Coffee cake du jour

 

Photo is from Pixabay.

 Last Saturday,  when we had four grandkids over for brunch, the coffee cake of the day (and I wish I had taken pictures) was a favorite basic recipe customized with some leftovers from cookie baking.  I was pretty pleased with myself for coming up with the idea that utilized some components we seldom know what to do with.

When you make as many cookies as we do at Christmas time, you end up with leftover things.  Glazes, toppings, frostings.  In our house these things tend to accumulate in custard cups or plastic dishes in the fridge.  So on the day in question, I was thinking specifically about a crumble topping my hubby had made for these cookies: Gingerbread Coffee Cake Cookies.  He had so much of it left over that he made a second batch of the cookies, but he still had leftover topping.

I decided to make our old favorite which I consider the World's Easiest Coffeecake.  I would top it with this crumble topping instead of the cinnamon sugar the recipe calls for.  So I did and it came out of the oven looking fantastic.  

When the cake cooled, I made an eggnog glaze for it by heating leftover frosting from Eggnog Log Cookies.  I may have thinned it out a little with half and half, but if I remember right,  the frosting thinned to a glaze-like consistency simply by heating.  I then drizzled this glaze over the coffee cake and it set up nicely. 

It looked beautiful and was delicious.  A new favorite which I would try customizing with other cookie-baking leftovers in the future!

Thinking back to the 2024 miscellaneous cooking & baking list

 

 As I mentioned back in December, I have never made a list like this before, though I often gift food to random people who are not on my "kitchen gifts" list.  The recipients might even vary from year to year.  But I think it's a good idea to have such a list.  

So heading up my list is a cheese log and crackers that we took to a Christmas party along with a cookie tray, just as a help to the very busy hostess rather than a "hostess gift".  I talked with her a few weeks ahead of time and asked if we could help out in this way.  I find that it helps people if I just make a suggestion up front as to what I might bring, and they are often relieved not to have to decide what to ask for.

Friends of ours who live exceedingly busy lives often have a houseful of guests over Christmas.  When this happens, I like to help them out by preparing some frozen entrees, some breakfast foods, and an assortment of cookies.  In 2024 I made granola, a cranberry coffee cake, two frozen lasagnas and two pans of cheeseburger macaroni.  We also gave them an assortment of cookies in a large plastic container to keep in the freezer and bring out as needed.

Here is the Cheeseburger Macaroni recipe:

CHEESY BEEF MACARONI BAKE

1 onion, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, chopped
1 lb. ground beef
15-ounce can tomato sauce (the Contadina kind that includes herbs is wonderful!)
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 cups elbow macaroni, boiled and drained
1 cup whipping cream OR half & half
2 1/2 to 3 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Cook the crumbled ground beef and onion and garlic in a large skilled until beef is no longer pink.  Stir in the tomato sauce and seasoning, salt and pepper.  Spread this mixture in the bottom of a greased 13x9-inch baking pan.

Heat the cream in a medium saucepan; when it bubbles a bit around the edges, stir in the shredded cheese and whisk until smooth.  Mix the cooked macaroni into the cheese sauce and spread this mixture over the meat sauce in the pan.

If you like you can sprinkle with chopped parsley or a bit more shredded cheese.

Bake uncovered at 350º for 25-30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

This freezes well and reheats nicely.  If you freeze it, thaw it out (take out of freezer and place in fridge the night before) before baking it.

Will serve about 6.

I have shared the freezer lasagna recipe before, but this is the newest tweak.  I honestly don't think I will tweak it again after this; I have now developed a meat variation in addition to the vegetable one.  I use both of these and the macaroni bake over and over in my volunteer work preparing meals for work crews, so they are absolutely tried and true!

VEGETABLE LASAGNA to freeze

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely minced (a total of about 1 teaspoon)

16 ounces frozen chopped broccoli (or spinach), thawed

1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 1b. ricotta cheese

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided use

1 egg

3 Tablespoons grated parmesan cheese


1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

3/4 teaspoon oregano (or Italian seasoning)

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 jar Alfredo sauce (16 oz.)

9 uncooked no-boil lasagna noodles

Additional parmesan if desired 

In a large skillet, cook the onions and garlic in the olive oil until soft.  Add the thawed vegetables and the Italian seasoning.  Stir to combine, cover the skillet, reduce heat and simmer about 5 minutes.  Turn off heat and set aside.

In a large bowl combine ricotta, 1 cup mozzarella, egg, parmesan, and seasonings.  Mix well.

Grease a 13x9 foil baking pan.  Pour a thin layer of Alfredo sauce in the bottom of the pan.  Layer on 3 noodles.  Spread half of cheese over the noodles.  Spread half of the vegetable mixture over the cheese layer,  then evenly drizzle about 1/3 of the Alfredo sauce over the vegetables.  

Repeat layers: 3 noodles, half of cheese mixture, half of vegetables, another 1/3 of sauce.  

Top with 3 noodles and spread the remaining third of sauce over them.  Cover with remaining 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella.  Sprinkle with additional grated parmesan if desired.

Cover tightly with foil and freeze.  

The night before you want to serve it, remove from freezer and leave it in the fridge overnight.  

1 1/2 hours before serving, bake the lasagna, covered, in a preheated 350º oven for 1 hour 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and let stand, still covered, for 15 minutes before serving.

CLASSIC MEAT LASAGNA to freeze

1 Tablespoon olive oil 

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely minced (a total of about 1 teaspoon)

1 pound more or less of ground beef (can also use ground pork or sausage)

1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 1b. ricotta cheese

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided use

1 egg

3 Tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

3/4 teaspoon oregano (or Italian seasoning)

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 jar spaghetti or marinara sauce (24 oz.)

9 uncooked no-boil lasagna noodles

Additional parmesan if desired 

In a large skillet, cook the onions, garlic, and crumbled ground meat in the olive oil until meat is no longer pink.  Add the Italian seasoning and cook a minute or two more.  Turn off heat and set aside.

In a large bowl combine ricotta, 1 cup mozzarella, egg, parmesan, and seasonings.  Mix well.

Grease a 13x9 foil baking pan.  Pour a thin layer of spaghetti sauce in the bottom of the pan.  Layer on 3 noodles.  Spread half of cheese over the noodles.  Spread half of the meat mixture over the cheese layer,  then evenly drizzle about 1/3 of the spaghetti sauce over the meat.  

Repeat layers: 3 noodles, half of cheese mixture, half of meat mixture, another 1/3 of sauce.  

Top with 3 noodles and spread the remaining third of sauce over them.  Cover with remaining 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella.  Sprinkle with additional grated parmesan if desired.

Cover tightly with foil and freeze.  

The night before you want to serve it, remove from freezer and leave it in the fridge overnight.  

1 1/2 hours before serving, bake the lasagna, covered, in a preheated 350º oven for 1 hour 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and let stand, still covered, for 15 minutes before serving.

As you can see, these are assembled in the same exact way.  I will often double the filling recipe and make two lasagnas at the same time.  

 Well, this has morphed into a longer post than I intended, but I hope it will be helpful to readers!

 

Gingerbread Eggnog Coffeecake

 

 Here is another scrumptious coffeecake recipe.  My regular readers likely know that I am very prone to take muffin recipes and turn them into coffee cakes.  I just don't like going to the trouble of lining or greasing muffin tins, or washing them afterwards.  

That's just what happened with this recipe.  My hubby was looking for a way to use up about a half cup of eggnog.  I remembered this recipe which I had printed out a  couple years ago from Taste of the Frontier, apparently now called Yummi Haus.  But when I mentioned I thought muffins were too much trouble, he said, "Let's turn it into a coffee cake!"  My lazy ways are rubbing off on him, I guess.  Well, this coffeecake turned out absolutely delicious.  He took some to an outdoor event on Saturday, and came back with an empty plate and a request for the recipe.  So I knew my readers would like it too!

GINGERBREAD EGGNOG COFFEECAKE

Ingredients

Coffeecake

1 3/4 cups flour 

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder 

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled

1/2 cup eggnog

1/3 cup molasses 

1 large egg

Streusel topping

2 tablespoons melted butter 

1/3 cup flour

1/2 cup light brown sugar 

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Glaze

1/2 cup confectioners sugar 

1 to 2 tablespoons eggnog

Pinch of nutmeg

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350º.
2.   Grease a 13x9 pan with cooking spray 

3.  Sift together dry ingredients for coffeecake — flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices.

4.  In mixing bowl combine cooled melted butter, eggnog, and molasses.  Add the dry ingredients and then the egg, beating until just combined.

5.Pour batter into prepared pan.

6.  For streusel, melt butter in small bowl.  Add flour, brown sugar and cinnamon; stir with a fork until crumbly.

7.  Sprinkle streusel evenly on top of coffeecake batter in pan.

8.  Bake 30 minutes at 350º or until toothpick test is clean.

9.  Allow cake to cool completely.  

10.  Whisk the glaze ingredients together and drizzle over cooled coffeecake.

 

And there is a very delicious Gingerbread Eggnog Coffeecake for your enjoyment!

Blueberry Lemon Breakfast Cake

 

How sad that months have gone by since I posted here!  This weekend I tried a new recipe and thought it might be a fun possibility for Christmas breakfast or brunch, although I served it as a dessert.   So I thought I would put that recipe here!  It might also make a nice kitchen gift.

Blueberry Lemon Breakfast Cake is by Sue Moran at The View from Great Island.  I have learned that I can't go wrong with one of Sue's recipes.  

Blueberries were on sale this week and I also needed to find a dessert recipe to serve to guests at Sunday lunch.  I wanted to find something simple and good, not super fancy or a lot of work.  I turned to The View from Great Island as I often do.  The recipe index and search feature is so easy to use.

I had made Sue's cranberry breakfast cake previously and thought the blueberry lemon one sounded yummy.  I had bought a couple of lemons earlier in the week, so I even had a lemon in the house.  

The cake was easy to put together and smelled scrumptious while it baked.  Instead of sprinkling coarse or sparkling sugar over it, I reserved some of the lemon sugar from the recipe (which I had done without a food processor) to sprinkle on top.  Just a couple tablespoons.  It looked pretty when it came out of the oven and added a nice crunch to the top.

Since I was serving this as dessert, I wanted either vanilla ice cream, or whipped cream, to serve with it.  We are trying to watch our carbs, so I chose whipped cream.  I sweetened it with only 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1 tablespoon maple syrup.  That was plenty sweet enough and it was so good with the cake.  Our guests were impressed with homemade whipped cream -- and it really did turn a simple cake into a wonderful dessert.

This would make a yummy breakfast item any time of year.  Hope you enjoy the cake if you try the recipe!

Cranberry Breakfast Cake

 

Recently I was looking for an easy coffeecake to bake for a ladies' brunch at church.  (Long story -- the brunch was scheduled for May, but first sickness and then other events -- our merger service for example -- kept pushing the date back until here we are near the end of July and just now having the brunch.  It's no one's fault, but there it is.)  

The weather has been exceedingly hot and humid and I couldn't have felt less like baking.  I went searching for something a little different and found this Cranberry Breakfast Cake which looked quite simple and seemed as if it would be delicious any time of year.

Photo by The View from Great Island

 
I've learned that I can't go wrong with a recipe from Sue Moran at The View from Great Island.  Foods made from her recipes are always delicious and enticing!  I had almost everything I needed on hand to bake this cake.  The only thing I didn't have was the sparkling sugar for the top.

I couldn't bring myself to bake during the day so decided I would start early the next morning.  I sifted the dry ingredients together the night before and left them in a quart-size ziptop bag, to save time in the morning.  If I had thought of it, I would also have placed a stick of butter in a covered bowl to soften.

Then in the morning it was a quick matter to get everything together.  Sue warns that the batter (really more like dough) will be quite thick, and it truly was.  Adding the frozen cranberries really stiffened it up.  It was quite a challenge to spread the batter evenly in the pan, but with the help of a small sandwich spreader I was able to do so.  I did sprinkle a handful of the berries on top as Sue suggested.  Since I had no sparkling sugar (a situation I will try to remedy), I sprinkled on a bit of regular white sugar instead.

This came out so delicious and was so easy!  It would be a great choice for Christmas breakfast or any festive breakfast or brunch time during the holiday season.  And it's good in July too, if you can bring yourself to turn the oven on!