First Days of Fall: Pumpkin Spice French Toast

Believe it or not I have never had a pumpkin spice latte. Gasp. Where have I been? I know. While I love pumpkin and spices I’ve never really found the idea of coffee with pumpkin and spices too appetizing. Coffee and pumpkin pie? Yes. Coffee and pumpkin bread? Yes. Pumpkin pie in my coffee. No. See what I mean? Or maybe I just have no idea what a pumpkin spice latte is like - a distinct possibility. I digress. My point is that now that it is officially fall, seasonal pumpkin flavor is out in full force. From the ubiquitous latte to yogurt, m&m’s, cheerios, cinnamon rolls, beer,  donuts, ice cream and everything in between, I’ve been seeing orange everywhere. I’ve also been trying to make healthier breakfasts for the kids.  They are pretty good eaters so it’s not too hard, but they are kids. They don’t worry about calories or carbs (thank goodness) and they love eggo waffles, chocolate chip pancakes, lots of beige stuff and sugar, sugar, sugar! Who can blame them? Not me. But I do try to offset this by adding vegetables to their muffins, solid sources of protein to their morning meals in the form of eggs, peanut butter and yogurt and by serving them whole grains whenever possible. I’m not fanatical about this kind of thing, but I try.

Pumpkin french toast is such an easy way to get my seasonal pumpkin fix while also providing my kids with a (somewhat) healthy breakfast that they love. I cut it into sticks for the kids and give them their own little cups of syrup to dip them in. I’m super-stingy with the syrup but they haven’t caught onto that yet. Parenting, like most things, is all about managing expectations.

Soldiers for the wee ones.

I happen to think this breakfast would be a perfect match for some Irish weather and a cup of tea or coffee. Did you know that while pumpkins do grow in Ireland there are very few pumpkin growers in the entire country? According to the Irish Times, in 2014 there were only 11 commercial pumpkin growers in the whole country. Maybe in our next lives Paul and I can move there and become pumpkin farmers!

Yogurt, almonds and cinnamon for me. 

Pumpkin French Toast

Serves 4

4 pieces whole wheat bread (best if stale but fresh works too)

3 large eggs

1-2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

¼ cup milk

¾ cup pumpkin puree

1 tablespoon coconut sugar or brown sugar lightly packed

a pinch of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Butter for the pan

Maple syrup for serving

Mix the eggs, spice, milk, pumpkin, sugar, salt and vanilla in a large bowl and whisk to combine.

Coat griddle or pan with butter and heat over medium high heat.

Add pieces of bread one by one to bowl containing the pumpkin mixture and coat thoroughly, until fully saturated.

Place bread on hot griddle or pan and cook until bottom of slices begin to brown, a couple of minutes.  

Flip and cook for a couple of minutes on the other side or until both sides are golden brown and french toast is springy to the touch.  

Serve warm with butter and maple syrup.

Sticky fingers, funny face. 

Overnight Oats

We’ve got an infant at home.  Baby Eve. We are all in love with her and she returns the sentiment by being a sweet baby, a good eater and even a decent sleeper for her age.  But like any 7 week old, she sleeps all the time and seemingly never. So I am up, sometimes, at 1:30 am, 2:30 am, 4:30 am and again at 5:45 am when the big kids decide to come downstairs with breakfast requests inexplicably early.  Of course. Last night was one of those nights. I found myself awake at all of the above mentioned hours as well as at 3:30 am (while Eve was sleeping! Why????) when I found myself craving cold oatmeal more than sleep (crazy) and wishing I had overnight oats in the fridge. More puns. Overnight Oats. An actual name that feels more like a taunt.  Not much I can do about its name, or the lack of sleep, but I can refuse to let my 3:30 am craving go unsatisfied again. So today I prepared three days/nights worth of overnight oats.  

There's our girl. Sleeping like a baby.

I won’t pretend there is a recipe for this. I happened to organize my kitchen cupboards yesterday, thank you maternity leave, and IKEA, so I actually knew what was in there and what needed to be used. I got out three mason jars and set to work.

For these, I threw together the following in unknown quantities:

Steel cut oats - for chewiness

Quick cooking oats  - for softness

Unsweetened grated coconut - for texture and sweetness

Chia seeds - for “superfood-ness”

Hazelnuts - for fat and protein

Pepitas - see above

Spices - Cinnamon, Cardamom, Allspice, Nutmeg

Kosher salt, a pinch

Maple syrup, to taste

Milk, enough to cover and absorb all the oaty goodness

Two kinds of oats and coconut. 

Chia seeds. I'm feeling super already.

Layers of good stuff. 

And last, the milk. All done. 

Once everything was in the jars, I stirred them up and put them back in the fridge, for a day or three.

My assistant was in charge of making sure the ingredients were thoroughly mixed together. 

In the morning(s) I stirred in some plain yogurt and fresh fruit and enjoyed my oats cold, summer style.  I wonder what my father-in-law would think?

Almond Puff Loaf with Preserves

Recently, both of my parents had personal genome (DNA) testing done.  The test results tell you about your ancestry, whether or not you are a carrier of certain diseases and provide information about an assortment of random traits such as tendency to like sweet or salty foods, eye color, amount of hair you had at birth, tendency to flush after consuming alcohol, whether or not you have dimples etc.  My parents’ results were not surprising per se but still very interesting. Most of the “traits” you can tell by either: (1) looking at them; or (2) knowing them for your entire life. In terms of ancestry, according to the test, my Dad is about 99% East Asian, almost exclusively Japanese but about 6% Korean and 2% Chinese.  My Mom is mostly Irish and English and a little bit French and German. This means that I am almost half Irish which may explain my penchant for oatmeal, brown bread, scones and preserves.  

If you look in my pantry you will see that I have several different types of preserves in there at any one time.  Right now I think I have two kinds of marmalade, blackberry, black currant, rhubarb ginger, strawberry and plum preserves and lemon curd.  ALWAYS lemon curd.  To some, this may seem strange “Who eats that much toast?” but I use preserves for all kinds of things; on top of waffles or pancakes, warmed up in a saucepan and brushed on fruit tarts, for cake and pastry fillings, a spoonful on top of a bowl of yogurt and granola and, of course, for the zillions of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches consumed around here. In the summer, I like to make my own preserves and put them up for the colder months ahead. Some years I don’t get around to doing much of my own canning and I just get my preserves from the Irish Boutique.  The Boutique carries a variety of Irish preserves and there's always something I want to try. 

The other day I was meandering through some of my favorite food websites looking for inspiration to motivate me to bake something yummy for a weekend playdate in the park. I stumbled upon this recipe for Almond Puff Loaf with step-by-step instructions and I was instantly sold. You probably have all of the ingredients you need to make it in your cupboard right now (I did) and, as much as I love working with yeast, I also love that this recipe doesn’t require any and therefore also doesn’t require extra time to let the dough rise. Even with the rather long baking time of 50 minutes, there was ample time to throw this pastry together while the kids had their (first) breakfast and still make it to the park by 10:00 a.m. The hardest part was deciding which preserves to top them with - my kind of tough decision.

For quality control purposes, Paul and I sampled the ends before packing the rest up for the park. 

The recipe makes two pastries so I ended up making one with lemon curd and vanilla glaze and the other with blackberry preserves and lemon glaze. 

Refreshments required to fuel all of that climbing, swinging and sliding.

Snack break.