your thanksgiving breakfast and a giveaway winner

The older I get the more I love and long for the holidays. Any excuse I can get to have my whole family in one place eating together, I’ll take it. But I have never been a huge lover of Thanksgiving {something about stuffing yourself silly on foods that are only ‘good’ because you have them once a year – if they were truly that good wouldn’t you eat them more than just once? – has never been that appealing to me}. For some reason I can’t wait for it this year! And this is what I hope to be eating for breakfast, pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes with vanilla whip cream.

This recipe is barely even a recipe its so simple {thank you Trader Joes} so its the perfect thing to make the morning of a marathon day of cooking. You should probably put it on your Thanksgiving menu too, you will not be sad you did.

Warning: this recipe is anything but exact so if you have a phobia of recipes that tell you to use your best judgement, its time to be brave, you can do it.

Ingredients

Pancakes
Trader Joes Multigrain Pancake Mix {or any pancake mix but this is THE BEST}
Eggs, Oil, Milk {amount varies depending on how many pancakes you are making}
1-2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
~1/3 of a 15 oz can of pumpkin {for 6-8 pancakes}
chocolate chips for sprinkling

Whip Cream
Heavy Whipping Cream
Vanilla
Powdered Sugar

Directions

Prepare pancake mix according to the directions on the box, whisk in pumpkin until smooth. If you need to add a little extra milk to bring it back to batter consistency {you want it to be easily pourable but not too runny}. Heat a pan over medium heat, use a little butter or non-stick spray so pancakes don’t stick. Pour pancake batter into pan and sprinkle {generously} with chocolate chips. Flip pancakes when the underside is golden brown and the top begins to bubble. Let pancakes finish cooking and serve hot with a giant scoop of vanilla whip cream.

For the whip cream, pour whip cream, vanilla and powdered sugar into bowl use a mixer to whip the cream until it looks like something you would want to put on pancakes. {The specific amount of vanilla and powdered sugar is up to you, I like mine super vanilla-y  and slightly sweet.}

Happy Thanksgiving Morning!

And now for the giveaway winner!

Congratulations! You will be contacted by me via email with details on how to pick your prize!

Thank you all for entering and spreading the word about my shop. I’ve already had to re-stock and will continue to do so over the next couple of weeks!

I am giving myself a little Thanksgiving Vacation so have a happy holiday and I’ll be back next week!

starbucks knock-off: maple nut scones

I spent the better part of my working life at Starbucks. What started out as just a college job turned into something that felt like a forever job. While I was there I saw a lot of products come and go – for some reason the ones that went always happened to be my very favorite! So I’ve had to take matters into my own hands and make some of them myself. For example, the Maple Nut Scone. They just have a fally-wintery feel  that I have been craving the last couple of weeks so I made a batch and as far as I can remember, they were a match! Ahh, Maple Nut Scones, how I’ve missed you.Starbucks Maple Nut Scones
via Eating Out Loud

Ingredients

{Scones}
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup oatmeal, finely ground
1/2 cup oatmeal, coarsely ground
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup chilled butter
1 beaten egg
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 chopped pecans

{Egg Wash}
1 beaten egg
1 Tablespoon heavy cream

{Maple Glaze}
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons heavy cream
1 Tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon maple extract

Directions

{Scones}
In a large bowl, dry ingredients, cut in butter until pieces are smaller than the size of peas. Stir in the chopped pecans. *Because I hate cutting in butter I use a food processor for the entire scone process. I start by grinding 1/2 c oats finely, add the rest of the dry ingredients (reserve pecans for later) along with the butter cut into small cubes. Pulse a few times and the butter is perfectly incorporated. 

In a small bowl, stir together heavy cream, egg, and maple syrup. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not over mix the mixture. Stop when the liquid is absorbed and the dough is just coming together. *If you chose to use a food processor I pour the wet ingredients in and stop as soon as the mixture comes together. Add the pecans now and knead together. 

Empty dough on to a floured surface and knead until it holds together. Pat the dough in to a circle about 1 1/2″ thick and cut into 8 wedges. Place scones onto a greased cookie sheet. Brush tops and sides with egg wash. Bake at 375F (190C) for 20 minutes. 

While the scones bake, mix glaze. Start with powdered sugar, maple extract and maple syrup. Slowly add heavy cream until the glaze reaches your desired consistency – you may not use all of the cream. After baking, allow scones to cool on a cooling rack for about 5 minutes. Glaze while still a little warm so glaze melts into all the cracks and crevasses. Let glaze harden slightly before eating.

*My pregnant brain always wants to make me think that eating two scones is a good idea. It’s not. I rarely give in and listen to it but the way I get back is to cut the scones in half before baking making 16 small scones instead of 8 large ones. That way I can still eat two! And they some how disappear a lot slower when there are twice as many. There is still time to enter this week’s giveaway!

double coconut muffins

I LOVE LOVE LOVE coconut. Not so much artificially flavored coconut, but real coconut is one of my all time favorite flavors! These double coconut muffins are absolutely amazing! Not too sweet, so moist and with a delicious toasted coconut topping. I could eat them for breakfast, second breakfast, lunch and dinner, oh, and probably dessert too! This recipe comes from one of my very favorite food blogs. In fact, I think Smitten Kitchen is the first blog I had ever read. I get some of my favorite recipes from her site, if you’ve never visited you should check it out.She also recommended using parchment paper squares in lieu of muffin cup liners. I tried it and I may never regular liners again! Just cut 5″ x 5″ squares of parchment paper, crease the paper around the outside of each cup and fill with batter. The parchment paper peels away so easily, much less messy than the regular liners. And I love the way they look – like they came from a bakery! If you do choose to go the parchment paper route I would recommend piping the batter into the cups. It helps avoid the messy frustration of bits of burnt muffin all over the corners of the paper.Double Coconut Muffins
recipe via Smitten Kitchen
Again, if you have never visited Deb’s blog you should definitely check it out! 

1/2 cup coconut oil
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup greek yogurt
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 sweetened shredded coconut

*It helps if the yogurt and egg are at room temperature to maintain a batter-like consistency. If they are cold, the muffins will still turn out, the coconut oil will get firm up and make the batter hard to mix

Preheat oven to 375. Warm coconut oil until just melted either on the stove or in the microwave – it will liquify quickly. Mix together flours, baking powder, salt and 1/2 cup of shredded coconut. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg, sugar, melted coconut oil, yogurt and vanilla. Mix into dry ingredients until combined. Fill muffin cups, sprinkle reserved shredded coconut and bake at 375 for about 20 minutes. Begin checking after 15 minutes, muffins are done when a tester comes out clean. Transfer to a rack to cool.

This is another great recipe to keep in the fridge in a ziploc as described in my poppyseed muffin post.