brown sugar streusel french toast casserole

So many people in my life have been so supportive of me starting this blog.  It makes me feel so happy and lucky to know that the people who love me know what makes me happy and like seeing me doing something that I really enjoy.  I'm so grateful for all of the coffee that my dad has sent me so that I can incorporate my love of coffee into the blog, the numerous suggestions for themes that I've gotten from him and others, and the many supportive comments of my friends.  Yay blog!  

Needless to say, I become overjoyed when I have the chance to bake with those I love, and then write about it later.  This past weekend, my friends and trekked back to the lovely Ann Arbor for the Michigan/Iowa [homecoming] football game and had a blast.  When I first started the blog, my sister was super excited, as I have long since sent her links to various delectable recipes (and some just plain crazy things) and immediately demanded that I quote "get french toast on there ASAP."

I take orders well.  I combed through my database [I use this technical term to make me sound fancy, but all I really did was search my favorite blogs and sites for some good inspiration] and found some great ideas for french toast.  The thing about french toast is that it  is unknowingly versatile.  You can go the super delectable route by stuffing it with mascarpone and fruit, the super healthy route with whole grain bread and egg white, or somewhere in the middle by baking it in casserole form.  You can make french toast sticks.  Pumpkin pie french toast (did you hear that, pumpkin lovers?).  I gave Erin a million options to choose from, but she eventually decided on Baking Bites' Brown Sugar Streusel French Toast Casserole.  Something simple, yet uniquely comforting and sweet.

The first step is cutting all of the crusts off of your loaf of bread and then cutting each piece into triangle halves.  Yes, I said loaf.  We're making a casserole, remember?

You simply stack those triangles into your casserole pan and pour the egg mixture over it.  So easy!

Fool proof.

Then you make the streusel.  Also not possible to fail with this.

Top the bread with the streusel, ensuring that every crevasse is proportionately strudel-laden.  If you like, double the streusel recipe and for additional crunch, and add streusel between each layer of bread.  Totally optional, but just an idea for improvement that Erin and I brainstormed afterward.

Give your will power a great challenge and wrap the casserole up with saran wrap and refrigerate it overnight to let the egg mixture fully seep into the bread (and make your morning breakfast super fabulous, quick, and easy.)

In the morning before you hop in the shower, throw this in the oven at 350.  Once you're out of the shower and dressed 40 minutes later, pull this out of the oven, let it cool while you prepare your coffee, and cut into squares.  You can totally top this with maple syrup if you like, too.  Either way, it's definitely a great way to start a workday, or weekend breakfast with friends.

Brown Sugar Streusel French Toast Casserole

Adapted from Baking Bites

12 slices whole wheat bread
2 cups skim milk
4 large eggs
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

Streusel:
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
pinch salt
2 tbsp butter, melted

1. Cut crusts off bread and cut each piece into triangles. Arrange bread into three even layers (the exact number of slices will vary depending on the size of the bread you start out with) in a lighlty greased 8-inch baking dish.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, brown sugar, salt, vanilla and cinnamon until smooth. Pour over bread. Press down to ensure all pieces are thoroughly soaked. Custard should just come to the top of the bread layer. It if covers it more deeply, add additional bread.
3. In a small bowl, make the streusel. Stir together brown sugar, flour and salt. Pour in butter and stir with a form until mixture has the consistency of wet sand. Sprinkle evenly over bread and custard.
4. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
5. In the morning, preheat oven to 350 and bake for about 35-40 minutes, until french toast is a crisp and golden brown on top. Let the dish stand for a few minutes. The dish will be very soft and souffle-like, but should not be too runny. The french toast will continue to set and soak up the custard as it cools. Slice and serve warm, with maple syrup.

Coffee Pairing: Although the french toast is not overly-sweet in my opinion (substituting whole wheat for white bread really helps), a simple breakfast coffee goes perfectly with this meal - try roasting the Kenyan Kirinyaga Gakuyuini bean from Burman Coffee, which you can order online here.

The verdict?

What?!  This is French Toast? Come on, Auntie Liss...

Ohhh, me likey.

revisiting old friends

Remember this guy?  Yeah, I eat him almost every day.  Well, a version of him every day.  My rationale is that he only constitutes about 350 calories, and the protein and complex carbs that he packs into his pretty self keeps me full until lunch, so why not try perfecting this recipe by modifying it every morning until I get it just right?

First I played around with the sugar content - this was tricky.  For a while I would use 1/2 a teaspoon of brown sugar, and 1/2 a teaspoon of regular refined white sugar.  But one morning as I was searching for more vanilla, I knocked over the box of TruVia that I totally forgot was sitting in my cupboard and thought, if this can work, I've really got something.  So I did.  And I won't go back.  The 0 calorie, all natural sweetener (not to mention no sucralose/aspartame) is the perfect sugar substitute. I also suppose that topping the pancake with my new favorite topping, my Dad's blueberry jam, cancels this out, but honestly?  Holy blueberry goodness - I do love anything blueberry, but this stuff just blows any other pancake topping out of the water. I am not a huge syrup fan [you may notice maple syrup next to the jam...haven't been able to stop myself from having the jam yet, but someday I'll get to it!], but I love unordinary pancake toppings, so I highly suggest going out and getting yourself some blueberry jam, or maybe even some pumpkin butter.  Mmm.

Then I had a far less grand epiphany: maybe I should see what it would be like with an egg white.  It's weird that the recipe doesn't have eggs, right? No. What yielded from this addition was the most rubbery, dense, yet moist pancake I've ever eaten in my life.  I would not serve this to my worst enemy.

After these two contrasting experiments and a wide range of others (the addition of cloves was also one of my prouder moments, and I finally got around to substituting the oil for unsweetened applesauce - good thinking on my part again), I think I've finally got something good to share.  Here is my totally revised recipe for my Whole Wheat Cinnamon Oatmeal Pancake:

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Cinnamon Pancake [for one]
Adapted slightly from Joy the Baker


1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 packets TruVia or PureVia stevia extract sugar
1/3 cup whole gain oats [you can use Quaker, steel cut, whatever...I really like Country Choice Organic Multi Grain Hot Cereal from TJ's]
2 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts
1/3 cup skim milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and sugar.  Sift until well mixed, about three-four times.  
2. Add in oats and walnuts and stir to combine.  
3. In a separate bowl, stir together the milk, vanilla, applesauce, and lemon juice.  Add to dry ingredient mixture and stir to combine with three-four swift strokes (you do not want to over-mix.)
4. Pour batter into griddle or non-stick frying pan, using the back of your spoon to spread the batter across the pan (the batter is quite thick.)
5. Cook on low-medium heat for about four minutes on the first side, and two on the second.
6. Top with sliced bananas, blueberry jam, pumpkin butter, maple syrup, or honey.

Coffee pairing: Depending on your topping, the coffee selection can vary. If you are topping it with pumpkin butter, I'd highly suggest my favorite roast from Einstein (do I need to explain its amazing-ness again?)  Otherwise, another great coffee is the Honduran Marcala blend that you can obtain here.  A great morning coffee that is light, slightly sweet, and has hints of fruit with a slight depth of chocolate that compliments the hearty pancake well.
_________________________________________________________________


I don't stop there, though.  I'd like to leave you with a photo montage of my second attempt at Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.  They were even better the second time around, and my doubts about the addition of chocolate chips was quickly squashed.  Consider my recipe officially revised.

Perfect cracks, perfect texture, and the nutty, caramel-y flavor that the brown butter adds is a work of art. I'll never go back to my old recipe again!  In case you forgot, here's the recipe:


Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
From Yours Truly

1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour

2 cups cake flour

1 ½ teaspoon baking powder

1 ¼ teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk

2 sticks butter

1 ¼ cup light brown sugar

1 cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

¾ package Gihardelli milk chocolate chips and ½ package regular M&Ms

OR 1 package Gihardelli 60% cacao chips

1. Cut up butter into small chunks and place in saucepan.  Heat over medium heat until completely melted, and continue to stir until butter becomes somewhat clear and brown-ish colored (about 5-8 minutes.)
2. Remove from heat and add to sugar mixture (do not stir or mix together) and allow to come to room temperature – put in fridge for about 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, prepare dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 
4. Once sugar/butter mixture is completely cooled, beat together until fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla.  
5. Add flour mixture to butter and sugar mixture, one cup at a time, until just combined.  
6. Once all ingredients are combined, mix in M&Ms and chocolate chips.
7. Spoon dough into desired size and roll together in hands to ensure uniform size and baking shape. Bake cookies on parchment paper-lined cookie sheet for approximately 12 minutes, until holes/cracks appear in middle of cookie and border becomes golden brown.

I die.

Coffee pairing: Mocha Java blend from Caribou Coffee.  This chocolate-y smooth dark roast is one of my all time favorite coffees, and it brews wonderfully at home.  I always try to keep some in the cupboard!

look out world...

i'm legit now.  i purchased my first cake decorating set.

pumpkin muffin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

I am going to ignore the fact that the thermometer has lingered around the 80 degree mark for the past four days and tell you a little story about pumpkin.  And fall.  And how the two come together to create some magical things, including some that are more difficult to name than others.


This is the first fall in my life that I've ever enjoyed.  There have been an incredible amount of changes in my life, including the falling leaves, which makes me feel like I've been given a fresh start in a lot of ways.  One of which is my official promotion at work, which has been long awaited and much needed.  In short, I'm busier now than I've ever been in my life, and although sometimes it makes me crazy, I'm loving it.


One of the many great things in my life at the moment is Einstein Bagels' Autumn Roast coffee.  Sense no sarcasm here.  The joy I get from every sip of this heavenly, chestnut-y, cinnamon-y caffeinated beverage is incomprehensible to most.  It's best if you just try it yourself and report back.  It's kind of like a Jeep thing: if you don't have one, you just wouldn't understand.


And you know what pairs perfectly with fall-in-a-cup?  Pumpkin things.  Pumpkin bread, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin scones, and pumpkin muffin cupcakes.  Why am I calling them muffin cupcakes?  Just look at them.  Several famous philosophers bloggers have long since debated the difference between cupcakes and muffins.  I would argue that frosting alone does not a cupcake make, nor does density a muffin make.  But these things turned out to characterize both of these wonderous food groups.  Hence the name.  No arguments.


This recipe comes from my Dad, who has always made pumpkin cake during the holidays.  My grandma used to specifically request it at every Christmas gathering on his side of the family, and most of the people I know who have tried it always love it.  It's super flavorful, rich, and moist.  It's pumpkin.  And cream cheese frosting.  Few things make more sense in the world than this combination.

But, the thing is, this story has an interesting background.  My original intention with this particular baking extravaganza was not actually to make Pumpkin Muffin Cupcakes.  What I was going to do was make pumpkin truffles to take to Dustin's place while we watched the Michigan game on Saturday.  What ensued from this idea was purely an epic disaster.  But luckily, as I was pouring the lovely pumpkin cake batter into my sheet pan, a thought popped in my head: maybe I should set some of this batter aside, and see how this batter would work in cupcake form!  I can't explain why I only had one good thought that night, but nonetheless, it truly was my only smart move the entire night.


I'll start with the positive, though.  The first thing about this recipe: a lot of spices go into it to make it as flavorful as it is.  I love the depth of flavor that goes into this, rather than just a store-bought pumpkin spice mixture.  

So, once you make your batter and place it in your baking dish (my dad usually uses a bundt pan, but since I was just going to have a field day with my childish pleasure of breaking the cake into smithereens, I figured there was really no point in making it look fancy just for my horrible oven.)  Here it is fresh out of said oven.  Baked well.  Looks normal, if not delicious.

Then came the disaster.  I started tearing the cake apart and putting it into the bowl with the frosting.  But I didn't have enough cream cheese to make my normal batch, so I didn't have the appropriate frosting:cake ratio.  But would I give up here?  Never.  It'll be okay, right?

Wrong.  That's the key to making these truffles: you have to have enough frosting to make them sticky and pliable.  In my ever-logical mind, I figured I was saving myself some calories and that it would be fine.  The cake has a cup of oil in it, Melissa.  Try that thought again.

I know, you totally want to submit this to Bon Apetit on my behalf right now, don't you?  But I still had shreds of optimism.  I made my cake balls.  I was lightheaded and a bit shaky, but I formed that whole bowl into what could be argued as ball formation.  Or rather, cake-balls-that-look-terrifyingly-similar-to-meatballs.

I know, I KNOW.  But, in my own defense, they actually taste pretty great, once you get past the appearance.


The next step is to dip them in chocolate.  Simple, right?  It's not like I haven't melted chocolate in a double boiler before.  It's also not as if I don't know how to do this.  Or that I just didn't care at this point because the cake balls were just so pretty as they were.  It's just that I was tired, and it was Friday night, and Morgan was over, and I just wanted to get these done before I passed out after a long week, and a long weekend of more work ahead of me.


I burnt the chocolate.  I tried "dipping" the balls in the grainy burnt chocolate mess.


Okay...I can't continue.  I couldn't bring myself to document this portion of the disaster with a photo.  Let's just call it a disaster (and me an optimist turned imbusile) and just focus on my success of the whole endeavor: four [yes, four. I told you how glad I was that I had one smart thought all night and saved some batter while pouring it into the sheet pan] Pumpkin Muffin Cupcakes.


All things aside, though, these turned out pretty well.  I wouldn't say they make the best "cupcakes", since the cake has always been known to yield a pretty firm outer layer that is more well-done than I would prefer my cupcakes.  Also, I decided that I don't like my muffin/cupcake pan - the cups are far too wide and far too shallow.  But nonetheless, this recipe still makes for an excellent bundt or sheet cake if you desire.


Pair with a great cup of Einstein's Autumn Roast.  I am adamant that no other beverage will compliment this dessert as beautifully.

Pumpkin Muffin Cupcakes
from my dad

Cake:
4 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cloves
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups white sugar
1 cup canola oil
1 lb pumpkin

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Beat eggs and sugar together on medium speed until well incorporated. 
3. Beat pumpkin into egg and sugar mixture for 30 seconds on medium speed. Stir in oil.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together all dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture and mix well to combine. 
5. Pour batter into a 9x13" pan or a regular size bundt pan, and bake at 350 for 1 hour. Remove from oven and let cool completely before frosting. 

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 pound cream cheese, softened
2 sticks butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

1. Beat cream cheese and butter together for 3 minutes until fluffy. 
2. Stir in vanilla. 
3. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, while beating on low speed. Add more or less powdered sugar until desired consistency is achieved.

brown butter chocolate chip cookies

On Sunday night, I was sitting here reflecting on the weekend, realizing how little I accomplished, and wishing that I had done some studying baking.  It was just this voice - that one stick of butter in my fridge - that kept calling me.  "You can do so much with me! What are you waiting for?" it cried.  "Yeah, yeah. I know," I said.  "But it's Sunday night. There's no one around to consume my creations other than me, and who knows what damage I could do with you!"

The butter won the argument.  Or rather, I suppose I did, since what I did was melt that sorry little stick into some brown butter. And I used it to modify my chocolate chip cookie recipe.  Purely for experimental purposes only.  I have always wanted to try this method, and the butter gave a good argument.  My hypothesis?  I may have to permanently adjust my all-time favorite ccc recipe - they say once you go brown, you never go back.  My initial reaction?  Well, it makes some damn good cookie dough.

Here's the butter almost complete.  I probably could have gone longer, but I could already smell the nuttiness, so I figured better safe than sorry.  After you brown the butter, you add it straight to your sugar mixture. But you cannot mix it!  You have to let the butter cool to room temperature with the sugar mixture.  I think what this does is caramelize some of that sugar a little bit to give even more of a caramel-y, nutty flavor to the cookies.

There it is.  Sugar, butter, and more sugar.  Let this sit in the fridge for about 5-7 minutes.  After it has cooled, you beat it together.  This is the first (and surprisingly only) part of the fun experiment that I started sweating a little.  Look what happened when I beat it, and the mixture was supposed to turn that fluffy, butter-sugar concoction that is the ever-present base for all cookie recipes:

No, it's not quinoa.  It's also not graham cracker crumbs, either.  It's what happens when you beat brown butter with brown sugar and white sugar when the butter isn't cool enough.  But, what is cool is what happens when you wait it out, and add the eggs.

Voilà!  Now that is one fluffy sugar/egg/sugar/brown butter mixture.  You really can't cream butter and sugar enough (ever), so I say have a field day.  Belt out a whole Miley Cyrus song while your mixer is plowing away.  It makes the cookies taste better.  As one of my favorite Top Chef contestants always said, "You have to cook with love."  Oh, Carla.

Once you're done creaming that goodness together, you stir in the vanilla.  Stir only, I say.  Then add your dry ingredients, just as you normally would.  Easy, right?  Now taste this stuff.  It is unmistakably the best cookie dough I've ever tasted in my life.  The brown butter adds a depth of flavor that you just don't expect from a regular ccc.  I hope you agree.

You may have noticed that my cookies, and my dough, lack some key chocolatey friends.  Like I initially explained, this was purely for experimental purposes.  I had no intention of consuming these, nor giving them away - I just wanted to try out the brown butter to see what the hype was all about.  So, I didn't want to put a whole bag of chocolate chips to scientific waste, did I?  No.  I merely took this dough, documented it, baked it, observed it, and disposed of it.  I won't give you any more detail than that.

The cookies baked well, but they didn't spread much - I just used a melon scooper to make even-sized cookies, but we'll see what happens when I really make these cookies (for an audience).  Overall, I was far more impressed by the taste of the brown butter in the dough than the baked cookies themselves.  I would be concerned that the extra flavor that the brown butter delivers could overpower the chocolate chips, but then again, it could compliment it well.  However, I could easily see myself concocting some other cookie recipe using this method...something nutty, caramel-y, totally fall-like...hmm.  Will this experiment's results lead me to permanently modifying my own tried-and-true ccc recipe?  Who knows.  Only another batch experiment will tell.


Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

from yours truly

1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour

2 cups cake flour

1 ½ teaspoon baking powder

1 ¼ teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk

2 sticks butter

1 ¼ cup light brown sugar

1 cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

¾ teaspoon coarse kosher salt

¾ package Gihardelli 60% cacao chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cut up butter into small chunks and place in saucepan.  Heat over medium heat until completely melted, and continue to stir until butter becomes somewhat clear and brown-ish colored (about 5 minutes.)
3. Remove from heat and add to sugar mixture (do not stir or mix together) and allow to come to room temperature – put in fridge for about 5-7 minutes.  Once cooled, beat sugar and butter together until fluffy.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well each time.  Stir in vanilla.
5. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.   Add flour mixture to butter and sugar mixture, one cup at a time, until just combined.  
6. Mix in chocolate chips.
7. Bake cookies on parchment paper-lined cookie sheet for approximately 12 minutes, until holes/cracks appear in middle of cookie and border becomes golden brown (depending on oven and cookie size.)  Let cool before serving.

Makes approximately 18 five-inch cookies.