Almond Chai Breakfast Pastry

Ever have those days when you’re just craving a Poptart-like breakfast pastry? And then you realize that as an almost-26 year old you really shouldn’t be ooing and ahhing over all of the varieties in that aisle, that maybe you should just be picking up your fruit and yogurt, and leaving the store as quickly as possible.

Yes. That happens to me almost every time that I am in the supermarket. I go up and down the aisle that has Oreos (obviously need to see if there are any new flavors!), and then peak at the Poptarts, thinking maybe it will be the day that I cave, the day when I buy Cinnamon Brown Sugar, S’more and Strawberry Poptarts.

It has yet to happen.

Then I made this wild discovery—I may be skilled enough to make my own Poptarts at home, I mean culinary school should have prepared me for this exact adult moment, am I right? And naturally I’m going to make something a little different, a combination that I am pretty sure I can’t find sitting in a box between the ever so delicious S’mores and Blueberry flavors.

Cue the nuts and spices.

First, making your own chai spice blend is ever so easy, read ingredients below, but I used some from Easy Indian that are so authentic and fragrant—highly recommend! Second, nuts are always optional, but unless you have allergies I really do not suggest omitting them. The added crunch and the toasted flavor really elevate the pastry as a whole, giving them just a few more taste points in my book.

Finally, the pie dough and assembly are what take the most time and have the most steps. Rolling, cutting, chilling, assembling, chilling, egg washing, chilling, baking. Can you tell that chilling the dough and the temperature is very important?! While they are not the most complicated, a bit of patience is required if you want to achieve the most flakey, most buttery, most yummy and most aesthetically pleasing pastry—which is why I have provided very detailed steps and photos, I suggest reading all of the steps before starting!

Literally perfect for ANY time of the day…which just means for me I need to run an extra mile or go to an extra spin class this week in order to feel slightly less bad about eating more of these Poptarts in a day than I probably have in my life!

dough ingredients

Flour—6.75 oz, or 1 ¼ C

Sugar—0.25 oz, or ½ TBL

Salt—½ tsp

Cinnamon—1 tsp

Butter, cold—4 oz, or 1 stick/8 TBL

Milk—2 oz, or ¼ C

Water, cold—1 oz, or ¼ C

process

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon.

Cut up the butter into hazelnut sized cubes and add to the flour mixture.

Using your hands, a pastry cutter or a fork, rub the butter into the flour mixture until combined.

Slowly add in your cold milk and water, kneading with your hands or a spatula until you have formed a dough ball.

Wrap tightly in plastic and chill until you are ready to use.

filling ingredients

Brown Sugar—4 oz, or ½ C

Chai Spices*—0.25 oz, or 1 TBL

Chopped Almonds, toasted—1.5 oz, or ¼ C

Milk—0.5 oz, or 1 TBL

Egg, beaten—1

process

In a bowl, combine the brown sugar, spices and chopped almonds.

*I used Easy Indian Chai Spice, but to make your own—2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp each of allspice, cardamom, cloves, ginger, black pepper!*

Add in the milk and mix to combine.

Your mixture should resemble slightly wet sand; this just helps it stay together when you are filling your pastry!

turnover assembly

Take your dough out of the refrigerator and put on a lightly floured work surface.

Roll your dough out until it is about ¼“ thick.

*To make sure that you get a nice and even dough when rolling, rotate 45˚ after every pass of your rolling pin, making sure that there is enough flour underneath and it is not sticking.*

Once you have rolled out your dough, using either a fluted pastry wheel or regular pizza cutter, cut out rectangles that are 3” x 1½”.

This should make about 6 sets.

Once you have finished cutting out the rectangles, place them on a baking sheet covered with either parchment or a Silpat in the refrigerator to chill.

Preheat your oven to 350˚ F.

You should have 6 bottoms and 6 tops—egg wash the bottoms completely, this will help your filling stay in place better.

Take about 2 TBL of the filling and place it in the middle of your bottom rectangle.

Egg wash the edges of the top pastry and place wash side down on your filling.

Crimp the edges with a fork so that the top and bottom pastry stick together.

Chill for about 5 minutes in the refrigerator.

When you are ready to bake, poke air holes in the top so that your pastry can vent, egg wash the top, and sprinkle coarse sugar on top.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 20 minutes, until golden brown.

Remove from the oven onto a cooling rack

Bon Appétit!

Overnight Brown Sugar Bacon Cinnamon Rolls

As Christmas approaches, my need for buttery, gooey breakfast pastries skyrockets. Between croissants, morning buns, pain au chocolate, cinnamon rolls, an unhealthy amount is consumed. Maybe it’s because while I am home for a few days, I need to get my Standard Baking Company fix, or that because I make sticky buns each year for Christmas morning, I just feel the need to carbo-load for weeks in advance. Whatever the reason, I had the urge to welcome a new cinnamon roll into our family!

The other night while Roberto and I were enjoying our bi-weekly pizza Friday, I started daydreaming about cinnamon rolls. Like, they literally took over every thought of mine. Gingerbread rolls? Toasted oat rolls? Apple butter filling? Brown sugar bacon rolls?! We have a winner!

How had I never thought of this before? The smell of bacon just screams breakfast, plus it’s extra yummy when coated in cinnamon sugar and wrapped in a cozy, buttery dough. Besides, I figure if you’re going to go all out with breakfast, especially on Christmas morning, a little bacon never hurt anyone—even throw in a few mimosas and possibly a gingerbread cookie while you’re at it!

This recipe starts with a very simple yeast dough—flour, milk, yeast, some sugar. Plus you will, most likely, have all of the ingredients in your pantry already! What else is so great? This should be started the night before you want to serve them, so take a couple of hours out of your day, prep the rolls, stick them in the fridge, and violà! The next morning you just have to pull them out of the refrigerator, let them come to room temperature and bake away!

So, while sticky buns may have been the tradition for the past few years on Christmas morning, I think that these cinnamon rolls may be taking the lead this year. A little less butter, a little more bacon, and a lot more love to surround you and yours on Christmas day!

Luckily, my first wedding dress fitting is the day after Christmas; I hope they can wiggle me into it!

dough ingredients

Milk (110-115˚F)—4 oz, or ½ C

Molasses—1.5 oz, or 2 TBL

Sugar—4 oz, or ½ C

Yeast—0.25 oz, or 1 TBL

Butter, softened—4 oz, or ½ C

Eggs, beaten—2

Milk—4 oz, or ½ C

Flour—17.5 oz-20 oz, or 3 ½-4 C

dough process

In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the warm milk, sugar, molasses and yeast.

Mix just to combine, and allow this to sit for about 10 minutes.

The yeast will begin to activate and become foamy—if not, then you have either not made the milk warm enough, so the yeast will take slightly longer, or you have overheated your milk, killing the yeast and you will have to start again!

After the 10 minutes, attach the dough hook to your mixer, and add in the eggs, butter and second milk. Mix.

With your mixer on low, slowly add in the flour.

Mix for 10 minutes on medium speed. This will really knead your dough and give it the wonderfully soft texture that you will soon taste!

After the 10 minutes, if your dough is too sticky to handle, add in a Tablespoon at a time more flour.

It is okay if this dough is slightly stickier than most yeast dough that you make, but if it’s really stuck to the sides of the bowl, more flour will be needed!

Transfer your dough to a well-oiled bowl.

Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm room so that it can double in size—about 2 hours.

While this is happening, you may prep your filling below!

filling ingredients

Bacon, cooked—½#

Brown Sugar—6 oz, or 1 C

Butter, softened—5.5 oz, or 2/3 C

Cinnamon—1 oz, or 2 ½ TBL

Nutmeg—½ tsp

Allspice—½ tsp

filling process

In the bowl of your mixer, combine the butter and brown sugar.

Once smooth, add in the spices.

When you are ready to make the rolls, take your risen dough and put on a well floured surface.

Knead just slightly with your hands.

Roll into a large, 10” x 24” rectangle.

Spread the filling all over the rolled dough.

Sprinkle the bacon evenly on top.

Starting from the bottom, roll upwards, very tightly.

Cut into about 2” thick slices.

Place into a well-buttered baking dish.

Cover tightly with plastic wrap and stick in the refrigerator overnight to rise again.

If you are looking to make these the same day, you can let them rise out of the fridge.

The next morning, when you are ready to bake these for breakfast, take out of the refrigerator, and bring to room temperature.

If you preheat your oven to 250˚ F and let your rolls sit on top of the oven, they will warm up faster before you bake them!

When they are ready to be baked, bump your oven up to 375˚ F and bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.

Remove from the oven, allow the cinnamon rolls to cool for just a few minutes, and then either top them all with the frosting recipe below, or serve and allow people to frost their own buns!

frosting ingredients

Butter, softened—2 oz, or ¼ C

Confectioner’s Sugar—4 oz, or ¾ C

Brown Sugar—2 oz, or ¼ C

Vanilla—1 tsp

Milk—0.5 oz, or 1 TBL

frosting process

Cream together the butter and sugars.

Once combined, add the vanilla and milk.

Frost the entire tray of cinnamon rolls, or serve on the side for everyone to take as much or as little frosting for their own roll!

Bon Appétit!

Dried Fruit Granola

This is my first, of many I hope, recipe collaborations! I have been pressuring my fiancé for many, many months to make his granola recipe for me to share with everyone! Not only is this one super tasty, but also it’s so versatile! Not a huge fan of raisins? Coconut? Substitute them!

Clearly I am excited, as I have used 5 exclamation points in the last 6 sentences!

This past week has been Thanksgiving recipe testing mania. I have been working with iamduende.com creating something extra special for all of you for the upcoming holidays! Can you believe that Thanksgiving is just 2 weeks away?! Between lots of work and endless making and remaking of desserts, there’s hardly been a moment of downtime. Keep in mind that with every recipe that I am testing for this wonderful Thanksgiving special, I am taking endless bites, I mean how else am I supposed to adjust the ingredients?!

This all leads me to just feel oh so balloon-like and even slightly more wound up than usual! I then decided that with this dessert heavy season upon us that I needed to at least have a healthy snack around to munch on instead of my bowl of holiday Rollos and Hershey kisses.

So, as I unwrap my fifth Ghirardelli chocolate bar and melt it down, instead of taking a piece for myself, I instead take a handful of slightly sweet and wonderfully crunchy homemade granola! The natural sweetness in the raisin, cranberry, coconut combination along with the fillingness of the nuts make for an all around wonderful and enjoyable snack.

Feeling extra slumpy recently because you’ve been stuffing your face with any and all things that just scream hey it’s the holiday season, you must eat me! ??! Well, let’s put a slight stop to the madness with this granola!

ingredients

Canola Oil—0.75 oz, or 2 TBL

Honey—3 oz, or 1/3 C

Fresh Ginger, peeled & chopped—0.75 oz, or 2” piece

Oats—9.75 oz, or 3 C

Brown Sugar—1.6 oz, or 3 TBL

Salt—0.05 oz, or ¼ tsp

Cinnamon—0.05 oz, or ¾ tsp

Pecans, chopped—2.25 oz, or ½ C

Coconut Flakes—1 oz, or 1/3 C

Dried Cranberries—2.15 oz, or 1/3 C

Raisins—2.15 oz, or 1/3 C

Candied Ginger—2.25 oz, or 1/3 C

process

In a small saucepot, combine the oil, honey and fresh ginger.

Preheat the oven to 300˚ F.

Put on low heat and stir to dissolve the honey. Keep on low heat until ready to use.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, chopped pecans and coconut flakes. Mix.

Remove and toss the ginger from the honey mixture. Pour the honey/oil into your oats.

Mix to coat.

Spread evenly on a sheetpan that has been lined with parchment paper.

Put in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes so that your granola toasts evenly.

Once your granola is nice and toasty (you’ll be able to smell it!), remove from the oven and allow to cool.

When it has cooled, mix in your dried cranberries, raisins and candied ginger.

Store in an airtight container, and enjoy as a snack on its own, with some plain yogurt or cashew milk—my favorite!

Bon Appétit!

Apple Cider Crumb Donuts

Since moving to this truly wild state of WV, I have discovered many things that my fall obsessed self took for granted back in beautiful ol’ New England. To start, there is the issue of seasons, which hardly exist here. Yes it was 35˚ out this morning, and yes it will be 70˚ later in the week. After sweating my little butt off all summer long—April to September, that is—I was ready for some brisk weather, was being the key word. I had big plans to apple and pumpkin pick, to run around in the crunchy, fallen, beautiful leaves and to eat 10# of candy corn while watching Hocus Pocus.

Sadly, my friends, this fall plan of mine is only about 10% possible. Why of course I can eat as much candy as I want and watch all the classic Halloween films, but the true fall activities aren’t exactly doable…

Do I want to drive 2+ hours to an orchard with an 80% of rain on a Sunday? The idea doesn’t sound too appealing, so naturally I will bring my fall fun to Charleston! So, as I light my plethora of autumn candles, I can now let the fall baking obsession commence yet again!

Apple Cider donuts are something that I could easily scarf down a dozen of, guilt free. I love the tartness from the cider, the warm coziness that is jam packed from so much cinnamon, and the pie-like crumble I sprinkle on top! Pie crumble? Yeah, you saw that right. I mean, who doesn't just love anything pie, perfect for literally any time of the year and in any form. If apple cider donuts don't make your mouth water enough, the addition of a buttery crust crumbly bit sure will! These donuts are not overly cakey, but have a rich denseness that, along with my way too many candle scents, will have you thinking you’re at an orchard stuffing your face with some post-picking goodies! 

Whether you're like me, who has to make their own little fall happen, or are surrounded by haunted houses and warm cider at the pumpkin patch, these super simple, and super autumn, donuts are just another addition you can add to your fall baking obsession repertoire!

topping ingredients

Flour—7.5 oz, or 1 ½ C

Brown Sugar—1.25 oz, or 2 TBL

Cinnamon—0.1 oz, or 2 tsp

Butter (melted)—4 oz, or 1 stick/8 TBL

Apple Cider—1 oz, or 1 ½ TBL

topping process

Preheat your oven to 350˚ F.

In the bowl of your mixer, mix together the flour, sugar and cinnamon.

Slowly stream in your melted butter and apple cider just until the topping begins to form into little pebbles.

On a parchment paper lined sheet pan, spread out the crumble topping.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until they begin to lightly brown.

batter ingredients

Apple Cider—12.5 oz, or 1 ½ C

Cinnamon Sticks—2

Flour—9.5 oz, or 1 ¾ C

Baking Powder—0.15 oz, or 1 tsp

Baking Soda—0.2 oz, 1 tsp

Cinnamon—0.05 oz, or ¾ tsp

Salt—0.05 oz, ¼ tsp

Egg—1

Butter (melted)—1.5 oz, or 3 TBL

Brown Sugar—6 oz, or 2/3 C

Milk—4.5 oz, or ½ C

batter process

In a small pot, combine your apple cider with the 2 cinnamon sticks.

Allow to boil until it has reduced to half (¾ cup), and cool.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

Whisk together your egg, brown sugar and milk.

Add your melted butter to the dry ingredients and mix.

Next, add in the egg mixture, followed by the cool and reduced apple cider.

Once you have a smooth donut batter, pour into your donut pan (which should be sprayed with nonstick spray), filling up each compartment about halfway.

Sprinkle the baked crumble on top of your batter, completely covering it.

Bake your donuts for 12-15 minutes, until the outer edges are slightly brown.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Take them out of the pan and enjoy!

These apple cider donuts are so yummy with a glass of warm cider, coffee, or even on their own!

Bon Appétit!