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Breadhead Breakfast Countdown Day #113/120

10/12/2015

Chocolate Mint Muffins

We’re getting down to the wire on my cookbook deadline, or as my publisher and I put it, “about to cross the goal line.” I don’t like to use the word “deadline” because it gives the impression that you have to kill yourself to get there, but “goal line” suggests the crowd going wild as you spike the ball and do your signature touchdown dance in the end zone! Only a few treats left, mostly tested recipes that just need a decent photo.

So I’m back to our little retreat cabin at Lake Thunderbird (near Henry Illinois), with its tiny sink, reliable oven, and back wall of windows that creates beautiful light for food photography. It’s Columbus Day, no school, so the abbot excused me from my monastic duties to come here last night and all day today to bake and take photos. I made chocolate mint muffins last night (recipe HERE) along with a batch of white bread.

A Pyrex Bake-A-Round and a portion of the resulting loaf

I baked the white bread in a vintage Pyrex Bake-A-Round, a glass tube in a metal rack which produces a cylindrical loaf of bread. I’ll be honest here: I have no idea why anyone would want perfectly round slices of bread. Hamburger buns, maybe, but the apparatus is so bulky and fragile that it hardly seems worth the effort to store the thing. That being said, it’s still one of my favorite piece of bakeware, no longer available except at garage sales and on eBay. And those round slices are ideal for French Toast Custard Cups.

French Toast Custard Cups

You can plenty of recipes for larger French toast casseroles, and they usually serve six to eight. But what if you’re single---do you have to host a brunch before you get to try that recipe? Or what if you have the whole family over for the holidays, but not everyone likes French toast? So I developed these individual serving casseroles, so you can make as few or as many as you like. Keep your eyes open at second-hand shops for soup bowls with handles—they are just the perfect serving size. You can find the recipe HERE.

The photos for those two recipes took up my morning, which exhausted my camera batteries, so I ran into town for a fresh set, dropping off samples at a local family and at the police station. Then it was back to the cabin to make Sunday Brunch Waffles. This past summer I found a brand new Cuisinart waffle iron at Goodwill for a whopping $5, and I’ve been using it ever since to make sourdough multigrain waffles every time my sourdough starter needs to be renewed.

The convenience of pancake mixes and frozen waffles make them ordinary breakfast foods these days, but my Grandma Tootsie taught me how to make waffles with whisked eggs whites, and the result is the lightest waffle you’ve ever savored. The ones I made today are certainly not to be considered health food---four eggs, three-quarters a cup of oil, topped with butter and syrup---which is why I named them to suggest a special Sunday treat.

Next on my list was Tropical Scones. I spent about two weeks in “The Scone Zone” testing scone recipes almost every day, much to the delight of the brethren and the lay faculty of our school. Scones are ideal for our busy modern schedules, because they can be mixed and baked in about 30 minutes and can be flavored sweet or savory. You can use just about any kind of dairy for the liquid; milk, cream, and buttermilk are the most common, but sour cream and yogurt can be used as well. Seeing coconut yogurt in the store inspired me to develop a scone recipe with tropical flavors. They are best served warm with a dollop of apricot chutney.

I finished off the day with a retest of Baked Chocolate Donuts. I used to make baked donuts with yeasted dough but that took more time than most people have in the morning, so I developed a baked cake donut recipe that can be done in half an hour. My first version, however, made too much batter and overflowed the pan, so I cut back on the amount of flour and buttermilk to make less batter. The results were much more satisfactory. The cookbook will have a recipe for mocha frosting, but I made these with a chai tea glaze instead. We had some containers of sweetened chai tea left over from a fundraising event, so I put a cup in a saucepan and simmered it until it was reduced to about a quarter cup. While it was still warm I whisked in a cup of powdered sugar and a pinch of salt, which yielded a scrumptiously exotic glaze for the chocolate donuts.

Now I have to pack up all my equipment and head back to the abbey. There are still a few recipes left to test, but it’s fourth and goal to go!

God bless and happy baking!

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Tomato Basil Scones with Italian Sausage Gravy

10/9/2015

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Fall has arrived and the garden is winding down. The last of the tomatoes are in and the flowers beds are looking a little worn out, exhausted even. But the herb garden is as lively as ever, so I decided to capitalize on the bounty to make tomato basil scones. This breakfast book has me in "The Scone Zone" lately. My first attempt was the zucchini tomato scones pictured to the left, which had a savory aroma and flavor, but the zucchini was so wet that the scones were doughy and a bit heavy.

Tomato Basil Scones---fresh ingredients make a difference, but use canned/dried if you have to.

My second try, minus the zucchini, was much more satisfying, and I love the deep orange-y salmon color. Because decent tomatoes are in short supply most of the year, I used canned crushed tomatoes for the liquid and and sun dried tomatoes for a burst of flavor. Fresh herbs are a bonus but dried will do. It may seem odd to use an 8 x 8-inch pan for scones, but it makes the soft dough easier to manage and produces neat portions.

These scones are delicious by themselves, or with a little garlic butter, or next to a bowl of Italian Wedding Soup, but smothered in Italian sausage gravy they raise breakfast to a whole new level. Any sausage gravy recipe will do (HERE's a good one) but use Italian bulk sausage--the sweet/hot variety makes an especially scrumptious gravy that pairs well with the tomato and herbal flavors.

I still have some other scone recipes to test, the most interesting being a tropical treat made with coconut yogurt, dried pineapples and dried mango. A savory recipe with ham and smoked Gouda is in the works as well. Stay tuned!

God bless and happy baking!

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Sausage Roll-Ups

10/5/2015

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Sausage Roll-Ups are an easy appetizer or brunch item.

For family potlucks, my mother often makes sausage roll-ups. These savory appetizers are a snap to make, and much of the prep can even take place the night before, so having them for breakfast or brunch isn't much of a chore. They can be made with any kind of bulk sausage: garlic, sweet hot Italian, maple, sage and onion, etc.

We're fairly certain my mom got the recipe from Pillsbury, since it uses their crescent rolls in a tube. My friend Julie refers to their biscuits as "whomp biscuits", since you peel the label off the tube and "whomp!" it on the edge of the table. You can certainly try that if you want, but allow me to say this: you can make exquisite homemade biscuit dough with far less fuss and get a much better result. Besides, as adorable as he is, Poppin' Fresh creeps me out a little. I just don't like to see my food animated. And we're almost the same age but he's virtually unchanged in appearance, which makes me wonder about all those preservatives.

So we're going to start with a basic biscuit dough. I say "basic" but what I'm really referring to is BISCUITS OF VICTORY! For many years I was unable to make a decent biscuit, but I finally found and adapted a recipe that worked for me every time. Hence, the epic name, which must be pronounced in a heroic voice like the voice over on Super Friends. The recipe for the dough is HERE, directions for the roll-ups are below.

Sausage Roll-Ups
One batch of Biscuit Dough
1 pound of bulk sausage, uncooked

Prepare biscuit dough. On a well-floured surface, roll dough out to 15” x 24”. Crumble sausage and spread evenly over dough (an offset spatula helps). Starting from the long side, roll up jellyroll style. Cut roll in half crosswise with a sharp knife. Wrap each half in waxed paper or parchment and again in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for one hour or overnight.

Preheat oven to 425° F. Lightly grease two 9 x 13-inch baking sheets. Remove wrapping from dough and cut into 1” slices. Place rolls cut side down on baking sheets and space them evenly. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until sausage is cooked and rolls are golden brown on the edges. Serve warm.

Sausage Roll-Ups drizzled with honey--the perfect combination of sweet and savory.

I like to eat mine drizzled with honey or maple syrup, but for something a bit more savory, sprinkle the tops with finely shredded asiago cheese or a mixture of mozzarella and Parmesan as they emerge hot from the oven. You can make the jellyroll and slice immediately, but they are harder to slice that way and tend to spread out more when baking. But either way they are delicious and will disappear quickly from your buffet table. I've also had success baking them the night before and reheating the next day. Just let them cool completely on the pans, cover the pans with aluminum foil and refrigerate. Reheat the next morning, covered, at 375° F. for five minutes, then uncovered for another five to seven minutes until heated through.

One last comment: these are not a heart healthy bread! The dough is loaded with butter and sausage of course can be laden with fat, salt and calories. That's why my family only served these once or twice a year. But my oh my are they good!

God bless and happy baking!

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Pastry Blenders and Classic Strawberry Cream Scones

9/26/2015

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Strawberry Cream Scones--use the good china!

If I were going to choose a recipe to teach to a newbie baker an I had less than an hour, I would definitely choose scones as my ideal recipe: easy to make, infinitely versatile, using simple ingredients and prepared with ordinary equipment. AND you get to eat them, warm with butter, within forty-five minutes or less. What's not to love?

Vintage pastry blenders

Some people might take exception to the "ordinary equipment" part, since not everyone has a pastry blender in the drawer. I was surprised to discover this week that there are kitchens without a rolling pin! However, you can achieve the same goal (cold butter cut into small pieces blended with flour) with a pair of ordinary knives or (gasp!) a food processor. However, if you do have a Cuisinart and not a pastry blender or granny fork, I'm not sure we can be friends. I have several varieties of pastry blenders, and the one on the left with the metals "blades" seems to me to be the most useful. When you are using cold butter (necessary for really flaky pastry) the harder blades are more effective than the wires on the right, which tend to get bent.

Besides appreciating the time factor, I like scones because they aren't as sweet at other breakfast breads coated with glaze or slathered with frosting. Granted, I love caramel pecan cinnamon rolls more than most sugar addicts, but it's hard not to feel guilt afterwards. With scones, you feel like you've had "a treat without a cheat". Some commercial scones are about as healthy as a Krispy Kreme donut, but the ones you make yourselves are no worse than a biscuit. Just go easy on the clotted cream and you'll be fine.

This recipe will appear in my upcoming cookbook Breadhead Breakfast Treats, which I hope to have available by May 2016

Strawberry Cream Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold butter
1 cup chopped strawberries (1/4” dice)
¾ cup heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 425° F. Lightly grease a 9 x 13-inch baking sheet and set aside. Place flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium size bowl whisk together until blended. Work the butter into the flour with a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs. Add strawberries and stir till evenly distributed. Add cream and mix until a cohesive ball of dough is formed; do not over-mix

Transfer the dough to a well-floured work surface. Pat or roll the dough into an 8-inch disk about ¾" thick. Use a chef’s knife, bench knife or large pizza cutter to cut the disk into 8 wedges. (You may also use a round or heart-shaped cookie cutter.) Transfer scones to the prepared pan, evenly spaced. Bake the scones for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on the pan and serve warm.

Breadhead Backstory
I'm in “the scone phase” of recipe testing, and last week I discovered that we had several pints of fresh strawberries that needed to used up pretty quickly. As a practical baker, that was reason enough to make these! Strawberries and cream go together, and the richness of the cream means you can use a little less butter on this recipe. In a convection oven (with the blower on), there’s real risk of the strawberries on the surface of the dough getting scorched black, so if you are using one be sure to cover the pan lightly with aluminum foil until the last few minutes of baking. The strawberry flavor of these scones is rather delicate, so don’t serve them with an overwhelmingly strong coffee or heavily flavored tea—for the latter, I recommend Formosa Oolng.

This is fairly classic scone recipe, and you could substitute raisins, dried cranberries, or blueberries with equally delightful results. I like to use dried apricots or snipped dates with chopped pecans and serve them with clotted cream and a little spoonful of orange marmalade. When I tested the recipe, this strawberry version was enjoyed both by the monks at breakfast and some of the faculty at lunch, and the only criticism I received was that I hadn’t made enough for the whole staff!

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Orange Cranberry Rolls

9/18/2015

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The pinnacle of breakfast breads!

The Breadhead Breakfast project has been inspiring me to think of new variations on some of my old favorites. Although my monastic brethren love cinnamon rolls (a moment of silence as we all contemplate the glory of Fab's Nutty Goodness) I've been experimenting with different fillings in the last year or so. I've made Strawberry Rolls and little spirals of pastry and pineapple filling using Shortcut Croissant dough, and even added Chinese Five Spice instead of cinnamon. None of this is particularly adventuresome compared to, let's say, chefs of Chopped, but it is making me explore some new flavor profiles.

DON'T USE THIS STUFF!

For several weeks I've been planning to experiment with cranberry sauce, because I found a small can of it in the pantry. I DON'T mean the stuff that looks like cranberry jello and can be serve in slices. This was whole berry cranberry sauce---not as good as fresh cranberries, but it's what I had in the kitchen without having to to the store. I once enjoyed a delectable cranberry salad with mandarin orange slices, so I decided to add that flavor as well.

I made a batch of Basic Roll Dough but I used only 4.5 cups of flour, leaving the dough very soft. As it rose, I took the cranberry sauce (14-oz. can.) and stirred in a teaspoon of freshly grated orange zest (about half an orange--the rest goes in the icing), and 1/4 cup of orange juice. I thought the filling lacked tartness, so I added 1/2 cup of dried cranberries--much better. I rolled the dough out as usual (about 15" x 12"), spread the filling and rolled it up for slicing. I made 15 rolls, but you could do 12 and make more generous servings. They went into a 9" x 13" greased pan and rose for about half an hour. In my commercial convection oven they baked in 18 minutes at 350, but in a regular oven it would take about 30 minutes.

The icing was made with a cup of powdered sugar whisked with 1 teaspoon of fresh orange zest and two tablespoons of orange juice. I heated it in the microwave on high for ten seconds and then drizzled it over the rolls. Go easy on the icing--the filling is plenty sweet. They were much enjoyed by the monks and several lucky members of the faculty of our high school.

A little Internet research revealed that there are a wide variety of orange-and-cranberry-flavored breads out there, from rolls to scones to muffins. Some roll recipes use fresh cranberries in a food processor with orange marmalade, which made for a beautifully rich, red filling; some added walnuts for a little crunch. Plenty of recipes still to be explored. If there is leftover cranberry salad after this year's Thanksgiving feast, I have a pretty good idea what I'll be serving for breakfast the next morning!

God bless and happy baking!

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Italian Onion Herb Bread

9/18/2015

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Italian Onion Herb Bread can be made in round loaves or in a loaf pan.

A friend invited me to supper at his house last weekend and "suggested" I might bring along some bread. This is the time of year when I try to use up whatever fresh herbs are left in the garden, and when I saw that we had some green onions in the fridge that needed to be used pretty quickly, I knew Italian Onion Herb Bread was the best possible choice. It goes well with just about any meat (we were having pork loin on the grill) plus my host's last name is DiVincenzo. I used fresh garlic chives, basil, rosemary, oregano, and a pinch of red pepper in my mix, but any dried Italian seasoning will work. I would have to rate this among the breads with the best aroma, not only while baking, but on the counter, in the bread basket, and even when wrapped in plastic. Try it and let me know what you think.

Italian Onion Herb Bread

2 pkg. active dry yeast
1 Tbs. brown sugar
2 tsp. salt
1 cup warm water (100 to 110 degrees)
1 cup milk
2 Tbs. vegetable oil (divided)
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
1 or 2 Tbs. dried Italian herb blend, or 1/4 cup fresh
5½ to 6 cups of all-purpose flour

Sauté onions in 1 tablespoon of the oil until translucent but not browned. Remove pan from heat and add remaining oil, herbs and milk---set aside to cool to lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in warm water with a pinch of the sugar. Let stand 10 minutes until foamy. In a large mixing bowl, combine milk, salt, and onion/herb mixture. Stir in yeast and remainder of sugar. Add 2 cups of flour and mix thoroughly. Add three more cups of flour, one cup at a time. About ¼ cup at a time, add enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead for 6 to 8 minutes, until dough is smooth, shiny and slightly sticky. Lightly oil the surface of the dough, and place in the rinsed bowl covered with a dish towel, in a warm place free from drafts. Let rise until doubled, about one hour. Punch dough down and knead again for about one minute. Form into loaves and place in greased pans. Let rise again for 30 to 45 minutes, until nearly. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until golden brown and loaves sound hollow when tapped. Cool on racks.

Notes
---The first time you make Italian Onion Herb bread, use only 1 tablespoon of dried herb mix, and see if that’s enough for your palate. If not, increase it to two. Go easy on the rosemary.
---You can try other of herbs in this recipe as well. I made it once with a combination of lovage, savory and parsley, and the community devoured six loaves at a single meal!
---If you are short on time, omit the onions and just warm the milk to 110 degrees before adding it to other ingredients along with the oil.

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Chili for Breakfast?!

9/15/2015

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Nothing I like better than cornbread with butter and honey.

Earlier this week I made a batch of cornbread using a new recipe I found on Pinterest. The pinner claimed it was "The Best Cornbread"--moist and sweet, with a tender crumb. I'm usually a bit wary of such claims, because often what the baker has developed is a recipe for a cornmeal-flavored cake, with way too much butter and sugar. But this recipe made use of unsweetened applesauce, so I decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did. Although it had a texture that reminded me of yogurt cake and was a bit too sweet for my taste, it was definitely moist and flavorful. The recipe is HERE.

San Pasquale, patron saint of cooking, looks on from the background.

I don't know what inspired me to put my fried eggs on cornbread the next morning, because normally I'm a butter-and- honey kind of monk. But it was so good that I decided to take it even further and create the masterpiece picture here. I cut a large square of cornbread in half lengthwise and topped it with a slice of sharp cheddar. That went into the microwave for about 20 seconds, just enough to melt the cheese. Once it was on the plate, I added chili, jalapenos, and a fried egg. No salt, no pepper, no hot sauce--it had all the flavor it needed. I'm glad I didn't use the whole piece of cornbread, because that would have been far too bread-y. This was perfectly balanced, IMHO. The idea of chili first thing in the morning might seem odd at first, until you think about breakfast staples like biscuits and gravy, or eggs over grits and corned beef hash. You could do something similar with salsa, guacamole, or white chili, or make a variation on Eggs Benedict if you're awake enough to attempt hollandaise sauce at that hour.

Cornbread with chili, jalapenos, cheddar, and an egg sunny side up.

I should note that in taking this picture I had the assistance of Courtney and Destiny, two of my students who usually get to school early and graciously volunteered to advise me on food styling. They were rewarded with the plate pictured above and a pair of forks.

God bless and happy baking!

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Zucchini Crisp II

8/15/2015

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Zucchini, like apple crisp, requires ice cream!

Finally got around to making the zucchini crisp. In a previous posted I noted that I found the recipe in Sauce magazine, a St. Louis publication which focuses on all thing culinary in the metro area. It's distributed free in restaurants and retailers all over the city, and I always pick up a copy when I'm in the Lou.

I like the idea of zucchini crisp because there's always too much of that vegetable in any neighborhood with at least one garden. We didn't grow any this year, but when I posted a request on Facebook I got an abundant supply. For my first attempt I followed the recipe exactly. . .

(Momentary aside)
I'm annoyed by people who post reviews of recipes on websites, and it's clear from their description of all their personal adaptations that they never made the recipe at all! I read the comments for a recipe for zucchini waffles today, and the reviewer had used bananas instead of zucchini, added chocolate chips, and made the batter into pancakes. Seriously?

. . . but I thought it turned out a bit bland. So I tried it again and added 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and a splash of balsamic. BOOOM! The flavor really popped with that addition of tart flavors, and the brethren devoured the whole pan---a double batch---in about 24 hours. Click HERE for a link to Sauce's original recipes page (with several savory recipes for zucchini as well) and do some of your own experimenting.

The crunchy, sweet topping for zucchini crisp is a large part of its appeal.

God bless and happy baking!

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Tools for Batter Breads

8/11/2015

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Butter Pecan Breakfast Bread is an example of a quick bread or batter bread.

Although yeast breads are my specialty, I do enjoy making quick breads or batter breads, meaning breads that are leavened with baking powder or baking soda (or a combination of both) and therefore take less time than yeast breads. Scones, muffins, biscuits, waffles, pancakes and cornbread all fall into this category, so many of them are served at breakfast, brunch, or tea time. My new cookbook Breadhead Breakfast Treats will feature quite a few batter breads, since I have a supernatural love thing for anything that can be served with maple syrup and Irish Breakfast tea.

You can mix batter breads with nothing more than a bowl and a wooden spoon, but over the years I've found a few other utensils that make the process a little easier. I find that the plastic scraper in the upper left is handier than a rubber spatula for getting batter out of a bowl, plus it can be used to divide pizza dough and clean a counter top. Hodgson Mill sometimes gives them away free at demos (I usually have an ample supply at my demos) but you can get them at a lot of cooking stores for less than a dollar.

The three whisks pictured here are all made by different companies but serve the same purpose. They're all sturdier than most wire whisks and can mix batter breads faster and with less effort than with a wooden spoon. Since batter breads--especially muffins--can become dense and gummy when overmixed, it could be worth it to invest in one if you bake batter breads often. The top whisk is made by Best Manufacturing of Portland OR, the same company that makes my favorite flour duster and is a new addition to their catalog.* It's a little big for a single batch of pancakes, but if you mix larger batches of batter breads for Christmas gift giving, it's worth getting. I used it to make a double batch of zucchini bread this week and found it to be a great help, and easier to clean than a brotpiskar or dough whisk, which is what the next two tools are.

Brotpiskars are a Scandinavian invention (Danish or Swedish, depending on whom you talk to!) and are also for mixing batter breads and even yeast doughs. They come in two sizes, usually 14" and 11". The larger one in the photo is one my mom bought for me in 1979, and it's mixed hundreds if not thousands batches of dough. They are available from several distributors, including Amazon, King Arthur Flour and Fox Run. The smaller one was imported from Poland, and is available from Saint Bede Abbey's own Monks' Market website.

The small tool at the bottom of the photo is a heat-sensitive cake tester, manufactured by Nordic Ware. You insert the probe into your batter bread and wait a few seconds. The tip turns red when the cake or bread is done. (Please note that the cake tester is not for yeast breads, which finish baking at a lower temperature.) I know I can use a toothpick or a piece of uncooked spaghetti to test, but I saw this in a restaurant supply store for less than $5, so I decided I needed it! I appreciate having it when I have altered a recipe or used a different size of pan than the recipe calls for, so I'm less sure of baking times.

Since I posted a blog recently about owning too many tools, I'm hesitant to encourage more spending on utensils. But if you enjoy baking and do it often, you may find these mixers worth keeping in the drawer. I must confess, sometimes having the right tool encourages me to bake a particular recipe more often. Besides, none of the people who enjoy the results of my baking obsession have ever complained about the clutter!

God bless and happy baking!

*Full disclosure: Best Manufacturing sent me a sample of this "Baker's Whisk"--I received no additional compensation or benefit and all opinions expressed here are my own.

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Breadhead Breakfast Countdown 41/120

8/7/2015

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Day #41

Overnight Multi-grain Waffles

Haven't been doing much with the new cookbook lately, and for a few hours yesterday I thought it would be necessary to cancel or at least postpone the project. I had been told that I was going to be teaching an additional class at the Academy first semester, one with a new book in a subject I hadn't taught before. Anyone with experience teaching a new class knows that it means a daily extra hour or two of work writing lesson plans, finding resources, creating and grading assignments. So I figured that meant the book project would have to be put on hold. But my informant was, it turns out, misinformed. I decided to celebrate my narrow escape by making multigrain waffles.

I like just about any breakfast recipe you can start the night before, and these flavorful waffles are among my favorites. Although the recipe I'm sharing uses fast-rising yeast, I usually make these heart-healthy treats with sourdough starter, but that’s a recipe for another cookbook! The brethren gobble them up, especially our Br. Luke, who recommends that you pair them with fresh fruit instead of syrup. If you can’t bear to wait until the next day to enjoy them, let the batter rise for at least one hour, then proceed as directed.

---Don’t feel restricted to the flours named in the recipe. You could replace the rye with amaranth flour (a high protein grain first grown by the Aztecs) or the whole wheat with spelt or kamut (similar tasting ancient grains with less gluten). Try miller’s bran or rolled oats instead of wheat germ, or crush some granola for a unique crunch. Whenever using flours other than all-purpose white, you may find you need to add a little more milk to make the batter pourable, since some grains absorb liquid faster than others. You can even make these waffles gluten-free with a GF baking mix (Hodgson Mill makes a good one) or any all-purpose GF flour, but don’t use malt syrup.

Here's the recipe I used, originally published in More Breaking Bread with Father Dominic:

Overnight Multi-grain Waffles
1 pkg. fast rising yeast
1½ cups all purpose flour
¼ cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup rye flour
2 Tbs. wheat germ
1 tsp. salt
1½ cups milk
1 Tbs. malt syrup, dark corn syrup, or molasses
1 Tbs. vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine yeast, flours, wheat germ, and salt in a medium size bowl and stir until thoroughly blended. In a separate container, combine milk, syrup and oil and heat to 120 degrees F. Pour into dry ingredients and stir until batter is smooth. Cover the bowl with plastic and place in a cool place overnight (it could be the refrigerator, but a counter in an air-conditioned room will do). In the morning, stir batter down. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until thoroughly incorporated. If the batter seems a bit stiff, stir in a couple of tablespoons of milk at a time until it flows freely. Preheat waffle iron and use batter according to manufacturer’s instructions.

National Waffle Day is August 24, the anniversary of the patenting of the first U.S. waffle iron invented by Cornelius Swarthout of Troy, New York. Get yours out fire it up for some multi-grain goodness.

God bless and happy baking!

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Breadhead Breakfast Countdown Day #113/120

Tomato Basil Scones with Italian Sausage Gravy

Sausage Roll-Ups

Pastry Blenders and Classic Strawberry Cream Scones

Orange Cranberry Rolls

Italian Onion Herb Bread

Chili for Breakfast?!

Zucchini Crisp II

Tools for Batter Breads

Breadhead Breakfast Countdown 41/120

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