Christmas Breakfast: Stollen Scones

Stollen Scones are my version of a wonderful German bread eaten at Christmastime.  Citrus enhanced dough is filled with rum soaked cranberries and raisins.  Nuts add a little crunch, and it's topped with some beautiful sparkling sugar.  Such a treat to make for your Christmas morning breakfast!

Stollen Scones

There are many holiday breads eaten around the world at Christmas such as the German Stollen, Italian Panettone, Norwegian Julekake, and Greek Christopsomo.  Today I wanted to bring the flavors of the wonderful German Stollen bread and turn them into a friendly breakfast scone using my Basic Scone Recipe.  

These scones are to die for and certainly scream holiday.  Filled with rum soaked dried cranberries and raisins, pecans, and a moist and crumbly dough that's laced with citrus flavors and cinnamon.  Theses are the perfect item to make for your Christmas breakfast, or any winter morning.  Hot scones with the flavors of the holiday will leave you wanting more!

Enjoy!

What Ingredients do I need?

• dried cranberries
• golden raisins
• dark rum
• pecans
• all purpose flour
• lemon
• orange
• sugar
• salt
• baking powder
• cinnamon
• butter
• egg
• whole milk
• sparkling sugar (optional) for the tops

Substitutions and Variations

• You can use white whole wheat flour for half of the flour amount.

• Gluten free and almond flours would work well too.

• Use shortening instead of butter.

• Use dried cherries or apricots, or dark raisins

• Use walnuts or hazelnuts or pistachios instead of the pecans.

• Add pieces of candied lemon and orange peel to the dough.  (Make sure to leave out the zests.)

• Soak the fruit in boiling water instead of rum for an alcohol free product.

Kitchen Tips and Notes

• You can make either rolled or drop scones with this dough.  I've made drop scones this time around to give them a more rustic look.

• If you roll them out try using holiday cookie cutters to shape the scones!

• Scones will keep several days on the counter or in the refrigerator.  You may also freeze them individually for later use.

• These can be "made ahead" this night before.  Make the dough and create the individual scones placing them on the baking sheets.  Place them in the refrigerator overnight and bake them off the next day.

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More scone recipes you might enjoy!
Apple Ginger Scones

Pumpkin Cranberry Scones

Simple Chocolate Chip Scones

Lemon Blueberry Scones

Strawberry Shortcake Scones

Stollen Scones

Yield: 12 scones

1/3 cup dried cranberries

1/3 cup golden raisins

1/3 cup dark rum

1/3 cup chopped pecans

3 cups all purpose flour

zest of one lemon
zest of 1/2 orange

3 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 cup butter (cold)

1 egg

1 cup whole milk

sparkling sugar

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

In a bowl add the cranberries and the raisins.  Pour the rum over the fruit and mix together well.  Allow the fruit to sit 30 minutes to soak up the rum.

Add the dry ingredients to a large bowl and combine.

Using a pastry cutter cut cold butter into flour mixture until there are pea-sized pieces of butter throughout.  Add the milk and egg and mix just until combined.  Drain the fruit from any remaining rum mixture.  Add the dry fruit to the dough and fold in until combined.

Remove the dough to a generously floured work surface and knead just until it comes together. Spray a 1/3 cup measuring cup with non-stick cooking spray.  Using the measuring cup spoon out the dough on to parchment lined baking sheets for drop scones. 

Sprinkle the top with sparkling sugar.

Place the scones in the oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown on top.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for several minutes.  Serve warm.

Sweet Peach Dutch Baby with Honey Laced Ricotta

A showstopper presentation is made when you serve this deliciously light and fluffy Dutch Baby filled with juicy ripe peaches at your next breakfast or brunch!

Yum

While it is starting to get a little crisp in the mornings it is still hot in Los Angeles during the day.  We had several days of 102 degree heat to prove it over the past week!  Being that it is still warm we are still getting in some late summer fruit which is heaven in our book! 

I walked in to the local grocery store Saturday morning to buy 1 item, chili powder, when I was suddenly hit by the most delicious fruity smell. Navigating toward that smell I was lead to a huge display of the prettiest yellow peaches.  Oh man, that smell was calling me!!!  The smell alone made me pick up 4 of them right then and there.  No bag in site, not even a cart.  So I'm toting them around looking for my favorite chili powder for dinner and off I go.  I'm going to make:

SWEET PEACH DUTCH BABY

We have an old family recipe for Dutch Babys and I laugh now remembering my mom and I trying to make one but we didn't have a 10" skillet handy.  So we grabbed an 8" skillet and I just thought it would come out thicker.....oh boy that was NOT the case! The Dutch Baby overflowed in the oven and made a mess.  Oh my, what was left was tasty but cleaning that up left me not wanting to try that again anytime soon.  But today I got up my courage once again to tackle this beauty of a breakfast.  Plus I have my 10" skillet ready to go!

Sorry, I don't want to scare you away.  It really is easy to make.  You just need to make sure you have a 10" skillet for this recipe in order for it to come out without issues.  Too much batter, or too small of a skillet and it may end up in a big mess like the one my mom and I created so long ago!

What is a Dutch Baby?  AKA a German pancake, it can be called considered an American popover.  Basically it's a large fluffy pancake.  The Dutch baby baked in the oven, in a skillet, and is usually a little thicker than most pancakes.  Plus it doesn't contain any of the additional leavening ingredients, such as baking powder, that pancakes do. A nice hot cast iron skillet causes the pancake to puff up dramatically which will slightly deflate soon after being removed from the oven.

This large, fluffy pancake is excellent for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dessert any time of the year.  All you have to do is just dump all of the ingredients into a blender, give it a good whirl, pour it into a heated skillet sizzling with butter, and pop it into the oven.  Poof! a masterpiece with emerge!

How Do I Serve this?  You can leave the Dutch Baby as is and serve if with hot maple syrup or a dusting of confectioner's sugar.  Plain and simple with do you in a pinch.  However, if you want to jazz it up then the variation of what you can do are endless. Berries and whipped cream would be fantastic.  Warm cinnamon apples would be perfect for fall.  But since the weather is still warm and I bought those luscious peaches I'm going to jazz mine up with juicy peach slices and a dollop of honey laced ricotta cheese for good measure.

Note:  Frozen fruit will work perfectly and allow you to have this dish all year round.  Make sure to thaw the fruit first if using frozen.  

What special equipment do I need?  A good 10" cast iron skillet such as this one, or a metal oven proof skillet like this one is needed to make this.  I love my cast iron skillets because they are so versatile and are perfect for the stovetop and the oven, so that's what I used.  A heavy skillet that gets really hot it a necessary component for this dish so that the pancake rises.  

NOTE:  Make sure to use a 10" skillet with this recipe so that your batter doesn't spill over the sides, (been there, done that!) or if too big it won't fill the pan correctly and rise like it should.  If you prefer to use a blender to mix the ingredients that works perfectly, but mixing them by hand is what I did and was just a simple, and I didn't have to clean the blender.

The results are in!  MGG gave a big wow when i served this on the breakfast table Sunday morning, straight from the skillet.  So that was a huge plus!  Even better was that he had several helpings.  I was very pleased with the presentation, the pancake was nicely browned with big poofy spots.  The fresh peach topping was the perfect addition for a nice late summer breakfast, and the ricotta with honey gave it just a little extra something.  Come to think of it, yogurt with honey would be nice too.

I hope you make this while the peaches are ripe and the sun is shining bright!

Enjoy!





Sweet Peach Dutch Baby

serves 6

2 cups sliced peaches (fresh or frozen, thawed)
3 tsp sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
3 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup 2% milk
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup ricotta cheese
2-3 Tbsp honey

Peal and slice peaches if fresh.  Place in a medium bowl and add the sugar and lemon juice  Stir to coat and set aside.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a 10" cast iron skillet add the butter.  Place in the oven to melt butter for about 5 minutes.  Meanwhile in a medium bowl beat the eggs until light an fluffy.  Add flour, milk and salt to the bowl and whisk until smooth and combined.

Remove skillet from the oven and immediately pout the batter into the hot skillet.  Place in oven and cook for 20-25 minutes until puffy and golden with very few wet spots.

Meanwhile add ricotta cheese to a small bowl and add the honey.  Stir to combine.    Remove skillet from the oven and fill with the peaches.  Serve with ricotta.

Rosti

Breakfast time!

You know how I love my breakfast...

I was going through my old recipes the other day and came across one from a dear friend of mine, Erika.  Erika was a strong German lady who loved life, and loved to cook.  She was the life of a party, and could tell a story in such away that she would have you rolling on the floor dying of laughter! (Don't you love people like that?)  Her food was home cooked German food that was delisous and hearty.  Big dishes, family style... just wonderful, simple food.

We lost Erika several years back and just seeing her recipes brought back all kinds of fond memories of the times we spent together.  So, to honor Erika and to have her food live on I re-created her wonderful dish called Rosti.

Rosti is a dish from the German speaking side of Switzerland.  Erika said that she got the recipe from a distant cousin.  It is typically served as a main dish for lunch or dinner, but today we are making it our breakfast...and it is just perfect!  Erika said she liked it best that way as well.  It is a dish of crispy, golden, pan-fried potatoes (shredded or cubed) formed into a wide, flat cake.  Usually topped with toppings.  Today we are using cheese, bacon, tomatoes and herbs as our toppings..YUM!

It's easy to make and hearty enough to stand alone, or add a nice piece of toasted wheat bread along side.  You will need an oven proof skillet for this recipe as you will be using both the stove top and the broiler.  I used a cast iron skillet and it worked perfectly.  

I amended her recipe just a tad taking some help from the market with frozen cubed potatoes with onions and peppers, and using an egg white to lighten things up a bit.  Oh, and a low-fat chesse helps cut down the calories as well, but you still get that cheesy goodness we all crave.   If you want to keep this original, feel free to cube up your own potatoes, throw in some onions and bell pepper and you will have the same result.  

What is your favorite way to cook breakfast potatoes?

Enjoy your breakfast!

Rosti

adapted from Erika B.

Serves 4

1 egg

1 egg white

1 medium zucchini, shredded

2 sliced of bacon, cooked and crumbled

1 t fresh oregano

¼ t salt

¼ t pepper

4 c frozen cubed breakfast potatoes with onions and peppers

3 t canola oil

½ c reduced fat cheddar cheese

1 c cherry tomatoes, halved

Preheat broiler.

In a large bowl beat together egg and egg white.  Stir in zucchini, bacon, regano, salt & pepper, and potatoes. 

In a large oven proof skillet heat your oil of medium high heat.  Spread the potato mixture in the skillet evenly.  Cook for 8-10 minutes, or until bottom is browned.   Place the skillet under the broiler about 5 inches from the heat and broil 2-3 minutes until the top becomes firm and browned.   Top with cheese and broil for 1-2 minutes more or until cheese melts.

Top with tomatoes and extra oregano.  Cut into 4 sections and serve immediately.

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