Waffles for One

A few years ago, I read a book called Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant, a collection of essays and stories about the crazy meals we make when we're just cooking for ourselves. Cereal, beans and rice, ramen, Oreo cookies, popcorn! Often my dinner alone is whatever snack food I have around--or cheese. While I'm really good about meal prepping my lunches, something about cooking dinner just for myself is unappealing. And when it comes to breakfast, weekdays it's typically a smoothie or cereal but the weekends, I like to take a little more time to myself and usually make eggs (and I don't even really like eggs but it feels lush to spend extra time making breakfast for myself).

Maybe it's because recipes are made for large quantities that it deters us solo diners from putting in the effort. Lunch meal prep typically means eating the same thing for lunch every day of the week, something I don't mind doing but I know some people get bored and want to mix it up. And while Joy the Baker has cracked the Single Lady Pancake, which at one point I could make from memory bleary eyed pre-coffee, I'm a big fan of waffles.

Growing up, my dad would make waffles on Sunday mornings, a tradition we maintain to this day when we are together. So when he came to London a couple years ago for Christmas, a waffle iron went straight into my Amazon cart to carry on this time-honored breakfast tradition (and because it also meant bacon). And since I have the waffle iron, naturally I want to make waffles! But do you realize how many waffles you end up with, even if you halve a recipe?? A lot. You get a lot of waffles.

 

On the slightly more philosophical side of things, maybe it's not about recipe yield/quantity at all but that we're more open to putting in effort for others than for ourselves. We'll make a cake for a friend's birthday but not for ourselves. We'll host large meals but not make one solo. Put the effort into yourself because no one deserves it more! And not to be a pessimist but if I don't do it, who will? (No one, see note on solo/alone)

So now, I bring you: Waffles for One. Because #treatyourself and #selfcare definitely applies here. Spend that extra time on yourself preparing a delicious breakfast and some fresh coffee (preferably pumpkin spice). Oh and bacon. Which I didn't do here but do on my birthday.

In retrospect, you can also make a normal batch of waffles and freeze the ones you don't eat, to be toasted at a later date. But let's not ruin the magic of single portion waffles with logic...

Recipe
Yields 4 waffle squares or one giant waffle and sense of satisfaction 

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1.5 Tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• Cinnamon and nutmeg to your liking (optional) 
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 1 egg

1. Heat up your waffle iron and lightly grease
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and spices
3. In a small bowl, whisk the milk, melted butter and egg until smooth. You can also add vanilla here if you prefer
4. Stir together the wet and dry ingredients until combined. Some lumps is okay
5. Pour the batter into the hot waffle iron and cook until golden brown (usually there's an indicator light on the waffle iron)
6. Smother in syrup, berries and whipped cream. Enjoy with hot coffee or bacon while jamming out to Carly Rae Jepsen's "Party for One" and dancing around the kitchen in your pajamas

Pumpkin Apple Gingerbread Muffins

At long last, I have cracked the butter problem. It was a simple solution all along: a food scale. One of my flatmates brought one into our home and I think I'm in love. No more guessing grams or guessing tablespoons of butter! Now, I can weigh it. So I just have to be able to check my math, no biggie...

 

These muffins were meant to be a bridge from fall into the holiday season, combining the top fall flavors (apple and pumpkin) with the festive foods of Christmas (ginger and molasses). I've had to Google things in the grocery store aisle a few times in London, mostly because the aisles are organized differently (sugar is with coffee and not baking at some stores). But I've also Googled because things have different names and molasses was no exception. Instead, we have 'black treacle'.

 

The only time I've heard of treacle before was in the Harry Potter books when discussing treacle fudge. So now I can say I've baked with it and made magic--okay, that might be a stretch. The can of treacle is cute and British but is also very impractical for pouring. Treacle everywhere. Mischief not managed.

As always, cream together room-temperature butter (or in my case, gently microwaved butter) with the sugars until combined. Next, add in the eggs, vanilla, pumpkin puree (DIY recipe coming soon!), milk, and treacle (aka: molasses). I suggest using a mixer for this. Beat until everything is nice and smooth.

Stir in the spices, salt and baking soda and powder. Then slowly add the flour in, mixing gently to prevent a dust storm. Sometimes it's inevitable. Mix until no streaks of flour remain. Lastly, fold in the chopped apple. You could also add nuts to the batter if desired.

 

Bake at 350F for 20 minutes or until baked through. The batter makes 24 muffins. Allow to cool before enjoying, possibly with a good cup of tea--or coffee.

Recipe

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup pumpkin puree
• Scant 1/3 cup whole milk (or full 1/3 cup of greek yogurt)
• 2 Tablespoons treacle (molasses)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2-2 1/2 cups apples, peeled and chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line a muffin pan. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars.
3. Add the wet ingredients (eggs, vanilla, pumpkin, milk and treacle) to the butter and sugar. Mix until combined.
4. Mix in the salt, baking soda and powder as well as spices. 
5. Next, add the flour, 1 cup at a time, stirring until no flour streaks are left. At this point, I switched so a spoon instead of a mixer to minimize mess. 
6. Lastly, fold the apple pieces into the batter until evenly mixed.
7. Bake for 20 minutes until firm and cooked through.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Muffins

I think I'm sending mixed messages. I've been posting some healthy recipes, some gluten free, some sugar free, a nice variety of healthy-sounding things. These muffins are by no means 'healthy' or free from anything. They're wonderful and decadent and a great twist on fall flavors but definitely more of a good for the soul treat than a good for you treat.

That all being said, these are pushing the banana walnut muffins out of the front running spot for most popular. They also were more work intensive as they have a cream cheese filling. I haven't restocked my kitchen with all my fancy gadgets so no hand mixer blending cream cheese here. I did however buy a whisk! Officially moved in. So I let the cream cheese soften overnight instead and then it was nice and soft, easily stirred without a mixer.

 

Initially, we're keeping everything separate. Flour (the gluten-full kind), pumpkin pie spices (or if you have the store bought combination of pumpkin pie spice), baking soda and salt go in one bowl. I definitely adding baking powder by mistake. It's times like these I realize I shouldn't make muffins at 9am pre-breakfast and also adding your ingredients to different sections of the mixing bowl makes it easy to scoop out such an error.

 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, sugar and brown sugar. There's something festive about brown sugar, it's often used for fall and holiday baking so I'm all about it. Add in the eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla extract. Simple whisking will suffice here. Carefully add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture. With a stand mixer or hand mixer, you'll get a puff of flour cloud happening. With stirring by hand, you just get some flour sloshed over the sides. Either way, expect flour showers.

 

Once the flour is stirred in and you have a lovely orange batter, fill the muffin tin about 3/4 full. Before popping in the oven though, we make the cream cheese part! Mix your softened cream cheese with sugar, egg, and vanilla extract. Stir until smooth and spoon a solid dollop (scientifically speaking, a dollop is a tea-spoon amount--not to be confused with a teaspoon which is a precise unit) on top of each tin of muffin batter. Use a toothpick or knife to swirl around the cream cheese. It doesn't look pretty but it will bake and puff up nicely.

 

It's really hard to tell when these are done by poking the top because of the cream cheese. So definitely use a toothpick or skewer in the center of the muffin to confirm when they're baked through. Likely this will be 40 minutes.

 

Allow to cool slightly before consuming en masse. We aren't going for healthy here.

Recipe
Muffins

• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 15oz. can of pumpkin puree
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Filling

• 8 oz. plain cream cheese, softened
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Line a muffin tin and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree and sugar until combined. Add the eggs, oil and vanilla. Whisk until smooth again.
4. Slowly add the flour mixture into the egg mixture. You can use a wooden spoon for this, whatever gets all the flour mixed in and leaves you with a smooth orange batter.
5. Spoon the batter into the muffin tin, filling 3/4 of the way.
6. In a small bowl, stir/mix/beat together the cream cheese, egg yolk, sugar and vanilla.
7. Spoon the cream cheese mixture on top of the muffin batter. Use a toothpick or knife to swirl the cream cheese topping with the pumpkin batter.
8. Sprinkle some cinnamon sugar on top for fun, if you have some lying around.
9. Bake until cooked through and firm, about 40 minutes.
10. Makes 12-18 muffins.

 

Orange Poppyseed Muffins

As you know, my baking pan situation of late is somewhat diminished. This hasn't stopped the creation of delicious baked goods and healthy meals though! But it is hard to supplement for a muffin pan. I was hanging out with coworkers after going trampolining (it's a real thing) and somehow muffins came up and I did this impression of the Gingerbread Man from Shrek being interrogated (around 30 second mark for the muffin man bit):

It was certainly amusing to them although not everyone knew what I was talking about so it was slightly embarrassing for me. But that brought us to the old tradition of Muffin Monday where I would bring muffins to work on Mondays. Offended that I hadn't done so yet in London, I explained to them that I didn't have a muffin pan. Desperate for muffins, a colleague offered up her never-been-used-and-unlikely-to-ever-be-used muffin pan to the cause.

 

And so, Muffin Monday returns!! I've been wanting to make poppyseed muffins for awhile because lemon poppyseed is irresisitable to me but the woman who donated the muffin pan favors orange poppyseed so I was happy to oblige. It really  just involved switching lemon zest and orange zest, nbd.

 

Sugar and orange zest are combined, the basic step in making a homemade scrub (in case you were wondering). You start to smell the orange fragrance enhance immediately. Set that aside, taking some good deep whiffs first. In a separate bowl, we get the dry ingredients and in yet another bowl, the wet ingredients (butter not included yet). The dry ingredients should be in the largest bowl because we're adding everything to this. First the sugar mixture gets stirred in.

 

Then the butter is cut into the flour mixture. I no longer have a pastry cutter but a knife, fork or your fingers work just fine. Dig a little well in the flour and pour in the wet ingredients. This is where the muscles come into play. Stir and stir and stir some more (add some folding in there for good measure) until everything is combined. Don't forget to add the poppyseeds once the batter starts to take form.

 

This batter got sticky and thick the more I combined the ingredients. I could see the magic happening. One problem I have with cold cut butter is the fact that I always end up with chunks of butter that melt and cook differently than when the butter is creamed. Alas, muffins still worked their magic but it was interesting to watch them bake up in different ways as a result.

 

These didn't taste overly orangey to me, I barely noticed the citrus in the final product. But I suppose lemon poppyseed muffins can be pretty mild on the citrus front as well. If you wanted to get really fancy, you could make a citrus glaze with orange juice (or lemon juice) and powdered sugar. 

Recipe

adapted from Shutterbean

• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup Greek yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Juice from 1 orange (or 2 lemons)
• 1 cup + 2 Tablespoons sugar
• Zest from 1 orange (or 2 lemons)
• 3/4 cup of butter, cold and cut into cubes
• 3 Tablespoons poppyseeds

1. Preheat the oven to 375F (or 190C). Line your muffin tin and set aside.
2. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and zest. Stir with a fork until the zest is mixed in completely. The sugar should clump together as it takes on the moisture from the zest.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, yogurt, vanilla and juice.
4. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add the citrus sugar to the mix and stir to combine.
5. Cut in the cold butter until a coarse meal forms.
6. Create a well in the flour mixture and pour in the wet ingredients.
7. Stir in the citrus sugar. Stir until the ingredients are all mixed together and no flour is visible.
8. Fold in the poppyseeds.
9. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin, filling each cup 1/2-3/4 of the way (you can adjust on the second round for a fuller muffin if needed).
10. Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown and cooked through.
11. The recipe should make 12 large muffins but I ended up with about 30 small muffins instead.

Coconut Maple Granola

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day--or so I'm told. If I had to pick, brunch would be my favorite meal of the day. You have more time to sit and enjoy yourself, you can have a sandwich or a waffle, best of both worlds.

Weekdays are not for leasurely brunching, unfortunately. Last week, we talked about on the go granola bars. In a similar vein, let's talk about good ole granola. This granola literally got me jumping out of bed Monday morning because it smelled so good when in the oven, I couldn't wait for breakfast to roll around.

Our basic granola ingredients: oats, almonds, pecans, sunflower seeds, shredded coconut, quinoa (yes, quinoa) and spices are mixed together. Next, we need the glue. I actually bought coconut oil for once! This is melted with the maple syrup and poured over our granola base. Stir until everything is covered in the coconut-syrup mixture.

Spread out on a baking sheet and baked until toasted, you get a perfect crunch. You could also add dried fruit like cranberries or raisins to make it even more like a cookie.

I served this as-is with some almond milk but you could just eat it straight up like trail mix. What are your favorite granola additions?

Recipe

• 2 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1/3 cup quinoa, rinsed
• 1/3 cup sliced almonds
• 1/3 cup chopped pecans
• 1/3 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/3 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
• Dash of cinnamon
• Dash of nutmeg
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/3 cup coconut oil

1. Preheat the oven to 225. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the oats, quinoa, almonds, pecans, sunflower seeds, coconut, cinnamon and nutmeg.
3. In a small saucepan, combine the coconut oil and maple syrup. Heat only until the coconut oil is melted (you could also do this in the microwave if you prefer).
4. Pour the melted coconut oil and syrup over the oats mixture. Stir until all of the dry ingredients are dampened.
5. Spread mixture on the baking sheet, as evenly as possible.
6. Toast for 45-60 minutes, until crunchy.
7. Allow to cool before consuming! It's best to keep this in an airtight container so it stays crunchy. 

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Bars

Let me tell you a story about bananas. It's bananas. When I was a kid, I ate a banana and it turned my front teeth grey. And then I didn't want to eat bananas for a really long time. This was like preschool age, very impressionable. I eventually accepted that bananas aren't too bad and I buy them now but wouldn't say I really enjoy them. Deep down I know I only buy bananas and hope they aren't eaten in time so I can make banana bread.

 

But really, there must be more than just banana bread and smoothies for mushy bananas to be good for. And so we make breakfast bars with bananas as the glue to hold all the oaty goodness together. This also requires very little prep or cleanup--perfect.

 

In a food processor, combine bananas, oats,nuts, honey, vegetable (or coconut) oil, protein powder and spices. All of this will get blended together until smooth. My food processor had to woooork so it might take a few minutes and a few stirs to get it all blended.

 

The mix is then poured into a prepared 9x9 (or 8x8, let's be real) pan lined and greased with parchment paper. This will make it super easy to remove the final bars from the pan. While the base is cooking, more oats, nuts and spices are mixed together with almond milk and blueberries (or whatever fruit you prefer). This will be the topping.

 

Once the base has cooked for 10 minutes, remove the pan from the oven and add the topping. Gently press the topping into the base so everything sticks together. I forgot this step and it was still tasty but a little messy. Bake for another 15 minutes.

 

I cut these into squares and wrapped them up as a quick grab and go snack or breakfast during the week. So simple, so tasty.

Recipe

Bar Ingredients

• 2 cups old fashioned oats
• 2 ripened bananas
• 1 cup pecans
• 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
• 4 Tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 scoop chocolate protein powder (vanilla works too)

Topping Ingredients

• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds
• 1 cup blueberries
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Line a square pan with parchment paper, leaving some overhang on the edges. Lightly grease the parchment paper (the side where the batter will go).
3. In a food processor, blend together all of the ingredients for the bar. 
4. Pour mix into the prepared pan and smooth to fill all corners.
5. Bake for 8-10 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together the topping ingredients.
7. Add the topping to the pan with the bars. Gently press topping into the solid mixture.
8. Bake for another 15 minutes.
9. Remove from pan by lifting on the sides of parchment paper. Cut into individual squares for a snack on the go!