Bacon and Gruyère Muffins

Maybe it's time for something a little different. Savory. Unexpected. Something with bacon.
These have the craggy look of a biscuit, but the tender crumb of a muffin. Gorgeous pockets of melted nutty Gruyère cheese and yummy big bits of smoky, salty bacon make an elegant but very satisfying breakfast package. Serve 'em with eggs, fruit and cocoa. Or grab one for a breakfast-on-the-go. Whatever you choose, these are just the thing. Everything's better with bacon.
Bacon and Gruyère Muffins (print recipe)
8 thin slices smoked bacon
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 T sugar
1 T baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
4 T unsalted butter, melted*
1 cup milk
2 T sour cream or plain yogurt
3/4 cup finely diced Gruyère or Swiss cheese (about 3 to 4 ounces)

1. Preheat oven to 400. Grease 11 standard muffin cups with butter, spray or paper liners. In a frying pan over medium-high heat, cook the bacon slices until crisp, 6-8 minutes, turning as needed. Using tongs, transfer to paper towels to drain. Let bacon cool, then crumble. Set aside.

2. In a bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

3. In another bowl, whisk together the egg, melted butter, milk and sour cream until blended. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and stir just until evenly moistened. The batter will be slightly lumpy. Using a large rubber spatula, fold in the bacon and cheese just until evenly distributed, no more than a few strokes. Do not overmix.

4. Spoon the batter into each muffin cup, filling it level with the rim of the cup. Bake until golden, dry and springy to the touch, 20 to 25 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Unmold the muffins. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 11 muffins

*For added bacon flavor, hello, replace 2 T of the melted butter with 2 T of the bacon fat.

Recipe from Williams-Sonoma Muffins

Light Whole Wheat Bread (with BONUS Strata Recipe!)

Unfortunately, after three renewals, my time with The Bread Lovers' Bread Machine Cookbook was up and I had to return it to the library. But not before I had made a few loaves, and copied some recipes for future.

I made this delicious loaf one night, thinking to use it for dinner sandwiches. But when several fixings were lacking, I regrouped and went for a strata. I used part of this, part store-bought sandwich bread in the strata, then sliced up the rest of this to eat on the side, with blackberry jam. What a great, flavorful, substantial-but-not-heavy basic loaf - definitely a keeper for that bread machine cookbook I'm going to write someday...

Light Whole Wheat Bread (print recipe)
1 cup water
1 large egg
2 T vegetable or nut oil
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3 T dry buttermilk powder
2 T dark brown sugar
1 T gluten
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast

Assemble ingredients in the order suggested by bread machine manufacturer. Choose a medium or dark crust setting, BASIC cycle. When it is done, remove immediately to wire rack and cool to room temperature before slicing.

Recipe from The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook by Beth Hensperger

Skillet Strata with Sausage and Gruyere (print recipe)
1 T butter
8 oz. raw, crumbled breakfast sausage (we used elk sausage because, sigh, that's what we have)
1 onion, minced
Salt and ground black pepper
6 large eggs
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 tsp fresh minced thyme
1 cup shredded Gruyere or Swiss cheese
5 slices high-quality sandwich bread, cut into 1-inch squares

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Melt butter in 10-inch ovensafe nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, swirling to coat skillet, until foaming subsides. (*The only 10-inch skillet I have is cast iron, so I just used it and it didn't stick much.) Add onion, sausage and 1/2 tsp salt and cook until onion is softened and sausage is browned, about 6 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk eggs, milk, thyme, and 1/4 tsp ground pepper together. Stir in cheese and set aside.

3. Add bread to skillet and, using rubber spatula, carefully fold bread into onion mixture until evenly coated. Cook bread, folding occasionally, until lightly toasted, about 3 minutes.

4. Off heat, fold in egg mixture until slightly thickened and well combined with bread. Gently press on top of strata to help it soak up egg mixture.

5. Bake until edges and center are puffed and edges have pulled away slightly from sides of pan, about 18 to 25 minutes, and serve.

Recipe adapted from The Best 30-Minute Recipe by the Editors of Cook's Illustrated Magazine

Quiche Lorraine

I nabbed this one off my friend Lindsay's blog awhile back when she did a recipe week of all her go-to favs. It sounded sooo good and I just happened to have two frozen pie crusts in my freezer (from the Peach Cobbler crust incident.) This is so easy, it's like Quiche for Dummies. But it's delicious - one of those greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts dishes. We had ours, as recommended by Lindsay, for dinner with green salad and crusty bread. And when your kids complain that there's green stuff and refuse to eat it for dinner, well then there's just more leftover quiche for your breakfast. And more lemon ice cream for your dessert since they won't be having any of that, either.

Unfortunately, Lindsay's recipe made a bit too much for my pie shell and some of it overflowed in the oven - burnt egg smell, eew. So I made a note on my copy of the recipe to slightly decrease some ingredients - next time I will probably use 3 eggs, 1 1/8 cup milk and 1 or 1 1/4 cups cheese just so it will fit better. Enjoy!

Quiche Lorraine (Lindsay's Recipe)

1 1/2 cups milk

4 eggs, slightly beaten

2 T onion, chopped fine

1/2 green pepper, chopped fine

1/2 tsp salt

dash of cayenne pepper

1/2 lb. bacon, crisply cooked and chopped

1 1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese

2 tbsp flour

1 9-inch unbaked pie crust

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine milk, eggs, onion, green pepper, and seasonings; mix well. Toss cheese with flour. Add cheese mixture and bacon to egg mixture. pour into pie crust. Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes. Serve with a big green salad and toasted crusty bread.

Recipe from Lindsay and Company

Ham and Swiss Stromboli

Stromboli is simply Italian bread dough rolled with fillings and sliced to serve. It can contain anything you can think of. Or it can be perfect in its simplicity, like this ham and swiss.

I was just looking for something easy, and different, to do for dinner. And I love when I can make my bread machine do the work. My kids love bread of course, and I thought I might manage to sneak a tad of protein into their systems without too much fight. It was a success. We had this "bread" with jam and salad and everyone ate it up.
Then after dinner as I looked at the half loaf remaining I started to realize this had real potential! Toasted for breakfast with an egg on top! Or hey, toasted for anytime with more cheese on top! Or how about dipped in egg batter, grilled like French toast, and sprinkled with powdered sugar and jam like a Monte Cristo! Also great for picnics, lunches, late night snacks. Yum. Yum. Yum.

3 cups bread flour
1 cup warm water (100 to 110 degrees)
1 T nonfat dry milk
1 T olive oil
2 1/2 tsp bread-machine yeast
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 cup chopped ham
1/2 cup cubed Swiss cheese
1 1/2 tsp cornmeal
1 large egg, lightly beaten

1. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Follow manufacturer's instructions for placing flour and next 6 ingredients (flour through mustard) into bread pan, and select dough cycle; start bread machine.

2. Remove dough from machine (do not bake). Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and knead for 30 seconds. Cover dough, and let rest for 10 minutes.

3. Roll dough into a 10 x 8-inch oval on a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle the ham and cheese onto half of oval, lengthwise, leaving a 1-inch border. Fold dough over filling, and press the edges and ends together to seal.

4. Cover a large baking sheet with parchment paper, and dust with cornmeal. Place loaf, seam side down, on prepared pan. Make 3 diagonal cuts 1/4-inch deep across the top of loaf using a sharp knife. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 1 hour or until doubled in size.

5. Preheat oven to 350°. Uncover dough; brush with egg. Bake at 350° for 35 minutes or until browned. Cool slightly.

Recipe from Cooking Light, January 2001