Brunch Magic with Boozy Baked French Toast

I adore brunch. It’s part of San Francisco’s food soul. We know how to Brunch in this city and we take our late morning meals very seriously. So it’s no surprise my family opted for a brunch mother’s day fiesta. We actually got to do it two weekends in a row since my folks were in town visiting the weekend before mother’s day and then the in-laws came over on actual mother’s day. The one drawback of hosting is the hostess is always running about the kitchen and prancing in and out of conversation like a little food fairy. For once I wanted to sit and chat and enjoy relaxing while also hosting so I turned to my girl, smittenkitchen for some ideas and man did she deliver! I played with her Baked Boozy French Toast recipe and it was a major hit. Super easy; prep the night before and then throw it in the oven the day of. That’s it. I paired it with soft scrambled eggs (ie. cook low and slow stirring constantly and you get the creamiest eggs ever) and some bacon that I baked off in the oven (400 degrees for 15 mins). I threw together a quick fruit salad (or have your brother-in-law do it which was what I did the second weekend) and an easy berry compote (optional but awesome) and we were set. I could spend the morning sipping far too many mimosas and not hoarding over the stove. So next time you want a brunch that wow’s the table but doesn’t make you wish you could clone yourself, try this French toast. It’s brunch magic!

Homemade Biscuits Make Brunch a Major Hit

It seems like every time company comes to visit it’s a food whirlwind, trucking from one delicious eating opportunity to another. Maybe it’s related to my general life obsession with food and eating but no matter the reason it’s always an adventure. My folks were in town visiting recently and so Sunday brunch with my in-laws was a big item on the to-do list. We had been out to eat a ton so I figured we should do brunch at my house where people could relax and avoid the hassle that can be a restaurant brunch. However, I didn’t want to spend my entire morning in the kitchen so I had to do some research.

I found these spectacularly easy but delightfully delicious buttermilk chive biscuits while trolling smittenkitchen. Now I have never in my life made biscuits from scratch before, but armed with my new found obsession with bread making (and the pastry blender I picked up recently) I figured, what the heck.

And OH MY!!!! Easy to make especially with my little pastry cutter but you could certainly use your fingers to break the butter into the flour. The texture was sinful, flaky, buttery, light but rich in flavor. I could not stop eating these little guys! The best part --- after shaping the biscuits and placing them onto cookie sheets, I wrapped the whole thing in tinfoil and plopped it in the freezer the night before (and I am sure you could make them days in advance) and baked the biscuits up in no time flat straight from the freezer before we sat down to brunch. A major homemade touch that took maybe 10 minutes to mix the dough and form the biscuits and 15 minutes to cook. Easy as pie and a major winner on the brunch table. I will be making these again and again. Maybe next time I’ll add bacon pieces too!

Pizza at Home

I’m not sure if it’s my Italian heritage, the New Jersey upbringing or my obsession with all things cheese and bread, but one thing is painfully clear, I have a deep-rooted passion for pizza. My recent adventures in bread making led me to try my hand at making my own pizza dough. Heck, my great grandfather had a pizza parlor in Jersey so there’s got to be some of it my blood, right?! Fingers crossed and with some serious food blogging research under my belt, I dove in and man am I glad I did.


Homemade pizza is easy and unbelievably delicious! Gooey cheese, crust with a great bite and all the toppings I could ask for. In fact, since you make the dough the night before this could very well be a slam dunk mid-week meal folks. Now my pies may not rival Patsy’s or Grimaldi’s in NYC or the delightful offerings at Flour + Water or Delfina in SF, but they are down right tasty and I am sure going to be making these again. Most famous pizza joints have crazy hot coal or wood burning ovens...something a bit hard to replicate in the typical home kitchen. One way around this is to grill your pizzas. I find making smaller pizzas are easier to grill because slipping them on and off the grill with one or two large spatulas is doable. It’s also a good way to have more variety in toppings with 4 smaller pizzas instead of 2 larger ones. Whatever way you slice it, make your next pizza night an at home one.
 

'Almost Whole Wheat' Baked Bread Recipe

After my thrilling first try at baking my own bread I got the bakers itch and have been eager to experiment some more. However, I decided for round two that I would stick close to home putting one toe into the whole wheat bread section. Baby steps into bread baking land. Now I know whole wheat flour behaves quite differently from white flour. I can’t get down and dirty on the actual science of it (though I am sure with some digging I could find the bread baker’s Mensa equivalent). I do know that whole wheat flour tends not to rise as much as white flour…something to do with sharper corners to the molecules or gluten deficiencies…eh whatever the reason it just doesn’t act the same. So round two of A Girl and Her Kitchen’s bread baking bonanza was an Almost Whole Wheat Loaf. I followed the same recipe as I did the first time around (this dutch oven thing is honestly amazing) but substituted in 1 c of whole wheat flour for 1 c of the white flour, thus making the loaf 1/3 whole wheat.

The result…pretty damn good! It kept that crusty outside with a slightly denser yet tender inside and a more earthy flavor. Totally delicious. The dough did need a little more time to proof (ie. hang out in warmth so it could rise) but that was fine...I gave it an extra hour or so. Plus I have a 1950s era Wedgewood oven with a pilot light so my oven is always a nice 100-125º. I just popped the covered bowl with the dough in the oven and left the door cracked open for the last few hours of proofing. It definitely didn’t rise AS much as the white load but it rose and it baked up just fine. In fact, I would venture to say any more wheat flour and it might go too far…I think I got it just right!

So while I will be doing some more whole wheat bread investigations, this one is a definite keeper. Makes one hell of a sandwich too.

Crusty, Tender Homemade Baked Bread

I am presently hoping around my kitchen grinning like a Cheshire cat in carb-induced sheer bliss because I…have just…baked…the…most…AWESOME….BREAD…EVER!! I just munched down two warm and buttered slices of the yummiest artisan-esque bakery bread that came piping hot out of my very own oven! It’s nothing short of a miracle folks. Let’s be clear….I am not a baker. I have and do bake (albeit cookies and cupcakes), but I have never made something like a loaf of bread before. This was a serious leap of faith – and it completely and utterly paid off.

While trolling my favorite food sites I came across this picture of a gorgeous loaf of bread. Crusty on the outside, soft and tender on the inside; it made my mouth water. But what surprised me was the picture was linked to a very unassuming site of a 40-something mom who by no account was a famous bread maker. I thought to myself, well DAMN, I could do that! So I did. And it really just wasn’t that hard folks. If you do one thing this month culinary wise, do this. Make this bread. It is easy. Really really easy. And terribly delicious!

So do read on while I will continue to hop around my kitchen doing my bread dance, scaring the daylights out of my cat, until I have eaten every last morsel of this phenomenal A Girl and Her Kitchen baked bread (or until husband comes home to claim his share)!