Bertha's Cinnamon Rolls
I made cinnamon rolls this morning for pretty much the first time ever. I followed Bertha's recipe (my MIL). It turned out pretty good (I thought), but Kristy sees room for improvement.

{ I have misplaced the paper with Bertha's recipe. When I find it I will post it here, but for now... enjoy the pictures! }

French Toast
This is a pretty standard recipe, except I eliminated the egg whites. I grew up with Mom putting egg whites in the French toast mixture. This typically produces the "fried-egg-on-bread" effect on at least a couple of slices of the French toast, as the egg white usually doesn't mix well into the rest of the ingredients. I don't mind the egg whites on the French toast, but it's prettier without them.

The day before you want to make French toast, bake a fresh loaf of white sandwich bread. Cut the bread into thicker slices, about ½"-inch in width.

Assemble the following the ingredients:

1½ cups whole milk, warmed
2 tbs unsalted butter, melted
3 egg yolks
2 tbs brown sugar
1 tbs vanilla
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp salt

Preheat electric or gas griddle to 350°.

Warm the milk and melt the butter in a microwave, then combine (the warmed milk keeps the melted butter from clumping). Whisk in egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt until well blended. Transfer mixture to a Pyrex pie pan. Soak bread, one slice at a time, in milk mixture until saturated (about 10 seconds on each side for a ½-inch slide of bread).

Melt some butter on the griddle and then cook bread on buttered griddle until golden brown on each side. Serve immediately, with real maple syrup.

Grandma Kiser's Sourdough Pancakes
I grabbed this recipe off my brother Mark's blog (here). This is Grandma Kiser's sourdough pancake recipe, which slightly differs from my Mom's Sourdough Pancake recipe. After trying both, I prefer (like Mark does) the pancakes made with Grandma Kiser's recipe (below). However, Berkeley said "these pancakes aren't as good as the other ones" - so it is clear that he prefers Mom's pancakes, e.g. his Grandma. Funny that.

Take the sourdough starter out of the fridge the day before you are having pancakes and let the starter warm to room temp. The evening before you are having pancakes add about 1½ cups of flour and 1½ cups of warm water to the starter. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside somewhere warm overnight (I use our electric oven with the oven light on). The next morning the starter should be bubbly. Set aside the original amount of starter and put it back in the fridge.

Mix together:

2 cups starter
1 egg
1½ tbs melted butter

In a separate bowl, combine:

1½ tbs sugar
½ tsp baking soda, heaping
½ tsp salt (if using unsalted butter)

Sprinkle the soda/sugar mixture over the batter and then fold into the batter incorporating as much air as possible. Let rest. The mixture should start to bubble and increase in volume. Cook on a hot griddle (350-375°). Serve immediately. Freeze the leftovers (if any).

Chocolate Chip Pancakes
The kids still rave about the chocolate chip pancakes they ate at Goldberg's. They ask for chocolate chip pancakes quite often... once every other week or so. This is a stop-gap measure to keep them happy in between visits to Goldberg's (adapted from King Arthur's Perfect Pancakes).

2 eggs
1½ cups buttermilk
3 tbs melted butter
1½ cups flour
½ tsp salt (if using unsalted butter)
2 tsp baking powder
¼ cup malt powder
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate mini morsels

Preheat griddle to 375°.

Sift together flour, baking powder, malt powder, and salt. Set aside. Beat the eggs and buttermilk together until light and frothy. Add dry ingredients to liquid mixture all at once and mix slightly. Stir melted butter into the batter and mix to incorporate thoroughly. Add mini morsels and combine. Some small lumps in the batter are desirable. Drop ¼ cupfuls of batter on griddle and cook for about 3 minutes on both sides or until golden brown. Serve immediately.

Mom's Sourdough Pancakes
My brother Bryan gave me some of my Grandma's sourdough starter to bring home with me from our recent trip to Utah. The starter was originally made by Grandma Kiser back when my Mother was a wee lass. My Mom made these pancakes quite often while I was growing up. I made them for the first time in my life this morning... I'm returning to my roots I guess. Berkeley ate 5. He loves them. Berkeley usually only eats 1 or 2 buttermilk pancakes when I make buttermilk pancakes... so the affinity for my Grandma's sourdough and Mom's pancakes must be in his blood or something.

Take the sourdough starter out of the fridge the day before you are having pancakes and let the starter warm to room temp. The evening before you are having pancakes add about 1½ cups of flour and 1½ cups of warm water to the starter. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside somewhere warm overnight (I use our electric oven with the oven light on). The next morning the starter should be bubbly. Set aside the original amount of starter and put it back in the fridge.

Mix together:

2 cups starter
¼ cup powdered milk
3 tbs melted butter (or oil)
1 tsp sugar
1 egg
¼ salt (omit if using melted butter)

Then add a mixture of:

½ tsp baking soda, heaping
1 tbs water

The mixture should start to increase in volume. Cook on a hot griddle (350-375°). Serve immediately. Freeze the leftovers (if any).

Sour Cream Cherry Coffeecake
I found this recipe in one of my cook books, but I modified it slightly since it called for cranberries and some other silliness. This particular coffeecake is more dense than my Blackberry Coffeecake (and one could argue more moist as well). This recipe probably would not be suitable for berries that release a lot of juice when cooking.

Crumb Topping
¾ cup flour
¼ cup sugar
2 tbs brown sugar
¼ tsp cardamom
6 tbs melted butter
2 tbs water

Cake Batter
1¼ cup sour cream
1¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
8 tbs butter
1¼ cup sugar
2 large eggs
1½ cup flour
1½ tsp baking powder
1 cup cherries, halved

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a 9x13 baking dish.

Crumb Topping. Sift together flour, sugar, brown sugar, and cardamom. Add melted butter and water. Refrigerate.

Cake Batter. Combine sour cream, baking soda, and salt. Stir to blend evenly and set aside. Beat together butter, sugar, and eggs until creamy and fluffy. Sift together flour and baking powder. Combine flour with butter mixture and mix in. Beat in sour cream mixture.

Scoop cake batter into baking dish. Scatter cherries on top of batter. Use spatula to blend cherries slightly into batter. Sprinkle crumb topping over batter. Bake 40-45 minutes.

(Update Thu Feb 22 13:21:19 PST 2007 // fixed sour cream ingredient listing)

Hot Soy Milk (熱豆漿)
Recently I bought a case of organic soy milk from Costco. Kristy has wanted to add soy to our diet and I love the stuff, so I was happy to oblige. This morning I fixed myself up a nice hot bowl of "豆漿" (soy milk) just like I had nearly every morning for breakfast on my mission in Taiwan. Here is how to make it:

1 cup soy milk
1 tbs raw cane sugar
1 porcelain Chinese-style soup spoon

Place cane sugar in bottom of small bowl. Heat soy milk in microwave or over stove. Hold spoon inside of bowl and pour hot soy milk into spoon and allow to spill over into bowl (this prevents the sugar from dissolving too quickly). Enjoy!

Buttermilk Waffles
There are two tricks to making light crispy waffles. First, there needs to be some water in the recipe... straight buttermilk produces soggy waffles. It's true. Try it. The second trick is to either have a waffle maker that inverts 180°... or if you don't have one (like I don't), then you need to manually turn the waffle maker upside down right at the beginning of the cook cycle. Again, try it... you'll be surpised by how much it improves your waffles.

2 eggs, separated
1¼ cups buttermilk
¼ cup filtered water
2 tbs butter, melted
1 cup flour
1 tbs cornmeal
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt (if using unsalted butter)
1 tsp brown sugar
½ tsp cinnamon (optional)
¼ tsp cardamon (optional)

Preheat a waffle iron. Sift together dry ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together egg yolks and buttermilk. Combine with dry mixture. Stir and mix slightly, then add the melted butter and mix to incorporate butter thoroughly into the batter (leave some lumps behind). In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold egg whites gently into batter.

Brush waffle iron with some butter or non-stick spray. Ladle batter into iron and spread out to the edges with a spatula. Invert the waffle iron immediately and cook for about three minutes. Then restore the iron to original position and allow the waffle cycle to finish normally.

Biff's Blackberry Coffeecake
I took the opportunity this morning to make use of some of the fresh blackberries available in the blackberry patch behind our back yard. This coffeecake is (more or less) a combination of a couple recipes I found in some of the cook books we have... plus a wee bit of improvisation of my own.

Fruit Mixture
3 cups fresh blackberries
2 tbs cornstarch
1 tbs sugar

Cake Batter
1½ cup flour
½ cup sugar
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp cardamom
¼ tsp salt
4 tbs butter
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Crumb Topping
½ cup flour
½ cup brown sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp cardamom
3 tbs melted butter
1 tbs water

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a 8x8x2-inch glass baking pan.

Fruit Mixture. In medium-sized saucepan, combine fruit, cornstarch, and sugar. Toss gently until blackberries look evenly coated with cornstarch and sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until bubbly. Cook and stir about 2 minutes more, then set aside.

Cake Batter. In a mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cardamom, and salt. Cut in butter. Beat egg and combine with buttermilk and vanilla. Add to flour mixture and stir until moistened.

Crumb Topping. Combine flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom. Add melted butter and water.

Spread half of cake batter into bottom of baking pan. Pour fruit mixture on top of batter. Drop remaining batter onto fruit filling in small mounds. Sprinkle crumb topping over batter. Bake for 40-45 minutes.