Cinnamon Grahams

Happy Saint Patrick's day weekend! I've got my corned beef in the fridge ready to go and I'm about to go to the store for some cabbage - which was sold out at my local market (that's when you know you live in an Irish-Catholic neighborhood). But for today, its crackers.

I cannot tell you the number of cracker recipes I’ve bookmarked, pinned or torn out and filed away in my life. So, so many. I love the idea of making my own crackers but I never make them.  Until now. This recipe came to my inbox as the featured recipe for one of the weekly newsletters I subscribe to. I deleted it at first, because I need another cracker recipe like a hole in my head, but something made me go back and retrieve it from my deleted files. I skimmed the recipe once and it seemed easy enough. I turned the oven on and started throwing these babies together.

The entire process took 30 minutes and they were so good. We ate about a third of them while they were still on the sheet, not completely cool. After dinner we used them for s'mores.  Like granola, chicken stock and several other basics, after making these I wondered why I haven’t been making them for years. It’s never too late to start right? I feel like there are so many kitchen projects like this.  Versions of things we are used to buying but are so much better when you make them yourself. I always joke to my husband that I would make a good pioneer - if I had the time, I would eventually make almost everything from scratch (...oh, all the things I would do in my second life, or maybe retirement).  

Fortunately, I can make these crackers again with just a few minutes and ingredients I always have in my pantry. Since they are made with whole wheat flour and not too much sugar I would feel good about turning them into a cookie project and adding a simple glaze. I’m sure the kids would enjoy getting out the cookie cutters. Perhaps best of all, these last quite awhile though you may want to double the recipe if your kids are anything like mine where crackers are concerned.

Cinnamon Grahams

Adapted from the recipe in Better Baking by Genevieve Ko

1 cup whole wheat graham flour (Odlums coarse whole wheat flour works great in this recipe but regular white whole wheat flour will also work.)

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 cup wheat bran

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Granulated sugar, cinnamon and sea salt for sprinkling

Whisk both flours, wheat bran, cinnamon, salt, and the baking soda in a medium bowl.

Whisk the sugars, oil, vinegar, and 4 tablespoons water in a large bowl until smooth.

Add the dry ingredients and stir until flour mixture is evenly moistened.  Cover the bowl and rest for 15 minutes.

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350°F. Place dough on a large piece of parchment paper and pat into a rectangle.

Place a large sheet of plastic wrap over the dough, then roll the dough into a 14-by-12-inch rectangle. 

Mix equal parts granulated sugar and sea salt with a pinch of cinnamon. Sprinkle evenly over the dough. (As you can tell, I didn't do it in the right order. Woops!)

Using a bench scraper or knife, cut the rectangle into 1-by-2-inch rectangles, then poke the crackers with a fork to make dots. Slide the parchment (with the dough on it) onto the cookie sheet.

Bake the grahams until the edges are dark golden brown and the center is dry and set, 17 to 20 minutes. Cool completely on the sheet on a wire rack, then break into crackers along the cut lines.

Make Ahead: The crackers will keep at room temperature for up to 2 weeks or in the freezer for up to 2 months.

Baked French Toast: Made with Muffins

If there is one thing I hate, it’s waste.  Food waste is the worst. Re-purposing food is a big part of my life because let’s face it, not everything works out the way I hoped it would. That brings me to muffins. Now that Eve is eating solid food she seems to enjoy feeding herself rather than being spoon-fed. So, last week I made her a batch of super-healthy protein muffins - with whole wheat flour, chia seeds, eggs, almond flour, all kinds of good stuff. She loved them.  Great.

See what I mean? CRUMBS!

What I didn’t anticipate was the mess she would make with them! Muffin crumbs everywhere. Everywhere but in her mouth or tummy I suspect. Since I put so much love and nutrition into them I didn’t want to see them go to waste - sucked up in my vacuum or in the garbage after I finally got sick of vacuuming. On a mission to save them, I came up with the idea of making baked french toast, basically bread pudding, with protein muffins instead of bread. It was so easy to do, I just cut up the muffins and soaked them in my standard combination of liquid ingredients for french toast.  I threw the whole thing in the fridge overnight and, in the morning, baked it at 350F until it was cooked through.  Let me tell you...it was a winner. With the whole family. Nothing wasted, and BONUS, all of those eggs = even more protein for my growing little ones.

Muffins, ready to be re-purposed.

I started with 4 eggs but added another one which is why the recipe calls for 5. It's a judgment call really.*

*"It's a judgement call really." This should be my motto. Who am I kidding, it is my motto.

Muffin chunks go into the egg mixture.

After soaking, a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar and it's ready for the oven. 

Even though I came up with this recipe out of necessity, I would definitely make it again. Sometimes the humblest of dishes are the most comforting.  Bread pudding was created for the same reason, to make use of stale bread. Despite it’s humble roots, these days, bread pudding makes an appearance at even the fanciest restaurants.  But I love what it represents.  

For the kids I cut small pieces of the pudding and serve with syrup for dipping. We call it french toast bites. 

Baked French Toast: Made with Muffins

Baked French Toast (the breakfast way of saying “Bread Pudding”) is a great dish to make if you are having people over for brunch.  You can follow the recipe below using muffins, bread, even croissants. If you aren't cooking for kids, add a little Bailey’s to the mix and it would be great for your St. Patrick’s day spread.

5 eggs

⅓ cup half and half or milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1-3 tablespoons maple syrup (depending on the sweetness of your muffins)

½ teaspoon kosher salt

6-8 muffins

Cinnamon and coarse sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 350F.

Add first 5 ingredients to a baking dish and whisk until fully combined

Cut muffins into small pieces and add to egg mixture tossing with your hands or a large spoon and making sure all of the muffin pieces are covered in egg mixture.

Sprinkle with cinnamon and coarse sugar and bake about 40 minutes or until cooked through (start checking for doneness around the 30 minute mark).

Dutch Baby

I’m not sure exactly when it dawned on me, but I know it was sometime in the last couple of years...a dutch baby is just a giant, slightly sweet Yorkshire pudding. Have you ever met anyone who doesn’t like Yorkshire pudding or Dutch babies? I haven’t. I love the way they have soft bits and crispy bits, the way they puff up sky high in the oven and even the way they begin to fall in on themselves as they cool.  The way they are eggy but not too eggy and chewy but not too chewy. Did you know that they couldn’t be easier to make? Whoever came up with them was a genius.  

I promised the kids a special “Birthday Breakfast” in advance of their joint birthday party last weekend.  Because I knew it would be hard enough to get everyone out the door in time to pick up the cake and be there when our guests started to arrive, I decided to do the easiest thing possible and make a big, family-sized dutch baby. I made the batter the night before so that once we woke up it was just a matter of turning the oven on, preheating the pan and pouring in the batter.  

I implore you to try this at home.

Seriously.

Emmett loved watching it rise in the oven. Science at its best.  After about 15 minutes, our Dutch baby was ready.  I sprinkled it with powdered sugar, tore a piece off for each plate and let everyone apply their own toppings.  Yogurt, berries, almonds and maple syrup for me, mini m&m’s, marshmallows and yogurt chips for the littles. Even baby Eve was able to partake (I love that she’s getting to the age where she can eat table food).

To make the batter for these I simply used this Yorkshire pudding recipe and added a tablespoon of sugar, 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and a big pinch of cinnamon.  Alternatively, you could add sugar, vanilla and cinnamon to a box of Yorkshire pudding mix (available at the Irish Boutique).  

To make a 12-inch Dutch baby I followed this process:

Place a 12” cast iron pan in oven. Preheat oven to 450F.

Once it is hot, remove pan and put 2 tablespoons of butter in the pan.  

Put the pan back in the oven for a couple of minutes until butter has melted.  

Remove pan from oven and swirl butter in the pan to coat the bottom of the pan evenly.

Pour your batter in the pan and turn the oven down to 425F.

Cook for 15 minutes or until Dutch baby is cooked through but still soft in the center and puffy all over. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

It was hard to explain the term Dutch baby to Emmett so I told him it was called “Puffy Pancake”. That made a lot more sense.