Joy the Baker » berry

A Balanced Breakfast

joythebaker — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 07:22:55 +0000

Yes… it’s that time.

Vacation is oooooovvvveeeerrrr. Our inboxes are filling up. Official mail (you know, like bills) are overshadowing the friend greetings and holiday cards in our mail boxes, and the gym sure is calling… isn’t it?

Yea. That carefree week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is long gone. Major bummer.

Before we totally freak out and put our work helmets on, can we just… have breakfast?

Let’s have a balanced breakfast… like the kind in the cereal commercials. We’re talking glass of juice, slice of toast, and whole grain cold cereal… that kind of breakfast.

This is our version with hot oatmeal and a super healthful smoothie.

The only thing we’re missing the the cheesey eggs, crispy bacon, and side of doughnuts. This is not that. We can still deal.

We’re on the fast track this week. The fast track back to work and into a busy new year! There’s no use fighting it. The best thing to do is bulk up (not literally) on breakfast. Does a body wonders.

The oatmeal is topped with dried cranberries, big toasted coconut flakes, brown sugar, flax seed meal, and just a few cocoa nibs. Hearty, warm and delicious. Please make your own variation according to what you have on hand: dates, dried apricots, chia seeds, fresh apples… go bonkers!

The smoothie is a healthful combination of banana, frozen blueberries and blackberries, orange juice, flax seed meal, and green! I really love to add vitamin packed green powders to smoothies. Secret health, on the double! Amazing Grass is a favorite of mine (and no one is paying me to say that). Boom.

Cranberry Toasted Coconut Flax Seed Oatmeal

serves 2

Print this Recipe!

1 3/4 cups water

1 cup old-fashioned oats

pinch of salt

here’s where it gets fun:

a heaping teaspoon of brown sugar

a small handful of dried cranberries

a sprinkling of toasted coconut

a generous sprinkling of flax seed meal

a few cocoa nibs

Green Banana Berry Smoothie

makes 2 small portions

1 ripe banana

1 cup mixed frozen berries ( or whatever you have on hand)

1 to 1 1/4 cups orange juice

1 tablespoon flax seed meal

1-2 tablespoons green powder (I like Amazing Grass)

Mix all of the ingredients in a blender until smooth. Add more juice as necessary until desired consistency is reached. Enjoy immediately.

Vegan Peach Berry Crumbles

joythebaker — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 06:48:32 +0000

I’m not allowed to be vegan because:

I sometimes carry a pound of butter around in my purse.

I stir fry my tofu in bacon fat.

I seriously consider grating cheese on my pillow before I go to bed at night.

(ok… not really. that’s just weird.)

I think heavy cream should be awarded its own national holiday. I’d like that day off work too… sweet, thanks.

If a stranger handed me an egg. I’d eat it. I would.

Just because I’m not allowed to be vegan doesn’t mean that I can’t make a stellar vegan dessert from time to time.

This cobbler is such a delight… I’ll tell you what!

I made the whole recipe without measuring a thing. Not one thing! I looked at the recipe, read it through, then estimated the amounts. A little of this. A little of that… and BINGO! Success!

I encourage you to do the same thing. This recipe is loose enough for such brazen actions.

This vegan cobbler is simple and delicious.

Seasonal peaches and berries are baked with a bit of spice and loads of oat and maple topping.

Feel free to use any combination of summer fruit that excites you.

I made six mini cobblers, but you might want to bake up a9-inch square pan. Don’t be shy.

Beautiful and simple summer food. With cinnamon. Do this.

And the bubbled over berry goodness? Be still my heart.

Vegan Peach Berry Crumbles

inspired by my friends on Twitter and Post Punk Kitchen

makes 6 1/2-cup size ramekin cobblers

Print this Recipe!

For the fruit:

1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries

2 medium sized ripe peaches sliced into 1-inch chunks

(if you’d like to use frozen fruit, just defrost and drain the juice.)

2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

a big pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

(pinch of ground ginger and ground cloves are also encouraged, but not entirely necessary)

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

For the topping:

1 1/2 cup old fashioned oats (i used quick cooking steel cut oats… mostly because i just bought the wrong kind… it worked out yummy!)

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons canola oil

2 Tablespoons maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 Tablespoon water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, toss the berries and peach chunks with flour, spices and maple syrup. Set aside while you assemble the topping.

In a separate medium sized bowl, combine the oats, flour, salt and spices. In a small bowl whisk together the oil, maple syrup, vanilla extract and water. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and blend with a fork. Make sure all of the dry ingredients are moistened by the oil and maple syrup mixture.

Add half a cup of the topping mixture to the fruit mixture and toss together. Scoop fruit into ramekins, being sure to fill each cup to the top. Spoon and pat topping onto each cup. Sprinkle with an additional dose of ground cinnamon if you’d like. Place the six ramekins on a clean baking sheet and place in the oven. Bake for 35 minutes, or until bubbly and delicious.

Serve with vanilla ice cream topped with honey if you’re not vegan after all.

Strawberry Blackberry Shortcakes

joythebaker — Mon, 17 May 2010 08:48:36 +0000

Is it summer yet? Seriously… can we just go ahead and kick this season off a little early?

I’m in… you should totally join me.

What does it mean to kick summer off a little early? Well, here’s a list of things I’m going to get rollin’… like toot sweet.

Summertime means:

Consuming abnormal amounts of pink wine. Yea… that’s totally going to happen.

Driving around town with all of the windows all the way down. Hair be damned.

Summer soundtrack… this one comes with time. So far I’m thinking a little Kanye and little Jay-Z and a smattering of Fleetwood Mac. I know… nuts-o.

How often will I be in a bikini? Nope… not often at all. How often will I not be in a bikini. Most of the summer. Believe that.

Strawberry Blackberry Shortcakes. Kickin’ off early summer right on time. Go and do.

Maybe these pictures are a little dark. Maybe these pictures are a little blurry. Maybe I didn’t have a lot of pictures to choose from. Maybe I just wanted to snap away as fast as I could so that I could shovel this shortcake into my mouth as soon as possible. Maybe…. definitely.

Here’s what we’re dealing with: sweet and tender vanilla biscuits, fresh summer berries and berry juice, topped with lightly sweetened whipped cream. Simple. Divine.

Just go ahead and quit you job and make shortcakes all day.

Dang… I’m full of such great advice.

Strawberry Blackberry Shortcake

makes 6 servings

Print this Recipe!

For the berry mixture:

1 pint fresh strawberries, sliced

1 large handful fresh blackberries, cut in half

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

For the whipped cream:

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

3 Tablespoons powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the biscuit mixture:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, plus more for brushing the tops before baking

about 2 Tablespoons of granulated sugar to sprinkle before baking

Slice the strawberries and blackberries and place in a medium sized bowl. Sprinkle with sugar. Stir. Cover and place in the fridge to macerate for at least 2 hours.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, or using simple a bowl and whisk, whip the cream, powdered sugar and vanilla extract together until soft peaks form. Cover place in the fridge for later.

Now let’s make the biscuits!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place a rack in the center of the oven.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl whisk together the egg, vanilla extract and heavy cream. Cut the cold butter into small pieces and, using your fingers, incorporate the butter into the flour mixture. Work quickly, the butter and flour mixture will look like coarse crumbs.

Make a well in the center of the butter and flour mixture and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix just until the dough comes together. Dump out onto a clean, floured surface and bring it together with your hands. Knead once or twice then pat the dough out into a rectangle roughly 7-inches long, 4 -inches tall and 1-inch thick. Cut the dough into six equal pieces.

Place the shortcakes onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush the tops of each shortcake with a bit of cream and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake for 15-20 minutes until nicely browned.

Remove from the oven. Cool completely.

To assemble, cut the shortcakes in half, top with a few spoonfuls of berries and juice, whipped cream and the biscuit top. Dang good.

Berry Meyer Lemon Pancakes

joythebaker — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:39:54 +0000

Can I let you in on a little something?

I don’t live in the cool Los Angeles neighborhood that all my friends live in…

I have more matching spatulas than I do matching bath towels.

I still can’t seem to commit to buying myself a couch.

My bedroom bookcase seems to be made up of one part books and three parts dust.

I tell you all of this to let you in on the fact that I’ve been feeling domestically restless these days. The kind of restless that has had me daydreaming about moving into a downtown loft that I can’t afford. The kind of restless that has had me daydreaming about decorating a downtown loft that I can’t afford with expensive furniture that I also can’t afford.

Not being able to afford your daydreams? Torture and motivation. Together.

This weekend I decided… get this… that it’s all ok!

I took to my kitchen with my rubber gloves, bleach spray and a few rags and I scrubbed and organized like I’ve never done before. Yes, it’s just the kitchen. No, I couldn’t get to my whole apartment. But the scrubbing and organizing helped me remember that my humble little apartment, in the uncool part of town, is pretty darn sweet. I don’t need the fancy loft and the expensive furniture. I just need to make my little spot in the world a little brighter… with bleach.

And the pancakes this weekend helped too. Tremendous.

I can’t seem to leave well enough alone when it comes to pancakes.

Berries. Meyer lemon zest. Buttermilk. Sweetened Meyer lemon mascarpone. Delicious breakfast treat.

Berry Meyer Lemon Pancakes

8-10 pancakes, enough for two

Print this Recipe!

1 egg

1 cup flour

1 Tablespoon sugar

zest of 1 Meyer lemon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

2 Tablespoons butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 cup fresh blueberries or raspberries (thawed and drained berries work well too!)

oil or butter for cooking

In a small bowl rub the lemon zest into the granulated sugar until pale yellow and fragrant.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk and butter. Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir until just combined. The batter may be a bit lumpy. That’s better than overmixing the batter. Fold in the berries with a few strokes. Not much stirring necessary.

Heat a griddle pan or a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add a teaspoon of oil or a dab of butter and heat through. Add 2 heaping tablespoons of batter to the pan. Heat until bubbles form and start to pop. Carefully flip over and cook through. Place cooked pancakes on an oven proof plate and let rest in a 200 degree F oven while you fry the rest of the pancakes.

Top pancakes with maple syrup or mascarpone sweetened with a dash of powdered sugar and the juice of one Meyer lemon.

Browned Butter Blueberry Muffins

joythebaker — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 06:44:05 +0000

There are three things I want you to take away from this post. No foolin’ around… I’ll get straight to the point.

One. You’ll want to stop by tomorrow if you think you might like to be one of those people that attends my (holy heck yes!) summer party. It’s in August. It’s for real.

Two. You know that part of the pedicure when the lady at your feet goes to it with a pumice scrub? It’s at that point that I have to try with every ounce of who I am, not not not to kick her in the face. I’m ticklish. Extremely. Now you know.

Three. These blueberry muffins are (yes) perfect. Straight forward. Simple. Summer. One whole hell of a lot better than the stale coffee shop version… perfect. How often do I say something is perfect? Not often. Fact.

Browned Butter Fresh Blueberry Muffins

adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook

makes 12 glorious muffins

Print this Recipe!

7 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1/3 cup whole milk

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups fresh blueberries

For the Topping

3 Tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3 1/2 tablespoons sugar

Put a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line muffin pan with paper or foil liners

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Keep an eye on the butter. Melt and cook down the butter until little brown bits appear in the pan. The crackling will subside and butter will begin to brown fairly quickly after that. Keep a close eye. Remove from heat.

Whisk milk, egg, yolk and vanilla until combined. Add the brown butter and stir to combine.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl Add milk and butter mixture all at one and stir gently to combine. Gently but thoroughly fold in the blueberries.

Divide the batter among muffin cups and spread evenly.

To make the topping combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and rub together with your fingertips until crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over the batter in the cups.

Bake until golden and crisp and a wooden pick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack for 15 minutes then remove from the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.