Yogurt Biscuits & Breakfast Outside

I can’t say anything about breakfast and biscuits that I haven’t said before. I love them both. You know what makes them even better? The great outdoors.





Eating outside is one of the things that makes warm weather really, really great.





Bird songs and sunshine, the perfect accompaniment to the perfect breakfast.





This is another fantastic recipe from Heidi Swanson’s cookbook, Super Natural Every Day. Flakey and rich, these biscuits are pretty wonderful.

Yogurt Biscuits
From Super Natural Every Day
Makes 12-16 biscuits

1 ¼ cups spelt flour or whole wheat pastry flour
1 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more if needed
1 ½ teaspoons fine-grain sea-salt
1 tablespoon aluminum-free baking powder
½ cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
1 ⅓ cup greek-style plain yogurt

Preheat the oven to 450 with a rack in the middle of the oven. Place an ungreased baking sheet in the oven to preheat as well.

Combine the flours, salt, and baking powder in a food processor. Sprinkle the butter across the top of the dry ingredients and pulse about 20 times, or until the mixture resembles tiny pebbles on a sandy beach. Add the yogurt and pulse a few times, or until the yogurt is just incorporated. Avoid overmixing, it’s fine if there are a few dry patches. Gather the dough into a ball and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead five times and press into an inch thick square. Cut in half and stack one on the other. Repeat two more times - flattening and stacking, then cutting. Add more all purpose flour to prevent sticking when needed. Press or roll out the dough into a 3/4 thick rectangle, but no thicker; if the dough is too tall, the biscuits will tilt and tip over while baking. Cut the dough into twelve equal biscuits.

Transfer the biscuits to the preheated baking sheet leaving 1/2 inch between each biscuit. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until the bottoms are deeply golden and the biscuits are cooked through.

Morning Glory Oat Muffins

I really like breakfast. Why it’s so overlooked, I’ll never know. If I had to a pick one type of food to eat every day for the rest of my days, it would be breakfast. There’s so much variety! And it’s all so tasty! Bacon, biscuits, and gravy, pancakes, waffles and syrup, cereal and milk, fruit and pastries galore. What’s not to love? Lately, I’ve been all about homemade granola with milk or yogurt (specifically maple and cinnamon granola, which I will have to post about soon because it’s so good!) and muffins. Oh, Muffins.





What’s so great about them that it’s basically cake for breakfast, and really, who wouldn’t want that? My favorites are these everything but the kitchen sink morning glory oat muffins. With this recipe, I’ve tried to make it a bit healthier than your average muffin, using whole wheat flour, oats, cutting down the sugar and relying on the natural sugars of the fruits to sweeten them up. These are chock-full of tasty things and totally keep you going until lunch. I’ve used pecans here, but walnuts would be really good (but I’m allergic!), also you can mix up the dried fruit, using whatever is your favorite. A little tip: these get much better with time, so just let them sit for a couple of hours before trying them out, or even better, make them the night before!



Morning Glory Oat Muffins

1/2 cup raisins

1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup old fashioned oats
3/4 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups carrots, peeled and grated

1 large apple, peeled, cored, and grated

1/2 cup shredded coconut, sweetened or unsweetened

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/3 cup wheat germ, optional

3 large eggs

2/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 cup orange juice
demerara sugar, for topping

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin tin, or line it with papers and spray the insides of the papers. 

In a small bowl, cover the raisins with hot water, and set them aside to soak while you assemble the rest of the recipe.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the carrots, apple, coconut, nuts, and wheat germ, if using. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, applesauce, vanilla, and orange juice. Add to the flour mixture, and stir until evenly moistened. Drain the raisins and stir them in. Divide the batter among the wells of the prepared pan, filling almost to top. Sprinkle with demerara sugar.



Bake for 23 to 25 minutes, until domed and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven, let cool for 5 minutes in their pan on a rack, then turn out of pans to finish cooling.

Banana Bread Yeasted Waffles

I really love breakfast foods, any time of the day. There’s something so hearty and homey about breakfast that just makes me happy. We eat a lot of biscuits, grits and pancakes around here, waffles were, for some reason, sorely lacking from the rotation.



When I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it out. I’d never had yeasted waffles before, and they were so full of things I love, I couldn’t help but print off the recipe immediately. They are slightly tangy, not a bit too sweet. I normally eat my waffles and pancakes simply covered in butter, but these are perfectly accented by some warm maple syrup.

They are easy to throw together the night before, ready to pop in the waffle maker for something scrumptious first thing in the morning, or for dinner if you’re feeling adventurous. I’m making up another batch tonight, I can’t wait to have them again!

This recipe is from Tara of Seven Spoons, have you seen her blog? It’s beautiful and inspiring, you should check it out.




Banana Bread Yeasted Waffles

Ingredients
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of ground clove
2 eggs, beaten lightly
1 cup mashed ripe banana, about 3 whole
2 tablespoons sour cream or greek yogurt

In a small bowl, whisk together the butter, milk and vanilla. Set aside, the mixture should be warm but not hot.

In a large mixing bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, brown sugar, yeast, salt and spices. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, whisking until smooth. Stir in the beaten eggs. Cover the bowl loosely with clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 12 hours, but up to 24.

About 30 minutes before you want to make waffles, take the batter out of the refrigerator to come up to room temperature slightly. It should be doubled in size and the surface will be covered in bubbles.

When ready to begin, stir the sour cream into the mashed bananas and then mix the fruit into the batter. It will deflate, but use a light, quick hand to thoroughly combine.

Heat your waffle iron and bake the waffles as per the manufacturer's instruction.