Apricot Raisin Oatmeal French Toast

Using apricot-raisin bread from COBS bakery you can have French toast with a twist. If you don’t have a COBS near you, try this with high quality raisin bread, like Sunmaid brand

With apologies to readers who don’t live in the Canadian provinces of Ontario, British Columbia or Alberta, today’s quick recipe features a lovely loaf of apricot and raisin bread available from “COBS” bakery. They have 70 locations across the three provinces listed above and besides baking exceptional bread, also have donated 15 million dollars in bread to food banks. That makes their business even better in my books.

More about COBS here: http://www.cobsbread.com/what-we-bake/overview

If you don’t have a COBS bakery, you can always use a high quality raisin bread like Sunmaid Raisin Bread.

This would make a great premiere item for “brunch with friends”  by adding on items like bacon, Greek yogurt, fresh fruit salad…whatever you fancy.

To make a single serving of the French toast you need the following:

Ingredients:

• 2 slices apricot-raisin bread
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 cup large flake oatmeal
• 1 tsp. butter for frying

This bread from COBS is also one of my favorite breakfast items – toasted with a smear of almond butter

Coat each side of the bread with egg beaten with vanilla

After soaking in the egg mixture, coat each side with large flake oatmeal

Fry on low-medium heat to cook the egg thoroughly

Add some fresh fruit for even more fibre and nutrients

Preparation:

Beat egg with vanilla and set aside in a bowl for dipping. Place oatmeal flakes in a separate bowl for dipping. Take the bread slices and first soak in egg/vanilla mixture. Coat the egg-dipped bread in the large oat flakes and coat each side evenly. Transfer the oatmeal-coated slices to the warm frying pan which has been coated with the melted butter. Fry on each side until cooked throughout.

Serve with a seasonal fruit if desired, and maple syrup.

For another one of my French toast recipes, click here.

Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkins are everywhere….from porches to lattes, candles, grocery stores, craft stores….
I just can’t seem to get away from their orangey goodness. And when Halloween has come and gone I confess to loading up the trunk with their toothy grins and going pumpkin chucking with a certain sister of mine on the deserted back roads of Ontario towns.

It’s goofy – it’s therapy – it’s tradition – what can I say.

Another therapeutic thing for me is to bake with pumpkins, which brings me back to today’s recipe…

It’s based on a pumpkin loaf recipe from www.finecooking.com. (by the way, it’s a great daily recipe service to subscribe to).

I like a spicier muffin or loaf than the usual person so have amped up the recipe with cinnamon and nutmeg. And, muffins are more portable for sharing so that’s what I made rather than a loaf.

Here’s how to make 12 muffins:

Ingredients:
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin purée
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup honey

Topping:
2 tbsp. hulled pumpkin seeds (pepitas)

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners or use a non-stick 12 muffin pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk all the dry ingredients together except for the pumpkin seeds used to top the muffins. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, pumpkin, sugar, oil, and honey together. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir with a large spoon just until evenly incorporated.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups and top with a sprinkle of pumpkin seeds.
Bake for approximately 18 – 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of one muffin comes out clean.

Jiffy Cinnamon Rolls

In less than one hour you can have hot, steamy cinnamon rolls on your breakfast/brunch table.

Ahhhh cinnamon.  I love the taste and smell of it.

If you are having some friends over for a brunch or want to cook and freeze some yummies for a future breakfast, try this quick recipe.  Makes 12 rolls.

There’s still work to  be done on this dough.  I mix in the milk with a fork until all of the dry ingredients are incorporated.  Then it’s time to knead.

Dough kneaded and ready for rolling next to the cinnamon/sugar/butter mix which needs to be well mixed.  If a spoon or fork doesn’t get it all mixed, rub with clean hands.

After the dough is rolled out, dot the cinnamon mix evenly

Insert a teaspoon of mix into the bottom of each muffin cup

These rolls are ready to take the heat.

Dough Ingredients:

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour (if you don’t have whole wheat, use 2 cups in total of the white flour)
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 cup milk

Cinnamon Topping Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup softened butter
• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 2 tbsp. cinnamon (though I like my rolls amped up and add an extra tablespoon!)
• optional: 1/3 cup of raisins or currants

Dough Preparation:

In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt using a pasty cutter or two knives.  Cut in the butter until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.  Pour in milk, stirring lightly with a fork, adding a little more milk if needed to make the dough soft.  Turn onto a lightly floured surface an knead gently 8 to 10 times.  Roll this on a lightly floured surface into a 12″ x 8″ rectangle.

Cinnamon Topping Preparation:

Pre-grease (butter) a muffin tin that holds 12 muffins. Set oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.  Don’t add the raisins or currents yet! Drop 1 tsp. of this mixture into each of the muffin holders.  Spread the remaining cinnamon mixture over the dough rectangle.  Sprinkle the raisins or currants on top (if you want them) and then roll up like a jelly roll starting with the long end so that you have a 12″ long roll.  Cut this roll into 12 equal slices.  Place in muffin cups.  If desired, find a cookie sheet large enough to catch any drips and place under muffin cups.  Bake for about 20 minutes but check after 15.  After they are golden brown, remove from oven and quickly turn them out onto a heat-proof tray.  To get them to turn out easier, run your knife around each one to loosen before turning over.

Be very careful at this stage as melted sugar on skin hurts like a @#$#.  Use two forks to turn them back over and scoop any gooey goodness back onto the rolls before it hardens up.

My favorite cinnamon to cook with surprisingly comes from Costco and is their Kirkland Saigon Cinnamon brand.

Try it and let me know how it turns out.  Being the bran-monster that I am, I do sometimes sneak in a couple of tablespoons of bran in these.  No one notices, and it makes me feel better about the white flour part.