French toast apple and sausage muffins
So anyway, if you want to make your own, the recipe is below. I highly recommend checking out the link for a picture tutorial and some tips for how to change up the flavor. Take note that I made 24 of these or two full muffin tins worth. The recipe below is for a single pan (12 cups):
French toast cups
- 12 slices of bread – If it’s starting to go stale, great!
- Whatever ingredients you usually use for french toast. For me, roughly 5 eggs, a bit of milk. You may also use cinnamon, nutmeg, etc, too.
Apples and sausage filling:
- 2 cup diced apples
- 2 cup breakfast sausage (I usually make my own, using a mix of ground pork and ground turkey so it’s healthier)
- 1 cup butter
- 6 Tbs brown sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
Using a large cup or jar lid, cut circles out of bread slices about 3 inches in diameter. Mix eggs and spices together. Dip bread circles in egg mixture and shake off a bit.
Press bread circles into the muffin pan, bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 12 – 15 minutes, until brown.
While bread is in the oven prepare breakfast sausage. In another hot skillet melt butter, stir in brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla. Add apples to brown sugar mixture and cook until apples begin to soften and sugar mixture caramelizes. Combine sausage and dripping with apples, stir. (This is how The Noshery did these steps. I did it the opposite. Browned the sausage, drained, and then fried the apples directly in the grease left by the sausage, and mixed it in a bit sooner so the flavors could combine.)
Fill french toast cups with apple and sausage mixture and enjoy. You can drizzle them with maple syrup or any of the apple syrupy drippings if you find they’re not quite sweet enough.
The kids loved them as is, though, and they reheated well the next day, too. I don’t know about freezing them, but I could imagine it working considering I freeze and reheat all of the ingredients on their own at other times, including the french toast. If you try it, please let me know how it goes.
Trendiest Desserts Of 2013 (Guest)
Today’s post is brought to you by a guest poster, Betty, via MyBlogGuest.
Desserts are often the ultimate indulgence. In a world where people are more health conscious than ever before, desserts seem like a nice treat now and then. Wondering what you might see on the dessert menus of 2013? Here are a few hot tips on what the trends might be.
Ethnicity Matters: It seems that on main menus an ethnic flavor of the year tends to appear, and this trend has moved toward the world of desserts, too. Southeast Asian flavors are moving to make quite a dominant presence this year, even in the sweeter treats, but don’t be surprised to see a mix of ethnic influences in your desserts. From fruity Italian influences to Asian ginger flavors, you may see several surprising pairings from around the world.
Individual Diet Matters: People are moving toward a gluten free world now more than ever before. Some are headed toward lactose-free, too. There are even some who are going sugar free. Expect to see all of those trends on your dessert menu. As these diets pop up all over the culinary map, there are chefs thinking about how to get around them at every course. One walk down the grocery store aisle will tell you that there are gourmet cookies that seemingly have nothing in them because they’re gluten free, lactose free, nut free, and sugar free. One taste, though, will convince you that they’re the single best baked good in the entire world. Chefs are paying attention to the health needs of many these days, and this year’s desserts may prove that to be the case.
Milk Matters: As much as you may see milk free dessert options on the menu, many foodies have suggested that milk will be a key ingredient in many of the top desserts this year. A San Francisco spot has patrons enjoying the World Peace Peanut Muscovado Milk. It’s milk, cream, vanilla, sugar, and roasted peanuts in a shot glass. Uchi in Houston has fried milk on their dessert menu. It’s hard to tell what other milk-based desserts will hit menus across the U.S. this year.
Portability Matters: You’d like to sit down and enjoy dessert, that’s not always possible in our on-the-go society, so you may see more choices that are made to help you get moving. This is as much a continuation of the cupcake trend as it is of the smaller portions trend, but it has managed to roll itself into one package this year. From grab and go cheesecake to the ever-present, ever-creative cupcake flavor of the week, many menus will have portable treats that help you get up and go, even with dessert in your hands. You may even see dessert machines, like cupcake dispensers, in various locations to help you have your cake and eat it too no matter where you are.
Kids’ Foods Matter: The popular news site, The Examiner, recently reported that foods once relegated to the kids table like the push pop will get a gourmet dessert makeover this year. If you’ve never had one, a push pop is typically a frozen treat in a plastic container with a stick at the bottom. As you enjoy the treat, you push the ice cream or sherbet toward the top to have more. The plastic tubes this year, though, will be filled with much more than a frozen treat. From cheesecake to layered classics, it’s going to be childhood all over again this year.
Featured images:
- License: Creative Commons image source
Betty Ann Sherman is a baker and a writer. She also regularly contributes to the Cookie Gift Baskets Blog, hosted by http://www.cookiegiftbaskets.com.
Creative Smores Variations – How can you make graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows any better?
Apparently, it’s quite easy to make them better actually, so why not?
August 10th was National S’mores Day and I was flooded with more smores recipes than I knew what to do with. I marked some of my favorites to pass on, though, and just because the day has passed, doesn’t mean the s’mores season has, right?
Here are the top twelve s’mores variations I saw last month that caught my attention:
1. Smores Brownie Bars – Brownies with a graham cracker crust like a cheese cake, and with toasted gooey marshmallows on top? What could go wrong? I don’t even like marshmallows that much, but this looks delicious.
2. S’mores Sundae – I’m a little disappointed that nothing was done with the graham cracker. It’s not even a cinnamon one, hmph. I’m thinking it would get soggy under all the ice cream and chocolate, but it looks cool, so it gets points there anyway.
3. S’mores Pie – Mom likes her marshmallow burnt. And her cheese burnt. And her hot dogs burnt.
Wait, does she even like real food? Hmm. Either way, the fact that this one is photographed still burning is what pulls me in. I imagine it being insanely rich,b ut it would be worth it.
4. Heart-shaped S’mores Pops – Save this one for Valentine’s Day next year.
5. Peep S’mores – And save this one for right after Easter. I love that each s’mores would be colored different.
6. Smores Cupcakes – I doubt I would be able to eat this one, but I like that they didn’t just mix the marshmallow into the batter. It has a full separated layer to itself.
7. S’mores Pushpops – I’m not even entirely sure how this one is supposed to be eaten. Do you just push it up and eat each layer separate? You can’t heat it up in those plastic things, right? Hmm.
8. S’more Stuffed Strawberries – This just takes s’mores to a whole new level, don’t you think? It combines chocolate covered strawberries with s’mores to created stuffed berries with all the expected toppings.
9. S’mores Rice Krispy Treats – Not sure I like the whole marshmallows on top, but I think it still works.
10. Owl S’mores – Awwww! There’s not enough chocolate there to be really s’mores-like, but still, the basics are there and it looks delicious, right?
11. S’more or Less Cupcakes – There’s nothing to be said about these. I would eat 5 in a heartbeat. I might have to skip some of the marshmallowy goodness, but look at all that chocolate!!
12. Halloween S’mores Packs – Mom never would’ve let me eat these because they’re handmade instead of prepackaged. I love the idea for a fun Halloween trick-or-treat handout, though.
Bonus – S’mores Spaghetti – Bonus s’mores! It’s…spaghetti? Not sure what to say about this one other than “Oh. Cool? Yeah, I’d eat that, lol”
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