Breakfast Club

Sorry everyone for how long it’s taken me to post the latest Breakfast Club roundup! I started university a couple of months ago, as well as taking on a new temporary job and working my current voluntary jobs as well. The result – busy but happy, but unfortunately something had to give and that was the blog.

Obviously my social life has taken a bit of a knock too as I spend most of my spare time with my head in a text book. That means not quite so many restaurants and cocktail evenings, and a bit more student food on the menu. I’m pretty good at recreating McCain spicy potato wedges from scratch now, a skill I could probably do without.

Anyway, I’ll still be posting here, but less often as I’m turning down most of the invitations I’m getting at the moment. Expect a lot of nutritious homemade soups over the winter, until uni finishes for the summer and normal transmission will probably resume.

This is going to be the last Breakfast Club from me for a while – Helen will be running it on her own for the time being. Remember to mention your favourite in the comments below to enter the competition for the Kellogg’s hamper. Breakfast Club entrants automatically get five entries.

It was interesting seeing how everyone interpreted the theme, especially as we had such an international bunch of entrants.

Lizzie from Grub du Jour prepared a No-Fuss English Breakfast, saving on washing up by cooking everything in the same dish.

Akheela from Torview made French Toast. I love French toast.

Janet from The Taste Space ate some Whipped Banana Oatmeal with Cranberries for a sort of fusion Scottish-Asian-American breakfast. That is possibly the prettiest picture of porridge I have ever seen.

Matt from FOODFORFRIENDSYEAH! entered his Scrambled Eggs and Smoked Salmon. A classic combination.

Liz from Cooking the Vegan Books made some Staffordshire Oatcakes, which I would love to try.

Finally (or actually firstly, as I actually received the entries in reverse order), the blogless P.J. Owen sent the following recipe:

one oatcake
half a banana
a teaspoon of honey

Microwave the oatcake for 30 seconds
Cover one half of an oatcake with slices of banana.
Spread honey on the other half of the oatcake
Fold over.

And my entry was of course crumpets.

Remember to comment below to enter to win the Kellogg’s hamper:

Tell me which is your favourite entry, or alternatively what is your favourite British breakfast?

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Breakfast Club #5: Bread

Breakfast Club: Because breakfast should be more interesting than tea & toast or coffee & cereal.

This month it’s Helen’s turn to host Breakfast Club.

Breakfast Club is a food blogging event hosted by me and Helen from Fuss Free Flavour. We love breakfast and want everyone to enjoy better and more interesting breakfasts.

Each month one of us will choose a theme and then post the round up on the last Sunday of the month.

Last month I hosted and the theme was British. I will post the round up as soon as I have time!

And this month’s theme is…

Bread!

Toast is a standard breakfast for many people, this month we are encouraging to either make bread, make a topping for their bread or to use bread in an interesting way.

Here are some homemade bread ideas

Brioche
Whole Wheat Walnut Bread

Some toppings

Fig Jam
Crab Apple Jelly

Other ideas could include French toast, homemade baked beans on toast, homemade nut butter on bread. The possibilities are endless.

Please blog your ideas or e-mail me the recipe if you do not have a blog, the deadline will be Sunday 31st October, 5pm UK time.

To Recap:

Make breakfast inspired by the month’s theme, write about it (please include a link in your post to both hosts’ announcement or blog – Helen’s is here)

Mail the host for the month, (helen at fussfreeflavours dot com) with a link to your post, name of your blog and a photo (or link to your photo) by 5pm (UK time) on the 31st October.

If you do not have a blog send a recipe and photo to the month’s host who will include it in the round up.

Tell everyone – let’s inspire each other to make more interesting breakfasts!

Complicated Crumpets

This is my entry for this month’s (well ok, last month’s) Breakfast Club. The theme was British, and I knew I wanted to make something bready to make up for last month’s failure to make the muffins I had planned.

I’ve always wanted to make crumpets, so I decided to give it a go. However, just for that extra bit of challenge factor, I decided I had to make Real Bread crumpets – no cheating by using bicarb here!

Not only that, I chose to make a rather complicated recipe indeed. It’s actually the ciabatta recipe from Andrew Whitley’s Bread Matters. I borrowed it from work and now I must have it!

I doubled the recipe so I could make a couple of ciabatte as well. Basically, the recipe consists of a yeasted sponge, a rye sourdough, and contains three different types of flour. You make the sponge and refresh your sourdough the day before (18 hours according to the recipe, but I must admit I left it a bit late and only gave it about 12-14 hours. Luckily I had a really active sourdough). Then in the morning, you mix it all together, adding a bit more water to your crumpet mixture. Wait 1-2 hours, THEN you are finally ready to make your crumpets.

The sponge

A very active sourdough (who says I don’t take care of my starters!)

I used nonstick crumpet rings, which I started off buttering but soon found I didn’t need to. I started off putting far too much batter in the rings, which prevented bubbles forming. The batter also wasn’t spreading out enough in the rings. I ended up adding quite a bit more water.

Finally I ended up with something resembling a crumpet:

I know it would have more holes if I had used bicarb, but I’m quite proud of them all the same. The recipe is far too complicated to write out here. If you are at all interested in baking bread then I strongly suggest you get Andrew Whitley’s book. Otherwise I suggest you follow Helen’s crumpet recipe here.

Breakfast Club – extension!

Just a quick note to say that due to a low number of entries and a lack of internet access at my end (which is due to be fixed imminently – hurrah!) I’ve decided to extend the time for entries into this month’s Breakfast Club to Sunday 3 October, 6pm. This will hopefully give me some time to put something together too!

Breakfast Club #4: British

Breakfast Club: Because breakfast should be more interesting than tea & toast or coffee & cereal.

This month it’s my turn to host Breakfast Club.

Breakfast Club is a  food blogging event hosted by Helen from Fuss Free Flavours and Sarah from fingers and toes. We love breakfast and want everyone to enjoy better and more interesting breakfasts.

Each month one of us will choose a theme and then post the round up on the last Sunday of the month.

So far we’ve had:

Breakfast Club #1: Asian
Breakfast Club #2: Eggs
Breakfast Club #3: Muffins (link to announcement – entries close on Sunday!)

You still have a few days to make some muffins and email Helen – I’m hoping to still find time to enter myself! I was planning on making English muffins, but I may make something different now. However that did get me thinking… So this month’s theme is British.

There are so many options here. English muffins, crumpets, Scotch pancakes, a full English, Welsh, Irish or Scottish, kippers, porridge, Marmite or marmalade on toast.

There’s going to be a breakfasty prize for this one – more info on that later! Entries close the last Sunday of the month, 26th September. I look forward to seeing what you all make.

To recap:

Make breakfast inspired by the month’s theme, write about it (please include a link in your post to both hosts’ announcement or blog – Helen’s announcement is here)

Mail the host for the month, (sarah dot e dot moore at gmail dot com) with a link to your post, name of your blog and a photo (or link to your photo) by 6pm (UK time) on the 26th September.

If you do not have a blog send a recipe and photo to the month’s host who will include it in the round up.

Tell everyone – let’s inspire each other to make more interesting breakfasts!

ETA: we have a prize, people! Kellogg’s is running their National Breakfast Week promotion next week and have kindly offered us a lovely breakfast hamper to give away. We’ll be giving it to our favourite EU entrant by a completely impartial judging process which may involve the Kellogg’s people or may just involve random numbers. Either way I promise you don’t have to be a close personal friend to win. And look at those teacups!

ETA: Kellogg’s have just sent a link to their latest ad, which is kind of cute. My morning routine is somewhere between the two.  I tend to eat my homemade granola with yoghurt (and recently, chopped strawberries) while I’m making my lunch.

Also, I’ve decided how the competition will run.  I’m going to open it up to commenters on the round-up post (not this post).  Anyone who enters a recipe will get 5 entries (which I will assign numbers to), commenters will get 1.  Then I’ll use a random number to pick the winner – if the winner is someone outside the EU, I’ll keep picking random numbers until we have an EU winner.  Clear as mud?

Breakfast Club #2: Eggs

Breakfast Club: Because breakfast should be more interesting than tea & toast or coffee & cereal.

Sorry I’m a bit late posting this roundup, I’ve been away at Camp Bestival. But more on that later.

We had some really creative entries this month.

Janet from the taste space made Syrian Eggs Scrambled with Rhubarb. I had no idea rhubarb was an ingredient in Syrian cooking, though not knowing much about Syrian cooking that’s not surprising I suppose! It’s got me wanting to learn more.

Akheela from Torviewtoronto made an Omelette with vegetables

Sandra from gesund geniessen made an egg frittata with spinach and smoked salmon. You really can’t go wrong with spinach and smoked salmon!

Lizzie from Grub du Jour made a sunshine breakfast pizza. I’ve always been a bit sceptical of egg on pizza but so many people tell me it’s good that I think I should probably believe you and try it for myself.

Denise from Oh Taste n See made Baked Eggs Florentine. It’s good to see a few of the entries making use of yummy in-season spinach.

Johanna from Green Gourmet Giraffe came in with the only egg substitute recipe with her Eggs Faux Young Scramble. It looks delicious and I am impressed by how eggy it looks!

Sudha from Malaysian Delicacies had the most decadent entry with her Petite Rose Cakes. I’m not sure I could handle eating one for breakfast but for tea they’d be lovely.

I did actually make something myself but didn’t blog it in time so I’ll just post a picture here:

Huevos Rancheros. They were delicious, except I got a bit chilli-happy with the sauce. You know how it goes: “Hmm, not hot enough yet, I’ll add a bit more chilli. No, I think it needs just a bit more. Oh, how about I just add a big spoonful of chilli powder. Oops!”

I think this month’s entries really showed the versatility of eggs and how they are used in many different cultures. Thanks everyone for entering.

Helen has now announced Breakfast Club #3 and the theme is Muffins.

Here’s a reminder of what you have to do:

Make breakfast inspired by the month’s theme, write about it (please include a link in your post to both hosts’ announcement or blog)

Mail the host for the month, (helen at fussfreeflavours dot com) with a link to your post, name of your blog and a photo (or link to your photo) by 6pm (UK time) on the 5th September.

If you do not have a blog send a recipe and photo to the month’s host who will include it in the round up.

Tell everyone – let’s inspire each other to make more interesting breakfasts.

Breakfast Club 2

Breakfast Club: Because breakfast should be more interesting than tea & toast or coffee & cereal.

This month it’s my turn to host Breakfast Club.

Breakfast Club is a  food blogging event hosted by Helen from Fuss Free Flavours and Sarah from fingers and toes. We love breakfast and want everyone to enjoy better and more interesting breakfasts.

Each month one of us will choose a theme and then post the round up on the last Sunday of the month.

Last month Helen hosted and the theme was Asian.  You can read her round-up of entries here.

I think some people found Asian a challenge, but Breakfast Club is all about challenging yourself.  So bear that in mind when I mention this month’s theme:

Eggs.

Eggs have long been a breakfast staple in many parts of the world.  There are so many different ways to prepare them.  For this month then I would like you to try something different from what you would normally do with eggs.  Entries don’t necessarily have to be “out there” – I would be quite amused to receive a dozen conflicting posts on the correct way to make perfectly scrambled eggs – but do try to pick something that challenges YOU.

For those who don’t eat eggs, you can substitute if you like.  For example, do a tofu scramble instead of scrambled eggs.

Because this month ends on a Saturday, I’ve decided to make the deadline Sunday 1 August, 6pm. We look forward to reading your ideas.

To recap:

Make breakfast inspired by the month’s theme, write about it (please include a link in your post to both hosts’ announcement – Helen’s post is here)

Mail the host for the month, this time it is Sarah, with a link to your post, name of your blog and a photo (or link to your photo) by 6pm (UK time) on the last Sunday of the month.

If you do not have a blog send a recipe and photo to the month’s host who will include it in the round up.

Tell everyone – let’s inspire each other to make more interesting breakfasts!