Waffles

Since it's my birthday, I wanted to treat myself. I don't usually have big, elaborate breakfasts (especially on a Wednesday), but I do love breakfast food. Whether it's pancakes, bacon, bagels, hash browns, muffins, scones, waffles, or all of the above, I'm happy to indulge in the most important meal of the day.

On this special occasion, I decided on waffles. My mom got a waffle iron a few years ago, and I'll admit it hasn't been used often since then. However, ever since I perfected this waffle recipe, I've been making them almost every week. They are light, fluffy, and subtly sweet, which lets you pile on berries, whipped cream, chocolate chips, or any other toppings without going into a sugar coma.

As with many of my recipes, my secret ingredient is buttermilk. I'm still not sure exactly why it makes everything so good, but I'll keep cooking with it until I figure it out. Like pancake batter, you whisk the buttermilk together with the wet ingredients and then pour it into your sifted dry ingredients. I use oil instead of butter (which is probably a big no-no if you ask your local waffle expert), but I've found that if you use butter to grease your waffle iron you don't notice the difference. The oil just improves the consistency of the waffle, and why mess with a good recipe? Other than that, it's a pretty standard recipe. Just scoop it into your waffle iron--remember, it will spread a lot, so go easy on the batter--and cook until golden brown. One of my family secrets is waiting until it stops steaming; it's usually the perfect color, and that way you don't have to check it every 30 seconds.

Here in the south, it's tough to compete with Waffle House waffles, especially since they're cheap and require no cleanup. And have you tried their hash browns? Still, these waffles are amazing and totally worth the mess, though not if you decide to put blueberries in your batter. I learned the hard way that blueberries and waffle irons are a bad combination; the blueberries burn and stick and ruin your remaining waffles. Instead, just sprinkle them on top when your waffle is done. Better yet, set up a build your own waffle station with stacks of hot waffles and all the toppings you can think of. Personally, I plan on eating piles of chocolate chip waffles smothered in powdered sugar in whipped cream.

2 Eggs
1 ¾ Cups Buttermilk
½ Cup Oil
¾ tsp Vanilla
2 Cups Flour
3 T Sugar
4 tsp Baking Powder
¼ tsp Salt

Heat a waffle iron.

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together. Whisk the eggs until foamy. Add the buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, then gently fold into the flour mixture.

Grease the waffle iron. Add a few spoonfuls of batter, close, and cook until golden brown.

Makes 6-8
Recipe Adapted from www.allrecipes.com

Berry Buckle

There's nothing more patriotic than dessert for breakfast for dessert. If you aren't familiar with buckles, that's essentially what they are: a dessert version of coffee cake (which is a breakfast form of cake). As if the nutritional content wasn't American enough for you, the red, white, and blue of raspberries, cake, and blueberries will have you saying 'Murica after the first bite.

Although buckles generally only have enough cake to hold the berries together, I'm a cake girl, and I'm not going to let some silly generations-old definition hold me back. If I'm going to put all the effort into making a cake, I'm going to be able to taste it. However, if you want a traditional buckle, simply increase the amount of berries.

The cake is a basic all-American vanilla cake; it's sweet and buttery and fluffy and perfect. My secret ingredient is some good old-fashioned buttermilk, which adds some extra moisture and offsets the sweetness a little.

This isn't one of those recipes where you have to spend forever whipping egg whites to make the cake fluffy or buy expensive imported vanilla beans (though those would certainly be delicious here if you want to use them). Sometimes the best recipes are the simple ones, which is one of the many reasons why I love this cake.

Now for the berries. It is a berry buckle, after all. I recommend using any combination of blueberries, raspberries, and/or blackberries. For the 4th of July, I went patriotic and used raspberries and blueberries, but you can use whatever you happen to have or whatever your favorites are, as long as they are fresh (I highly recommend not using frozen berries unless you froze them yourself). I suppose strawberries would work as well, but one of the best parts of this buckle is biting into plump, juicy berries. You just don't get that with strawberries, though the flavors would still be delicious.

And what could make such a moist, fluffy cake even better? If you guessed streusel, you are most definitely correct. I know plenty of people who would order coffee cake just for the streusel, and if you're one of those people you might want to double the crumble recipe and just slather it on. I find that the amount I added is enough for some extra sweetness and crunch, but if you're a streusel addict you can definitely add more.

If you really want to give into your sweet tooth, you can mix some chocolate chips into the streusel, too. Dark/semisweet chocolate would go well with raspberries and/or strawberries, and white chocolate would go well with raspberries, strawberries, or blackberries.

To make the cake truly showstopping, top it with some chocolate-covered berries or a chocolate drizzle. This cake can be dressed up or down, but I know I'll be inhaling some in my pajamas while watching fireworks in just a few days!

2 1/2 Cups Cake Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
4 T Butter, Chilled & Cubed
4 T Butter, Softened
1 1/4 Cups Sugar
1 Egg
1/2 tsp Vanilla
1/2 Cup Buttermilk
Pinch Nutmeg
3 Cups Fresh Berries

Combine 1/2 cup cake flour, 1/4 cup sugar, and the nutmeg. Add the chilled butter and rub in with your fingertips until combined. Chill.

Heat oven to 375F. Line a 10" springform pan with parchment and grease.

Whisk the remaining flour, baking powder, and salt together. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the softened butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla. Add a third of the flour mixture and stir until incorporated, then add half the buttermilk. Add another third of the flour, then the buttermilk, then the remaining flour. Gently fold in the berries with a silicon spatula.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Top with the streusel and bake for 30 minutes or until golden.

Serves 8
Recipe Adapted from Alton Brown

Blueberry Almond Tart

Usually I have a freezer full of berries by now. My local berry picking place typically has one weekend where you can pick blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries all at the same time, which means I can make any berry recipe I want. However, I was traveling during that wonderful weekend, so I currently have to rely on Costco to stock my kitchen with plump, ripe, juicy berries. Costco is great and all (have you seen the massive tubs of cookie dough???), but nothing compares to picking your own berries. If you can, I highly recommend using freshly picked berries, but supermarket berries--fresh, not frozen--will suffice if necessary.

This recipe is similar to my raspberry walnut tart but with a few fairly obvious differences: it's blueberry and almond instead of raspberry and walnut. You can use raspberries or blackberries instead, but the blueberries speckle the tart with a beautiful purple-y hue that pairs nicely with the almond. Of course, you can use another type of nut instead; for example, you could switch to hazelnuts and raspberries and drizzle the whole thing in chocolate. Still, I like the elegant simplicity of the blueberry and almond combination.

It starts with a basic pie crust. You could do a nut crust, like the one I used in the raspberry walnut tart, but I find that a basic sweet crust is much faster and easier and doesn't detract much in terms of flavor. If you want to spend some extra time making a nut crust to boost the almond flavor, go ahead. On the other end of the time spectrum, you can use a pre-made crust. I, however, am addicted to my basic pie crust recipe.

The filling for this tart is a little hard to explain. It's not really a custard, but it should be somewhat creamy on the inside with a very thin, crisp top when it's finished baking. It has a slightly sweet, buttery almond flavor that is the perfect canvas for fresh berries.

The first step in making the filling is beating softened butter until it's fluffy. You then add ground almonds (a.k.a. almond flour), some sugar, and just a little bit of flour. I would normally be concerned about stirring the flour too much and overdeveloping the gluten, but there's such a small amount that it doesn't really matter. Once all of those ingredients are combined, I beat in some egg, vanilla, and a splash of rum (or any other alcohol of your choice). You have to make sure you whip it until it's light and fluffy or you'll end up with only a tiny bit of filling, and it will be too dense to enjoy. Once it's done, just spread the mixture onto your (cooled) tart shell, sprinkle it with the berries, and bake it until it's golden brown. It's a delectable summer treat, especially when you have a fridge full of berries to use.

1 Recipe Sweet Pie Crust (See Below)
5 T Butter, Softened
½ Cup Ground Almonds
⅓ Cup Sugar
1 T Flour
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp Rum
2 Cups Blueberries

Heat oven to 400ºF.

Beat the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer until fluffy. Add the almonds, sugar, and flour and beat until smooth. Add the egg, vanilla, and rum and beat on high until fluffy, 1-2 minutes.

Spread the almond mixture onto the crust and sprinkle with the blueberries, pressing lightly to adhere. Bake for 30 minutes or until just set, covering with foil to prevent browning if necessary.

For the Pie Crust:
1 ¼ Cups Flour
¼ Cup Sugar
¼ tsp Salt
1 Stick Butter, Chilled
1 Egg Yolk

Pulse the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor until combined. Add the butter and pulse until small pieces remain. Combine the egg yolk with a tablespoon of cold water and add in. Pulse until it begins to form a ball, adding more water as necessary. Chill for 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 375°F. Grease a 9-11" tart pan. Roll the dough out to fit the pan and press to adhere. Grease a sheet of foil, then press onto the dough. Fill with pie weights and bake until firm, 25 minutes.

Makes 1 Tart
Recipe Adapted from Kosher Scoop and Bon Appetit