Blueberry Yogurt Granola Parfaits

Should you be lucky enough to find yourself blessed to have a very few simple ingredients in your fridge, you can also be lucky enough to find yourself munching on a little homemade yogurt parfait.  The possibilities are endless and there really isn't even a recipe because it's entirely up to you.  You can be fancy and make layers of yogurt, fruit and granola, like I did here, or you can be completely low-key and rock the parfait like my hubs does every day - just dump yogurt in a bowl, pile on a handful of granola and add some fruit (or more often in his case, a handful of chocolate chips).  

I almost hate to admit this, but I really don't like yogurt all by itself.  I'm also not always a fan of fresh fruits - I'm very picky that way.  

I'm hopeless, I know. 

That is why when I find something I actually like, it is always a huge and very pleasant surprise.

That said, for some reason, I really, really like eating parfaits.  I don't know what it is about the combination of these textures, flavors and ingredients, but it is just so good - and the kiddos love it too.  Besides, they can even easily build their own parfait in a cute bowl or cup.  Any time I can get the kids involved in the prep work is a good thing!

One last idea - if you want to be a rock star in the possibility of a breakfast in bed option for a loved one for a birthday or any other upcoming lovey-dovey holidays, well, let's just say that you can really make this colorful and pretty and fancy looking - all without doing any cooking at all.  I'm just sayin'.

Oh! And, if you are having a brunch, you wouldn't believe how cute a tray of some little clear plastic cups with pre-assembled parfaits looks and can make your life so much easier!

Shown here are vanilla yogurt, fresh blueberries and granola I got in my Muir Fresh Harvest Bundle. In case you missed my first post about what the Muir Fresh Harvest Bundles are all about, go here.  The next bundle list will be posted soon, so check back here or on their site for the listing - you can also find their website linked up over on my sidebar for easy access.

TWD: Blueberry Crumb Cake

Sihan of Befuddlement chose the Blueberry Crumb Cake in Baking From My Home To Yours for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie. The fabulous Dorie Greenspan, who our group is named for, has been nominated for a James Beard award in Journalism. Hooray for Dorie and congratulations!

On a slightly related note, did you know that, besides following me @PheMom you can now follow the group on Twitter as well as Dorie herself? Check it out @DorieGreenspan and @TuesdayswDorie - just thought if you are a fellow tweep you ought to know. Speaking of, if you are a fellow tweep - please let me know so that I can start finding you (if I don't already). Please leave me your Twitter username in your comment so I can follow you too!

Back to the Blueberry Crumb Cake. This cake was really fun and easy to put together and came out with beautiful results. The flavor of all of it together is amazing. If you love blueberry muffins, then think of this cake as a huge step up. I made the cake exactly as directed, but, since I was out of walnuts, used pecans in the topping. It was amazing and I'm sure even better with the walnuts!

Even though I loved this, I have to admit, I am still partial to the Jam Crumb Cakes I made a while back. I still don't entirely love baked fruit, so the blueberries in this were sometimes not my favorite part. That said, I can't wait to try this recipe with some peaches next since they are the one fruit I do like when baked.

I you haven't already entered the Macy's Giftcard Giveaway I'm doing, then you have until midnight Thursday to comment and enter to win. It is a really easy one to enter, so follow that link and get to it!

Jam Crumb Cake: Three Variations on a Theme

I have a little addiction I feel like I need to tell you about. Breakfast sweets. Actually, it isn't really a little addiction.  It is a rather large addiction.  I am all about the sticky buns and cinnamon rolls, muffins, coffee cakes, doughnuts, etc.  I generally don't eat breakfast (bad, I know, right!?) but if there is something sweet, well, then I am all over it. 

Since I had some homemade preserves recently I have been on a real kick making this jam crumb cake recipe I found on Epicurious. It is infinitely adaptable and extremely delicious. To prove my point, here I give you three versions. All of these started from this base recipe. I've provided the variations below. The cake is insanely delicious and so good. My husband, who isn't a big sweets fan, loves this recipe.

My favorite was the plum version which is really and truly incredible, but the pear and the blueberry versions were also amazing. Whatever type of jam you decide to use with this, you are definitely in for a real treat. Since I am fairly certain I'm not the only one with an addiction to breakfast sweets, I want to know, what is your favorite? If you have a link to the recipe, it would sure be great too if you could link it up here in the comments. Winter is coming and, for me, that, believe it or not, means my real baking time of year is about to begin. So, what do you love?

Lady Jane's Pear Nutmeg Jam (from Peabody)


Pear Nutmeg Cake with Chocolate Crumb

Brown Sugar Plum Crumb Cake

Homemade Plum Preserves

Blueberry Almond Crumb Cake

Jam Crumb Cake and Variations

Adapted from Epicurious

Makes 1 9-inch cake or 6 jumbo muffins or mini loaves

For cake:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup milk

1 large egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla or almond extract

1/2 cup jam or preserves

For crumb topping:

3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Make cake: 

Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Generously butter a 9-inch square or round cake pan or 6 jumbo muffin cups or mini loaf muffin cups.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

Whisk together butter, milk, and egg in a large bowl, then whisk in flour mixture until just combined. Pour batter into cake pan. Dollop jam all over surface, then swirl into batter with spoon.

Make crumb topping:

Whisk together butter, sugars, cinnamon, and salt until smooth. Stir in flour, then blend with your fingertips until incorporated. Sprinkle crumbs in large clumps over top of cake.

Bake cake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean and sides begin to pull away from pan, about 25 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 5 minutes.

VARIATIONS:

Brown Sugar Plum Crumb Cake:  

- Use 1/4 cup granulated sugar and 1/4 cup light brown sugar instead of 1/2 cup granulated sugar.

- Make your own plum preserves, as follows:

2 lb firm-ripe red, black, or fresh prune plums, halved and pitted
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 (3-inch) cinnamon stick or use 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Coarsely chop plums and stir together with sugar, water, and cinnamon in a 2-quart heavy saucepan. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally (more often toward end of cooking to prevent sticking), until thickened and reduced to about 2 1/2 cups, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Discard cinnamon stick and cool preserves. Transfer to an airtight container and chill, covered.  Preserves keep, chilled, 1 month. 

Pear Nutmeg Cake with Chocolate Crumb:  

- Don't change the cake at all.  Replace the extra 2 Tablespoons of flour in the crumb mixture with 2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder.  

- For the Pear Nutmeg Jam recipe, go here.

Blueberry Almond Crumb Cake:  

Make homemade blueberry preserves as follows:

 - 4.4 oz picked over blueberries

 - 1/3 cup granulated sugar

 - zest and juice of orange

Smash together in a small saucepan.  Heat to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer until thick and reduced, about 30 minutes.  Reduce to about 1/2 to 3/4 cup, depending on amount of juice.

- Add 1/3 cup ground, toasted almonds to the crumb mixture.

- Use almond extract in the cake. 

Double Rainbow at Brigham City Airport, Utah

TWD: Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream + Rewind

Dolores of Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity chose the Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream on page 434. I'm not going to lie. I was looking forward to making ice cream, but I wasn't really excited about the flavor. I knew it would just be way too much berry-flavor for me - which it was.

It was still a fun recipe to make even though I didn't like the flavor. I also decided to go back to the TWD roots and do a rewind of the Brown Sugar Pecan Shortbread Cookies. They were absolutely wonderful (even though I over-baked them).

As always, don't miss all the fun - go check out the rest of the Tuesdays with Dorie crew's fantastic efforts!

Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan

Perfect Pancakes with Blueberries

Eureka! We have success! For what? The Perfect Pancake recipe. Thanks to June of Thyme for Food for sharing this recipe!

You see, at our house on any given morning, when I ask the question "what will you eat for breakfast?" the answer will be, probably 9 times out of 10, "pancakes." I have already posted two of our favorite pancake recipes here before, but what I haven't had was just a "plain" pancake recipe. Until now.

What makes these so perfect? I'm glad you ask. OK, you probably didn't ask, but I'll tell you anyway. As for most things I make often, I am looking for a recipe that fits certain criteria. For pancakes the recipe had to fullfill a 'trifecta' of key points for us (yes, pancakes are serious business around our house).

First off, flavor of course. The pancakes have to taste really wonderful - these are just sweet enough without being too sweet and you can taste the hint of vanilla that shines through.

Second, texture when you are topping them - and when you are eating them. They have to be the firm enough to stand up to being buttered. Often at our house that actually means peanut butter - especially crunchy - so you can see why a pancake that just rips apart won't do.

And third, they can't be tough or dry - they have to be soft and fluffy too - but not so soft that they soak up all the syrup and completely fall apart. They should be the perfect balance.

We finally have a winner here. These pancakes fulfill all of the requirements above and are still light and satisfying at the same time. You can eat two or three in a stack and not feel like you've just swallowed a bowling ball for breakfast.

I prefer my pancakes with just butter and syrup, but the PTB of the house really likes his with blueberries. So, since it never hurts to soften him up a bit, we have been throwing some blueberries onto his pancakes - besides, they're good for you, right?

The Simple But Perfect Pancake
The King Arthur Flour All Purpose Baking Book
Makes Eleven 1/4 cup pancakes

2 large eggs
1 1/4 cup (10 oz) milk (full fat)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (optional)
3 tablespoons (1 1/2 oz) butter, melted, or vegetable oil
1 1/2 cup (6 1/4 oz) unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar, or 1/4 cup malted milk powder

Beat the eggs, milk and vanilla until light and foamy, about 3 minutes at high speed on a stand or hand mixer. Stir in the butter.

Whisk the dry ingredients together to evenly distribute the salt, baking powder and sweetener. Gently and quickly mix into the egg and milk mixture. Let the batter relax while the griddle is heating (or overnight in the refrigerator). The batter will thicken while resting.

Grease and preheat the griddle. The griddle is ready if a drop of water will skitter across the surface, evaporating immediately; if you have an electric griddle, set the temperature between 325°F and 350°F. Drop 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the lightly greased griddle. Cook on one side until bubbles begin to form and break, * then turn the pancakes and cook on the other side until brown. Turn over only once. Serve immediately.

* If you are adding fruit or chocolate chips or whatever you would add them after the pancake batter has started to set up a bit, but don't wait more than about 10 seconds into it or the batter will be too cooked to hold on to it. I generally add about 1/8 cup of mix-ins.

TWD: Blueberry Turnovers

I have mentioned here before that I am not a baked fruit lover. That said, there are a few I will eat in small quantities. Blueberries, while never cheap (around here or really most anywhere it seems) are one that I generally like in muffins, pancakes, etc.

I debated all week whether or not I was going to make this recipe - really just because of the vast quantites of blueberries it was going to take to make the Double-Crusted Blueberry Pie (as chosen by Amy of South in Your Mouth - where you will find the recipe.)

My solution that I finally settled on wasn't so much in the ingredients (though I fiddled a tiny bit by using brown sugar in the filling) as in the method. I wasn't sure if it was going to work exactly right, but since I had absolutely no use for a full pie (and no one to give it to this week) I decided that attempting to turn these in to turnovers was my best bet. It made four turnovers, which was totally manageable for our house.

So, here you have a half recipe of filling with a single crust portion of dough. I simply rolled the dough into about an 1/8-inch thick (and approximately 12x12-inch square), trimmed the edges and cut that into four squares. Since I "overtoasted" (aka, blackened) my breadcrumbs by forgetting them in the oven while preheating (yeah, I'm really aware like that), and since I didn't have anymore bread, I just used one crumbled Ritz butter cracker per square. I then topped the cracker crumbs with about 1/8 cup (a large spoonful) of filling. I egg washed two sides and folded the top down to make the triangles and sealed the edges with a fork. All that was left to do was the egg wash and a couple of venting slits on the crust. I sprinkled the turnovers liberally with raw sugar and baked them til golden in a 400 degree F oven for about 22 minutes. Then I just took them out on the baking sheet and let them cool for a few minutes before I let them sit on a cooling rack.

I thought they tasted wonderful and the "crust-to-filling" ratio was much more in line for me as a turnover. Other bonuses - you could also freeze them quite easily for later baking. Also, I have actually made a lot of pies (and eaten even more having waited tables in two restaurants over the years who's specialty was - you guessed it - pie) - my point? Dorie's crust is probably the most flaky I've ever made and eaten. I was really impressed with it. I actually ended up making it by hand because my food processor wouldn't fit the full double crust amount. Since I only ended up using half the dough, I'm still deciding what to do with the other half in the fridge.

Don't forget to check out the Tuesdays with Dorie blogroll to see all the other amazing blueberry pie flaky sweet goodness this week!

Oh, and, if by chance you still don't have your copy of this amazing book - really - you should get one now!

TWD Rewind for Bread Baking Day #10: Orange Berry Muffins

These muffins have already certainly been reviewed, but I guess one more time couldn't hurt. I've even posted these muffins in another incarnation on this blog before. We have been making this recipe fairly consistently since I got my copy of Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours. All I can tell you about this recipe is that these muffins are absolutely delicious, whatever fruit or citrus zest you use.

I'm sending this recipe over to Baking A Sweet Life for Bread Baking Day #10 - Breakfast Breads. I hope that you'll give this recipe a chance and have some fun with it.

Orange Berry Muffins
(From Dorie Greenspan “Baking: From My Home to Yours” p. 3)

Ingredients:
Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
About 3/4 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
3 Tablespoons honey
1 stick (8 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup blueberries - fresh, preferably, or frozen (not thawed)

Decorating sugar, for topping (optional) (I like using raw / turbinado sugar)

Directions:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.
Pour the orange juice into a large glass measuring cup or a bowl and pour in enough buttermilk to make 1 cup. Whisk in the eggs, honey and melted butter.

In a large bowl, rub the sugar and orange zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of orange strong. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don’t worry about being thorough - the batter will be lumpy and bubbly, and that’s just the way it should be. Stir in the blueberries. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for 22 to 25 minutes. If you want to top the muffins with decorating sugar, sprinkle on the sugar after the muffins have baked for 10 minutes. When fully baked, the tops of the muffins will be golden and springy to the touch and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins will come out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.

Cookie Carnival: Blueberry Drop Cookies

After April's busy/crazy schedule it is good get back to something a little more simple, let no less sublime, as cookies. Darling Kate over at The Clean Plate Club is the lovely creator and host of a monthly event called the Cookie Carnival (and check out the seriously cute badge there). Each month Kate comes up with a delicious cookie recipe that she has been wanting to try and emails it to the group and we all make the recipe. The idea is to all make the recipe as is, but if tweaking is needed or done, that is ok too. Which is a very good thing for me this month, because what started out fairly innocently with the change I was going to make to the recipe, turned into several changes in ingredient and a little in the method as well.

So, that is why you see below two versions of the recipe. It isn't that I had any kind of issue with the first recipe, so much as I just had a few other things on hand that I wanted to try. So, while the original uses almond extract, lemon and no butter (just shortening), as well as regular sugar, that isn't what you see here.

Yeah, as I warned Kate, I am a "fiddler" (as evidenced by the new header on the blog... again). Sometimes, even when a recipe looks absolutely great to me as is, something just seems to come over me and I just can't stop myself from tweaking. As in this case. It started out innocently enough, then it just snowballed.

In the beginning I was just going to substitute half the shortening with some butter, just for flavor, just because. Then, I got thinking about how much I love orange with blueberry, so I switched out the lemon. Well... then I kept reading and realized I was out of almond extract and, since I couldn't go to the store at the time, I decided to add in vanilla instead... umm... vanilla bean extract that is, since I had it and all.

Oh, I'm not done yet. Sometimes the fiddling that takes place is a sickness! Told you it snowballed! So... I kept reading the list and got to the sugar and really wanted to switch out part of the sugar for brown sugar because, well, I seriously love brown sugar and would probably add it to absolutely everything if I could. I didn't want to switch out all the sugar though, because I really wanted to rub the orange zest into the white sugar like in Dorie's Perfect Party Cake I made for the Daring Baker challenge back in March. I would seriously love to wake up every day and do that. It is heavenly and totally therapuetic.

The last change I made to the ingredients was the milk. Yeah, I pretty much didn't leave anything alone here. I switched to buttermilk because I had some that needed to be used and also added a little baking soda just in case I had now completely torpedoed the chemistry here somehow.

The end result of all the crazy, can't-leave-well-enough-alone fiddling that went on here? These cookies were completely awesome! As I mentioned above, I'm sure that the original recipe is fantastic too, and I will probably try it as well, but in the meantime, you get two versions.

Oh, and since we all know I have a penchant for eating cookies for breakfast, since these were so much like the orange blueberry muffins in BFMHTY, I passed these off as 'biscuits' (fair enough right, our friends in other lovely areas of the world call cookies biscuits - right? Right.) and scarfed a few. And, yes, I feel fine about it. You should too!

BLUEBERRY DROP COOKIES

(Revised Version)

Ingredients:
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla bean paste or pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange zest
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup blueberries, rinsed and picked over

Instructions:

1. In a small bowl, combine the 2/3 cup sugar with the orange zest and rub together until moist and fragrant. Place sugar and zest mixture in a large mixing bowl with the shortening, butter, and brown sugar. Cream together well. Add the egg and mix well. Add the buttermilk and vanilla paste or extract, and continue to mix well. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Slowly add the flour, baking powder and salt to the butter/sugar mixture and mix until combined. Fold in the blueberries gently and mix until well blended.

2. Cover and chill for 4 hours. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Drop the dough by teaspoonfuls, one and one-half inches apart onto greased cookie sheets. Bake 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes before removing them with a spatula.

Makes about 4 dozen.

BLUEBERRY DROP COOKIES (The original recipe)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup blueberries, rinsed and picked over

Instructions:
1. In a large mixing bowl, cream the shortening, sugar, egg, milk, almond extract and lemon zest, mixing well after the addition of each ingredient. Slowly add the flour, baking powder and salt. Fold in the blueberries and mix until well blended.

2. Cover and chill for 4 hours. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Drop the dough by teaspoonfuls, one and one-half inches apart onto greased cookie sheets. Bake 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes before removing them with a spatula.

Makes about 4 dozen.

Blueberry Orange Clafouti

One more clafouti for Bron. I meant to make this last week, but the grocery store trip kept being elusive. Then, I figured I was out of time to make it for Bron's Clafouti Edition of Hay Hay It's Donna Day til I read this post that there was still time. Woo-hoo! This is only my second clafouti and I am seriously in love with this dish. Besides, since three of my favorite women keep talking about clafouti, I knew I had to try at least one more now while it was fresh in my mind. DH definately liked this version better (as evidenced by the fact that he plowed threw two dishes this morning) than the Chocolate Raspberry version I made before. While, I'm partial to the chocolate, this Blueberry Orange version was delicious.

Both times I have made this dish I've been struck by how simple and sublime it is. I think that this is where the French really excel in all things culinary. Taking few and simple ingredients and turning them into something simply amazing. Making this version this morning was absolutely cathartic for me. Measure, zest an orange, rub into sugar, smell the citrus, stir, pour, add beautiful fresh blueberries, sprinkle with some raw sugar and bake. Simple, easy, fun and relaxing. The perfect way to start the day! Since I still need to post the Blogging for Babies roundup this week, and have a couple of other challenges I'm working on, this is probably my last clafouti for Bron, but definately not my last clafouti I will be making!

Blueberry Orange Clafouti
(Adapted from and measurements based on Bron's Mixed Berry and Cherry Clafoutis)

1 pint of blueberries, fresh or frozen
300ml of whole milk
1/3 cup of caster/superfine sugar
4 tablespoons raw sugar (turbinado)
Finely grated zest of one large orange
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
pinch of salt
1 cup of all-purpose unbleached flour
icing / confectioners sugar to dust

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (or 190 deg C).

Place 4 x 250ml or 1 x 4 cup capacity strong heat proof dishes (i.e ones that won’t crack on cold liquid hitting them!) in the oven to preheat.

In a small bowl, rub the orange zest with the caster sugar thoroughly until very moist, fragrant and orange.

Next, in a large pouring jug or blender whisk together the milk, the orange caster sugar, vanilla, eggs, salt and flour.

Remove the heated dishes from the oven and divide the blueberries evenly between them. Sprinkle with the raw sugar, then evenly ladle over the egg mixture.

Quickly return to the oven and bake the individual dishes for 15 to 20 minutes, or 1 large dish for 35 to 40 minutes until puffed up, golden and cooked through.

Dust with icing sugar, serve warm or at room temperature.