All posts tagged: breakfast

icing the espresso cake

White Chocolate Espresso Cake

Published by Kathy Hunt

A cake made for, and with, coffee Sometimes you need a quick, comforting cake, one that goes well with any meal and at any time of day. White chocolate espresso cake is that kind of treat. Laced with espresso, it goes well with an afternoon coffee and is, in the literal sense, a delicious coffee cake. Traditionally, coffee cakes were dense, sweet, yeasted baked goods. Consumed at breakfast or brunch, they often featured cinnamon, fruits and/or nuts. They’re similar to British teacakes but served with coffee. White chocolate espresso cake is not your typical coffee cake, but that doesn’t stop me from nibbling on a square at breakfast. Coffee as a flavoring Coffee has long been used as flavoring in cakes, ice cream and other desserts. Often it appears alongside chocolate in these confections. The two partner so well together that their pairing has its own name, “mocha.” Usually, recipes call for “coffee” or “strong coffee.” Because I like the boldness of espresso and I take any excuse to fire up my espresso maker, I …

cranberry quick bread

Quick Cranberry-Orange-Pecan Bread

Published by Kathy Hunt

In a season when we’re all bustling about, struggling to keep up with work, home, and holiday demands, there is no better bread to bake than a soft, sweet quick bread. The name says it all. Because you don’t have to knead the dough or wait for it to rise, a quick bread takes very little effort or time to make. The ease of this bread has everything to do with leavening. In a quick bread, baking powder or baking soda acts as a leavening agent. When either one comes into contact with moisture, it causes the ingredients with which it’s been combined—flour, salt, sugar, butter, eggs—to rise. Unlike with yeast breads, such as whole wheat or Frisian sugar bread, you don’t have to wait for this process to kick in. It begins immediately. Because I love tart, vivid cranberries and this is the height of cranberry season, I couldn’t resist baking a cranberry-studded quick bread. If you don’t have pecans on hand, you can substitute chopped walnuts in the following recipe. Cranberry-Orange-Pecan Quick Bread …

What Would Tea Be without Scones?

Published by Kathy Hunt

Scones. They’re one of the most British of all British dishes and something I’ve been baking for years. What can I say? I’m an Anglophile who spent her childhood immersed in the British punk and new wave scene, BBC television and the works of every 19th and 20th century British writer that the New Castle Public Library carried. When asked what I wanted as a high school graduation gift, I didn’t beg for a car or a trip to the beach with friends. I wanted a ticket to London and a pair of black Dr. Martens. (I instead got luggage, which I never once used.) Ten years later I finally made it to England, bought my black, 1461 Docs and had my first English tea with scones and clotted cream. That initial tea hooked me on those luscious, little biscuits, and I’ve been making variations of them ever since. Origin of Scones The word “scone” has been around since the 16th century and reputedly comes from the Scottish “sconbrot.” It refers to a soft, flat, …

Coffee and almond rusks

Grab a Cup of Coffee and Some Rusks!

Published by Kathy Hunt

Last month I had a Marcel Proust-madeleine moment where a bite of a baked good—in my case, a rusk—brought back memories of a long ago event. Unlike Proust’s profound experience, where I ate this cookie was far more interesting than the memory itself. Chewing on a nut-flecked rusk while I stared out at four graceful impalas drinking from a water hole in South Africa’s Kruger National Park, I remembered that a decade ago I had written a syndicated article about twice-baked cookies and that that article had included rusks. Yeah, my memory wasn’t nearly as cerebral as Proust’s, either. Rusks have featured in South African cuisine since the 18th century, when Dutch farmers or boers living in South Africa looked for ways to make bread last longer. By baking loaves of dough twice, they learned that they could remove all the moisture from the loaves. This gave their bread or rusks an almost endless shelf life. In times when food was scarce and shopping for supplies involved traveling long distances over hot, barren landscapes, they …

peach puff

Got puff pastry and peaches? You’ve got dessert!

Published by Kathy Hunt

It’s probably no surprise that a lot of my recipe ideas come from travel. Unusual ingredients that I’ve tasted, signature dishes that I’ve tried and local recipes that I’ve acquired all influence my cooking. Although I gravitate to far flung locations, I do find inspiration closer to home. A perfect example is this spring’s obsession with puff pastry and stone fruit. A few Saturdays ago I went to Philadelphia to meet up with an old friend. Since I’d done something extraordinary and actually arrived early, I popped into a little bakery selling pastries and a small assortment of breads. What better place to kill time than in a food shop? While the almond croissants and pain au raisins looked lovely, what caught my eye were the “apricot boats,” glistening ovals of puff pastry topped with halved apricots and pearl sugar. So simple. So elegant. Why didn’t I ever think of doing that? Anything that easy and enticing I had to make. First, though, I should have a taste. So, with a box of apricot boats …

Eating Breakfast in Australia

Published by Kathy Hunt

Travel can sound so appealing. Historic sites. Unusual wildlife. Exotic cultures, customs and cuisines. There is a less glamorous side, one that gets glossed over by pretty photos and exciting tales. It involves doing what you’d do back at home but with far less understanding or finesse. I’m talking about the day-to-day things such as grocery shopping and eating. On any trip I spend a ridiculous amount of time thinking about what, when and where I’ll eat. The meal over which I obsess the most, the one where I try my hardest to eat as I think the locals do is “the most important meal of the day.” Yes, I’m talking about breakfast and, at present, breakfast in Australia. After two weeks in Australia I’ve sampled a range of local breakfast specialties. Although meat products remain absent from my menu, I have added pikelets to the morning repertoire. No, these are not little fish cakes as fans of pike might assume. Ever had dollar pancakes? Then you’ve had a fluffier, syrup-soaked version of pikelets. Sprinkled …

unbaked loaf of sugar bread

Frisian Sugar Bread for Easter & Beyond!

Published by Kathy Hunt

I may have visited the Netherlands twice, roamed around the Dutch-influenced areas of Belgium as many times and even have Dutch friends but, until recently, I’d never tried Dutch Frisian sugar bread. A specialty of the northern Dutch province of Friesland, suikerbrood or sugarbread features spices and a generous amount of the large, coarse, stark white sugar known as pearl sugar. As you might expect from a food with “sugar” in its name, this is a sweet bread. Yet, I wouldn’t call it overly saccharine. Eaten at breakfast in the Netherlands, it has a warm, honeyed flavor on par with Danish pastries and cinnamon rolls. When I compare it to such cloying breakfast staples as syrup-soaked pancakes, waffles and French toast, I find this bread to be mild and pleasantly sweet. Although not part of the pantheon of European Easter breads, Frisian sugar bread would be a fitting addition to any Easter brunch. For those abstaining from sweets or baked goods during Lent, it will be a delicious way to break these fasts. For everyone …

Snegl, Kannelbullar, Schnecken: Amazing Cinnamon Rolls

Published by Kathy Hunt

Snegl, kannelbullar, schnecken, skillingsboller or just plain old cinnamon roll. Almost every country has its own take on this pastry and it seems to have become my mission in life to sample each one. Yeah, it’s one tough mission. The variations are small but compelling. Denmark tops its snegl, which means “snail” and is an apt description of this swirled roll, with a thick layer of icing. Made from confectioner’s sugar, its sweetness balances out the heady cinnamon and adds beauty and succulence to the bun. Norway’s skillingsboller bears a strong resemblance to the Danish snegl. Most Norwegian bakers use a little less icing than their Danish counterparts. However, the result is just as delightful. Cardamom transforms the Swedish kannelbullar from a standard cinnamon roll to something far more complex and ethereal. Capped off with a sprinkling of pearl sugar, it, too, is a delight to see and eat. Some countries add raisins to their rolls. In fact, that’s how my mission got started; I thought that I’d purchased a pain au raisin for breakfast …

Scrumptious Fruit Scones

Published by Kathy Hunt

I love my morning ritual of coffee and whole grain toast with peanut butter and preserves. Yet, as soon as I step onto British soil, I ditch this duo for a pot of hot, black tea and a rich, slightly sweet fruit scone. Loosely defined as a small, soft, plain cake, the scone is a staple of afternoon tea. If you can track down one that’s warm and fresh from the oven, it’s also a heavenly, albeit filling, breakfast treat. Although I think of scones as quintessentially English, they’re actually a Scottish specialty. Depending on whom you talk to, their name comes from the ceremonial Stone of Destiny at Scone Abbey in Scotland or from the Scots term “sconbrot,” meaning fine white bread. Originally made from oats and triangular in shape, they were fried on a griddle. Today flour-based scones come in a variety of shapes and are baked. While I prefer plump, dark raisins in mine, they can be either sweet or savory. Among the lovely things about scones is how fast and easy …

Doubly Delicious, Double Apple Muffins

Published by Kathy Hunt

Walk out your front door on any given day this week and what do you see? Withered leaves scattered everywhere. Portly pumpkins plunked on stairways. Colorful mums planted here and there. On the sidewalks people stroll by in coats and scarves, warming their bare hands with take-away coffee cups. For me, these sights can only mean one thing. Apple-picking time is here. Whether you raid your old neighbors’ orchard as I brazenly do or come by your apples honestly, you may soon find yourself glutted with this pome fruit. What to do with that extra pound, peck or bushel is an age-old quandary. When you’re tired of baking apple pies and tarts and boiling down applesauce and apple butter, I’d suggest moving on to moist cakes, breads and muffins. Back in March I shared an apple cake recipe inspired by a winter trip to Switzerland. As its name suggested, apple-almond kuchen was packed with tart apples and sweetly savory almonds. Want to reduce your apple supply by a few pounds and enjoy a deliciously fruity …