Category: Breakfast

I have a good ‘peeling’ you’ll love these apple bars

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date June 27, 2024

Granny Smith harvest bars combine the tartness of apples with the nuttiness of walnuts and the warmth of cinnamon and nutmeg to make the perfect dessert or breakfast bar.

Even though it seems to be billed as a fall fruit, I love a good apple all year round.

In a lively discussion about favorite fruits this past week, I decided apples hold the number one spot for me right now, and if I’m eating one on its own, I like a sweet, red one.

Someone else in the conversation noted they liked to bite into a Granny Smith, and all I could do was shudder while thinking about how tart they are. Granny Smiths are only baking apples in my book, although I’m sure plenty of folks like to eat them raw, too.

But I do absolutely love Granny Smith apples in all kinds of desserts. They have this bright, tart flavor that is just perfect alongside sugar and spices.

They didn’t disappoint me in this week’s recipe for some amazing apple bars, too, and once the temperatures cool down a bit and you start to feel ready to heat up your oven, you should put this recipe on your short list to try.

This comes from the blog “Sweet Ordeal.” You can find the original post at https://sweetordeal.com/granny-smith-harvest-bars/. I doubled the vanilla and spices in my version below, and I swapped in walnuts instead of pecans.

Granny Smith Harvest Bars

Course Breakfast, Dessert

Keyword brown sugar, cinnamon, Granny Smith apples, nutmeg, quick oats, vanilla, walnuts

Ingredients

Bar Ingredients

1 cup butter softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg
4 cups Granny Smith apples peeled and diced
1/2 cup walnuts chopped

Topping Ingredients

1/2 cup walnuts chopped
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter melted
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons quick-cooking oats

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare a nine-by-13-inch baking pan by spraying it with cooking spray. Set it aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until it is smooth. Beat in the sugar and continue mixing on high until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
Beat in the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and nutmeg until everything is just combined.
Fold in the diced apples and walnuts by hand.
Spread the batter into your prepared pan and bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
While the bars cook, prepare the topping.
Begin by lightly toasting the walnuts for several minutes in a dry skillet over medium heat. Just let them get slightly browned and warmed through to really release some of the yummy oil in the nuts.
Then combine all of the topping ingredients in a bowl, mixing well.
When the bars come out of the oven, spoon the topping mixture evenly over the top, and bake for another five minutes.
Let the bars cool completely before cutting and serving. Store any leftovers in an airtight container.

These were nutty and sweet and full of delicious spice flavor. I was a little nervous my bars were a bit overcooked when I first pulled them from the oven, but I trusted the process, and they were absolutely perfect.

I think over half of the pan was devoured at the office with only a few people present, so needless to say, they were a big hit.

Despite my recent fruit debate, I think I’m sticking with red apples for my favorite everyday snack for the time being. Granny Smiths will always have a place on my beloved list—just in a slightly different category.

This piece first appeared in print on June 27, 2024.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Tags brown sugar, cinnamon, Granny Smith apples, nutmeg, quick oats, vanilla, walnuts

Breakfast Dessert Microwave

Beat the heat with a yummy microwaved dessert

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date June 20, 2024

If you’re looking for a very quick dessert or topping for ice cream or oatmeal, all you need is an apple and a few simple ingredients, along with a microwave oven.

Earlier this week, I made a fabulous apple cake. (I promise to share the recipe with you in an upcoming column.)

I realized after I peeled and diced all my apples, though, that I had more than the recipe called for, and while I put a few extras into the batter, I was a little nervous I was going to mess up the apple-to-cake ratio.

So then I had to decide what to do with a small bowl of extra apples. Thank goodness the Internet had an idea for me, and it was a delicious one at that.

The recipe I used comes from the blog “Salad in a Jar” by Paula Rhodes. You can find the original post at https://saladinajar.com/recipes/desserts/fruit/apples-in-a-bag/#recipe. I added extra cinnamon and cornstarch in my version.

Microwave Cinnamon Apples

If you’re looking for a very quick dessert or topping for ice cream or oatmeal, all you need is an apple and a few simple ingredients, along with a microwave oven.

Course Breakfast, Dessert

Keyword apple, cinnamon, cooking for one, cooking for two, dessert for one, dessert for two, easy dessert, Granny Smith apples, ice cream topping, microwave cooking, oatmeal topping, quick dessert

Ingredients

1 medium-sized apple I used Granny Smith
1 teaspoon sugar or sugar substitute
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon water

Instructions

Core and cut up your apple into bite-sized pieces (I diced mine). You can peel it or not, depending on your preferences.
Put the cut apple into a microwave-safe bowl.
Add in the sugar, cinnamon, cornstarch and water and stir to ensure all the apple pieces are well coated.
Loosely cover the bowl (I put a plate over the top of mine), and microwave on high for two minutes. If the apples are not fork tender, continue microwaving, 30 seconds at a time, until they reach your desired level of tenderness.
Carefully remove the bowl from the microwave, give the apples a stir and eat them as is or over ice cream, oatmeal, yogurt, etc.

This was really tasty, and it was a great summer dessert that I definitely won’t forget to use in the future, since it doesn’t heat up the kitchen. It basically makes a very nice, lightly sweet glazed apple.

I wished I had some ice cream in the freezer when I ate them. They would have been fabulous on a bowl of vanilla.

But they were also delicious on their own, and I have to admit that I didn’t save any for Joey to try, since he was out and about while I was doing my experimenting. I suppose there have to be some perks when you’re the one in the kitchen.

The nice thing, though, is I can easily make these again if we’re ever craving something sweet. And I’ll always know from now on what to do in the event of extra apples.

This piece first appeared in print on June 20, 2024.

Tags apple, cinnamon, cooking for one, cooking for two, dessert for one, dessert for two, easy dessert, Granny Smith apples, ice cream topping, microwave cooking, oatmeal topping, quick dessert

Bread Breakfast Dessert

Do what feels ‘ripe’ with those brown bananas

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date June 13, 2024

This is just a very simple recipe for banana bread, but it’s fabulous in its traditional flavors, including the warmth of ginger, cinnamon and cloves.

Once, back in my college days, when I was living away from home, I was visiting over a weekend. I grabbed a banana off the counter, and about that time, my sister came around the corner.

She gave me a horrified look.

“What are you doing?” she demanded.

“Eating a banana?” I told her, confused.

“Dad and I were leaving those so Mom would make banana bread,” she said.

I’d ruined the plan.

I don’t think they’ve fully forgiven me yet, even though Mom has blessed us with plenty of loaves in the many years since then.

I was thinking about that story recently when I whipped up a couple loaves for an event we were having at the office. I had a couple brown bananas in my freezer that I didn’t have time to bake with when they turned, and I figured it was a good time to put them to good use.

My recipe for banana bread comes from my mom. I’m sure there’s an origin story for it, but my only copy is a well-worn, handwritten version from her.

Banana Bread

This is just a very simple recipe for banana bread, but it’s fabulous in its traditional flavors, including the warmth of ginger, cinnamon and cloves.

Course Breakfast, Dessert

Keyword banana, brown bananas, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, overripe bananas, sweet bread

Ingredients

3 eggs
3 3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup shortening
2/3 cup cold water
4 mashed overripe bananas
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ginger
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cloves

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two loaf pans, and set them aside.
In a mixing bowl, start by beating the eggs, and then beat in the rest of the ingredients until the batter is smooth.
Distribute the batter evenly between the two prepared loaf pans, and bake for 50 minutes to an hour.
Once a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, remove the pans from the oven, and let them cool to a temperature where you can handle them comfortably. Carefully invert the pans to remove the loaves, and let them cool the rest of the way before slicing them. Store the slices in an airtight container.

You can absolutely add some chopped walnuts to this bread, too, if you like them. I actually love banana nut bread, but since that’s not how we normally ate it when I was growing up, my nostalgia leads me to continue to leave them out.

I love this recipe because it has more spices in it than a lot of traditional banana bread recipes do. There is nothing better than plenty of warm spices along with the flavor of overripe bananas.

And to add insult to injury, both of these loaves were eaten by all of us at the office, and my sister was left out once again. I mean, she’s an adult now, so I’m sure it’s my niece and brother-in-law conspiring to let bananas brown on her counter these days.

I know one thing: if I go for a visit, I’ll leave any fruit in her kitchen alone.

This piece first appeared in print on June 13, 2024.

Tags banana, brown bananas, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, overripe bananas, sweet bread

Bread Breakfast

Using a softer flour is the ‘fluff’ dreams are made of

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date April 9, 2024

This recipe for homemade biscuits is good when made with hard red winter wheat flour. It’s even better when you can get ahold of soft winter wheat flour, making these fluffier and tastier than ever.

The Kansas Wheat Commission reports on its website that there are six varieties of wheat grown in the United States.

Those include hard red winter, hard white, soft red winter, soft white, hard red spring and durum.

Anyone who has been around wheat farmers in Kansas knows that most farms produce the hard red winter variety. The wheat commission notes we grow more of it here than anywhere else in the country.

I’m sure I already knew that there were other varieties of wheat, but until a few months ago, I didn’t give it much thought. Wheat flour is wheat flour, right?

But, as many of my weird experiments tend to begin, I watched a video online of a woman claiming that she made the best biscuits of her life by using flour produced in the South—soft winter wheat flour.

It stuck in my mind, but since our grocery stores don’t sell it (if someone does, let me know), I didn’t see any way to test it out. But then we were invited to speak at the Kentucky Press Association convention, and I had the perfect opportunity to visit a Kroger, get myself some soft winter wheat, and give it a try.

And I have to admit that I was honest-to-goodness angry, because, you guys, it worked. I had the fluffiest biscuits I have ever made. So I’m sharing a recipe with you that I actually shared clear back in September of 2013 for homemade biscuits (you can find that post on my website, spiceupkitchen.net), and while you can totally make these with hard red winter wheat flour, I’m imploring you to try to get ahold of some of the soft stuff to see the difference. It’s a weird experiment but totally worth it.

Even Fluffier Homemade Biscuits

This recipe for homemade biscuits is good when made with hard red winter wheat flour. It’s even better when you can get ahold of soft winter wheat flour, making these fluffier and tastier than ever.

Course Bread, Breakfast

Keyword easy biscuits, fluffy biscuits, homemade biscuits, soft red wheat flour

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose soft winter wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cups milk
1/4 cup shortening

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Cut in the shortening until it’s well combined (the texture will become a bit mealy).
Add milk and stir. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured board and knead until all of the ingredients are well-combined and the dough is soft and easy to roll. If it’s too sticky, add a bit more flour. If it’s tough and hard to work with, add a little more milk.
After the dough is kneaded into a soft ball, roll it out to about one-inch thickness.
Use a biscuit cutter or a drinking glass to cut out biscuits. Continue to roll out dough and cut it into biscuits until all the dough is used (if you have a weird little bit left over, go ahead and bake it. It won’t be pretty, but it’ll be tasty.).
Place the biscuits on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the biscuits are golden brown. Store leftovers in an airtight container.

We had these with sausage gravy, and I changed nothing about how I made the biscuit recipe I’ve made dozens of times since 2013 except the type of flour.

Could it have been confirmation bias? Sure.

But Joey was convinced, too, and I honestly might bake two batches to compare side by side just to see.

Regardless, this recipe is one to try, no matter what kind of wheat flour you use. It comes together quickly and is way better than the canned variety.

Now I’ll have to figure out how to keep supplying myself with soft winter wheat flour for future biscuit baking. I still have several pounds left, but with how much we enjoyed this experiment, I don’t expect it to last long.

This piece first appeared in print Thursday, April 11, 2024.

Tags easy biscuits, fluffy biscuits, homemade biscuits, soft red wheat flour

Breakfast Cookies Dessert

Combining cookies and cinnamon rolls is totally friend‘chip’ goals

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date March 28, 2024

Chocolate chip cookie cinnamon rolls are exactly what the name implies: a gooey, delicious combination of cookies and sweet rolls. Since the recipe uses pre-made ingredients, it’s extremely easy for even amateur bakers to accomplish.

Every once in awhile, I run across a food idea so dumb but so obviously delicious that I just have to try it.

It happened when I made poutine tacos. It happened when I decided to try Mountain Dew and Doritos cupcakes.

And it happened again this past week, when I saw a simple recipe that promised to combine two high-calorie, delectable treats: cinnamon rolls and chocolate chip cookies.

So I went to the store, dumping a package of pre-made cookies and pre-made rolls into my cart and hoping no one who regularly reads my column saw me and wondered if I was losing a step.

And then I made magic in my kitchen.

I was right. They were dumb. But they were so, so good, and now that I have the knowledge that this can be done, it’s only right that I share it with all of you so you can shame buy packages of refrigerated dough and try this out at your house, too.

The recipe I tried comes from the blog “Dude Foods” by Nick Chipman. (If you’re into weird food experiments, he’s your guy.) You can find the original post at https://dudefoods.com/chocolate-chip-cookie-stuffed-cinnamon-rolls/. There were only two ingredients for this, so I didn’t change those up, but I did clarify some directions that should make your life a little easier when trying these.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cinnamon Rolls

Chocolate chip cookie cinnamon rolls are exactly what the name implies: a gooey, delicious combination of cookies and sweet rolls. Since the recipe uses pre-made ingredients, it’s extremely easy for even amateur bakers to accomplish.

Course Breakfast, Dessert

Keyword canned cinnamon rolls, cookie dough, easy dessert, quick dessert

Ingredients

16 ounces refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough
12.4 ounce package of refrigerated cinnamon roll dough with icing

Instructions

Let the cookie dough come up to room temperature before starting assembly.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and set it aside.
Cut two large pieces of parchment paper or waxed paper, and sandwich the cookie dough between them. Using a rolling pin, roll out the cookie dough to about one-quarter inch in thickness, trying to keep it in as much of a rectangular shape as you can.
Carefully remove the top layer of paper and set it aside. Unroll the cinnamon rolls and place them, lengthwise, evenly across the cookie dough. It’s OK if you end up with a little space between or if they hang off the end a little.
Take a table knife or pizza cutter and cut a line in the cookie dough between each cinnamon roll, making long strips.
Place the paper back on top of the dough. Slide it onto a baking sheet, place another baking sheet on top, and flip the stack over.
Now, peel the top layer of paper off and begin tightly rolling the cinnamon roll/cookie dough lines into rolls, and place them on your prepared baking sheet, spacing them at least an inch apart.
Once all of the dough is rolled, bake for about 15 minutes or until the dough is soft but set up on the bottoms. While the rolls are hot, cover them with the icing included with the cinnamon rolls. Serve them immediately and store any leftovers in an airtight container. This will make eight rolls.

I was seriously almost angry that these were so stinking good, because they were way too easy to make. They were soft and cinnamon-y and chocolaty and would be phenomenal with a big glass of milk. We were lucky to have a get together the day I made these, so I managed to get away with only eating half of a roll, which I shared with Joey, before passing these calorie bombs off on our friends. (Sorry, gang!)

I can officially cross another weird recipe off my to do list, though, and that’s pretty cool. I have discovered that curiosity is a large part of what drives my kitchen experiments, and I was happy to answer the “what if” of this food combination.

This piece first appeared in print on March 28, 2024.

Tags canned cinnamon rolls, cookie dough, easy dessert, quick dessert

Breakfast Dessert

Try a great mini sweet that’s perfect to have ’round

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date February 29, 2024

Mini pumpkin spice donuts are completely addictive, with tons of delicious spices and a fabulous cinnamon-sugar coating.

When I was a kid, our Sunday morning breakfasts before church would often be something special from the day-old bakery we had in town.

One of my personal favorites was when we’d get mini donuts. I would dip them in milk, trading off between chocolate-covered and cinnamon sugar flavors.

I have been thinking about those donuts ever since I found a mini donut pan at our local thrift shop, and I finally took the plunge on baking some of my own.

Around Thanksgiving this year, I accidentally bought pumpkin pie filling instead of regular canned pumpkin, and it has been sitting in my pantry ever since, so I decided it was high time to both use up that can and break in my new pan.

The recipe I made is from the blog “Lovely Indeed.” You can find the original post at https://lovelyindeed.com/mini-donut-recipe-baked-pumpkin-spice-mini-donuts/. I added extra spices in my version.

Mini Pumpkin Spice Donuts

Mini pumpkin spice donuts are completely addictive, with tons of delicious spices and a fabulous cinnamon-sugar coating.

Course Breakfast, Dessert

Keyword baked donuts, canned cinnamon rolls, cinnamon-sugar, cloves, donuts, ginger, mini donuts, pumpkin

Ingredients

Donut Ingredients

1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon cloves
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour

Coating Ingredients

1/4 cup butter melted
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Spray the wells of a mini donut pan with cooking spray and set it aside.
In a mixing bowl, beat the oil, eggs, sugar, pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt and baking powder until the mixture is smooth. Beat in the flour just until it’s all incorporated.
Transfer the batter to a piping bag or a large zip-top plastic bag with the tip snipped off.
Fill each well on the pan about three-fourths full, and bake for 10 to 12 minutes.
Remove the donuts from the pan and let them cool.
In another zip-top bag, combine the sugar and cinnamon.
Lightly brush each donut with melted butter, and then drop them (a few at a time) into the bag, and gently shake to coat them in cinnamon-sugar. Serve immediately, and store any leftovers in an airtight container.

This took some time to make, as my donut pan only has nine wells, and this recipe easily made several dozen donuts, but it also gave me plenty of time to wash up my dishes and listen to a podcast.

And these were worth it. We shared them with our guests for a mingle at our office, and then we shamelessly snacked on the leftovers for a few days afterwards. They were moist, full of flavor and very addictive. I had a few with a cup of coffee, and it was the perfect pairing.

I didn’t get a chance to dip any of these in milk like when I was younger, but it was still nice to remember those Sunday breakfasts with my family. And the best part? I didn’t even have to share these with my sister.

This piece first appeared in print on Feb. 29, 2024.

Tags baked donuts, canned cinnamon rolls, cinnamon-sugar, cloves, donuts, ginger, mini donuts, pumpkin, pumpkin spice

Breakfast Dessert

Roll through your cinnamon cravings with a simple cake

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date January 11, 2024

A cinnamon roll cake is an easy way to accomplish the great flavor of homemade cinnamon rolls without all the work.

Do you have those friends in your life where you have to try several times to plan a get-together before you can actually find a date on the calendar that works?

This past weekend, the stars aligned for us to finally spend an evening with just such a pair. They were gracious enough to invite us to their home, where they had a delicious bowl of chili and fresh cornbread waiting for us.

Knowing that chili was on the menu, I started to wrack my brain earlier in the day about what kind of dessert goes with it, and my mind just kept going back to cinnamon rolls.

I mean, yeah, cinnamon rolls are a perfect compliment to a big bowl of chili, but they’re also generally pretty time consuming, and time was not on my side that afternoon.

Thank goodness I found a recipe for a cinnamon roll cake that came to my rescue instead, and I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

This comes from the blog “The Country Cook” by Brandie Skibinski. You can find the original post at https://www.thecountrycook.net/cinnamon-roll-cake/. I doubled the vanilla and quadrupled the cinnamon in my version.

Cinnamon Roll Cake

A cinnamon roll cake is an easy way to accomplish the great flavor of homemade cinnamon rolls without all the work.

Course Breakfast, Dessert

Keyword brown sugar, cake, cinnamon, cinnamon roll, coffeecake, easy cinnamon roll, vanilla

Ingredients

Cake Ingredients

3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups milk I used skim
1/2 cup butter melted

Filling Ingredients

3/4 cup butter softened
1 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons cinnamon

Glaze Ingredients

2 cups powdered sugar
5 tablespoons milk I used skim
2 teaspoons vanilla

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a nine-by-13-inch baking pan by spraying it with cooking spray. Set it aside.
For the cake, in a mixing bowl, beat the flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs, vanilla and milk until everything is smooth and well combined.
Hand stir in the butter, and then spread the batter evenly into your prepared pan.
For the filling, in another mixing bowl, beat together all of the filling ingredients until it forms a smooth paste.
Drop the cinnamon mixture by the tablespoonful onto the cake batter, and then swirl it into the batter using a knife.
Bake the cake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
When the cake comes out of the oven, whisk the glaze ingredients until it is smooth. If you want a thicker glaze, add a little more powdered sugar. If you want it thinner, add a little more milk.
Pour the glaze over the cake and serve warm. Store any leftovers in an airtight container.

This was very much like if a coffee cake married a cinnamon roll. The main difference is because you put the glaze on the cake while it’s still warm, it melts into the cake instead of staying visibly on top like a normal cinnamon roll. If you’d rather have that look and texture, I’d recommend letting the cake cool completely before glazing and making a bit of a thicker glaze.

I ended up making an eight-by-eight pan of this by halving the recipe. There was only going to be four of us, and I really didn’t need the leftovers in my kitchen all week, so that made it perfect.

Even better, we had an excellent meal with excellent people. Being able to spend time with friends, cinnamon rolls or not, is so, so sweet.

This piece first appeared in print on Jan. 11, 2024.

Tags brown sugar, cake, cinnamon, cinnamon roll, coffeecake, easy cinnamon roll, vanilla

Breakfast Dessert

Breakfast bars are ‘apple’utely great for a morning treat

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date November 9, 2023

Apple crisp breakfast bars are not overly sweet. The warm cinnamon flavor, along with the nuttiness of oats, makes these a fabulous morning treat with a hot cup of tea.

Recently, I had the chance to meet one of our readers from Hesston.

We had a fairly short (but very pleasant) conversation, and before I left, he gestured to a bag on his kitchen counter.

“Do you like apples?” he asked me.

And that’s how I became the excited owner of four huge, beautiful golden delicious apples. He said he bought an entire case of them recently and had been working through them, little by little. I was happy to take these off his hands.

I was very tempted to just eat all of them, but instead, I felt like the gift deserved a spot in a new recipe, and after searching for an apple recipe that used sweet apples instead of tart, I landed on the one I’m sharing with you this week.

The recipe I tried comes from the blog “Healthy Family Project” by Amanda Keefer. You can find the original post at https://healthyfamilyproject.com/recipes/apple-crisp-breakfast-bars/. I added extra maple syrup and cinnamon in my version.

Apple Crisp Breakfast Bars

Apple crisp breakfast bars are not overly sweet. The warm cinnamon flavor, along with the nuttiness of oats, makes these a fabulous morning treat with a hot cup of tea.

Course Breakfast, Dessert

Keyword apples, breakfast bars, cinnamon, Golden delicious apples, maple syrup, quick oats, sweet apples

Ingredients

1 cup quick oats
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup and 4 tablespoons maple syrup divided
4 tablespoons butter room temperature
4 teaspoons cinnamon divided
1 egg
2 sweet apples I used golden delicious, diced
1 teaspoon cornstarch

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare an eight-by-eight-inch baking pan by lining it with parchment paper, and set it aside.
In a bowl, mix the oats, flour, salt, one-fourth cup maple syrup, butter and two teaspoons cinnamon, and mix until everything is well combined and the texture resembles coarse crumbs.
Set aside one-half cup of the mixture.
In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg with a fork, and then pour it into the remaining crumb mixture, stirring to incorporate it completely. Spread the dough into the prepared baking dish into an even layer.
In another bowl, mix the apples, remaining maple syrup, remaining cinnamon and cornstarch until the apples are well-coated.
Spread the apple mixture evenly over the dough in the pan, and then top it with the oat mixture you set aside, crumbling it evenly over the top. (It won’t completely cover it; just get it evenly over the entire thing.)
Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until the topping is golden brown and the apples are fork tender.
Let the bars cool completely before slicing them into squares.
Store the bars in an airtight container.

These are not overtly sweet, even with the extra maple syrup I added in my version. They truly are a great breakfast bar, even though you could totally get away with sharing them as a dessert, too.

I ended up doubling my batch of these bars and sharing them as part of a brunch with friends. It’s an incredibly easy recipe to double.

It was nice to be able to take a simple gift and turn it into another gift for others. (I’m sure there’s a small-town metaphor in there somewhere.)

And it was a doubly sweet experience to have a nice conversation on a cold afternoon. Thanks again, Harvey; I hope we will chat again one day.

This piece first appeared in print on Nov. 9, 2023.

Tags apples, breakfast bars, cinnamon, Golden delicious apples, maple syrup, quick oats, sweet apples

Air Fryer Bread Breakfast

This easy air fryer recipe will totally ‘bagel’ your mind

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date September 7, 2023

Baking in an air fryer is much easier than it sounds, especially with a simple bagel recipe that uses only a couple ingredients to create soft, yummy bread in only 10 minutes.

Three years ago, I shared a recipe in this space for an easy homemade pizza dough.

If you remember that recipe, this week’s experiment is going to look very, very familiar, as it starts with the exact same basic ingredients. That’s why I knew it would turn out well, and I definitely wanted to try it.

I also wanted to try it, because it gave me an excuse to use my air fryer in a little different way. I have really been wanting to experiment more with baking in it, and this let me give it a try.

Plus, I have a strange addiction to bagels, and the promise of being able to bake a small batch in only 10 minutes was enough to get my attention.

This comes from the blog “Adventures of a Nurse.” You can find the original post at https://www.adventuresofanurse.com/air-fryer-2-ingredient-weight-watcher-bagels/. I didn’t add any ingredients outside of topping my bagels with everything bagel seasoning.

Air Fryer Bagels

Baking in an air fryer is much easier than it sounds, especially with a simple bagel recipe that uses only a couple ingredients to create soft, yummy bread in only 10 minutes.

Course Bread, Breakfast

Keyword air fryer, bagel, easy baking, easy bread, non-fat Greek yogurt, self-rising flour, Weight Watchers

Ingredients

1 cup self-rising flour plus more for your work surface
1 cup fat-free Greek yogurt
1 egg
Your favorite bagel seasoning

Instructions

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and yogurt. Mix with a spoon until the dough forms into a rough ball.
Coat your work surface with a generous amount of flour, and turn the dough out onto the surface, kneading a few times to bring it together. Add more flour if it’s too sticky to work with.
Separate the dough into four balls and then roll each ball into a rope about one inch in diameter. Join the ends together to create a bagel shape, and place them into the basket of your air fryer.
In a small bowl, beat the egg well, and then brush the tops of the bagels liberally with the egg. Sprinkle on your desired seasoning, turn your air fryer to 350 degrees, and bake for 10 minutes or until the bagels are browned to your liking.
Eat immediately or store in an airtight container.

These were delicious. They were definitely not traditional bagels as far as texture goes, but they had fabulous flavor and were a lot less work than bagels normally are.

I do think you could mix in some other ingredients, too, like dried fruit or nuts or something along those lines. You could easily make them sweet or savory, depending on your mood.

I also liked that the recipe only made four. That cut down on the amount of time it took to make them, and I didn’t have to worry about having a dozen or more bagels for just Joey and I to try to eat by ourselves.

I still regularly use my flour/yogurt pizza dough to make all kinds of great pizzas at home, but I have to say this is my new favorite use for this ingredient combination. It’s made me wonder what else this easy miracle dough could accomplish.

This piece first appeared in print on Sept. 7, 2023.

Tags air fryer, bagel, easy baking, easy bread, non-fat Greek yogurt, self-rising flour, Weight Watchers

Breakfast Dessert

Say ‘oui’ to this yummy overnight breakfast casserole

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date July 27, 2023

Overnight French toast casserole is a much easier way to feature French toast for breakfast. Add in a little fresh fruit, and you have quite the wow factor for your morning meal or even a dessert table.

When I began writing this column over 10 years ago, I had grand illusions of people sending me their favorite recipes and me trying them.

What I found was that people are normally pretty guarded with their best dishes, and even more so, everyone wanted me to tell them something new to try instead of the other way around.

Since then, I have amassed quite the Pinterest page of recipes, a notebook of magazine cutouts and a large collection of saved tutorial videos that I source each week for my inspiration.

But for this week’s recipe, I didn’t have to go out looking. It found me.

Every summer, I get the opportunity to direct a short kids camp at Camp Mennoscah, and for the past I-don’t-know-how-many years, a wonderful group of ladies has volunteered to man the kitchen during our little camp.

This summer, on the last morning, they served us a fabulous blueberry French toast casserole for breakfast, and as I came through the chow line, they teased me a bit.

“Are we going to see this one in the paper?”

“If you send it to me, you will,” I told them.

So Marla emailed it to me right after camp, letting me know that her way of spicing up the recipe was to add the blueberries.

Well, over a month later, I finally had time to give this a try, only I used fresh cherries, since that’s what I had on hand. It was still delicious.

This original recipe comes from the blog “Fresh April Flours,” was tweaked by Marla Gillmore and the rest of the amazing kitchen crew, and received some more cinnamon in my version below.

Overnight Baked French Toast Casserole

Overnight French toast casserole is a much easier way to feature French toast for breakfast. Add in a little fresh fruit, and you have quite the wow factor for your morning meal or even a dessert table.

Course Breakfast, Dessert

Keyword breakfast casserole, breakfast for a crowd, brown sugar, canned cinnamon rolls, easy breakfast, French toast, fresh fruit, vanilla

Ingredients

8 to 9 cups stale bread cut into one-inch cubes
2 cups fresh fruit cut in bite-sized pieces (I used cherries)
1/4 cup butter melted
2/3 cup brown sugar
8 eggs
2 cups milk I used 2 percent
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
3 rounded teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Prepare a nine-by-13-inch casserole dish by spraying it with cooking spray.
Spread all the bread cubes and fresh fruit evenly into the dish and set it aside.
In a mixing bowl, combine the butter, brown sugar, eggs, milk, vanilla, cinnamon and salt and whisk well until everything is well incorporated. (My brown sugar got a bit lumpy. If that happens even after lots of mixing, don’t sweat it. Just evenly distribute the lumps on the next step, and it’ll be fine.)
Evenly pour the egg mixture over the bread cubes in the dish and cover it with aluminum foil, plastic wrap or a lid. Refrigerate overnight or for at least three hours.
To bake the casserole, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bake, uncovered, for one hour or until the top is nicely browned and the custard is set.
Serve warm by itself, with some syrup, or even with a little powdered sugar sprinkled on top.

I ended up making a half batch of this in an eight-inch casserole dish, and it turned out great. It was more sugar than I’d want to have all the time for breakfast, but the warm, fresh cherries combined with the cinnamon and custard-y bread was excellent.

I don’t think mine turned out quite as well as the one I had at camp, but I think it’s because I made mine on my own. I suspect when you add the love of half a dozen wonderful volunteers, everything is bound to taste better.

This piece first appeared in print on July 27, 2023.

Tags breakfast casserole, breakfast for a crowd, brown sugar, canned cinnamon rolls, easy breakfast, French toast, fresh fruit, vanilla