Breakfast buns with hazelnuts

Fresh, soft buns for breakfast? Slightly warm, with hint of hazelnut and lemon? You want? I tought you might. This is a recipe I bookmarked ages ago at papilles et pupilles, when I had bought a jar of almond purée out of sheer curiosity and was looking for things to do with it. I finished the jar without ever making the buns but the bookmark stayed put. Thank god it did! Those buns are fantastic! And apart from the resting time overnight, they're finished within minutes! I can't believe this recipe hasn't travelled around the world like the no-knead bread. Go make them! Now! And spread the word!

Breakfast buns with hazelnuts (makes about 12)

• 500g plain flour
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 plain yoghurt
• milk (the eggs, yoghurt and milk have to add up to 425ml)
• 1 tablespoon hazelnut purée (the plain kind without sugar)
• 80 powdered sugar
• 1 generous pinch of salt
• 1 packet dried yeast
• peel of half a lemon (the original recipe uses combava)

In the evening, combine all the ingredients to make a shaggy and wet dough. Cover and put it in the refrigerator overnight. The next morning, tip the dough onto well floured surface and shape it into a roll that you cut into 12 equal pieces. Roll the dough pieces into balls and put them into a buttered muffin tray. You can cut a roughly nut-sized piece off each piece of dough and put a little ball on top of each bun to get the typical brioche shape. I did, but they flattened out during baking. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let rise on the kitchen counter for about 1-2 hours. Bake for 15 minutes at 200°. Remove from the oven and brush with a little milk (or eggwash before baking). Let cool on a wired rack for a few minutes. They are best eaten fresh with butter and marmelade - I thought lemon was a particulary good match.

Ricotta cake

There is no need for me to lose many words about this ricotta cake. It is simple, unpretentious and delicious. I love it for breakfast, as a snack, with my tea in the afternoon and at any other time of the day, and I think you will, too. There are only two things you should know:

1 - You have to be serious about creaming eggs and sugar or the cake won't rise. To be on the safe side, you might want to separate the eggs and fold the whipped egg whites into the batter alternating with the flour. Then again, you might not, because why dirty two bowls if you can get away with dirtying one and anyway, you live live dangerously. I do, and I'm no friend of washing up, which is why my cake is just a tiny bit on the soft side on the bottom as you can see in the picture.

2 - This cake looks very innocent but you don't want to get fresh with it, adding apples, chocolate chunks or nuts etc. A small handfull of raisins is all that it can handle. Otherwise, the cake won't bake but turn into a sorry, solid, doughy block. The Husband ate a large piece of solidified cake batter with chocolate once and said he liked it, but his judgement is clouded when it comes to food containing chocolate.

Ricotta cake

• 190g sugar
• 1 tub soft ricotta (250g)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons plain yoghurt
• 200g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• some vanilla extract or grated lemon peel

Preheat the oven to 180°. Cream the eggs and sugar together for a few minutes until the mixture is very thick and lightly-coloured. Best use one of those nifty hand-held blenders with whisks for that or get ready for a little workout. Sorry, but this step is vital, see point 1 above. Add the ricotta and yoghurt and mix well, then mix in the vanilla extract or grated lemon peel. Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda together and fold into the ricotta mixture. Add a little more flour if the batter seems too thin. Pour the batter into a small baking tin (roughly 23 cm diameter round or a 20x20cm square tin) which you've buttered and lined with greaseproof paper. Bake for about twenty minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean. Turn onto a wired rack to cool.

Semolina porridge

I believe in breakfast. I don't go far without it, unless I eat until 8 a.m. at the latest (on workdays, that is), I inevitably start to feel weak, shaky and often quite emotional. In my early blogging days, I once mentioned that I go through breakfast phases. I was hooked on steeped oats with grated apple, toasted nuts and yoghurt for quite some time until suddenly, about a week ago, I knew I wanted something else. So now, it's semolina porridge again, the finnish fibre-enriched kind with the cute girl with braids on the package. My very dear friend M. brings me some whenever she visits but even if you don't happen to have friends in Finland, don't despair: use regular semolina mixed with a handful of wheat or oat bran.

Here's my "recipe":

• 30-40g of semolina
• water
• a pinch of salt
• brown sugar
• a splash of milk
• berries or chopped fruit
• fromage frais or plain yoghurt

Put the semolina into a small saucepan, then add water (it should stand about 2 cm higher than the semolina - yes, my measurements are very scientific and precise here) and whisk in order to prevent clumps from forming. Bring to the boil, add the salt, then lower the heat and simmer for about five minutes or until thick. Stir frequently. Just before eating, add the milk and simmer for another minute. Spoon into a bowl and sprinkle with sugar and add the fruit and formage frais or yoghurt.

I like to take my bowl and sit in the armchair which used to belong to my grandfather while I eat. The husband (yes, you heard me) is usually in the shower or only just waking up by this time. Sometimes, he sleepily shuffles into the living room and steals a spoonfull from me. I don't turn on the radio, I don't go and get the paper. I just sit and eat. It may only be for ten minutes but I couldn't think of a more peaceful - and tasty - way to start the day.

Whirligig buns as seen on the Wednesday Chef

I'm very happy to follow a piece of advice shared by a fellow food blogger so when Nigella Lawson's whirligig buns were featured on Luisa's Wednesday Chef and she gave them a star rating, I made some the very next weekend. Now let me give you some advice: you should make them, too. There couldn't be a better way to start the weekend than with one of these soft, sweet buns filled with gooey chocolate and crunchy nuts and a cup of tea (Lady Gray is my preference) or milky coffee. The Boyfriend was extremely pleased with this unexpected treat and declared that chocolate simply had a way of making him feel so much better. What else could you want from breakfast?

You'll find the recipe here on the Wednesday Chef. I made my dough with fresh yeast, let it rise for about an hour, then formed the buns and let them rise in the fridge overnight. Ideally, let them rise and come to room temperature for another hour before baking. It's very tempting to eat these little beauties as soon as they're cool enough to handle but try to wait until they're cool, they'll be even nicer.

Apple buttermilk scone round

I've had a baking-intense weekend. I made a focaccia, the pastry dough for a rhubarb tart we had on monday evening and the apple buttermilk scone round pictured above, the week 19 contribution to the 2007 challenge. It's from Linda Collister's Morning Bakes (if you only buy one of her books, make it this one, each and every one of the recipes are of the so-mouthwatering-I-want-to-make-it-now kind) and true to the author's word, these scones could easily be assembled in the morning before breakfast, I was done within 45 minutes, baking included. The scones are moist due to the apples and not overly sweet. We tried them warm for afternoon tea and then spread with butter and honey for sunday breakfast - very nice indeed, both ways.

Apple buttermilk scone round (makes 8 large wedges)
Recipe according to Linda Collister's Morning Bakes

• 1 large cooking apple or 1-2 crisp tart eating apples (about 250g)
• 200g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 80g wholemeal flour
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 75g demerara sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
• 75g unsalted butter, chilled and diced
• about 140ml buttermilk, plus extra for brushing or milk for brushing

• one large baking sheet, greased
  

Peel, core and coarsely chop the apple into 1-cm chunks. Mix the flours, bicarbonate of soda and sugar in a food processor. Add the chilled cubes of butter and process until the mixture looks like fine crumbs. With the machine running, add the buttermilk through the feed tube to make a soft but not sticky dough.

Turn out onto a floured surface and knead in the apple chunks to form a corase and bumpy dough. Shape into a ball and put in the midle of the prepared baking sheet. With floured fingers, pat into a 22-cm round. Brush lightly with buttermilk or milk to glaze, then sprinkle with a little demerara sugar to give a crunchy surface. Using a sharp knife, score the round into 8 wedges. Bake in a preheated oven at 220° for for about 20-25 mintes until lightly golden and firm to the touch.

Cool on a wire rack. Eat warm, immediately or within 24 hours. The scones are also good split and toasted. When thoroughly cooled, they can be wrapped then frozen for up to 1 month.

Donna Hay's porridge with frozen berries

Porridge - not the most original dish to write about, right? Or attractive and photogenic, for that matter. True, but I wrote this post anyway because I'm so impressed with Donna Hay, once again. I simply have to share my enthusiasm. In Food Fast she suggests adding frozen berries (I like raspberries best) to a bowl of steaming hot porridge. The berries thaw immediately and the porridge cools down to just the right temperature for you to tuck in. So simple really, but someone had to think of it, didn't they? I certainly never would have. I eat porridge almost every day during the cooler months of the year, usually the frozen berries-variety (adding a spoonfull of linseeds), and the berry-trick help me to stay within my morning "schedule". No more running for the train because the porridge was too hot to eat - thank you, Donna!

Check out her book for a pretty picture of porridge (yes, it's possible).

Back from porridge-lovers' paradise

I just returned from Finland, suitcase and handbag chock full of goodies. I found out that the Fins are avid porridge-eaters; every morning, there was a different kind of porridge on the breakfast buffet at my hotel. Oat, rye, buckwheat, four-grain - you name it. I think there is nothing better than a bowl of porridge on a cold autumn or winter morning so I indulged. And I brought some porridge back to recreate that warm, fuzzy feeling here. The Elovena is instant porridge, all you need to do is add some boiling water and stir. My idea of a great breakfast, really.

I also bought some pickled herring, russian-style gherkins in brine (to be eaten with some honey and - my addition - a little sour cream, a very unexpected but truly irresistible combination), reindeer salami and dried reindeer meat and some of the to-die-for rye bread. I honestly wouldn't have thought so but Finland really is worth the trip just for eating. Trust an old foodie.