Winter

Eggnog French Toast Casserole

December 11, 2018 by Danielle Leave a Comment

I have never made Christmas breakfast, but I have hosted a few pre Christmas brunches for friends and you will always fine some form of a french toast casserole on my brunch table. It’s sweet, delicious and always the first thing to go!

Today I am sharing a recipe for Eggnog French Toast Casserole. Now this recipe is based of a bread pudding and doesn’t have a crumble topping like many french toast casseroles do. I just don’t think it needs it. It is sweet and delicious enough sans topping. See I’m trying to save you a few calories for later in the day…. I’m always looking out for you!

What makes this recipe perfect for Christmas morning is that you can prep in all a day ahead and store in the fridge until you’re ready to bake. Then when everyone wakes up you can pop it in the oven and leave it to bake while everyone opens their gifts.

For this recipe I used french bread, but Challah would also be great. I know it can be difficult to find in a regular grocery store, so if you’re trying to make as few trips to the store this Christmas then stick with the french bread. For the best texture when you get home from the store cube your bread and leave it on the counter covered with a kitchen towel. You can leave it there for a few hours or a few days either way it will dry out a bit and soak the custard up much better.

I like to dust mine with powdered sugar and cinnamon, and then top each serving with a healthy dose of maple syrup!

Eggnog French Toast Casserole

Serves: 8-10

Ingredients:

1 Loaf of Bread, french or challah
6 Eggs
3 Cups Eggnog
1/2 Cup White Sugar
2 Tablespoons Bourbon (can substitute for Vanilla Extract, 2 teaspoons)
1/8 Teaspoon Salt
Optional: powdered sugar, ground cinnamon, and maple syrup for topping

Directions:

Cut bread into 1 inch cubes. Place in 9×13 baking pan, cover with a dish towel. Set aside to stale for a minimum of 2 hours or up to 48 hours.

In a large bowl whisk together eggs, eggnog, sugar, bourbon and salt. Pour mixture evenly over cubed bread. Cover and place in the fridge for at least one hour or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake the casserole uncovered for 45 minutes to an hour. The top should be golden brown and a cake tester should come out clean. Dust the casserole with powdered sugar and cinnamon. Serve with pure maple syrup.

Recipe adapted from The Kitchn.

Sugar Cookie Snowflakes

December 8, 2018 by Danielle 1 Comment

It’s week two in my Christmas Cookie series, to see last weeks click here.

Sugar cookies like shortbread are a controversial cookie. People either love them or hate them. Personally I’ve always been a fan. But I know a lot of people only like them for the icing. This recipe for sugar cookies is perfect. What makes them so good is that they are thick and soft. These cookies also have white chocolate icing. Personally I don’t enjoy royal icing and buying meringue powder annoys me. I hate having to go to specialty stores for ingredients. And buying something that will go bad before I need to use it again.

These cookies are topped with pure tempered white chocolate, sprinkles and a sugar pearl. And I’ll let you in on a secret I decorated them in about 5 minutes using a Ziploc bag! Yep easy peasy. I don’t even own a pipping bag. I feel like I’ve broke some blogger rule by admitting that but lets get real I’m not a cake decorator so I don’t need one.

Of course today I’m sharing snowflakes with you but you could absolutely use you favourite cookie cutter and make whatever shape you love. You can also follow the same tempering method used for the white chocolate icing with milk or dark chocolate. If you want colour you could dye the white chocolate with gel food colouring (water based will cause you chocolate to separate), or even candy melts if thats your thing. The chocolate world really is your oyster! The chocolate will harden if you allow them an hour or so to set up. I like to make my cookies in advance and pop them in the freezer to store until Christmas. It’s not necessary but it will absolutely make sure that chocolate is super firm.

I really hope you enjoy these cookies, sugar cookies have always been my favourite!

Sugar Cookie Snowflakes

Yields: 18-24 cookies depending on the size of your cookies

Ingredients:

Cookies:

2 1/4 Cups All Purpose Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
3/4 Cup Unsalted Butter, softened
3/4 Cup White Sugar
1 Egg
2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract

Icing:

6 ounces White Bakers Chocolate, chopped
Optional: sprinkles, sanding sugar and sugar pearls

In a medium bowl whisk flour, baking powder and salt together. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer cream softened butter until pale and fluffy. Add sugar and beat until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla to the bowl. Beat on high until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients on low speed until just combined.

Divide the dough in half, form dough into two disks Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350°F . Line to baking sheets with parchment and set aside.

Roll out you first disk of dough the 1/4-1/2 inch thick. Using a snowflake cookie cutter cut your dough into shapes. Place cookies on the prepared baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Re roll the remaining dough until it is all used. Repeat with the second disk.

Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes until they are set and the edges are just starting to brown. My oven has hot spots so I rotate my cookies half way through to prevent over browning. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Then transfer to a cooling rack to fully cool.

Melt 4 ounces of chopped chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals. Once completely melted stir in the remaining 2 ounces of chopped chocolate to melt. Pour chocolate into a Ziploc bag. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before snipping on corner of the bag to act as a pipping bag. Decorate your cookies with the pipped white icing in the designs of your choosing. Finish your cookies with sanding sugar and sugar pearls if desired.

Cookies recipes adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction, icing recipe from Danielle at Home.

Mulled Wine

December 6, 2018 by Danielle Leave a Comment

Today I have a super quick post today for the perfect warming cocktail. This is the perfect beverage for cold weather. You can serve it at a party, it’s a great post skiing warm up. Or even take it with you on a snowy walk (always remember to be responsible!). I read somewhere that of you want to party like it 1877 make some mulled wine. Clearly someone in North America wrote that since mulled wine is still very popular in parts of Europe. They sell mulled wine at most of the Christmas markets and festivals near me and I love it. It makes things so festive!

This mulled wine has brandy, orange rind, a few fresh cranberries, cloves, cinnamon and star anise. It’s so warming and have so many traditional Christmas flavours. I will be whipping up another batch this weekend to have while we watch Christmas movies and wrap presents.

So since I said I would keep this quick I should probably get into the recipe!

Mulled Wine

Serves: 5-6

Ingredients:

1 bottle of Red Wine
1/4 cup Brandy
1/4 cup White Sugar
3 Whole Cloves
1 Whole Star Anise
1 Whole Cinnamon Stick
Peel of Half an Orange
1/4 cup Cranberries, fresh

In a medium sized pot over medium heat add 1/2 cup of wine and sugar. Cook over medium heat until sugar fully dissolves. Add the remaining wine, brandy, spices, orange peel and cranberries to the pot. Reduce heat to low. Continue to heat the wine for 20 minutes. Garnish with additional spices or orange slices. Serve in mugs, or heat proof glasses

Adapted from The Kitchn

Garlic and Thyme Roast Potatoes

December 4, 2018 by Danielle 1 Comment

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Ok so I know these aren’t the prettiest pictures, but this is an amazing recipe so I had to share it anyway. This recipe is for a classic English roast potato, kicked up a notch with garlic and thyme. They were so tasty!

This is a riff on my Mom’s roast potatoes. She always makes them with roast beef dinner and they are amazing! She even get chunks of beef fat from the butcher to roast her potatoes in… just like her mom did. Personally that’s a bit much or me. Plus I like to try to make as many side as I can vegetarian, so everyone can enjoy.

I like to use half butter and half olive oil to roast my potatoes. This way you get delicious flavour from the butter, but a slightly higher smoke point for the oil. This will help stop things from burning. And both make for a crispy potato! Yum!

This recipe calls for russet potatoes.. I have not experimented with any other type of potato. This is what my mom and Grandma used, so why mess with a good thing?

The most important part about working with potatoes is to let them steam in the colander after cooking, this is the only way you will get crispy potatoes.

The second rule of this recipe is patience. These potatoes roast for an hour and a half! Yes they do! It takes a long time to get the texture of a signature roast potato! Believe me when I say it is so worth the wait. Patience is a virtue right…. And believe me it will all be worth it!

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Garlic and Thyme Roast Potatoes

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

5 Russet Potatoes
2 Tablespoons Butter, melted
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Bunch Thyme
6 Garlic Gloves
Salt and Pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

In a large pot of salted water, boil potatoes for 8 minutes. Strain potatoes and set aside to steam for 5 minutes.

In a large baking dish or roasting pan add butter and oil (2 tbsp each). Place in your preheated oven for a few minutes until butter is melted (2-5 mins). Remove pan from the oven and add potatoes. Season liberally with salt and pepper, and toss to coat in fat. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes.

In a small bowl place garlic cloves. Tear thyme bunch in half or thirds and add to bowl. Drizzle with oil (about a tbsp). Toss to coat. Remove potatoes from the oven and sprinkle garlic and thyme over the pan. Give the pan a good shake to evenly distribute and return to the oven. Bake for an additional hour.

Remove from the oven and serve immediately…. hopefully with lots of gravy!

Adapted from Jamie Oliver

Cranberry White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

December 1, 2018 by Danielle Leave a Comment

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Happy December 1st! It is officially the Christmas season and that means this blog is going to be full of lots of holiday content and bonus posts from now until Christmas. Technically I kicked off the schedule a little early by coming out with 4 posts this week, and that will be continuing until Christmas. So in addition to my regularly schedules 2 recipes per week you will also see gift guides and edible gift posts on Wednesdays and a brand new Christmas cookie series on Saturdays. Yes that’s right weekend posts!

So every Saturday until Christmas you will see a new Christmas cookie recipe hit the blog! I am so excited about this cookie series as you have already been told I love cookies they are my favourite dessert, so this post is near and dear to my heart. Also Christmas cookies and Christmas baking in general brings me so much nostalgia and happiness. My mom has never been a big Christmas baker, but both my Grandma’s were. So baking at Christmas makes me think of making minced meat tarts with my mom’s mom and sitting at the kitchen table scarfing down cherry shortbread with my Dad’s mom.

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Today’s recipe is one I have made many variations of over the years. These are a thick and chewy oatmeal cookie jammed packed with dried cranberries and white chocolate chips. I would love to say that this batch of cookies is still in my freezer waiting to be pulled out for Christmas, but these are long gone and are probably the most beloved Christmas cookie that I make. This weekend I’ll be making a double batch and immediately putting them into the freezer…. hopefully this batch makes it until Christmas (finger crossed!).

I love this recipe because it’s so easy… I love a drop cookie. They are my preferred type of cookie because I simple am busy (and LAZY!). I’d much rather scoop and bake then roll out dough and cut out shapes. So many Christmas cookies are cut outs and it’s nice to have a few Christmas cookies that are quick and easy! Also the flavours of cranberry and white chocolate scream Christmas to me. I think these are a great cookie to include on your cookie tray!

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Cranberry White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Yields: 36 cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
3 cups Rolled Oats
1 cup Unsalted Butter, softened
1 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 cup White Sugar
2 Eggs
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1/2 cup Dried Cranberries
1/2 cup White Chocolate Chips

Directions:

Whisk flour, baking soda and salt together, set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer cream butter on high until pale yellow and fluffy. Add sugars and cream on medium speed to combine. Add vanilla and mix until combined. Add the flour mixture and the oats to the bowl mix on low until just combined.

Add cranberries and white chocolate mixing on low speed. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chip in the fridge for 3 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Roll out dough into balls and place 2 inches apart on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. The centres will look slightly under baked (that’s what makes then chewy!). Allow to cool on the baking sheet for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction.

Cranberry Orange Coffee Cake

November 29, 2018 by Danielle 2 Comments

Today we are talking all things Christmas morning breakfast. Growing up my Christmas mornings were very different then most kids. We would travel to visit my Dad’s family for Christmas Eve. And then on Christmas morning we would wake up in my Grandma’s house and would drive home to our house. We wouldn’t get home to open our presents until 2pm! That’s right my Christmas morning was more like a Christmas afternoon. I still have yet to wake up in my own bed on Christmas Day. Yes we still travel on Christmas Day. When my husband and I started dating he claimed he would never travel on Christmas, but here he is with 4 travelling Christmas’ under his belt (he skipped the first year).

Christmas morning is a big deal for my husband’s family. His whole family goes to his parents house to open presents and eat brunch. Now when I say whole family I mean aunts, uncles, grandparents… the works. There is no Christmas dinner on the 25th, his family saves that for boxing day. So Christmas morning is the big event. Finding a way for me to still visit my family while make it home in time for his families brunch has been tricky we have managed to make it work. It means a very early morning for us and a long drive after a late night with my family. But this year is the last year we will be going away at Christmas… I’m sad about it, but I know it’s time for us to make new traditions now that we are our own little family of two.

Since I’ve done my fair share of travelling at Christmas I know a thing or two about making things in advance and travelling with food. So today I am sharing the perfect treat for Christmas morning that can be made well in advance. It would also be a great hostess gift. Cranberry orange Coffee Cake. I’m actually planing to make this for my in-laws Christmas brunch this year. My plan is to bake the cake far in advance and give it to my mother-in-law a few days before Christmas. It can defrost while were out of town for Christmas Eve.

I think that this cake would be perfect to put out with some coffee and hot chocolate on Christmas morning. Every one can nibble at it while they open presents. I know it’s how I’d like to start my morning.

Cranberry Orange Coffee Cake

Serves: 16

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

4 Eggs
1 Cup Vegetable oil
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
Zest and Juice of 1 Orange
1/2 Cup Water
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 2/3 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1 1/2 Cups Fresh or Frozen Cranberries

For the Crumb Topping:

1/2 Cup Flour
1/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt
2 Tablespoons Sugar
2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
1/4 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 Cup Butter, melted
1/3 Cup Pecans, chopped

For the Glaze:

1 Cup Confectioners Sugar
4 Tablespoons Milk (adjust for consistency)
1/4 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1 Teaspoon Vanilla

Directions:

Cake:

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease a springform pan (or a high sided cake pan), set aside.

In a large bowl whisk to combine eggs, oil, sugar, orange zest and juice, water and vanilla. Set aside. In a small bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir dry ingredients into wet until just combined. Fold in cranberries. Pour batter into prepared cake pan.

Topping:

In a small bowl whisk flour, baking soda, salt, sugar and cinnamon. Add melted butter and whisk with a fork until a crumb forms. Add chopped pecans. Sprinkle crumb topping into cake, gently pressing the topping into the batter.

Bake the cake for 50-75 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool for 20-30 minutes.

Glaze:

In a small bowl whisk together confectioner sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and milk. Glaze should be thick but pourable. Drizzle glaze over the cake. Allow to set for a few minutes before serving.

Adapted from Entertaining with Beth.

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