Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Pancakes

This morning, while Miss Hurricane Irene was preparing to visit the east coast, I was making pancakes in the kitchen. I know, I should be stocking up on food and doing all these precautionary things, but I really didn't feel like it. All I knew was that I needed to go to the gym, and in order to do that, I needed breakfast. So I whipped out my favorite recipe and made these in 15 mins.

I like this recipe because it only uses whole wheat flour, not a mix of whole wheat and white. But of course, what good would the pancakes be if they didn't have anything to balance the healthiness of the whole wheat flour? That's right, they needed the chocolate chips. There was no other option. Plus, I used dark chocolate, which is good for you anyway. No guilt at all.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Adapted from allrecipes.com

Makes about 6 medium sized pancakes

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk (I used 1 tbsp of vinegar + milk to make 1 cup of buttermilk)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
Handful of chocolate chips.

1. In a large bowl, sift the flour and mix with baking powder, salt and sugar. 

2. In a separate bowl, beat egg and buttermilk together.

3. Add the egg and buttermilk mixture to the bowl with flour. Add chocolate chips. Stir until just combined. 

4. Take 1/4 cup of batter and pour into hot pan. Cook until bubbly, then flip over and cook until golden brown.

Spicy Brunch Burritos

I am obsessed with spicy food. I used to seriously contemplate bringing my own hot sauce to restaurants because they wouldn't have the one I loved. Now, I have a kitchen pantry filled with Chinese chili pepper paste, crushed chili peppers soaked in chili oil, spicy sesame oil, Sriracha, Tabasco, Frank's, some kind of Mexican hot sauce (it's seriously delish), cayenne pepper, whole dried chili peppers, chipotle chilies in adobo, jalapenos... and the list goes on. Needless to say, most of my meals end up quite firey, and breakfast is no exception!

This recipe is inspired by a dish I had in a fancy Mexican restaurant in NYC a few years ago. It  is super easy to make and jam packed with protein and complex carbs. That should fuel your weekend activities and keep you full for a long time! And the best thing about this recipe is, it only takes 15 mins to make! I used cherry tomatoes because they are less watery than normal tomatoes. I also used Parmesan cheese here, but ideally you should use non-aged cheddar cheese so it melts nicely into the eggs.

Spicy Brunch Burritos

Makes 1 burrito

Ingredients (measurements are approximate)

1 whole wheat tortilla 

1/4 medium sized red onion, sliced
1/4 cup cherry tomatoes, diced to resemble salsa
2 cloves of garlic, diced
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup of Cheddar cheese (I used Parmesan cheese but Cheddar is ideal)
1 tsp Oregano
Green chili peppers, optional
Cayenne pepper to taste
Dash of olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Instructions
1. Heat pan on medium-low. Warm tortilla on pan until slightly charred on both sides. Transfer tortilla on serving plate.
2. Grease pan with dash of olive oil. Saute onions for 3 mins, remember to add a bit of salt for the onions to sweat.
3. In the meantime, prepare garlic, tomatoes and green chili peppers. Shave or shed the cheese if necessary. Also, beat up the eggs in a bowl.
4. Add garlic and tomatoes to onions, saute for another minute. Add oregano. Transfer to one side of the tortilla.
5. Add eggs to the pan and scramble. Add cayenne pepper, transfer to the other side of tortilla. Top with cheese and serve immediately.

Apple Scone Pie

Nothing beats a cup of fresh brewed coffee and some warm pastry in the morning. Now everyone knows I have some sort of a Starbucks addiction. I have at least 5 different Starbucks cards, a customized Gold Card on the way, and I know exactly what is in each of their drinks (did you know they put SIX pumps of syrup into a venti ice tea?) Without the venti black coffee to start my morning, I would get a pounding headache and fall into a downward spiral of some sort of depression (sitting at my cubicle, silently working), irritation (sitting at my cubicle, shaking legs, rolling eyes or mumbling bitchy remarks to myself while getting the bare minimal done), or extreme crankiness (startled, frantically delegating all job responsibilities, do not respond to any questions and set up my phone to go straight to voicemail). I was lucky not to get fired from my job, but I did go through a personal coffee rehab that was somewhat successful.

The point of this story is, I am still waiting for my Gold Card. I am still drinking coffee once in a while, but if there's one thing I learned from rehab, it is that coffee is not fuel and I gotta eat something to go along with it. So here I am, baking away, and showing you my second apple-related creation: apple scone pies. God I love breakfast food. 

As with all scone recipes, this is a little more time consuming than muffins or cakes. Not difficult, just time consuming. You will need a lot of patience to cut the whole stick of butter into little chunks. You also need to remember, the less touching and handling the dough, the better. It look me about 45 minutes to get the dough ready for baking, so to you suckers that have a full-time job, don't try it during the week.

I used a square pan instead of a round pie pan, so they look like scone sandwiches! 

Apple scone pies (adapted from JoyofBaking.com)

Makes about 8 pies on a 9 inch pie pan

Dough:

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 heaping teaspoon salt

1 stick unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling:

2 apples, cut into chunks

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 cups chopped walnut or pecans 

Glaze:

Milk or Cream

Granulated white sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9" pie pan. 

2. In a large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together. 

3. Cut butter into small pieces (around the size of your pinky nail, or smaller), and blend into the flour mixture with 2 forks. If the chunks are too big, break it with the flat side of your fork, or use your fingers (but if you do, do so quickly so you don't warm the butter too much). The end result should look like coarse crumbs.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg, milk and vanilla extract. Add to flour mixture until a dough forms, do not overmix!!

** If your dough is too wet (sticks to the bowl and doesn't form a ball), add more flour. If your dough is too dry (wet ingredients don't absorb all the dry), add more milk. The perfect dough should be very soft, and yet comes together easily without sticking to any surface**

5. Transfer dough to lightly floured surface and knead dough four or five times only. Over-kneading will make your scone very hard and chewy. 

6. Cut the dough into half, roll one half into a 9.5 inch circle. Transfer to the pan and make sure to cover the side. 

7. In a separate bowl, toss together the cut apples, sugar, cinnamon, and nuts. Spread evenly on the dough in the pie pan.

8. Roll remaining dough into a 9 inch circle, and place the dough on top of the apple mixture. Use your finger to seal the edges of the top and bottom crusts.

9. Brush the top of the dough with milk or heavy cream, and sprinkle with sugar. Cut a slit in the center of the dough. 

10. Bake for 35-45 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of the pie comes out clean.