omelets, or even maybe ricotta cheese. But then it was breakfast time, and I was hungry and spied a puffed pancake on her blog! Decision. Made!

This sweet, eggy puffed pancake is stuffed full of yummy blackberries and topped off with a sweet cinnamon-maple syrup. It is the best breakfast treat! #secretrecipeclub

I was surprised at how quick it was to make this recipe. Much simpler than making a batch of stovetop pancakes, for sure. The texture wasn’t quite as pancake-y as I was imagining–all the eggs definitely made this dish lighter and more like a sweet omelette, but it was also a little cakey too so it’s hard to describe if you haven’t had one before except to say it’s heavenly! Amy used pears in her version, but I chose blackberries because that’s what I had on hand and I wasn’t about to run to the grocery store at 7:30 on a Saturday morning for pears that probably wouldn’t be ripe enough to make this anyway. I’m happy to report that the berries were delicious and bursting with sweet juices in each bite! The cinnamon-maple syrup was a great way to top this delicate pancake too…and also a great way to make sure the excess cinnamon-sugar doesn’t get wasted. I definitely will be making this recipe again in the future. Thanks, Amy! 🙂

one year ago: Cheesy Taco Muffins
two years ago: Grapefruit Arugula Salad
three years ago: Herb, Tomato, and Cheese Crackers
four years ago: Smoky Fried Chickpeas
five years ago: Pantry Pasta for Two

Puffed Blackberry Pancake with Cinnamon-Maple Syrup

  • Servings: 2-3
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Ingredients:

  • 3 eggs
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3/4 all-purpose flour
  • sprinkle of salt
  • 1 pint blackberries [reserve a handful for serving, if desired] – other fruit as desired can be used too
  • 1-2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1-2 tablespoons butter
  • powdered sugar for dusting, optional
  • 1/4-1/3 cup pure maple syrup

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Place a 10-12 inch oven proof skillet in the oven to warm.

In a medium bowl, whisk eggs, milk, and vanilla. Fold in flour and salt.

Place blackberries in a small bowl. Sprinkle with sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon and toss gently together to mix.

Carefully remove skillet from oven when preheated. Add butter to bottom of skillet, swirling to coat. When melted, place blackberries in bottom of skillet, leaving excess cinnamon-sugar mixture in bowl. Pour egg mixture over top, then return pan to oven.

Bake for about 17-20 minutes, or until pancake is puffy and golden, pulling slightly away from the side of the pan.

While pancake is baking, combine pure maple syrup with leftover cinnamon-sugar in a small saucepan. Heat on low until warm, stirring occasionally. Serve pancake in wedges topped with syrup, powdered sugar, or extra berries, as desired.

Hope you can check out some of the other SRC submissions at the linky below!

Breakfast, Egg Dishes, Recipes

Bacon, Potato, and Egg Casserole

Sarah

This hearty egg breakfast casserole is full of bacon, hashbrown potatoes, red bell peppers [my fave!], and cheese. It’s sure to please!

Bacon, Potato, and Egg Casserole - a delicious, hearty breakfast that is sure to please!

Weekends call for a delicious breakfast, do they not? While I’m a pancake-girl through and through, sometimes I don’t want to stand at the stove flipping pancakes for 30 minutes. Okay, it’s not always 30 minutes but sometimes it sure feels like it, especially when your family or friends are eating pancake after pancake while all you’ve had are the scraps. Haha, you laugh, but it’s true! 🙂 So what do you do to avoid that situation? Make a casserole, of course!

Bacon, Potato, and Egg Casserole - a delicious, hearty breakfast that is sure to please!

This breakfast casserole was part of my recent foray into eating up the food in my kitchen freezer so that I could move things out of the garage freezer in preparation for my freezer-cooking-before-baby extravaganza. Thank you, leftover half-pound of bacon! Thank YOU, half-bag of shredded hashbrowns! I know the bacon was recent, but those hashbrowns? Who knows! The freezer can be a sc-sc-sc-scaryyyy place. But the good news is, this casserole isn’t anything scary at all! It has all your favorite breakfast components packaged into one tasty treat. Since Ben and I can’t eat an entire pan of this goodness in one go, we parceled it out for breakfast all week long, making mornings a little easier. 🙂 I know this will become part of our regular rotation because it was mighty delicious and has endless substitution possibilities. Enjoy, and happy weekend!

one year ago: Curried Chicken Salad
two years ago: Coconut Curry Popcorn
three years ago: Dark Chocolate Crumb Bars
four years ago: Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Icing
five years ago: Chicken Pot Pie

Bacon, Potato, and Egg Casserole

  • Servings: 12
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from Taste of Home

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 pound bacon
  • 1 large red bell pepper, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 12 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 2 teaspoons chopped fresh dill [or 1/2 teaspoon dried]
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil [or 1 teaspoon dried]
  • 16 ounces frozen shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed
  • 4 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions:

Grease a 9×13 inch baking pan with cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Cook bacon on a skillet until crisp, then set aside on paper towels to cool. When cooled, chop into bite size pieces. Drain off most of the grease from the skillet, reserving about 2 tablespoons.

Add bell pepper and garlic to the skillet and cook until just beginning to soften, about 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

Meanwhile, whisk together eggs, milk, pepper, dill, and basil. Add cooled bacon and peppers, stirring gently to combine. Fold in hash browns and cheese.

Pour into prepared pan, then bake for about 40-45 minutes or until set in the middle. Enjoy!

Casserole reheats well throughout the week, and individual servings freeze well too.

 

Bars, Desserts, Recipes

Chocolate Chip Butterscotch Bars

Sarah

These gooey and quick from-scratch cookie bars are filled with lots of chocolate and butterscotch. They’re perfect for when you wanted dessert an hour ago. 🙂

These gooey and quick from-scratch cookie bars are filled with lots of chocolate and butterscotch. They're perfect for when you wanted dessert an hour ago. :)

There’s nothing worse than wanting dessert an hour ago and not getting it, right? My problem always is that I talk myself out of making something, and then a couple hours have gone by and I still want that yummy treat I didn’t make! Ugh, I hate when I do that to myself! In those cases, you have two choices. You can go out and get something [but I’m so frugal and such a homebody that option doesn’t appeal to me very often] OR you can make something quickly. In the latter scenario, you need recipes that do not require softened butter. Because softening butter in the microwave never works. At least not for me!

In the past, my go-to solution for this was these brownies. They’re chocolatey, they’re delicious, and they have you melt the butter on the stove. Perfecto! [And you can make them sans mint too, btw.] Sometimes though, you want something that isn’t quite so intensely chocolatey. Enter these Chocolate Chip Butterscotch Bars! They are cookie bars through and through–crisp tops and chewy middles. Not quite a blondie, not quite a cookie. Cookie bars are their own entity, and they are pretty darn delicious, if I do say so myself. 🙂

These gooey and quick from-scratch cookie bars are filled with lots of chocolate and butterscotch. They're perfect for when you wanted dessert an hour ago. :)

These cookie bars are bursting with tons of butterscotch flavor… from the brown sugar to the butterscotch chips, their flavor has the best sweet butter/molasses/sugar notes you can ask for. And the chocolate chips? Well, they’re just a bonus. A delicious bonus! Enjoy! 🙂

one year ago: Butternut Squash and Mushroom Tart
two years ago: Oatmeal Fudge Bars
three years ago: Neely’s Lemon Pasta Salad
four years ago: Pineapple-Apricot Teriyaki Chicken
five years ago: Sweet and Tangy Pork Chops with Pineapple with Coconut Toasted Rice

Chocolate Chip Butterscotch Bars

  • Servings: 24
  • Print

from Just a Little Bit of Bacon

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  • 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, 12 ounces
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 6.5 ounces
  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1 cup butterscotch chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13 inch pan with cooking spray, or line with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a medium bowl or saucepan, melt butter in the microwave or on the stove. When butter is melted, add brown sugar and whisk until smooth. Bonus–you can use the same bowl or saucepan! Just move the saucepan off the heat.

One at a time, add in the eggs and stir until incorporated. Then add the vanilla, salt, and baking powder and stir to combine. Add flour and stir until almost combined, then fold in chocolate chips and butterscotch chips.

Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Do not overbake! The bars are done when the tops are set and a little shiny, golden brown in color, and pulling away from the side of the pan. Cool completely [or most of the way] before cutting into bars if you want them to look pretty. Otherwise, they can be cut pretty soon; they just might be messy. Enjoy!

Appetizers, Chicken, Main Dishes, Recipes

SRC: Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Sarah

Fancy up your buffalo chicken by serving it in some cool, crisp lettuce wraps! This is the perfect game day appetizer or light dinner option. Mmmm!

Fancy up your buffalo chicken by serving it in some cool, crisp lettuce wraps! This is the perfect game day appetizer or light dinner option. Mmmm! #secretrecipeclub

This month for Secret Recipe Club I was assigned to The Avid Appetite, a fun blog written by Rachel. Rachel lives in Jersey City with her family and shares her love of family, fun, and food through her wonderful blog that she’s maintained for 5+ years. So many of her recipes sounded so delicious that it was hard to just pick one! After checking out my options, I narrowed it down to Pepperjack Pimento Cheese Dip, her favorite Iced Coffee recipe, Spicy Sweet Potato Wedges, and Berry Baked Oatmeal… and my final pick, Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps. I wish I had time to try everything!

Fancy up your buffalo chicken by serving it in some cool, crisp lettuce wraps! This is the perfect game day appetizer or light dinner option. Mmmm! #secretrecipeclub These buffalo chicken lettuce wraps certainly hit the spot! They were the perfect blend of spicy, creamy, cheesy, and cool. We enjoyed them during Selection Sunday last week [go Hoosiers!], but they’d be equally good during any sporting event, party, or get together. To be honest, buffalo chicken isn’t always my favorite–some versions are too spicy, and most versions are too messy–but this recipe may make me a diehard fan. 🙂 If you like buffalo chicken, you’ll love this recipe!

Fancy up your buffalo chicken by serving it in some cool, crisp lettuce wraps! This is the perfect game day appetizer or light dinner option. Mmmm! #secretrecipeclub

I changed a few things with Rachel’s original recipe–namely, using feta cheese and ranch dressing in place of bleu cheese and bleu cheese dressing, but the heart of the recipe is still there. If you’re a bleu cheese fan, knock yourself out, haha. I also added celery on top for some crunch! Yum! Thanks, Rachel, for this tasty treat!

one year ago: French Toast Casserole
two years ago: Tasty Mexican Lentils
three years ago: Quick Chocolate Pudding
four years ago: Alice’s Vanilla Tea-Infused Granola
five years ago: Roasted Tomato and Black Bean Soup

Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps

  • Servings: 8 as an appetizer, 4 as a meal
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from The Avid Appetite

Ingredients:

  • 3 chicken breasts or 4-5 chicken thighs – I used bone in, skin on chicken thighs but boneless skinless would work too
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
  • extra virgin olive oil, if using boneless skinless chicken
  • 4 ounces cream cheese
  • 1/2 cup Frank’s red hot sauce
  • 1/2 cup crumbled feta or bleu cheese
  • 1 head Boston or iceberg lettuce, washed and dried, then separated into individual leaves
  • 1/3 cup ranch or bleu cheese dressing
  • 2 stalks celery, chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place chicken on a large baking sheet lined with foil. [If using boneless skinless chicken, brush chicken with olive oil.] Sprinkle chicken with pepper, paprika, and thyme. Bake for 20-25 minutes until cooked through. Let rest for about 10 minutes to cool, then remove skin and bones and chop into bite size pieces.

Meanwhile, place cream cheese, hot sauce, and feta in a large mixing bowl. Stir together and add chicken. Transfer mixture to an oven safe baking dish to heat through, or place in a skillet set over low heat. Cook until cheese has melted, about 10 minutes.

When ready to serve, spoon buffalo chicken into prepared lettuce leaves. Drizzle with ranch dressing and top with celery.

Enjoy!

Be sure to check out all the other recipes made by my SRC friends this week at the link below!

Breakfast, Muffins, Recipes

Coffee Chocolate Chip Streusel Muffins #bookclubcookbookCC

Sarah

When you have leftover coffee, why not turn it into some chocolately streusel muffins?!? These muffins are dangerous to have around your kitchen. 🙂

Coffee Chocolate Chip Streusel Muffins #bookclubcookbookCC - these chocolate & coffee filled muffins are SUCH a treat!

OH MY MUFFIN GOODNESS! These are fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And I owe them all to a book. Not any old book though, one of my new favorite books–A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. This month for a #BookClubCookBookCC, our hostess was Emily at Life On Food. She asked us to make a recipe inspired by this wonderful classic, and suggested chocolate russe, a cake that the book’s main character, Francie, idealized as a dessert of the rich, only visible to her in the fancy bakery windows, never in her [poor] home where all the dessert she got was stale pie and sugar buns. Well, chocolate russe sounds delicious and all, but I’ve reached a point of lazy cooking and baking these days so muffins it is!

Coffee Chocolate Chip Streusel Muffins #bookclubcookbookCC - these chocolate & coffee filled muffins are SUCH a treat!

I promise you this–even though these muffins aren’t the recipe for the month, or even something mentioned in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, they are definitely inspired by the book. If you haven’t read this classic, you should. It’s one of those that I never read as a kid or in school, but read as an adult a few summers ago [I actually listened to the audiobook]. The book takes you through Francie’s life, from early chidhood to college. It is truly a coming of age story that captures a poor family in Brooklyn in the pre-war era. It is lovely and full of wonderful character descriptions. Since her family is so poor, food is a large part of their daily existence and coffee is their daily luxury–even the kids! The vivid descriptions of how the kids would be served as much “hot strong coffee” as they liked, with a pre-determined amount of sweetened condensed milk [to stir in or spread on toast] was crazy to me. As a kid, I didn’t like coffee at all! My dad prefers instant [gross] and my sister and I were talking recently about how he used to pay us a quarter to try his coffee. Haha! Unsurprisingly, Francie and her brother Neeley didn’t like the coffee either but still take a cup as their luxury and to be a little more grown-up. So, muffins. Coffee as a nod to Francie and Neeley [my favorite character!] and chocolate chips for the chocolate russe. And because chocolate is yummy. 🙂 If you can’t tell, I ADORE this book and am so glad I got to make a recipe inspired by it!

Coffee Chocolate Chip Streusel Muffins #bookclubcookbookCC - these chocolate & coffee filled muffins are SUCH a treat!

If you love coffee and chocolate, these muffins are for you! The coffee flavor is mellow but unmistakable. They’re perfect with a glass of cold milk or a cup of coffee… but it’s the streusel that wins the award! Since I made the streusel with melted butter, almonds, and oats, you really have press it onto the batter… but it bakes up nice and crispy creating a fantastic crunchy texture. Yum! I can’t get enough of these muffins. Hope you love ’em too! Thanks for hosting this month, Emily!

P.S. Scroll down for the giveaway, running through the end of the month!

one year ago: Mujaddara: Mediterranean Lentils and Rice with Carrot Slaw
two years ago: Apple Rubies in Coconut Milk
three years ago: Double Blueberry Walnut Muffins
four years ago: Quinoa Pancakes
five years ago: Lemon Blueberry Bread

Coffee Chocolate Chip Streusel Muffins

  • Servings: 12-14
  • Print

slightly adapted [mainly the streusel] from Bakerita

Ingredients:

for muffins

  • 1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour [or all purpose]
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1/2 cup strong brewed coffee, chilled or at room temperature
  • 1/3 cup canola oil
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup chocolate chips

for streusel

  • 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour [or all purpose]
  • 1/4 cup old fashioned oats
  • 3 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons sliced and toasted almonds
  • 2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
  • 1 tablespoon strong brewed coffee, chilled or at room temperature

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line muffin tins with paper liners or grease cups with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, baking powder, and baking soda. In a small bowl, whisk together egg, coffee, oil, and vanilla. Fold wet ingredients into the dry, mixing until just incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips. Batter will be thick.

Divide batter between muffin cups, filling about 3/4 of the way full. I use silicone baking cups and got 14.

In a small bowl, stir together flour, oats, brown sugar, and almonds with a fork. Pour in butter and mix to form crumbs. Streusel will be thick. Spread about 1/2 tablespoon on top of each muffin.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until tops turn golden brown and streusel starts to caramelize. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean. Serve warm! Muffins also freeze well.

Giveaway
This month Emily at Life on Food, this month’s host, is giving away a copy of the book.* Enter to win a copy of the cookbook so you can join us in future months, if you wish!
One of our lucky readers – US and Canada only! – can enter to win a copy ofThe Book Club Cookbook, Revised Edition: Recipes and Food for Thought from Your Book Club’s Favorite Books and Authors by Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp, courtesy of Tarcher-Penguin. Giveaway runs from March 1st till March 31st at 6 o’clock PM, Pacific time. Please see terms and conditions in the rafflecopter widget below. Many thanks to Tarcher Books. You may find Tarcher: on the web, on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Pinterest.

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*Disclosure: Emily received a complimentary copy of The Book Club Cookbook, Revised Edition: Recipes and Food for Thought from Your Book Club’s Favorite Books and Authors by Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp as an opportunity to give a copy away. Opinions are our own. We received no further compensation for our posts.