The Gourmet Mama

I was playing around with new muffin recipes the other day and found one that was completly addicting! I had a hard time not eating all of the batter, let alone the actual cooked muffins. So I thought that I would share it with you.

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 t. vanilla

4 cups flour (the recipe calls for white but I used 2 cups white and 2 cups whole wheat)

1 cup milk

4 t. baking powder

4 cups berries (I got one of those frozen bags of berry mix…strawberry, blueberry, raspberry and blackberry)

Cream together the butter and sugar. Mix in the eggs, vanilla and milk. add flour and baking powder and mix everything together into a smooth batter. Add the berries and gently fold in. If the berries are still frozen, you don’t have to worry about being too gentle but if they are thawed or fresh, you want to be really careful. Put a spoonful of batter into each cup of a greased muffin tin and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until the tops brown. These muffins are to die for!!! Enjoy!

Here`s a great way to use up your stale bread, make a delicious bread pudding. Now, usually bread pudding is considered dessert, but by making some slight changes, I`ve come up with a version that is just ideal for breakfast, not too sweet, with a touch of fruit.

Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Bread Pudding

1 apple, diced

5 cups cubed bread, any kind

1 cup sugar

6 eggs, separated

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 stick margarine, melted

1 1/2 cups milk

Preheat your oven to 350º. Put the bread cubes into a large bowl along with the apples, cinnamon and sugar. Toss to mix and then drizzle the butter over everything and stir.

In a metal bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the egg yolk until they have a lemon color. Add the milk and and mix until blended.

In a metal bowl, use the mixer to whip the egg whites (make sure there are no yolks left on the beaters) until they form standing points when you lift the beaters.

Pour the milk and egg yolk mixture into the bread cubes and stir. When well mixed, fold in the egg whites. Pour the entire thing into a greased 13×9 baking pan and bake for 20 min. or until browned.

Serve warm. Makes about 4 servings, 6 if you have little kids.

Photo by Mandydale

They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day…and I agree, so long as it comes shortly after rolling out of bed around noon-ish. The problem for most mothers is that there is never enough time in the day…or at least in the morning to make sure that the kids get a good breakfast into them before running out the door for work and school.  There is one way that you can get some hot pancakes into them though, without having to rush around and make a huge mess and what mother would argue with that?

The first step is to eat ketchup…ok, let me explain. A great way to make pancakes is to store the batter in an old cleaned out ketchup squeeze bottle. Its perfect grab out of the fridge and pour strait into the hot pan without having to mix it and dirty dishes. Just make the batter up when you have the time, use a funnel to pour it into a washed out ketchup bottle and store it in the fridge for up to 3 days. Then in the morning, heat up the pan, throw in some butter and squeeze the batter out into the perfect pancakes. The only dishes you will have is the pan and the plates!!! So how do you make the batter? Here is a simple recipe that works every time and goes by the rule of ones.

Simple Pancakes

1 cup flour

1 cup milk

1 egg

1 teaspoon baking powder