Breakfast Recipes

Hot Cross Buns Recipe

English hot cross buns are scented with allspice and baked with dried currants and candied citrus peel. The buns are traditionally enjoyed for breakfast on Good Friday, but that doesn’t keep me from baking these all year round. It’s ready in about three hours so it’s quick as far as yeast rolls go.
The dough is [...]

Ensaimada – Filipino Cheese Brioche

Edam cheese is essential for making ensaimada. Filipinos know it best as queso de bola, bowling balls of cheesiness covered in a protective shell of red wax. These big-as-your-head cheese balls always made our dinner table during christmastime. We have this tradition of rounding up thirteen different types of spherical fruits to symbolize prosperity for [...]

Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread – 100% Whole Wheat

Sweet and fragrant cinnamon raisin walnut bread is a breakfast option worth waking up for. With all of the fruits and toasted nuts in the loaf, a generous slice is satisfying enough on its own. The center is filled with molten cinnamon sugar but you can leave it out if you prefer a less sweet [...]

Applesauce Spice Cake

When it’s so cold outside that a hot oven is no longer effective in raising the temperature, bake something with spices in it. Cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg give a sense of comfort and warmth in this recipe for spiced applesauce cake. Served with a hot mug of spiced whatever, preferably heavily spiked with alcohol, it [...]

Cranberry-Walnut Bread

Heavy on cranberries and walnuts, bejeweled strips of dough barely held itself together as I tried to make a braid out of it. It didn’t seem like the freshly kneaded ball could take the large amount of dried fruits and nuts, but sure enough, everything came together as advertised after a few folds.
As you can [...]

Cranberry Drop Scones

Tender and flaky mounds are studded with chewy dried cranberries in this simple scone recipe that comes together in minutes (once all of the ingredients are at room temperature, that is). The scones are light and airy with just enough sweetness to keep yourself from puckering up as you bite into the tart cranberries.
Cranberry drop [...]

Blueberry-Cranberry Bread

This blueberry and cranberry loaf is based on a recipe for “election day bread,” which originally had raisins, candied citrus, and spices. Considering its name, doesn’t it make more sense studded with reds and blues?
But since blueberries are in season during the warmer months and cranberries during the cooler months, this combination doesn’t make sense [...]

Calabaza en Tacha – Candied Pumpkin and Guava

Calabaza en tacha is traditionally served during the Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations but it’s never a bad idea anytime fresh pumpkins are available. Lightly spiced and intensely sweet, it can be enjoyed on its own as a light snack, as a breakfast item with milk, or as a dessert with plain vanilla ice [...]

Pumpkin Quick Bread – Whole Wheat with Walnuts

If you happen to have some leftover pumpkin puree, chances are, you’ve already made something sweet or otherwise indulgent. Using whole wheat flour and just enough enrichments to make a firm batter, this pumpkin bread adds some much needed balance and nutritional value to the pumpkin-centric diet.
You could, of course, forget about counting calories, toast [...]

Pan de Leche – Filipino Sweet Bread Rolls

Pan de leche is a Filipino sweet bread that has many regional variations. As far as I know, any yeasted bread baked with milk and sugar can be labeled pan de leche, but I have a very specific idea of what it is supposed to be like. It will be dense and feel heavy for [...]

Shanghai Red Bean Crêpe

Pureed red bean paste is wrapped in a thin blanket of crisp-fried crepes in this sweet Shanghai classic. Traditionally served on its own, toppings such as toasted sesame seeds and light syrups are certainly welcome. My favorite addition is Japanese kinako, an aromatic flour of roasted soybeans, adding a subtle nuttiness that always plays well [...]

Pumpkin Seed Cream Scones

Cream-based scones are as quick and easy as scones can get. This recipe requires nothing more than cream and any combination of dried fruits and nuts of your choice. There is no waiting for butter to soften at room temperature. There are no eggshells to crack and fish out of your pyrex. It takes about [...]

Old-Fashioned Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes

Studies conducted on yours truly have shown that whole grains are beneficial to one’s health particularly during breakfast, the most important meal of the day.* One noteworthy perk is improved appetite control until the daily ritual colloquially referred to as “lunch,” usually partaken of between 1200 and 1300 hours. This effect is attributable to complex [...]

Pane al Cioccolato – Italian Chocolate Bread

I grinned like an idiot as I lifted the dark brown loaves from the charred baking stone with bare hands. The soft crust smiled back with its wide open slashes, a sight that every bread maker hopes for upon opening the oven door. It didn’t matter that my calloused fingertips started to burn or that [...]

Homemade Yogurt

I often make substitutions and adjustments to make recipes work for ingredients already available in my pantry. I rarely follow recipes even when baking, where precise measurements and specific ingredients matter a bit more as compared to season-to-taste cookery. Some tweaked recipes turn out fine while others get filed in the “meh” or “time to [...]

Pumpernickel Bagels

This is pumpernickel in the American tradition where a little help from wheat flour (for structure) and molasses (for color) are added to coarsely ground rye flour. The dark color characteristic of German pumpernickel breads is achieved through the Maillard reaction where loaves are cooked low and slow for 16 to 24 hours. This baking [...]

Pan de Sal – Filipino Salted Bread Rolls

Pan de Sal with a pan-fried quail egg

The local bakery was a two mile bike ride from my house in the Philippines. Shortly after the first mile, the humid weather thickens the aroma of freshly baked pan de sal that even on an empty stomach, I am able to sprint quickly up the hill where [...]