Breads

Cinnamon Chip Muffins

Need something quick and easy to make for breakfast? These Cinnamon Chip Muffins are very simple, festive, and can be made in 20 minutes. This recipe uses biscuit baking mix, vegetable oil, milk, an egg, sugar, and cinnamon chips which are all mixed together quickly in one bowl. The chips melt slightly as the muffins bake creating little pockets of cinnamony goodness in every bite. What’s better than the aroma of cinnamon wafting out of the kitchen first thing in the morning? If you don’t like cinnamon chips, chocolate chips could be easily substituted here since the batter itself is basic. If you’ve been consumed with what to make for Thanksgiving dinner and haven’t given any thought to what to offer overnight guests for breakfast, don’t stress. Grab a bag of cinnamon chips and a box of Bisquick while you are at the store and give these a shot. Warm cinnamon muffins with a spread of butter and a cup of coffee sound like a perfect morning meal to me.

The ingredients:

In a mixing bowl, combine biscuit mix, sugar, egg, milk, and oil.

Fold in the cinnamon chips.

Spoon batter into a muffin pan lined with muffin liners or sprayed with non-stick spray.

Bake at 400°F for 15-18 minutes.

Additions: None

Omissions: None

Substitutions: None

Overall Rating: Love It

Source: Hershey’s Kitchens

Jalapeño Corn Muffins

Yesterday, I introduced you to a delicious version of chili, perfect for colder weather. Now, I have the perfect complement to such a dish – Jalapeño Corn Muffins. I searched out this recipe after being surprised by a similar corn muffin during a training session lunch break at my job. I don’t remember anything else I ate for lunch that day, but I remember those spicy muffins. So, I went in search for something similar and found these. Not only do these muffins get a kick of heat from a jalapeño pepper but they also have pepper jack cheese for a double-whammy. But these aren’t just hot – they are also buttery, cheesy, and perfect for dunking in a bowl of chili.

The ingredients:

Sauté onion and jalapeño in butter until soft. Move to a plate.

In one bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In another bowl, whisk eggs, milk, buttermilk and melted butter.

Stir the wet mixture into the dry mixture.

Fold in the onion mixture and pepper jack cheese.

Pour batter into 16 muffin cups and bake at 425ºF for 12-14 minutes.

Additions: None

Omissions: None

Substitutions: None

Overall Rating: Like It

Source: All You Magazine

Ciabatta French Toast with Warm Apple Maple Syrup

This recipe for Ciabatta French Toast with Warm Apple Maple Syrup has been silently taunting me for a few months. First of all, anything with McIntosh apples has me at hello. Second, these are stuffed with Gruyère cheese, a pale yellow cheese similar in flavor to Swiss, so the combination of the savory and sweet flavors in the dish peaks my interest. Slices of ciabatta bread are stuffed with the cheese, soaked in an egg and buttermilk custard seasoned with nutmeg and black pepper and cooked in a skillet until golden brown. The French toast is served with a thickened syrup cooked of apples and shallots. There is something very homey, almost holiday-ish about this recipe. The combination of the cooked shallots, apple and ciabatta reminds me slightly of Thanksgiving stuffing (not that it tastes that way, it just reminds me of it!) This is not your mom’s French toast which probably has puddles of melted butter and maple syrup (albeit delicious!) but insteads appeals to a more savory palette. Looking for something different for brunch? Look no more!

The ingredients:

Wisk together apple cider and cornstarch in a bowl and set aside.

Melt butter in a skillet and add shallots, cooking until soft.

Add in the apple cider/cornstarch mixture, apples and maple syrup to the shallots. Bring to a boil and reduce heat, cooking until apples are soft. Set aside to cool.

Cut a deep slit into the ciabatta bread and stuff with Gruyère cheese. (I used individual ciabatta rolls because that was what my grocery store bakery carried.)

In a shallow dish, combine milk, buttermilk, nutmeg, egg, egg white, salt, and pepper. Place cheese-stuffed ciabatta slice (one at a time) into the mix until coated on both sides. (If using ciabatta rolls like I did, slice a thin layer off the top and bottom of each roll first to expose the inside of the bread for better coating.)