breakfast bread Archives | butter loves company

sugared brioche doughnuts

August 11, 2016 by Butter Loves Company

Check. Check 1-2. Check 1-2-3-4.

Hello…

it’s me!

I am (honestly) in California dreaming about who we used to be. That is, food friends! Life has been quite busy lately and I’m going to blame my temporary break on the new doughnut in my life. No, I’m not talking about these sugared brioche doughnuts that I hope you’re grabbing for on the screen (they are that good, I promise). I’m referring to the newest member of the Butter Loves Company family, our precious calico kitten—say hello to Nori! She is my new kitchen assistant, contributing mostly by sleeping curled into an adorable doughnut shape. I couldn’t be happier to be her mama.

Cute cats aside, I am bursting with excitement to share this recipe with you. Imagine biting into a sweet, buttery cloud with egg-y richness and a kiss of vanilla. Sounds pretty amazing, right? That’s what you’ll get with this perfect sugared brioche doughnut recipe. As soon as I tried Thomas Keller’s recipe from Bouchon Bakery, it was game over.

If you’re thinking, “Homemade doughnuts? That seems difficult,” let’s take it step-by-step. You’ll prepare a simple dough, which is a mostly hands-off process, allowing your stand mixer to do the heavy lifting. You’ll let the dough proof for an hour and then again overnight in the fridge. You’ll roll out and cut the dough into your doughnut shapes. You’ll heat the oil and fry those pretties for just a couple minutes. Remove from the oil, let cool and toss them in vanilla sugar. Give one to everyone you see around you—well, maybe not the cats!

bourbon banana bread

September 3, 2015 by Butter Loves Company

An easy mixer-free recipe for moist banana bread spiked with bourbon for a little deep heat. One of the best banana breads I’ve ever tasted and, trust me, I’ve tasted A LOT of banana breads.

Take a look around the kitchen. Do you see bananas? Yes? How do they look? Please tell me they are so over-ripe that they are almost detaching from the stem. Now, tell me you’re ready to mash them all up and whip up a batch of banana bread!

But we’re not whipping up just any old banana bread, today. We’re taking a pit stop by the wet bar and grabbing the bourbon. Yup. We’re spiking the banana bread and it might just be the best thing you’ve ever tasted. Get ready to start buying those ’nanners just to let them get all brown and speckled. Bourbon banana bread is happening.

Greg tried to throw these bananas out. I was like umm, what are you doing..are you kidding me?!! This is peak bread ripeness! Love ya! 😉

This bread is moist with distinct banana flavor. Cinnamon and nutmeg spice up the flavor while Greek yogurt and, of course, butter add tang and richness. The kicker here is the flavor that the bourbon brings to the party. It adds this little mature spicy heat to the mix. It’s like you know as you’re biting into it that the bread has edge. Something about the whole package is just utter banana glory.

Bonus: You don’t need a mixer for this recipe.

I used Knob Creek because I had it leftover from a party. Though I bet you could use any brand without it changing the flavor too much.

It will be so easy, you’ll just mix by hand and then pop this thaaang in the oven.

One month ago: Iced Brownie Thins
Six months ago: Funfetti Pie Crust
One year ago: Spiced Pumpkin Muffins

An easy mixer-free recipe for moist banana bread spiked with bourbon for a little deep heat. One of the best banana breads I've ever tasted and, trust me, I've tasted A LOT of banana breads.

Interested in more banana bread? Check out this Brown Butter Banana Bread. It’s another one of my faves!

chocolate marble loaf cake

August 18, 2015 by Butter Loves Company

This is the kind of simple loaf you see sliced thick and domino-stacked in bakery cases. It’s sturdy with a welcomed denseness and enough sweetness to count as a casual dessert, but not so much that you feel guilty about enjoying it as a weekday breakfast ‘al desko.’ The latter is really where this chocolate marble loaf cake shines.

As the bread bakes up in the oven it cracks slightly on top so you can peek into the loaf and see swirls of chocolate and vanilla batter. With crisped edges and a moist center, this loaf is a little of everything and not too much of anything.

While it looks like you are combining two different cake batters to make this, you really only make one base batter and then jazz up half of it with melted bittersweet chocolate. Semisweet would work too, but it inclusion would yield an overall sweeter cake. If you’re wondering how to create the two-toned marble look, have no fear! There are quite a few process photos below and it is all explained in the recipe instructions.

If you’re feeling frisky, you could add a little citrus zest to the vanilla batter before you scoop it into the pan. Serve as-is for breakfast or top with whipped cream or ice cream, and preferably hot fudge, for dessert!

Here we have your two glorious batters!

Making marble magic – first scoop the two flavors into the pan.

This is the kind of simple loaf you see sliced thick and domino-stacked in bakery cases. It’s sturdy with a welcomed denseness and a little sweetness on the vanilla side swirled with rich chocolate flavor.

If you like this loaf, you should totally check out this Lemon Loaf with Lavender Glaze!

While we’re on the loaf topic, this Brown Butter Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Bread is one of my favorite loaf shaped things!

white carrot muffins

June 25, 2014 by Butter Loves Company

I’m fairly convinced New York City is home to about every food option you could ever hope for. 4:00 am waffles? No problem! Questionable street meat? You got it! Ten course tasting menu from a world-renowned chef? Well, it’s definitely there if you have a bulky wallet.

Even with no farm in sight, this past weekend we stumbled upon a market with some of the freshest produce I’ve seen outside of suburban nurseries. The Union Square market was chock full of some of the most vibrant, most reasonably priced fresh fruits, veggies, meats and eggs. One of the stands attracting a flock of photographers consisted of piles and piles of assorted, beautifully colored carrots: sunny yellow, deep purple swirled with orange and bright, bright white.

I started wondering how these multicolored carrots might work in baked goods that are generally rich with traditional carrots (e.g. carrot cake, carrot muffins, carrot soufflé). I knew that once we got back to Boston I had to find out the answer. Here is the result of my exploration.

In my opinion the white carrots have a softer flavor than the other varieties, but are perfectly delicate and sweet when kissed with a little spice. If you’re looking for a morning muffin that is ultra-light and fluffy, and not one bit too crumbly, you’ve found it. Of course, because the white carrots can be hard to come by, you can make these with orange carrots just as easily. I haven’t tried making them with the purple variety yet, but if you do, I am dying to know how they come out!

white carrot muffins
adapted from Dorie Greenspan in “Baking with Julia”

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: about 35–40 minutes
Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 white granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon table salt
2/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
3/4 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup shredded white or orange carrots (from about 3 medium)
1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup roughly chopped walnuts (optional)

Instructions:

Place a rack in the center row of the oven and preheat to 425 degrees F. Grease or line a 12 mold, standard size muffin pan with paper liners and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and both sugars until combined and free of lumps. Add the baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt and combine.
In a large glass measuring cup, or a separate small bowl, whisk together the oil, milk, eggs and vanilla extract until well combined.
Pour this liquid mixture over the dry flour mixture. With a whisk, rubber spatula or spoon, gently but quickly stir ingredients to blend, being cautious not to over mix (better to have some lumps than to over mix in this case). Gently stir in the shredded carrots, coconut, cranberries and walnuts—if using. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.
Bake at 425 degrees F for 8 minutes, then reduce heat to 375 degrees F to cook an additional 8–10 minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove and let muffin pan cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove the muffins and let cool. Enjoy warm or at room temperature. Best if eaten on the day they are made. These last a few days but their texture becomes a bit more dense the longer you wait to eat them.

brown butter banana bread, with crumble

June 11, 2014 by Butter Loves Company

I’m going to go out on a limb and say no one ever plans to make banana bread. I mean, no one ever goes to the grocery store to pick the brownest, most-speckled bananas on the display for the sole purpose of baking moist, delicious breakfast bread . . . Right?

Wrong!

Yesterday I found myself digging through the mounds of bananas at the grocery store, trying to find the most over-ripe, dumpster-bound ’nanners they had. You see, I’ve recently been stockpiling smoothie supplies, which has left me with lots of browning bananas—the byproduct of which has been excessive amounts of banana bread. So when I noticed I had one of these Dalmation-spotted bananas left in the fruit bowl this week, I didn’t want it to go to waste. And that brings us back to yesterday and the aforementioned produce section scavenge. (Disregard the fact that I didn’t want one thing to go to waste, so I went out and bought TWO MORE THINGS. My logic is sensational.)

When I got home, I thought about how—despite having made lots of banana breads in the past—I had never really found the one. Each result was pretty typical: moist, slightly sweet, lightly spiced, even-crumbed banana-y cake. Not sweet enough, too sweet, too dull, too crazy, clingy, not clingy enough . . . wait, ugh, oh right, the bread! This time I wanted to up the banana bread ante so my natural thought process looked a little like free association:

Bananas (duh)! Banana Bread (keep)! Bread! Bread and Butter! Butter! Brown Butter (ohh, yeaahh)! Butter on Pancakes! Banana Pancakes (Jack Johnson?)! Breakfast! Coffee cake (interesting . . .)! Streusel (of course)!

Sweet banana bread with a nutty depth from brown butter and a crunchy cinnamon sugar topping sounded like exactly what I needed and, I would argue, you need it too. If you’re intimidated by the sound of brown butter, stop that. You can do it. You’ll literally just heat the butter until it starts to crackle and foam. Once the crackling subsides, it will start turning golden and you’re in business! So . . . Run! Get to the store, before all the brown bananas run out!!

brown butter banana bread, with crumble
adapted from Joy the Baker

Prep Time: 30 minutes (includes browning and cooling butter)
Cook Time: 45–55 minutes
Total Time: about 1 hour 25 minutes
Makes 1 9 x 5 loaf

Ingredients:

1½ sticks (6 oz.) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-sized pieces (we will brown this in step one; it will result in a little over ½ cup brown butter)
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup light brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 large eggs, room temperature
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
¼ cup well shaken buttermilk (mine was straight from the fridge cold)
1½ cups very ripe bananas, mashed (about 3 medium bananas)

Topping:
½ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¾ cups roughly chopped walnuts (optional)
2 tablespoons (¼ stick) unsalted butter, cold and cut into ½ pieces
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt

Instructions:

In a small saucepan with a small heatproof bowl nearby, melt the butter—stirring constantly until all of the pieces have melted. About 30 seconds after the butter melts completely, it will begin to bubble and foam. You will hear crackling sounds. Continue to stir constantly. As the foam and crackling begins to subside stir constantly while paying attention to the color and smell of the butter. As soon as it gives off a nutty smell and starts turning light brown take it off the heat to prevent it from burning. Then, quickly, but carefully, pour into the small heatproof bowl. Allow the brown butter to cool at room temp (or in the fridge if you’re in a pinch) while you prepare the rest of the bread.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F with a rack in the center. Grease a 9 x 5 inch bread pan or similar sized baking dish.
Prepare the crumble: In a small bowl combine the sugar, flour, walnuts (if using), butter, cinnamon and salt. Use your hands to mix together until the butter begins to stick to the other ingredients to make chunks. Some of the mixture will stay powdery, and that’s okay. Set aside.
Prepare the bread: In a large bowl—or the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment—whisk together flour, white and brown sugars, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, vanilla extract and buttermilk. Add the mashed bananas and then the cooled brown butter.
With the mixer on low speed, add half of the egg mixture into the flour mixture and mix until combined. Add the second half of the egg mixture and mix on low until just combined. Be careful not to over mix.
Spread half of the bread batter into the prepared baking pan. Sprinkle ⅓ of the crumble on top of the batter. Top with remaining half of bread batter, using a knife or spoon to spread if needed. Top evenly with the rest of the crumb topping.
Bake bread for 45–55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to rest in the pan for 15 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy warm or at room temperature for up to 4 days.

lemon loaf with lavender glaze

April 30, 2014 by Butter Loves Company

Since, after three days, we’ve officially finished the final crumb of this bread, I thought it was time you all should know about it. Three days is actually a pretty impressive length of time, which I’ll attribute to my trying to be “good” about my sweet intake this week. I consider this a success even if only for the fact that each time I ate it I actually cut a slice and put it on a plate, rather than jabbing a fork into the loaf for a bite each time I passed its platter. (Does anyone else leave a fork on the serving plate ready for this move at any time?) If When I make this again, I’d estimate a one- to two-day counter life based on deliciousness alone.

This loaf was the result of yet another ‘Buttermilk Conundrum,’ as I like to call it. I often purchase buttermilk for a recipe that only requires a half-cup of it. Before I know it, the carton has taken up residence in my fridge until I finally realize expiration is approaching and google, “what to do with leftover buttermilk.” It’s a classic tale—a Buttermilk Conundrum.

Well my Google search was a little more targeted this time knowing I also had lemons in the fridge, it was early on a rainy Saturday morning and I much preferred to stay in pajamas than put on real-people-clothes to go to the store for anything. I found a well-reviewed Ina Garten lemon cake recipe as a starting point. Her recipe made two loaves, which we didn’t need in the apartment (see, I was being good!), so I started to tweak a little bit as I scaled the recipe down. It turned out to be quite good with a perfect bread loaf texture—moist with a tight but not-too-dense crumb. There was a noticeable citrus flavor—without it being too bitter or too tart—from the additions of lemon zest in the cake and lemon juice in a syrup spooned over the warm loaf after it comes out of the oven. I decided to call it a bread versus a cake solely to make Greg and me feel better about having it for breakfast.

Once the loaf cooled completely, I topped it with a lavender glaze to play around with some dried cooking lavender in my cabinet. It added a subtle floral note, which was a nice compliment to the citrus. If you don’t have lavender, a simple lemon glaze or powdered sugar and milk glaze would have also been super as the bread itself is the star here.

Lemon Loaf with Lavender Glaze
Adapted from Ina Garten

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: About 1 hour 30 minutes (including cool time)
Makes one 8-inch loaf

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

1 stick (¼ pound/8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1¼ cups granulated sugar, divided
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
¼ cup grated lemon zest (from about 3 lemons)
1½ cups flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon table salt
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, divided (from about 2 lemons)
½ cup well-shaken buttermilk
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Glaze:

½ cup milk
1 tablespoon dried lavender (from a food store, not a flower store)
1 cup confectioner’s sugar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour an 8 x 4 x 3 inch loaf pan (or comparable size), or coat with a non-stick baking spray.
Cream the butter and 1 cup granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time, and then the lemon zest.
In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, combine 2 tablespoons lemon juice, the buttermilk and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the batter—beginning and ending with the flour. Spoon into loaf pan, smooth the top and bake for 45–55 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes in the pan while you prepare the lemon syrup.
To prepare the lemon syrup, combine ¼ cup granulated sugar with ¼ cup lemon juice in a small saucepan and cook over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat.
Remove the cake from the pan and set it on a rack set over a tray or sheet pan. Spoon the lemon syrup over it. Allow the cake to cool completely.
To prepare the glaze, heat the milk in a saucepan over medium heat until it starts to boil. Remove the pan from heat and add the dried lavender. Let the mixture steep for 5–8 minutes then strain the milk into a small bowl or cup to remove the dried lavender. Whisk the confectioner’s sugar into the milk, a tablespoon at a time, until you get a smooth glaze. Pour or spoon over the cooled loaf.