Breakfast

Ingredients
Streusel
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
¹⁄₄ cup light brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
³⁄₄ cup pecans, toasted (Optional)

Cake
2 ¹⁄₂ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¹⁄₂ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
16 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Glaze
1 ¹⁄₄ cups powdered sugar
1 ¹⁄₂ tablespoon milk (whole, low-fat, half and half, whatever you’ve got)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions
1. Process flour, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecans (if using) in food processor until finely ground. Transfer streusel to bowl and wipe out food processor.

2. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325*F. Grease and flour bundt pan. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in bowl. In food processor, blend sugar, eggs, sour cream, and vanilla until smooth, about 1 minute. With machine running, slowly pour in butter until incorporated, and then add flour mixture and pulse until just combined.

3. Pour half of batter into prepared pan and top with streusel mixture. Cover with remaining batter, using rubber spatula to smooth surface. Bake until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes. Cool cake in pan 20 minutes.

4. While cake is cooling, whisk powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla in a bowl until smooth. Turn out cake onto large plate. Pour glaze over warm cake. Cool completely, at least 2 hours. Serve. (Cake can be stored at room temperature, covered in plastic wrap, for 2 days.)

Comments
I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but my family loves coffee cakes so I decided to give this recipe a go when I saw it in the Cook’s Country 2009 Annual.  We were definitely not let down!  My parents, Art, and Lance all enjoyed this cake a great deal.  It was moist, buttery, and flavorful.  I omitted the nuts for Lance but I’m sure it would be just as fantastic with them.  To toast the nuts, just spread them out on a baking sheet in the oven while it’s preheating.  

Making it was pretty fun too!  It seemed like the batter was really an emulsion after adding the butter which was spiffy.

Cook’s Country 2009

Ingredients
6 tablespoons margarine or butter, melted
2 ¹⁄₂ cup milk, light cream, or half and half (I use 1% most often.)
1 pound loaf French bread
8 eggs
¹⁄₄ cup maple syrup
8 ounces cream cheese, cubed

Instructions
1. Cut French bread in cubes. Place half of bread cubes in bottom of a greased 3-quart casserole dish. Sprinkle cubed cream cheese on bread. Add remaining bread cubes.

2. In a large bowl, beat eggs, milk, butter, and maple syrup until well blended.  Pour mixture over bread cubes and press down with a spatula. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 to 24 hours. (I assemble this the night before and refrigerate for 8-10 hours.)

3. Remove wrap and bake at 325*F for 40 to 50 minutes or until completely set. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. Serve with syrup.

Comments
While I love French toast, I’m not a fan of making it for company since it’s fairly time intensive.  However, I am a fan of stratas because I can assemble them the night before and just bake them when I wake up which is much easier for company!  I made this when my parents were visiting and everyone enjoyed it quite a bit.  Served with some nice sausage, it makes a lovely breakfast.

Unknown

Ingredients
For the Cake
1 box cake mix, flavor of your choice
3 ounces instant pudding mix, complimentary flavor of your choice
4 eggs
³⁄₄ cup vegetable oil (I’ve used olive oil with no problem)
³⁄₄ cup water
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 tablespoon butter flavor

For the Nut Topping
¹⁄₂ cup pecans, chopped
¹⁄₄ cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

For the Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
¹⁄₂ teaspoon butter flavor
¹⁄₂ teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons milk

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350*F. Mix cake ingredients. Mix nut topping ingredients.  Spray a bundt pan with cooking spray.  Layer the cake mixture with the nut topping in the pan. Bake for 50 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.  

2. Mix glaze ingredients and glaze when cool.

Comments
This recipe has been in my family for at least my entire life.  It’s traditional Day After Thanksgiving breakfast, along with scrambled eggs.  It’s moist, easy, and a family favorite.  I have fun varying up the flavors by picking different boxes of cake mix and pudding mix.  It’s hard to go wrong!

The coffee cake shown here was made by my mother using lemon pudding and lemon cake mix.  It was delicious!

Person - Mom

Ingredients
1 ¹⁄₃ cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
2 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons baking powder
³⁄₄ teaspoon salt
1 ¹⁄₄ cups buttermilk
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons (¹⁄₄ stick) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for cooking
Fresh blueberries, optional
Chocolate chips, optional
Pure maple syrup, for serving

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 250°F. Place baking sheet in oven. Whisk first 4 ingredients in large bowl. Whisk buttermilk, eggs, and 2 tablespoons butter in medium bowl; stir into dry ingredients.

2. Heat large nonstick griddle or skillet over medium-low heat; brush with butter. Drop batter by ¹⁄₃ cupfuls onto griddle. Cook pancakes until brown, brushing griddle with more butter as needed, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to sheet in oven to keep warm. Serve pancakes with maple syrup.

Optional: After dropping batter onto the griddle, sprinkle the uncooked top of the pancakes with blueberries or chocolate chips.  Or both!

[photo forthcoming]

Comments
This recipe came from Epicurious.com and, sadly, I neglected to take pictures.  The flavor was fantastic.  I preferred mine plain but Art, my brother, and my nephew all gobbled up the ones with blueberries.  Leftovers, if there are any, freeze well and can be reheated in a toaster oven or regular oven.  I mixed up the dry ingredients the night before making these and that worked well!

Internet - Epicurious

Ingredients
10 slices bacon, cut into ¹⁄₂-inch pieces
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
8 eggs, beaten
¹⁄₂ cup half and half
Salt and pepper, to taste (I only added pepper as I felt the chips were salty enough)
4 ounces cream cheese
¹⁄₂ cup cheddar cheese, shredded
10 ounces Stacy’s Simply Naked Pita Chips

Instructions
1. Fry bacon in a large skillet over medium heat just until crispy.  Drain well.  Without cleaning the skillet, add the mushrooms and sauté until soft. 

2. Mix eggs, half-and-half, salt and pepper. 

3. Pour pita chips into a 9x12-inch baking dish and press to flatten and smoosh.  Tear or cut cream cheese into pieces and place over the top of the chips.  Top with mushrooms, bacon, and cheddar cheese.  Pour egg mixture over everything in the baking dish. 

4. Cover and refrigerate overnight or at least 8 hours.  

5. Preheat oven to 325*F and bake for 40 minutes or until eggs are cooked through.  Cut into squares and serve. 

Comments
I saw this recipe on Pioneer Woman’s blog and my first thought was “What?  Pita Chips?!” followed by “Ooh, that sounds good.”  And it was good.  It would have been even better with a drizzle of maple syrup on the top.  Art and I both greatly enjoyed this.  Make sure you smoosh the chips down so they can all absorb the egg mixture.  I sort of neglected to do that.

Internet - Pioneer Woman