Buttermilk Pancakes

I made some fun rainbow pancakes for the kids the other day. I have seen pictures of them before and always thought they looked really cool - and they are! The kids loved them. I made them with my favorite from-scratch pancake recipe. It is a version of the IHOP recipe that I found years ago. They are yummy with fresh blueberries added, but almost better plain. My family thinks they are the best!

Buttermilk Pancakes

Printable recipe here

1 1/4 cups flour

1 egg

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 cup canola oil

pinch of salt

Preheat your skillet over medium heat. Blend all of the ingredients until smooth. Spoon approximately 1/3 cup of the batter onto the skillet. When the edges appear the harden and the bubbles pop at the edges, flip the pancake. Cook on the other side for the same amount of time. - If you add blueberries, you might have to flip a couple times to cook evenly in the center.

If you want to make the rainbow pancakes, start by doubling the recipe. Then, divide the batter into 6 bowls. Add the correct food coloring to each bowl and then stir to get the shade you like. I used a 1/4 cup to drop the batter instead of a 1/3 cup. It makes a little bit more of a mess - but it is fun!

Best Cinnamon Rolls!

I started making cinnamon rolls when I was 15. I got a job at a little bakery and learned how to make them from scratch. They are great and I haven't wanted to try any other recipe until I found the Pioneer Woman blog. Her cinnamon rolls are her top rated recipe and they get such great reviews. I knew I had to give them a try.

So, for Fathers Day I made them & I love them. I don't know if I can go back. They are amazing. They make A LOT of rolls, I made 6 tins full (I froze 2 for later.) The dough is light and just melts in your mouth. The frosting is what made it absolutely sinful. I felt like I had made the best donuts ever, it tasted just like donut maple frosting.

It is nice also because you make the dough the night before and then roll them out in the morning. It took me about an hour and a half in the morning from start to bite! I will be making these many more times & can't wait to try them out of the freezer!

I am linking to Pioneer Woman for this recipe. She has amazing step-by-step instructions for you! The only difference I made was not adding the coffee in the frosting, it didn't need it!

Best Cinnamon Rolls Ever!

Pioneer Woman Recipe
Yum!!
Don't they all look pretty!!

Don't skimp on the frosting!!

Orange Oven French Toast

This is what I woke up to on Mother's day. Yes, my hubby is awesome. He is a great cook and specializes in breakfast food. For some reason he can flip a pancake way better than me! He did such a good job with this breakfast, especially since we had to be to church at 8:30 in the morning!

This meal is made the night before and then put in the fridge until baking, so those busy mornings are made a little easier. I love it because you get a pan full of french toast all at once so the family can actually eat together! They are so good and have a light orange flavor.

Orange Oven French Toast

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup honey

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

6 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup orange juice

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp. grated orange peel

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

16 slices toast (we like french bread)

2 oranges, sliced

In a small bowl, combine the butter, honey and 2 tsp. cinnamon, mix well. Pour the mixture evenly into 2 ungreased 15x10x1-inch baking pans (cookie sheets).

In a medium bowl, slightly beat eggs. Add the milk, orange juice, sugar, orange peel, salt and cinnamon. Mix all the ingredients well. Dip the bread into the egg mixture and place into the baking pans. Pour any remaining egg mixture over the bread. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Bake the toast for 10 minutes, then flip and bake for another 10 minutes. Serve with some orange slices!

Apple Blintz Pancakes

Did you know last week was National Pancake Week? I didn't realize it until the weekend and so I decided to celebrate! I searched for something different and found an awesome recipe on myrecipes.com. They are blintzes, which means they are a thin pancake and are usually filled with something. They are right in between a pancake and a crepe. They were so good! I doubled the recipe and my family ate every last one of them. They were raving and raving about them throughout the entire meal. I will definitely be making these again soon!

Apple Blintz Pancakes

1 cup pancake mix

1 egg

1/4 cup cottage cheese

1 cup milk

1 Tbs. vegetable oil

1/4 cup sour cream

2 apples

applesauce

cinnamon

Whisk together the egg, cottage cheese, milk, oil and sour cream. Add in the pancake mix and whisk just enough to combine. Let the batter rest for about 5 minutes.

While the batter is resting, cut the apples into thin wedges. Spray a pan with cooking spray and cook them over the oven on medium. They will look like this at the beginning, so pretty...

Let them saute' for a while - keep turning them every couple minutes. Sprinkle cinnamon on top and cook them until you are happy with their texture. I wanted mine cooked well, but not completely soft. This is what mine looked like after cooking...

While the apples are cooking, spray a nonstick griddle or skillet and turn onto medium-high heat. Spoon about 1/3 cup of batter for each pancake onto the griddle. Flip over when bubbles rise to the surface and the edges look cooked.

Fill each pancake with a spoonful of applesauce and a couple of cooked apples. You will love them!

French breakfast Puffs

I was looking for a new recipe to make for the kids for breakfast this week. It is their first week of school and I am trying to send them off with a homemade breakfast (at least for this week!) I needed to find something I could make fast and something everyone would like. Wow! This recipe is just what I was looking for! My kids devoured them and then fought over them after school. They have already requested them again. I love it when I find a winner!

French Breakfast Puffs

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup shortening

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

topping

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

6 tbls. melted butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease your muffin pans. I made 24 mini-muffins, but you could make regular muffins instead.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. In a separate bowl, cream together the sugar and shortening. Add the egg and mix well. Stir the flour mixture into the shortening mixture alternately with the milk.

Spoon the mixture into your muffin pan. I used a large spoon to drop the batter into my new $4 pan from Wal-mart! I LOVE mini muffins! Bake the muffins for approximately 15 minutes, or until they are golden on top and a toothpick comes out clean. Just watch your oven.

While the muffins are baking, melt the butter in a bowl. In a separate bowl combine the sugar and cinnamon for the topping. When the muffins are done baking, remove them from the pan and immediately dip them into the butter...

and then into the cinnamon-sugar mixture. They were so hot & smelled so good!

Serve them warm with a side of scrambled eggs. Delicious. I think I am making them again in the morning.

Panukakku

Yeah, it's a funny name. This recipe is also known as mock waffles & german pancakes. But we call it this because my brother-in-law taught us the Finnish name. We thought it was funny and it has stuck.

My kids LOVE this dish. Honestly, there was a time a while back when I refused to make it anymore because I was so tired of it. They would ask for it everyday - and for every meal. I probably shouldn't complain, it is really easy to make. It takes about 5 minutes to whip it together and 20 to cook. Not bad!

Here is how you make it -

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. While you are pre-heating, melt 1/4 cup (I use a little less) of butter in a 9x13 pan.

Beat together -

6 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup flour

3 Tbls. sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

It is okay if it is the batter is lumpy, mine always is! When the butter has melted in the pan, remove it from the oven.

Pour the batter into the pan with the melted butter and bake for 20 minutes.

The best part of this dish is watching the batter rise as it cooks. You should end up with some really high sides - my kids fight over them! We love to eat it with some strawberry freezer jam and powdered sugar, Yum!

Pull Aparts

This one is good, really good.  This is what I have eaten every Christmas morning since I was a little girl.  And now our family has made it a tradition for Easter and birthdays also, we can't wait to eat it!  Pete asked for this for Father's day and so we just had some again...yummy.

There are other names for this recipe, some people call it Monkey bread or sticky buns.  We call it Pull Aparts because you pull the gooey rolls apart.  But really, we should call it "Rip Aparts" because they get ripped apart so fast they are gone before you know it!  In fact, I didn't get my camera out quick enough and this is all that was left after everyone loaded their plates.

Pull Aparts

1 bag frozen rolls (about 24 rolls)

1 small vanilla non-instant pudding

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional, but really great!)

1 stick melted butter

Separate the frozen rolls and line them up into a greased bundt pan.  Melt the butter and pour over the rolls.  Then combine the pudding, brown sugar and nuts in a bowl.  After they are mixed, sprinkle evenly over the rolls - like the picture above.

Leave them uncovered on the counter all night long so the dough can rise.  When the rolls have risen well, bake it at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Invert it onto a platter and enjoy!!  
Be careful when inverting onto the platter - all the good gooey drippings come out then, so you don't want to waste any of it!  Seriously, my family watches to make sure none drips onto the counter!