Makin Cranberry Pancakes

Pancakes, cranberry syrup, well HELLO Thanksgiving morning, How ARE you? Seriously, Thanksgiving day for most people is like a cooking marathon with a very, very satisfying ending. Well, I propose we take a moment to focus on the beginning of the day. You better start it off right, how else will you have the energy needed to get through one of the most epic cooking days of the year? Why not whip up a batch of fluffy pancakes with homemade cranberry syrup to get everyone in the cooking/festive mood? Sounds like a plan to me, AND these pancakes don't use eggs SO you don't have to worry about running out to the store for more when it comes time to make your famous *insert egg based holiday dish here* A few words about the cranberry syrup. It. Is. Awesome. You don't have to chop, puree, crush anything! Just throw the berries in a pan with some sweet sticky stuff, whisk a few times, and VOILA homemade (mostly) syrup! Cranberries deliciously bursting with every bite of sweet fluffy pancake.... Thanksgiving breakfast reclaimed.

Fluffy Eggless Pancakes

from cooks.com contributed by Dawn Linke
Makes 8 medium pancakes
1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup whole milk (or soy milk)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 tablespoon water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons butter

Combine dry ingredients and mix. Add milk, oil, water, and vanilla. Mix until just combined, be careful not to overmix, it should be a bit lumpy (and you don't wanna strain a muscle!). Set aside to rest for a few minutes. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. While pan is heating throw in the two tablespoons of butter. As soon as the butter is nice and melted, add it to the pancake batter. Return pan to the stove and stir in that butter. When pan is hot (a drop of water should sizzle when dropped on pan), ladle on some batter. Cook until bubbles form on the surface, then flip em over and cook until goldeny brown.

Meanwhile....

Cranberry Syrup

from Cooking Light
1 cup cranberries (thawed if frozen)
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice


Combine all ingredients in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer for about eight minutes or until berries begin to pop. Stir occasionally so it doesn't burn/stick to pan. Remove from heat and pour over pancakes.
*Leftovers are awesome stirred into oatmeal or yogurt, OR over ice cream.
Yes. Please.
Bliss....

Linking up at Tatertots and Jello and Under the Table and Dreaming

Blackberry Pinwheel Cobbler

It's the weekend! I had Thursday off work, which was amazing! I spent the day at the GRAND OPENING of H&M with my friends Lauren and Jamie (you can read more about the amazingness on Lauren's blog). After that exciting shopping trip, I had worked up an appetite! I have been looking for a great recipe to use up the last of the blackberries I picked this summer, and when I found this one on cooks.com, I knew this was it! It's kind of a cross between the most amazing cobbler ever and really delightful cinnamon rolls. I had to adjust it a bit as it was a little lacking in the directions, I also wish I would've used a smaller pan! The recipe says to use a 13x9 inch pan, which turned out to be WAY too big! Too large pan not withstanding, this is easily the best cobbler I have ever had. I almost wrote it off as a failure when I pulled it out of the oven, the rolls had not expanded as much as I thought they would, but I am SO glad I took a bite before making that decision! The cobbler rolls are crunchy and sugary, almost like a soft sugar cookie. The blackberries had released juice during baking which mixed with the sugar sauce to create a jam like sauce that when spooned over the rolls was absolutely fabulous! Be sure to let it sit for at least 15 minutes after removing from the oven to let the sauce thicken up a bit. The recipe says you can make it with any fresh or frozen fruit, so time to break out those frozen summer berries, peaches, nectarines, and I really wanna try it with mangoes! Now the recipe... cause unless you hate delicious food, you should probably go ahead and make this, right. about. now!

Adapted from cooks.com

Ingredients

2 cups sugar

2 cups water

1/2 cup butter (I used vegan)

1 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup shortening or butter spread (used vegan)

1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon milk (used Soy)

3 cups fresh or frozen blackberries (I used about 2 1/2 cups defrosted and drained of excess juice)

Combine sugar and water in a saucepan; stir well.

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves. Set aside. Place the 1/2 cup butter in an 8x8 inch baking dish in a 350 degree oven for 3 minutes or until butter melts. Set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.

Cut shortening or butter spread into flour until mixture resembles coarse meal; add milk, mixing with your hands just until dry ingredients are moistened. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly 4 or 5 times.

Roll dough into a 12x9 inch rectangle.

Spread blackberries over dough. Roll up, jelly roll style, beginning with long side. Cut dough into 12 (1 inch) slices.

The easiest way to cut the dough without smooshing it is this: grab your box of dental floss (go with me here, I promise, it works). Tear off a piece of floss (about 10 or so inches). Slide floss under roll, cross ends and pull until floss slices through roll.

Place slices, cut side down, in butter. Pour sugar syrup around slices. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes, or until golden.

I sprinkled on some granola, that counts as breakfast, right??

Kinda like a big berry filled cinnamon roll

Sit back, relax, eat up!

THE Granola to END all Granolas AKA Maple Nut Granola

Halloween is over... candy is on sale.... I may have indulged a bit too much.... How about a healthy(er) recipe today? I love starting my day off with a bowl of granola. I have tried MANY different recipes, all delicious, but the other evening I hit a combination that transformed my granola into an ADDICTING, CANT GET ENOUGH OF IT, ANY time of day snack! I found myself reaching for granola breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and a heck of a lot in between too). I guess that eating it for every meal may cancel out the healthiness, but this granola is so good, I really didn't care. It combines the essential fall flavors of maple and brown sugar with creamy peanut butter. At first, this may seem a strange combination. But let me tell you, it WORKS! I have been eating this granola on fruit, with milk, in yogurt, on my ice cream, but mostly just by the fist full! It is crunchy and clumpy, which for me is an essential for a great granola. Feel free to mix in whatever your heart desires, but I recommend you just try it as is. You may decide, as I did, that this granola is simply perfection!

2 cups rice krispies

2 cups old fashioned oats

1/3 cup peanut butter

1/3 cup maple syrup

4 tablespoons water

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

3-4 tablespoons honey (depends how sweet you want it)

2 tablespoons brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix together rice crispies and oats.

In a heavy bottom sauce pan, mix together peanut butter, maple syrup, water and 1/4 cup brown sugar. Stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved.

Pour liquid ingredients over oats and krispies, stirring to coat. Empty bowl onto baking tray lined with parchment paper.

Spread granola out into a thick layer. Drizzle with honey and sprinkle with remaining brown sugar. Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes. Gently flip/stir granola (I use a large rubber spatula and flip it over bit by bit so as not to break up the clumps). Cook for another 6 or 7 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from oven, allow to cool completely. Gently break into bite sized clumps.

*Note: Ok, so looking back at the ingredients I used, I realize that this granola has quite a bit of sweetness. But that's probably a good thing since, thanks to Halloween, my sugar intake has been pretty high. I don't wanna quit the sugar habit cold turkey. So this granola will keep me from going into candy withdrawl :)

Crunch, savor, enjoy.

Scary Little Cookies

Tired of Halloween themed goodies yet? No? GOOD! Me neither! These Halloween cookies are stinkin' cute, if I do say so myself ☺ Got the recipe from the Land O' Lakes butter website. I don't even remember how/why I was on a BUTTER website to begin with... but I digress... I like these cookies, they don't require lots of decorating effort, but they turn out adorable. Don't be deceived by their devilishly good looks, these little guys are darn tasty too. They are cakey, crunchy sugar cookies with the added surprise of coconut in the batter. I liked the fruit snack covered mummys the best, the taste reminds me of a jelly doughnut. Both ghosts and mummys were gobbled up in the first ten minutes of my neighbors Halloween party. What more can you ask for? Taste and looks, these cookies have it all!

Mummy and Ghost Sugar Cookies

Recipe from Landolakes.com

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut

1 box (6 rolls) fruit-flavored rolls

Black decorator gel

Mini chocolate chips or small decorator candies (optional)

Heat oven to 350°F. Combine butter, sugar, egg and vanilla in large bowl.

Beat at medium speed until well mixed. Reduce speed to low; add flour and coconut.

Continue beating until well mixed.

Divide dough into balls (I made BIG ones using my ice cream scooper and got about 12 balls).

Shape each ball into a log. Place 1 inch apart onto parchment paper covered cookie sheets. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until set. Remove from cookie sheets.

Mummys

Allow cookies to cool completely.

Starting at top of each cookie, wrap 1 fruit roll around each cookie, stretching slightly to cover. Cut off any extra fruit roll.

Leave small opening near top for eyes. Place onto waxed paper. Use black decorator gel to adhere mini chocolate chips for eyes on each cookie.

Ghosts

Extra Ingredients

2 cups powdered sugar

Roll each cookie in sifted powdered sugar while warm. Set aside to cool.

Roll each in powdered sugar again (I actually ended up putting powdered sugar in a bag and shakin the little ghosts). Tap off excess. Add eyes as directed above.

I liked the eyes better when I didn't use the mini chocolate chips, but it's your call ☺ Maybe use some red hots to make them look extra creepy!

Store in loosely covered container between sheets of waxed paper up to 2 days.

Have a great week!