Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Vanilla Strawberries

On weekdays we never have the time to make much of breakfast. Erik leaves really early (and I mean reaaaaly early) and I'm not much of a morning person.  I try to keep it as simple as possible so my head can process what is going on and make sure everything gets done on time.

But in the weekends I do love to make a bit more work of breakfast. This isn't always possible, but I'm always so happy when I can give my family something special, and more importantly, something delicious.

These pancakes are, despite the long title, easy to whip up. They are fluffy and flavourful, filled with chocolate chips (because, let's face it... what doesn't taste better with a bit of chocolate in it?) and the strawberries are divine and go great with these pancakes. And although it isn't shown in the pictures....we topped these pancakes off with a bit of whipped cream, making it a bit over the top. It feels like you're eating a dessert for breakfast and well...who doesn't like that!

Recipe

Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Pancakes with Vanilla Strawberries

Yield: a lot of pancakes, we even had some leftovers...

Ingredients:

For the pancakes:
2 eggs
2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups buttermilk (or 1/2 cup milk and 1 1/2 cup plain yogurt)
4 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup chocolate chips

For the strawberries:
1 pint strawberries
2-4 teaspoons vanilla sugar (or 1/4 vanilla bean and 2-4 teaspoons sugar)

Instructions:

Start by cutting the strawberries into slices. Put the sliced strawberries in a bowl and add the vanilla sugar (I always keep a jar handy, just fill a jar with regular sugar and stuff in some vanilla beans which have been scraped empty of the seeds. Every time I have a leftover empty vanilla bean I replace the ones in the jar with these) or scrape the seeds out of 1/4 vanilla bean and add regular sugar. Mash everything together a bit (not too much!) and put the strawberries aside, so they can release their juices and the sugar can dissolve.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Add the buttermilk (or milk and yogurt), melted butter and vanilla and mix well.

Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix together until almost smooth.

Fold in the chocolate chips and let the batter rest for several minutes.

Over medium heat, heat a pan or griddle. Add a little butter or oil.

Pour the batter onto the pan and cook until bubbles start to form that pop. Flip the pancake with a spatula and cook until the other side is golden brown. Repeat with the rest of the batter. The amount of batter that you use depends a bit on how big you want your pancakes to be. I like my pancakes to be a bit bigger, so I use a small ladle, but you can make yours smaller and add about 2 tablespoons of batter to the pan.

To serve the pancakes, top them with the strawberries and a dollop of whipped cream!

Source: slightly adapted from Joy the Baker

Raisin Cinnamon Swirl Bread

I have seen different versions of this bread circulate the internet and every time I came across one it made me mouthwater. It looks so good. So I finally decided to give it a try. I remembered I had a recipe in Baking, from my home to yours and since that book has yet to let me down I thought it a good recipe to start with. It is not a complicated recipe, but it is time-consuming, so I suggest making this on a lazy day. The reason it is time-consuming is of course the yeast-based dough. It needs to rise a couple of times.

But if you have a lazy day coming up, be sure to make this bread, because it is good. It is soft and sweet and absolutely delicious. It makes your home smell like a bakery. The minute it was cooled down enough we devoured about half of it.

Don't let the recipe scare you. If I can make this bread succesfully on the first try, anybody can!

Recipe

Yield: 1 loaf

Ingredients:

For the bread:
1 packet (2 1/4 teaspoon) active dry yeast
1/4 cup + a pinch sugar
1 1/4 cup just-warm-to-the-touch whole milk
1/2 stick butter, at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch grated nutmeg
3 3/4 to 4 cups flour

For the swirl:
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup raisins
3 tablespoons butter, softened to a spreadable consistency

Instructions:

Put the yeast in a small bowl, add the pinch of sugar and stir in 1/4 cup milk. Let rest for 3 minutes, then stir.

In a standmixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the remaining milk, the butter and the 1/4 cup of sugar and mix on low speed for two minutes.

Add the salt, egg, vanilla and nutmeg and mix again for one minute.

Add the yeast mixture and beat on medium-low speed for one minute.

Turn the mixer off and add 2 3/4 cup of the flour. Mix on low speed just until the flour is worked into the mixture. Switch to the dough hook. Don't worry. It's supposed to be sticky!

Add another cup of flour and mix on medium speed for a couple of minutes. If the dough does not come together and away from the sides of the bowl, add up to 1/4 cup of flour more, 1 tablespoon at a time.

Keep the mixer at medium and continue to knead the dough for 3 minutes, until it is smooth and has a buttery sheen. The dough will be very soft.

Butter a large bowl and put the dough into the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place until it has doubled in volume, about 1 1/2 hours.

Put the dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap, wrap it and put it into the freezer for 30 minutes.

Butter a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.

Whisk together the sugar, cinnamon and cocoa.

Make sure the raisins are nice and moist. If necessary you can put them in hot water for a few minutes. Drain them and dry them on paper towels.

Put the dough on a large lightly floured surface. Lightly flour the top of the dough. Roll the dough into a rectangle of about 12x18-inches.

Spread two tablespoons of the softened butter on the surface of the dough.

Sprinkle over the sugar-mixture and scatter the raisins.

Starting from the short side of the dough, roll the dough up. Make sure to roll snugly.

Fit the dough into the buttered pan, seam down. Tuck the ends under the loaf.

Cover the pan loosely with wax paper and set in a warm place. Let rise for 45 minutes until the dough comes just a little above the edge of the pan.

Preheat the oven to 190˚C (375˚F).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

Melt the remaining tablespoon of butter and brush the top of the loaf with it.

Put the loaf pan on the baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes cover the loaf loosely with foil and bake for another 25 minutes until the bread is golden and sounds hollow when the bottom of the pan is tapped.

Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes.

Unmold the loaf and let the loaf cool, right side up, to room temperature on the rack.

 

Source: slightly adapted from Baking, from my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan

Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

I found another recipe at Annie's eats. And since I hadn't done a lot of groceries yet this was a recipe for which I had all ingredients ready. Something I love! I strongly encourage you to look at her site, because she made a lot of photos of the process, which comes in handy... or you can check out the recipe of Joy the Baker which is were Annie got it from.

I ended up using Annie's recipe because I really hate kneading dough by hand and her recipe uses a stand-mixer. And since I had not used my KitchenAid-mixer in 10 days, I was beginning to develop serious withdrawal symptoms...

The end result can only be described as glorious. It has everything you want. Gooey, sugary, warm, yeasty.... I have to give a warning though... once you start eating..... you can't stop! And I really mean that. Luckily there were four of us... so the impact was minimal, but this is something you don't want to save until the next day.

Make it, love it and devour it....

Recipe

Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

Ingredients:

For the dough:

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more as needed

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/3 cup whole milk

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs, at room temperature

For the filling:

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

Instructions:

For the dough, combine the flour, sugar, yeast and salt in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook. Don't put the salt directly on the yeast, that will kill it instantly.

In a saucepan, warm the milk and butter, until the butter is just melted. Set aside and let cool a little.

Add the milk-mixture, water, vanilla and eggs to the mixer bowl.

Mix on low speed until a cohesive dough forms. Continue to knead until smooth and elastic. If necessary you can add a little flour, but keep in mind that this dough has to be sticky... Knead about 3-5 minutes.

Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Turn once to coat and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour. At this point you can wrap the dough in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator for a night. When you take it out of the refrigerator, let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes, then proceed.

Melt the butter until browned. Set aside.

Combine the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl and mix well.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and gently deflate. Roll into a ball, cover with a clean towel and let rest for a while (about 5 minutes).

Roll the dough out into a rectangle of about 12x20-inches.

Brush the dough with the butter. Sprinkle the sugar-mixture over the dough in an even layer. It will seem like a lot of sugar, but just keep going....

Slice the dough vertically in to 6 even strips. Stack the strips on top of each other and again cut into 6 equal slices. Stack all the squares on top of each other and set into a lightly greased 9x5-inch loaf pan (or something similar...).. Cover loosely with a towel and let rise in a warm place for 30-45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Transfer the loaf to the oven and bake 30-35 minutes, until the top is golden brown. If the top starts browning to fast, cover loosely with foil at the end of baking. Remove from the oven and let cool for about 20-30 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen and carefully turn the loaf out, transferring to a serving plate.

You definitely want to serve and eat this warm. It doesn't get much better than this!