Design Your Breakfast Big!

If there is one meal I think most about in a day, it would be breakfast. Breakfast is the best, especially on weekends. For me, I like to make my breakfasts big. Pancakes, sausage or bacon, scrambled eggs, coffee, juice- ah!

Perhaps I like the feelings that go with it. A relaxed state a mind, sipping coffee, enjoying conversation, and hopefully watching the sun come up. It really sets the day off right.

The best way to start the day

There are lots of sayings for breakfast. My favorite is “Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper”.

Pancakes

By far, pancakes are tops for a big breakfast. I like my homemade recipe. It makes delicious pancakes and the recipe is easy to double or triple.

Pancakes- Michele Bruxvoort

Ingredients

• 1 cup milk 1% or better
• 2 tbsp. vinegar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 egg

Directions

Add the vinegar to the one cup of milk and let sit for 15 minutes, this will give the vinegar enough time to sour the milk. Soured milk will look clotty, clumpy- you want that!

Next take the flour, baking powder, sugar, baking soda, salt, and mix them together in a bowl. Add to it the soured milk and one egg. Mix well. Once you see bubbles develop on top of your mix, pour onto a well-greased, hot griddle and cook till they rise and are bubbly, flip and cook the other side. Serve with your choice of syrup, berries, chocolate chips, and fresh whipping cream.

French toast

Another breakfast great is Baked French Toast. I got this recipe from one of Brad’s cousin’s wife. We had stayed overnight in Boyden, IA on our way out west in 2007, and this is what they served us for breakfast.

Baked French Toast- Denise Blankers

Ingredients

• 1 loaf of bread- you will use approximately 12 slices
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine- BUTTER IS BETTER!
• 2 tbsp. corn syrup
• 5 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp. cinnamon

Melt brown sugar, butter, and syrup together. Pour into a 9×13 pan. Lay together two slices of bread on top of the melted sugar mixture, filling in the pan. It should give you 6 double stacked baked French toast pieces.

Beat together your eggs, milk, and cinnamon, pour this mixture over top the bread slices in the 9×13 pan. Cover and refrigerate for 2- 24 hours. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes, UNCOVERED. Cool 10 minutes before serving. This makes an excellent breakfast item! Very filling. Great to serve with scrambled eggs. Wonderful cold as well.

Sweet Rolls

I don’t think I can write an article about breakfast without mentioning sweet rolls. Cinnamon sweet rolls or caramel sweet rolls- either one is a hit! Searching for quite some time for a good sweet roll dough recipe, I finally came across a great recipe from Becky Van Hulzen. This recipe is a winner. You can use the dough for bread, tea rolls, buns, or cinnamon roll dough. Enjoy this one! It does make a large amount of dough.

White Bread/Buns/Rolls Recipe- Becky Van Hulzen

Ingredients

• 6 tbsp. sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp. yeast (2 envelopes)
• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup lard or Crisco- GO WITH LARD
• 6 cups flour- separate into 2 cups and 4 cups
• 3 cups warm water- 110 degrees

Directions

Take 2 cups flour, salt, yeast, sugar, oil, and lard or shortening and place them in a large mixing bowl (I, Michele, like to use a Tupperware That’s a Bowl – affiliate link). Add to the contents in the mixing bowl 3 cups of warm water and mix together till it begins to bubbles.

Continue and add the remaining 4 cups flour, stirring it by hand until sticky; then knead the dough well on a floured surface for 5 minutes, you may need to add more flour as you knead.

Once kneaded, place your dough into a grease your bowl, cover, and let rise. I usually try 20 minutes for each rising and keep the air moist and warm. Punching down twice before forming loaves, tea rolls, buns or cinnamon/caramel rolls. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

If you are making these into cinnamon or caramel rolls, you will roll out your dough into a rectangle on a well-floured surface, spread butter on the dough followed by a mixture of sugar and cinnamon:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 tsp. cinnamon

Sprinkle this on top of the butter, roll up your dough starting with the long side. Cut log into 12/24 pieces (depending on if you’re using all the dough for cinnamon/caramel rolls) * If you’re making caramel rolls you will need to make the caramel sauce (recipe below) and pour it into the 9×13 and then place the cinnamon roll dough slices on top, letting it rise once before baking at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. * If you’re making cinnamon rolls, after slicing up the cinnamon roll dough, spray your 9×13 and place the dough slices in the bottom of the pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

Caramel Sauce for Cinnamon Rolls

This is the BEST recipe for caramel. It will only make enough sauce for one 9×13 pan, so if your planning on making all the dough for caramel rolls then you must DOUBLE this recipe.

Ingredients and Directions

Put into a microwave safe bowl:

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 stick butter
• 2/3 cup vanilla ice cream

Bring all the ingredients to a boil in the microwave- about 3-4 minutes. Stir well and then pour into 9×13, placing dough slices on top, raise and then bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

Well, at least that’s a start to breakfast. Tune in next week when I devote a whole article to bacon! Till next time, here is to good food, good friends and a good life!

Need more Recipes to Design your Next Big Breakfast click here

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