Maple Candied Bacon

Do you guys ever make your bacon in the oven? If you don’t, you should give it a shot. For one thing, it frees up space on your stove for the other parts of your breakfast or brunch – and for another, it eliminates the (messy) pain of being assaulted by grease splattering! I honestly can’t remember the last time I cooked bacon on the stovetop – the oven method is just so much better!

Candied bacon – accompanied by buttermilk pancakes, and strawberry butter!

While I’m sharing with you the very simple method of oven-cooked bacon, I figured I’d also show you how to dress your bacon up – as if bacon needs any help, right? But, if you’re ever feeling extra fancy (you’re having guests for brunch, or you just want some exceptionally tasty bacon), you can take an extra 30 seconds to CANDY your bacon with a little maple syrup and brown sugar. It’s still quick and easy, it adds a nice sweet edge to the salty, smokiness of the bacon, and it’s impressive!

Maple Candied Bacon
makes 8 slices (serving sizes vary, obviously)

8 slices bacon
1 T good maple syrup
1 T brown sugar

1.) Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil (I know I am forever telling you to line your baking sheets with foil – but DO NOT skip it for bacon-making!). Once the foil is secure, place a cooling/baking rack on to the sheet.

2.) Lay your bacon out on the baking rack, evenly spaced and in a single layer. Place the baking sheet into a COLD oven, and turn the oven on to 375°. Starting it in a cold oven prevents the bacon from being shocked, moving from room temperature to a HOT oven – that shock is what causes it to curl up and shrink a bunch, which no one wants.

3.) Once the oven hits 375°, give the bacon about 10 minutes of cooking – then pull it out, flip the slices, and brush lightly with the maple syrup. Add a very small sprinkle of brown sugar to each slice as well, and return the sheet to the oven.

4.) Continue baking for another 10 minutes or so, until the bacon is nice and evenly crisp!

5.) Make sure to remove the bacon from the baking rack within a minute or so of taking it out of the oven (use a fork, or some tongs – it’ll be hot!). If you wait too long to take it off the rack, the sugar and syrup will harden, and your bacon will have to be yanked off in pieces – still delicious, but not very pretty!

I can only handle a sweet breakfast every once in a great while – but some Sundays just call for a stack of fluffy pancakes, some delicious fruit butter, and candied bacon. A big, luxurious brunch is a nice way to ease yourself back into the reality that in a few short hours… it’ll be Monday again. SIGH.

(Obviously, you don’t HAVE to candy the bacon – you can just flip the slices at the 10 minute mark, and let them continue cooking, sans sugary deliciousness.)

Bacon is its own food group, right?
Tina

Sugar Dusted Donuts with Vanilla Custard Filling

I’ve been promising to post this recipe for months… and honestly, the thought of typing it all out kind of exhausted me! But it needs to be shared with the world, so I finally forced myself to sit down and do it. And now I want a donut, dammit.

These donuts are UNREAL. Seriously insane. I truly think I could eat a whole batch of them in one sitting – they are so light, and fluffy, and perfectly sweet. Probably the best donuts I’ve ever had, and I’ve had my share of donuts! I know this recipe will look like it’s a lot of ingredients, and a lot of steps, and I’m not going to say they’re simple to make – but they’re not hard, and they are 100% worth it.

Sugar Dusted Donuts with Vanilla Custard Filling
makes about 18 donuts, and another dozen donut holes

For the vanilla custard filling:
1 1/4 cup whole milk
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup cake flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 T heavy cream

1.) Begin by scalding the milk in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. This simply means heating the milk until bubbles have formed around the edges of the pan, but not allowing it to come to a boil.

2.) While the milk heats, whisk the flour, sugar, and salt together in a small bowl. In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks well; then, add the flour mixture to the egg yolks, and whisk until you have a thick, paste-like mixture.

3.) When the milk is scalded, remove it from the heat, and slowly begin tempering the egg yolk mixture with the hot milk. To do this, simply add a very small amount of the hot milk to the yolk mixture, whisking continually as you add it. The idea is to gradually bring up the temperature of the yolk mixture; if you simply add the hot milk to the eggs, you’ll end up with scrambled eggs! Keep adding the milk, a small bit at a time, whisking all the while, until the two mixtures are fully combined.

4.) Once the yolk mixture and the milk are fully combined, pour the mixture back into the saucepan and place the pan over medium heat. Whisk the mixture continually as it heats. It will be very liquid and frothy at first, and will slowly thicken up.

5.) After a few minutes, when the custard has thickened up a bit, stop whisking occasionally (about every 20 seconds) to see if the mixture has come to a boil (if it has, you’ll just see a couple large bubbles coming to the surface and popping). Once it’s begun to boil, whisk for 5 more seconds (no more!), and then remove it from the heat.

6.) Pour the mixture through a strainer and into a heatproof bowl to remove any lumps, and mix in the vanilla. Place plastic wrap over the custard, pressing it down to make sure it is in contact with the surface of the custard (to prevent a skin from forming), and refrigerate for at least 3-4 hours, until it is well-chilled.

7.) Once the custard is chilled through, take your (very cold) heavy cream and beat it with a whisk/hand mixer/stand mixer until you have whipped cream with firm peaks. Slowly fold the whipped cream into the custard mixture, and refrigerate until you’re ready to stuff the donuts!

For the donuts:
(donut recipe from here)
2 1/2 t active dry yeast
2 T warm water
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
1 cup whole milk, at room temp
1/4 cup butter, softened
3 large egg yolks
2 T granulated sugar, plus more for coating the outside of the donuts
1 1/2 t salt
vegetable oil, for frying

1.) In a small bowl, combine the warm water and yeast, and allow the mixture to sit for about 5 minutes, until it’s nice and foamy.

2.) In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the flour, milk, butter, egg yolks, sugar, and salt. Once the yeast mixture is ready, add it to the work bowl, and use the dough hook (on low speed) to combine all the ingredients.

3.) Once everything comes together and a soft dough forms, turn the mixer speed up to medium-low, and knead for about another 3 minutes. The dough should be soft and a little bit sticky, but not too sticky to handle. If it still feels overly sticky, knead in additional flour (2 tablespoons at a time) until it is no longer overly tacky.

4.) Scrape all the dough into the center of the bowl, and sprinkle it with a bit of flour. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a clean kitchen towel, and allow the dough to rise in a warm place for 90 minutes to 2 hours, until the dough has doubled.

5.) Once the dough has doubled in bulk, turn it out on to a lightly floured surface. Lightly flour a rolling pin, and roll the dough out until it’s about 1/2″ thick. Use a round, 2.5″ cutter (or a drinking glass, if you don’t have a round cutter) to cut as many donuts out as possible. From the scraps, you can use a 1″ or 1.5″ cutter to cut out some donut holes (or simply cut the scraps into somewhat equal-sized, irregularly-shaped pieces with a knife).

6.) Lay all the donuts on a parchment or silpat-lined baking sheet, and cover the sheet with a clean kitchen towel. Allow the donuts to rise in a warm place for another 30 minutes or so, until they’ve puffed up.

Un-puffed donuts on the left; puffed and ready to fry, on the right!

7.) While the donuts finish their final rise, place a wide, heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, and fill it with about 3″ of vegetable oil. Place a candy thermometer on the side of the pot, and allow the oil to slowly heat up to 350°. While the oil heats, fill a shallow bowl with granulated sugar. When the oil is up to temp, you’re ready to fry!

8.) Gently add the donuts to the pot, 2 or 3 at a time. Allow them to fry for about a minute per side, flipping them with a large wire spider/skimmer. Once they’re golden brown on both sides, use the spider to move them to a wire rack placed over a rimmed baking sheet so that the last bit of oil drains off. After they’ve dried for just a few seconds, place them in the granulated sugar, and toss to coat. Move them back to the wire rack once they’re coated in sugar.

9.) Continue frying in batches (keeping a close eye on the oil temp and adjusting as necessary) until all the donuts are fried (including the donut holes).

10.) Once the donuts are completely cool, load your vanilla custard into a piping bag or a large ziploc bag. Cut an opening at the bottom of the piping bag (or in the bottom corner of the ziploc bag) about 1/2″ wide.

11.) Use a small paring knife to create a hole in the side of each donut. Insert the end of the piping bag into the hole, and pipe a small amount of custard (until you feel a bit of resistance) into the donut.

Now, sit back, relax, and eat a dozen donuts! Honestly, if you can get away with eating less than that, I commend your willpower.

These donuts are definitely best served the same day they are made – that way, they maintain a slightly crisp exterior, and a light fluffy interior. Now, don’t get me wrong, they are still absolutely delicious on day 2, but the texture is less perfect, and the sugar will get a little melty. (For the record, I do not typically like filled donuts, so I only filled about half of them – and they were all equally delicious!)

These things are heaven, seriously. I can’t wait to make them again!

Homemade donuts: totally worth it.
Tina

Blackberry Honey Butter

One reason that I really love having weekends that are largely plan-free (besides the obvious: staying up late, sleeping in, staying in my pajamas all day if I feel like it), is because that tends to be when I come up with fun new recipe ideas. When life is busy and I’m constantly pressed for time, I tend to rely on my arsenal of tried and true recipes to get me through the week. But, when I have more free time, I just kind of let my brain wander… and eventually, a recipe just kind of creates itself in my head. My stream of consciousness is a never ending river of food items; I usually have a starting point (what kind of protein I want to use, something in my fridge that needs to be cooked ASAP, a flavor I’m craving, etc), and from there, potential food and flavor pairings just fly through my head until something sticks. I realize it sounds bizarre, but it’s true – I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried!

Anyways, this past Sunday, I knew I wanted to make some popovers (primarily because I wanted to give them a test run using muffin tins, instead of legit popover pans). So, that’s where my brain started, and before long I had determined that I wanted to use up some blackberries that were on their last legs in the fridge… and then I thought I might need some honey, because the blackberries weren’t the sweetest to begin with. Then I realized that you can’t really have popovers without butter, and the next thing I knew… BLACKBERRY HONEY BUTTER.

Blackberry Honey Butter
makes about 1.5 cups, or enough for 12-18 popovers

3/4 stick salted butter, softened
1 1/2 T honey
1/3 cup blackberries, washed and dried

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl; work everything together with a rubber spatula until well combined. Spread liberally onto a warm popover (or pancakes, or english muffin, or bagel, or other carb source of your choosing).

Creamy butter, tart blackberries, sweet honey… yeah, this butter is just as amazing as it sounds. And not only is it delicious, but it feels really fancy and luxurious, even when your brunch plans consist of sweatpants and DVRed shows on the couch.

Spoiler alert: the popovers made in a muffin tin turned out wonderfully,
Tina

Italian Sausage Frittata with Balsamic Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

I’ve had “frittata” on my “to make” list for quite a while now. Why it’s taken me this long to actually do it? I can’t really say. But, this weekend I finally pulled myself together for the 5 minutes it took to assemble the frittata, and I once again remember why I love them: because they’re so easy and delicious (and versatile)! Perfect for a rushed weeknight (I’m not kidding when I say the prep takes about 5 minutes), a relaxed weekend morning, or a big brunch with friends.

Italian Sausage Frittata with Balsamic Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
serves 2-4

1/4 lb Italian sausage (I used turkey)
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes
1 T olive oil
1 T balsamic vinegar
kosher salt
black pepper
1/4 c sundried tomatoes, chopped
3oz gruyere cheese, grated
1/4 c freshly grated parmesan, plus more for garnish
2 T minced parsley
6 eggs
1/4 c heavy cream

1.) First, we’re going to roast the cherry tomatoes. Preheat your oven to 400°; in a small baking dish, toss the cherry tomatoes with the olive oil, balsamic, and a pinch each of salt and pepper. Roast for about 15 minutes, until the liquid is bubbling and the tomatoes have burst.

2.) While the tomatoes are roasting, grab a small (8″ or so), oven-proof skillet, and cook your sausage, crumbling it as you go. Drain off any excess liquid or fat.

3.) Add your sundried tomatoes, and the roasted cherry tomatoes when they’re ready (no need to let them cool, but use a slotted spoon to transfer them to your skillet, so you leave the liquid behind). Toss everything together, and let it heat/caramelize a bit over medium-low heat. Lower the heat in the oven to 375°.

4.) In a small bowl, whisk together your eggs and heavy cream with a pinch each of salt and pepper. Once the eggs and cream are well-combined, whisk 2/3 of the grated gruyere and minced parsley into the egg mixture, and pour everything over the sausage and tomatoes in the skillet (make sure it’s all spread into a nice even layer, before pouring the eggs). Sprinkle the remaining 1/3 of the gruyere over the top of the frittata, and sprinkle the parmesan on top, too.

5.) Lower the heat on the skillet to low, and allow the frittata to cook on the stovetop for about 2-3 minutes. Carefully transfer the frittata to the oven, and bake for 15-20 minutes, until the frittata is lightly browned, nice and puffy, and the center no longer looks wet.

6.) Allow the frittata to sit for about 5 minutes (the puffiness will gradually decrease), and then slice and serve! Sprinkle with a bit more freshly grated parmesan, if you’d like.

As I mentioned before, frittatas are endlessly adaptable. You can use whatever you like, or have on hand – you could throw in some leftover roasted chicken, or maybe some chopped up ham. Use cheddar cheese, or monterey jack, or gouda! Chop some broccoli into small florets and add that, or caramelize some onions to add. Literally – whatever sounds good to you, just throw it in!

A frittata makes for a great, protein-filled meal – one that can be made as indulgent or as healthful as you want! They are great served warm, or at room temperature, and they reheat well, too. You could make a big frittata on Sunday afternoon, slice it and stick it in the fridge, and your breakfast for the week is already done – just reheat in the microwave for a quick minute, and you’re in business. As our girl Ina would say, how easy is THAT?

You don’t put ketchup on your eggs, do you?
Tina