The Breakfast Club – Blueberry Monkey Bread

As I mentioned in my last post, 2015 has been a year for big breakfasts, with big groups of friends. It’s been fun spending more time together in a more sociable (and less drunken) environment, and I hope that we can keep it up throughout the year. As hosts this weekend, James’ croquet madame muffins went down a treat, and my blueberry monkey bread was well received too. This recipe has been adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction's recipe for Homemade Cinnamon Monkey Bread. I forgot to take a photo of it before everyone tucked in, but you can see in the photo that I did manage to take what the structure is like inside. 

The Breakfast Club – Croque Madame Muffins

The new year marked the start of a new event for a group of our friends; The Breakfast Club. We’re taking it in turns to host fortnightly breakfasts in an effort to get together more often outside of the pub on a Friday night. So far we’ve been treated to a good old fry up, an American style brunch of pancakes and corned beef hash, and another intercontinental fusion of Indian eggs and bacon.

This weekend it was our turn, and we both chose a dish each to make for our friends. James went for croque madame muffins for the savoury option, and I chose to make a blueberry monkey bread ring for those with a sweeter tooth. Here I’m sharing James’ recipe for the croque madame muffins; I think as part of a larger spread, one each would be enough, but as the main event, I’d recommend two per person. Recipe adapted from The Little Paris Kitchen on BBC. This recipe makes 12.

Cheesy Waffles

Oh yes! While helping my Mum clear out her attic long before we moved, I came across an old Nordic Ware stove top waffle iron. Not sure of where it came from, she was going to send it to the charity shop, but I claimed it for my own and it got added to our boxes ready for our house move. I finally got around to unpacking it at the weekend and couldn’t wait to try it out! James isn’t one for sweet breakfasts, so we tried a cheesy waffle mix (adapted from here) and served them with crispy bacon (and maple syrup for me). The waffles are so light and fluffy, and I was really impressed with the bit of kit too, especially given that it’s older than I am!

Wholemeal Pancakes

Our neighbours daughter lives in Canada and after a recent trip to visit, they gave us a tin of proper maple syrup - I think we must have mentioned our love of it to them at some point - and as soon as we heard my Dad shout to say that we’d just been given some, both my Mum and I turned to look at each other and said ‘pancakes!’. We were patient enough to wait for Sunday morning to come around, and while Mum was out walking the dogs, I made our pancakes for breakfast. These pancakes are great – they’re so easy to make, and as they’re thick and fluffy, it’s a million times easier to flip them than the thin crepe like pancakes we eat on Shrove Tuesday. If you’re not a fan of maple syrup, try topping them with crispy bacon and a knob of butter, or fresh fruit and a dusting of icing sugar – what ever takes your fancy. And here’s a tip – make the batter in a jug. It’s a lot easier to pour small round pancakes with the spout of a jug than it is with a ladle! To give you an idea of serving size, I made 15 pancakes with this batter, and we had 5 each in a stack.