yogurt crepes with raspberry sauce

I've been looking for something new for the breakfast rotation lately. I mean, the buttermilk pancakes and french toast are fantastic, and I'm all over the eggs and grits with texas pete, but sometimes you just want something different. So I was excited to see an entire article dedicated to fresh breakfast ideas in December's Food & Wine - including one AHB will actually eat (sorry, salmon hash is *totally* out of the running here). Don't be intimidated by having to cook each crepe one at a time; if 8 minutes is really too long, get 2 fry pans going simultaneously.

Grocery list: 3 eggs, 1 1/4 cup milk, 1 cup AP flour, 3 T melted butter, 1/4 cup apricot preserves (I used orange marmalade), 1/2 cup frozen raspberries, 1 T fresh lemon juice, 1.5 cups plain greek yogurt, 3 T brown sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract.



Since the batter has to rest for 20 minutes prior to cooking, start the batter first, then make the filling. Whisk 3 eggs with 1/4 cup of the milk and a pinch of salt, then add the flour and whisk until smooth.



The batter will be thick - almost a dough-like consistency. Carefully whisk in the remaining one cup of milk and 1 T of melted butter until smooth. Allow to rest for 20 minutes on the counter (do not refrigerate).



Add the marmalade, lemon juice and frozen raspberries to a small saucepan.



Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes - as you stir it, the raspberries will kind of melt, so the entire mixture takes on the consistency of thick syrup.



For the crepe filling, mix the greek yogurt with brown sugar and vanilla extract. (This tastes almost exactly like vanilla yogurt, so I'm not sure why you couldn't substitute. I guess it depends what you keep around the house - vanilla yogurt is always "stocked" here, but not greek yogurt...)



To cook the crepes, brush a 10 inch skillet with a little of the melted butter, and heat the pan over medium heat. Pour 1/3 cup crepe batter into the middle of the pan, swirling it around quickly so the batter fills up the bottom of the pan in a very thin layer. Cook for 45 seconds or until it's lightly browned on the bottom. Flip and cook until the other side starts to brown (15-30 seconds more). Move to a parchment lined baking sheet and keep warm in the oven (stack cooked crepes between layers of parchment paper to prevent sticking). Brush the pan with melted butter in between each batch.



When all the crepes are done, assemble them to serve. Spoon a little of the filling in the middle, roll up the crepe, and top with a bit of raspberry sauce.

peach & blackberry cobbler

This isn't my Gramma's recipe, but I still think she'd approve of this well-researched version from The New Best Recipe cookbook. The biscuit topping is made with yogurt, which I've never tried before. This gives it a chewy texture, less crumbly and, well, biscuit-y, than I'm used to. I love mixing in a handful of blackberries to keep the peaches from being too sweet.

Grocery list: (filling) 2.5 pounds peaches, peeled and sliced, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tsp cornstarch, 1 T fresh lemon juice. If you're going to use blackberries, you don't need quite as many peaches - I used 5-6 peaches and a quart of berries. (biscuit topping) 1 cup AP flour, 3 T + 1 tsp sugar, 3/4 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt, 5 T cold unsalted butter (cubed), 1/3 c plain whole milk yogurt.



Start by prepping the peaches and berries and transferring to a large bowl. Stir in the sugar and let stand 30 minutes, stirring several times.



Drain the peaches and berries in a colander over a bowl. Whisk 1/4 cup of drained juice w/cornstarch, lemon juice, and pinch of salt. Toss the peaches and berries with the juice mixture and pour into 8-inch square glass baking dish. Bake about 10 minutes at 425 degrees (till peaches bubble at the edges).



While the filling is baking, make the topping by first pulsing the flour, 3 T of the sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a food processor. Add butter cubes and pulse until it has the consistency of coarse meal.



Pour into a bowl and stir in yogurt with a spatula just until it holds together (careful not to overmix). Even though the recipe called for plain whole milk yogurt, I had some vanilla I needed to get rid of and didn't have any problems.



Pull the peaches out of the oven, break the dough into 6 equal sized mounds, and place evenly apart over the filling so they aren't touching each other. Sprinkle with the remaining 1 tsp sugar, then bake at 425 degrees until topping is brown, 16-18 minutes.



Cool the cobbler on a wire rack for about 20 minutes, until it's just warm.

banana flambe french toast

Would it be completely ridiculous to admit I made such an indulgent breakfast on a weekday? Well, I did. No special occasion either. I just had 2 overripe bananas and a couple of half-stale loaves of brioche from the sale rack of the farmer's market that I had to get rid of, and a Thursday seemed as good a time as any. I've covered my yogurt french toast recipe before - it's SO easy, breakfast is done in 10 minutes, no exaggeration. This time I just made some bananas on the side. Try it and see what you think (my hungry bear said he liked it as much as the strawberry version, which is a good sign).

Grocery list: 1/2 cup yogurt, 1/4 cup milk, 2 eggs, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, butter, brioche or challah bread, a couple bananas, sugar, orange liquor (I used Cointreau), orange juice.



Make the french toast as usual. While it's cooking, melt a few tablespoons butter in a small saute pan over medium-high heat. Stir in about 1/2 cup orange juice and bring to a boil. Add the sliced bananas and a couple tablespoons sugar, and a generous splash (or 3) of Cointreau. It will simmer very quickly and turn into a nice syrup after a few minutes - just keep stirring. The longer you let it cook, the thicker the syrup will get. Pour over the french toast slices and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

strawberry pie

This pie was featured in the June 2008 issue of Gourmet magazine - and the editors raved about it. I decided to try it because (a) there's an influx of local fresh strawberries down at WF right now (b) A loves cut strawberries with desserts, so I figured he'd like this and (c) a reasonably healthy, chilled, refreshing dessert for 95-degree-Atlanta weather. The reality: the recipe took a lot longer than described, and the finished pie was gorgeous but fell completely apart when serving. Maybe it needed more gelatin to hold everything together, and maybe I should have buttered the pie pan so the crust would release a little more easily. A did love it though, and it certainly was a refreshing change of pace from heavier desserts I've made recently.

Grocery list: (crust) 1 5-oz package shortbread cookies, 2 T sugar, 2 T cold unsalted butter; (filling) 2 pounds strawberries, hulled, 3/4 c sugar, 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice, 1 envelope unflavored gelatin (2 1/4 tsp); fresh whipped cream for serving.



This crust was my favorite part. Pulse the cookies in a food processor to make fine crumbs, then pulse in sugar and butter till combined. Press the mixture in the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie pan, then bake for 15 minutes until golden. (I included the shortbread packaging in the picture below - maybe this would be a way to use up any extra Girl Scout shortbread cookies though?)



To make the filling, select 20 of the hulled whole strawberries that are all the same size and set aside (this will give the finished pie more texture). Cut the rest of the berries into 1/4-inch dice and toss with the sugar and lemon juice. Let stand for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the strawberries have released a lot of their juice.



Drain the berries into a large glass measuring cup, then add enough water till you have 2 cups of liquid. Transfer the liquid into a medium saucepan and set the diced berries aside.



Sprinkle the gelatin packet into the saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring continuously until the gelatin dissolves.



Stir in the diced berries and transfer the mixture to a bowl set inside an ice bath (I used 2 bowls - the bottom one filled w/ice packs and ice cubes, set the other bowl w/strawberry gelatin inside, then filled the empty space with cold water). Stir until the mixture begins to solidify. The recipe says this will be 20-30 minutes, but it was at least an hour for me.



Spoon 1/2 cup of the filling into the pie crust, then arrange the 20 whole strawberries (stem ends down) on the filling. Then spoon the rest of the filling around and on top of the whole fruit. Chill pie until the filling is set (the recipe says 4 hours - more like 8 for me).