Christmas Breakfast

We had delicious Christmas meals this year, and I decided I would just type it up! I prepped everything the day before so it would be easy to put together on Christmas. 

For Breakfast, I made a delicious overnight French toast. I have made those many times, but this one had a cinnamon topping that really set it off! It was inspired by this recipe, https://kitchenfunwithmy3sons.com/easy-overnight-french-toast/ 

I changed some things and that is what I have posted here.

Overnight French toast 

Ingredients: 

1 loaf french bread or thick texas toast 

10 eggs 

2 cups milk 

1/2 cup sour cream 

3 Tbsp granulated sugar 

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg 

1 teaspoon salt (half of it kosher salt) 

Cinnamon Crunch Topping 

1/2 stick butter softened or melted 

1/2 cup dark brown sugar packed 

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 

Optional-chopped pecans (or maybe in half of it, or sprinkle them on top after spreading the topping) 

Instructions:

Prepare a 9"x13" baking dish by coating the entire inside of the dish with butter or cooking spray. Set aside. Slice the French bread, about 1-inch thick. Arrange slices in your prepared baking dish in rows, overlapping the slices. Or cut into cubes and sprinkle into pan. Set aside. In a large bowl, whisk eggs. Add milk, sour cream, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Whisk until well combined. Pour the egg mixture over the bread slices, making sure they are covered evenly. Spoon some of the mixture in between the slices making sure all the slices are completely covered. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight. 

The next day, preheat oven to 350°F. Meanwhile, carefully flip each piece of bread over to make sure everything is nice and coated with the mixture. 

Make the Topping: 

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and mix to combine. Spoon the topping on top of the prepared bread slices. Then spread evenly over the bread (like you are icing a cake). You can also spread some of the mixture in between the slices to make sure the entire slice is covered (if you prefer). Bake for 40-45 minutes (no need to cover with foil), until puffed and lightly golden. I sliced up strawberries and added a little sugar and set that in the fridge to pull out when the french toast was ready. Then I enjoyed it with the strawberries, whip cream, and sprinkled some cinnamon on top. It was DELICIOUS!

Garlic Pull-Aparts

The instructions here are a little off in the bottom of the first paragraph where is says, “starting with the shortest side”-that is incorrect unless you want really fat rolls. Rather, roll the rectangle up on the longest side so it looks like cinnamon rolls before you slice them. Then cut into 3/4”-1” sections using kitchen scissors, but don’t cut all the way through. Some day I’ll take pics as I make them so you can see the steps.

That being said, I usually add some garlic to the actual cream cheese and parmesan mixture-I don't necessarily measure or follow this recipe exactly, but this is the general idea.

 

 

Carrot Soup

We often add way more carrots and veggies-this is more of a guideline. We substitute cornstarch for flour for a gluten free option-cut the amount in half for cornstarch. 

Graham Fingers

3 packs graham crackers broken, not crushed (start by taking out 2 or 3 whole crackers, otherwise too dry)
2 cubes of butter melted
1 1/4 cups sugar (we mix it part white and brown: 3/4 white, 1/2 brown)
1/2 cup heaping of cocoa powder (can adjust more or less to taste)
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla

Break up graham crackers one more break than the partitions in the cracker.
Melt butter in microwave (so you're not adding the egg to a hot pan/boiling butter and frying it). Put melted butter, brown sugar, cocoa powder, eggs, and salt in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil while stirring with a whisk. Boil 1 minute only--stirring constantly during boiling to avoid scorching.
Remove from heat. Add vanilla.
Pour over broken graham crackers. Stir and pour onto buttered cookie sheet. Press down with wax paper. Using a rubber scraper, clean off excess chocolate mixture adhered to wax paper and spread on top of pressed graham fingers so there are no dry spots of crackers.

Coconut Cream Pie

Mix together:
1/3 cup sifted flour or 1/4 cup cornstarch
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Gradually add to 2 cups of scalded milk

Cook until it boils and thickens, stirring constantly so edges don't burn

Whisk small amount with:
3 eggs

Cook 1 more minute

Take off heat and add:
2 TBS butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1-2 cups toasted sweetened coconut flakes

Pour in 1 9" pie crust

French Lemon Bars

Cream together:
3/4 cup cold butter
1/3 cup powdered sugar

Cut in:
1 1/2 cup sifted flour

Pat into 9x13 pan
Bake 20 minutes @ 350 until set, but not brown

Beat 3 eggs

Add:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 TBS flour
3 TBS lemon juice

Pour lemon mixture over crust
Return to oven for 20 more minutes

Let cool
Dust with powered sugar

Pecan Pie

I love the idea of pecan pie because I love pecans and I love caramel and nuts and pie crust, so really, pecan pie should be delicious! But the problem is that it is not. It is generally too sugary and lacking in pecans/pecan flavor. So I think I have found a few simple solutions to make delicious pecan pie :)

In a saucepan combine the following ingredients:
1 cube butter (you can get away with 3/4 cube)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar and I mean brown sugar, not the off brand white sugar with molasses stuff that most of the public think is brown sugar-though that will work.
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup water
Melt butter and mix together until smooth.  Remove from heat.
Whisk together
3 eggs
If the sugar/butter mixture is fairly hot, temper the eggs (whisk some sugar/butter mixture into the eggs so the eggs don't cook from the high heat of the sugar mixture) and then whisk into the butter/sugar mixture.
Mix in:
2-3 tsps vanilla
1/2-1 tsp salt
The above 2 ingredients are really to taste. The salt is one of the solutions to helping the pecan pie not be too sweet.  Start with the smaller portion and taste. Then add more if you want.
Chop a ton of pecans! 3-4 large handfuls-about
2-3 cups pecans (before chopping). 
This is the real solution-finely chopped pecans. If you want some large or whole pieces, that's fine, do that as well, but if you want a pecan pie, not a brown sugar pie, you will need to add finely chopped pecans.
Add pecans to raw pie crust. Pour butter/sugar mixture over the pecans. Cover the edge of the crust with strips of tinfoil otherwise it will burn.  Bake at 350° for 25 minutes and then remove tinfoil edges. Then bake for 20-25 minutes more.
Enjoy your delicious pecan pie!