Beer for breakfast?!? Well... beer infused crepes for breakfast!

Pumpkin Beer Crepes with Apple Pie Filling? YES PLEASE

I never make crepes because I always figured they were too difficult. I discovered this morning, through a lot of trial and error, that they aren't difficult but they are specific to your cookware and your stovetop. They are also DELICIOUS, so I persevered through this recipe, and found the recipe itself is awesome but you may want to make some extra batter to play around with before you serve the final product. 
We love Sam Adams beer in this house, and the fall mix pack has pumpkin beer in it. I knew I wanted to make an apple pie filling, and decided to amp up the flavors of the crepe with some pumpkin beer. I also didn't have any milk in the house, so I substituted with beer and condensed milk and I was glad I did!

Before you begin, keep in mind this recipe works best if you have 30-60 minutes to rest your batter in the fridge, and  I've read that it works even better if you rest it over night. With that being said, let's make some crepes!

You will need:

(This recipe yielded 12 small crepes for me, so probably 6-8 larger ones if you used a larger pan.)

Crepes:

• 1 cup flour
• ¾ Cup Water
• ¼ cup beer
• 2 Eggs
• 1 TBSP condensed milk (you could omit this if you used milk where I used water!)
• Pinch of salt

Apple Filling and Topping:

• 1-2 paper thin sliced apples ( I used my Cuisinart food processor and it worked like a dream)
• Cinnamon powder to taste ( I used a few pinches in the apples, a few more in the yogurt  and then sprinkled some on top of the finished, stuffed crepes)
• Cinnamon Stick
• 1 TSP Grated Ginger
• 1 TBSP brown sugar
• ½ Cup Yogurt (I used Greek)
• Honey

Steps

Crepes and Apple Filling

1. Combine flour, eggs, salt, water and beer until thoroughly mixed. (You don't want any lumps in this mixture! The batter should be very runny.)
   
2. Set batter aside to rest.
3. Heat a sauce pan with a little butter: add apples, cinnamon stick, grated ginger and sugar.
4. Once the mixture begins to brown, add a small amount of water and increase heat to caramelize.
5. Once the water has evaporated, turn the heat down to low and allow the apples to soak up the flavor of the cinnamon and ginger.
6. Combine greek yogurt with cinnamon and a few TSPs honey (depending on how sweet you want this) in a small bowl and set aside
7. Retrieve your crepe batter and stir through to ensure all lumps are gone.
8. Heat a skillet to medium heat, add butter or oil ( this is important even if you have a non-stick pan! You will get dry, chalky crepes and no one wants that. )
9. Pour a small amount of batter into the pan, quickly swirling to coat the pan before the crepe begins to cook.
10. Cook 2-3 minutes per side, or until edges brown and crepe can be flipped.
11. Wipe out your pan between crepes ( also really important) and melt new oil or butter.
12. Fill crepes with cinnamon yogurt and apples and roll one side in to the center (over your filling) and continue to roll until the final edge is tucked under.
13. Top with extra yogurt and some sprinkles of cinnamon.
14. Optional topping: If you have apple butter at home, combine that with some greek yogurt and top your crepes. Its delicious!

Enjoy!

-Dr. P.

Vanilla Coconut French Toastlets with Toasted Walnut and Coconut Dust

We try to eat healthy during the week... but on Saturday mornings all bets are off. This weekend I had some gorgeous, chewy French bread to use and I knew just what to do.

French Toast! 

I love French toast. It was a weekend staple in my house growing up, using Wonderbread and that awful pretend maple syrup. Luckily, I have grown-up and so has my childhood Wonderbread French Toast!

For this beautiful, brunch-worthy breakfast you will need:

• A loaf of french bread, or something similarly round
• 2 eggs
• ¼ Cup of milk (I used almond, but you can use whatever you like or have on hand)
• ¼ TSP Pure vanilla extract (more or less depending on your taste)
• ¼ TSP Pure coconut extract (more or less depending on your taste)
• ¼ TSP  cinnamon (more or less depending on your taste)
• ¼ TSP grated Fresh nutmeg (more or less depending on your taste)
• 4 TBSP Unsweetend coconut flakes, divided
• ¼ Cup Walnut Pieces
• Coconut oil (Or butter) for the pan

Steps

1. Slice bread into discs, slightly less than two-fingers thick (not very precise but I'm terrible with eyeballing measurements. If you cut them too thick the inside will not soak up the batter and it will stay too bready.)
2. Whisk eggs, milk, vanilla extract, coconut extract, 2 TBSP coconut flakes, cinnamon and nutmeg all together in a bowl big enough to fit your discs into.
3. Dip discs into batter, allowing a few minutes for the first side to soak it up. Then flip and repeat on the second side. (You can test the absorption by gently poking the center of the discs, if they take a while to bounce back, they have absorbed lots of batter. If not, allow longer soak.)
4. Pre-heat pan to medium heat, add coconut oil (or butter). (You can test the pan's readiness by dropping a few droplets of water onto the pan; if they crackle you're good to go!)
5. Add discs to pan, cooking on each side 3-4 minutes, or until the batter has turned golden brown and the edges begin to crisp! (We cook ours an extra 1-2 minutes on each side after the initial flip to get them extra crsipy and ensure the centers are cooked through.)
6. Toast remaining coconut flakes and walnuts in a frying pan on low-medium heat util coconut flakes begin to brown. 
7. Process toasted coconut and walnuts in a food processor until the mixture becomes a dust.
8. Serve discs while hot, sprinkling dust on top. Serve with warm maple syrup, although these are so good alone they don't even need any help!

Remember to tag me on instagram (@DrParko121314) if you make these! 

Enjoy!

-Dr. P

Egg clouds just reinvented breakfast!

I love taking fantastic recipes other people are creating, and seeing how I can incorporate my own favorite flavors into them. This week I have been obsessed with Egg Clouds! 

For those of you who know what the delicious dessert Pavlova is, this is like the breakfast version of that light and airy, yet crispy treat.

Egg clouds are super simple and present beautifully. They would be perfect to impress brunch guests, or to surprise someone special on their birthday or with breakfast in bed. I adapted my version from Hostthetoast.com ( a blog I am loving, a lot). They did theirs in yummy looking Ciabatta bread, but we didn't have any bread and I wasn't waiting not one single second longer to make these. So I proceeded bread-less!

The great part about these is that you could fold in cheese, veggies, ham, or any topping you would put into an omelette and mix up the kind of egg cloud you cooked every time!

You will need

• The number of eggs you want to cook (these puff up and although I can usually eat two eggs for breakfast, I typically only make it through one of these bad boys)
• Any additions you want to add: (Hostthetoast.com used mozzarella and hot sauce. I've recently used Basil, Oregano and morel mushroom cheddar and it was sooooooo good. I'm planning on using zucchini next!)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Toast or Asparagus or something tasty to soak up the egg yolk (if you desire! My husband likes to tear off the sides of the cloud and dip the fluffy whites into the runny yolks)
• Baking Tray
• Tin foil or Baking Paper (If you use tinfoil be sure to lightly grease it!)
• Hand or stand mixer (You could use a whisk if you're a kitchen badass and your arms can handle it!)

Steps

1. Preheat oven between 350-400 F. If your oven runs hot like mine keep the temperature on the lower side so you don't scorch the egg whites.
2. Separate yolks and whites cleanly, and place yolks aside without breaking (I LOVE the water bottle trick for this. Take an empty water bottle and squeeze gently, place the opening over the yolk and slowly release the bottle. Voila! It sucks up the eggs yolk neatly and you don't have to buy a separator or use your hands.)
3. Whip whites in a very clean bowl, using very clean mixer blades, until peaks form. You want the peaks to be hard enough to maintain their shape when you place the mixture on the baking tray.
4. Fold in your toppings carefully so you don't deflate the whites. Season as desired.
5. Scoop "clouds" gently onto your baking tray, focusing on getting some height so you can make a little hole for your yolk. 
6. Using a spoon, dig a small space for your yolk, ensuring there are no breaks in your whites to allow yolk to escape and break. Don't dig too far down towards the tray. You want to be able to enjoy all of the gooey goodness later!
7. Bake @ desired temperature for about 6-7 minutes or until the the tops of the whites turn slightly golden.
8. Take the tray out of the oven, and carefully add the yolks into the holes you made before.
9. Bake for another 6-7 minutes, or until the whites have set.

Serve immediately and enjoy :)

If you make these be sure to post to Instagram and tag me @DrParko121314

Eggs Benedict with Pumpkin Hollandaise... There are no words

I am that girl. I LOVE pumpkin everything. But I mean real pumpkin... Like the kind you carve. Not just the cinnamony nutmeg flavor we associate with a PSL or pumpkin pie. I don't want to discriminate so I will broaden this to say I love pumpkin, squash and gourds in general. They can be sweet or savory and serve as awesome bases for soups and sauces...which is how I discovered this treat for today's follow-on blog to why brunch is king.

I adore eggs Benedict. It's the first thing I order if I go out for breakfast somewhere but it is also the dish I am most often disappointed by. My husband and I have been on a mission to stop eating out and instead spend that time recreating things in our kitchen. I've said before he's an amazing cook, and he is... But I've been stepping up my game and I'm VERY proud of this dish. 

The hollandaise sauce is what makes a Benedict for me. It can be done really badly and kill the whole dish. Of course, it's not the easiest sauce to make and can split in a second if anything is off. Pumpkin doesn't split! 

We decided to explore pumpkin hollandaise after making a twice baked pumpkin dish and realizing we had a lot of extra butternut squash purée left over. The purree was so smooth, sweet and creamy and just begged to be used in a other dish. After sprinkling paprika on our original dish and taste-testing we knew just what to do! And so, this fall-inspired dish was born.

Dr. P's Pumpkin Hollandaise for Eggs Bennie ( or anything else you want to smother in hollandaise...which for me is everything!)

For the hollandaise you will need:

1. Squash purée ( we baked a butternut the night before, scooped out the insides and puréed ( and puréed and puréed and then when we thought it couldn't get smoother we puréed it further) with some unsweetened almond milk. Depending on your dietary needs you could do the same, or use regular cow's milk or cream. For this recipe you will want a more liquidy purée versus a thick, soup-like consistency.)
2. Paprika, salt and pepper to taste 
3. Lemon or lime juice to taste ( I used the juice from one lemon, but I love a lemony hollandaise)
4. Butter if you want to use it

What to do:

1. Warm purée, add seasonings, lemon/lime juice and butter if you desire! So simple :)
2. Drizzle over poached eggs and whatever other delicious accouterments you choose!

Enjoy, savor, and delight in how deliciously guilty this dish looks, but revel in knowing it is nowhere near as guilty as its buttery, eggy traditional cousin!

Cheers

Dr. P

Brunch foods are king

I I LOVE brunch. Everything about brunch is right. It elicits ideas of sleeping in luxuriously late, and dining on delectable dishes that could pass as both breakfast and lunch all at the same time! Since I've been working on my PhD and I've been home during work hours, brunch has become a popular thing in my house. I am an equal opportunity breakfast food consumer, especially at brunch time. Eggs Benedict, waffles, pancakes, hash, omelets, French toast. I love it all. Of course, it is not feasible to consume all of these delicious treats daily and remain in your current pants size, but many of them can be done in a more health conscious manner. So today I made some amazing almond and coconut flour pancakes with whipped honey yogurt and fresh fruit. The pancakes were fluffy in the middle and crispy on the edges with a delicate crunch and nutty flavor from the alternate flours. The whipped honey yogurt was a nice, sweet addition that did not leave me longing for powdered sugar... Although I will admit adding a splash of maple syrup in there.

My husband loved them- which is saying a lot- because he (maybe sometimes) can be a bit of a food snob. In his defense he's an awesome cook and I'm more of a novice tinkering with ingredients and my kitchen aid but he loved them anyway! 

But I digress! I wanted to make a flourless pancake that wouldn't cause the energy slump that usually occurs after eating regular pancakes. We're renovating our home and just got a new puppy so energy is in short supply around here. These pancakes fit the bill. 

Here is my version of almond and coconut flour pancakes! *Coconut flour absorbs a lot of moisture so you can always omit the coconut flour and adjust accordingly for just almond flour! 

Pancakes: adapted from marinmamacooks.com. Yield was 4 medium sized pancakes. 

You will need: 

¾ cup almond flour ( you can grind your own using whole almonds but be careful you don't over process or you'll get almond butter! Delicious... But no good for the pancake batter)

¼ cup coconut flour 

½-¾ cup almond or cashew milk ( pay attention to your consistency... If the batter is too thick, add in more milk a little at a time to adjust)

2 eggs ( I've used Greek yogurt as a substitute to make these eggless and found it works but makes a denser pancake)

1 Tbsp baking soda

1 Tbsp baking powder 

1 tsp vanilla 

Pinch of salt 

 I didn't use any sweetener but feel free to add that if you want. 

Steps:

1) Heat your pan or griddle to a medium heat. I use the butter/ coconut oil mixture I grease the pan with as a measure of when the pan is ready; when the mixture starts to crackle and bubble I pour the batter in! 

2) Pour approximately ¼ cup scoops of batter into the pan or griddle. 

3) Although these will bubble like normal pancakes, the bubbles are not a sign for flippage ( of course I mean to flip). The edges will start to turn golden when it is ready! I shifted the pan back and forth as if I was preparing to flip and waited until the top stopped looking liquid and wiggly ( scientific foodology terms, obviously)

4) Cook the other side 3-4 minutes util equally golden delicious! 

Whipped Greek Yogurt Topping  

You will need:

½ cup Greek or plain yogurt

Honey to taste 

Fruit (I used blueberries, raspberries and nectarines)

Walnuts or almonds or any other crunch element you fancy

Steps:

1) In a mixing bowl, beat yogurt and honey until ribbons begin to form.

2) Spoon onto pancakes and top with fruit and nuts! 

3) Eat. Savor. Enjoy. 

These pancakes would probably freeze and toast well for quick weekday breakfasts!

If you make these awesome pancakes don't forget to tag me on Instagram! #drparko121314

Delight in the delicious!

-Dr. P