A breakfast crumble with a secret ingredient...

I can't seem to stay away from breakfast recipes at the moment, but this one has to be my favourite yet! It tastes so good that I'd even go as far to say I'd have it as a dessert. In fact, if I had to live on only this for the rest of my life I'd be quite happy with that. But what is it I hear you ask? Well, I'm going to call it a sweet potato breakfast crumble. And yes I did just say sweet potato. For breakfast. Now this may sound a little strange, but please, give it a chance, because it really does taste incredible! Just look at it...my mouth's watering just thinking about it!

Bascially, I had some leftover sweet potato and I've always wondered what it would be like in a sweet recipe. Usually, I just bung it in a Thai curry or roast it with various other veg for dinner, but I wanted to try something a little different. When I came across this recipe I just had to give it a go! Now I am a massive fan of crumbles (served with copious amounts of custard, of course!), so seeing this recipe made me quite excited! And oh my gosh was I happy with the result! I made it the night before (but didn't put the topping on til the morning), so all I had to do was put it in the oven when I woke up. And what a wonderful start to the morning it was. The filling was deliciously sweet and creamy with a beautiful cinnamon flavour, whilst the topping had the perfect crunchy bite to it. Have it straight from the oven and you will understand what I mean when I say I could eat it forever! Full of fruit (definitely at least one of your five-a-day) and nourishing enough to last you til lunchtime (it kept me going through a good 30 minutes of swimming!), this certainly is a breakfast worth waking up for! 

Sweet Potato Breakfast Crumble    makes 3 servings

Ingredients:

Filling:

1/2 Cup Porridge Oats

1/2 Cup Coconut Milk 

1/2 Cup Milk (plus extra if needed)

1 Small Sweet Potato

1 Large Ripe Banana

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 tsp Cinnamon

2 tsp Runny Honey

4 tbsp Raisins

Topping:

1/3 Cup Chopped Walnuts

2 tbsp Butter

2 tbsp Plain Flour

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

Method: 

1.  Peel and chop the sweet potato and boil for about 5 minutes until tender.
2. Drain and set aside.
3. Put the oats and milk into a pan.
4. Whisk and bring to the boil.
5. Turn down the heat and cook for about 5-7 minutes, stirring regularly. If it gets too dry, you may need to add more milk.
6. Add the sweet potato and banana to the porridge and mash until there are just some larger chunks.
7. Add the vanilla extract, cinnamon and honey and cook for a few more minutes.
8. To make the topping mix all the ingredients together with a fork until they are combined.
9. Put the porridge mixture in a large ovenproof dish and spread out evenly.
10. Sprinkle the raisins on top.
11. Put the topping on and cook for about 20 minutes, until the topping is golden.
12. Remove from the oven and enjoy!

   

Hang onto your stale bread...!

First of all, apolgies for my absence on here the last week or so! Although I do love baking, when the sun is shining and it's 20 degrees outside (yes, that's right - in March!), that's where I'd rather be. This is why I chose to live in the south of France! Gone are the days of snow and wanting to be wrapped up inside with a café au lait to warm me up. Now I want to be sitting in the sunshine with a demi pêche in my hand watching the world go by.  

I just thought I'd share this little breakfast treat with you though, because as you know, I like to spice things up a bit sometimes when it comes to breakfast. It's also perfect if, like me, you hate wasting food! Because although baguettes really are delicious when you buy them fresh from the boulangerie, they literally last a couple of hours before going stale. And I mean, I do like bread, but eating a whole baguette to myself in a day is a bit much really! But wait, I have a solution which means not throwing it away!! And actually, the staler the better. In English we call it French toast, but here they call it pain perdu. I think I've just discovered my perfect breakfast! I wondered why it was called pain perdu at first, because perdu translates as 'lost'. Lost bread? No, that can't be right! Of course, it has another meaning too that makes far more sense which is 'spoiled', so basically keep hold of your stale bread and get cooking!

It's a bit like a sweet eggy bread really, but the cinnamon gives it that extra special flavour. And it tastes even better the longer you leave the bread to soak in the egg mixture. You could serve it with any fruit you like - I just chose raspberries and banana because it was what I had, but I think strawberries would go wonderfully too. Sprinkling some pecan nuts on top might be nice too to give it some extra bite and even a drizzle of maple syrup if you're feeling extravagant. And of course, the nutella that I stuffed in the middle of the bread finished it off beautifully! Once you've had this for breakfast once, you'll want it every day. Have a play around and add whatever extras you fancy. I'm afraid the quantities of ingredients are guess-work, as I didn't follow a recipe exactly, but this is roughly what I used. It's so easy though, that you won't go wrong. I hope you enjoy this breakfast as much as I did!

Nutella stuffed pain perdu with raspberries and banana

Ingredients:

Half a stale baguette (or equivalent in thick sliced bread)

1 Egg

1/4 cup Milk

1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence

1/2/ tsp Cinnamon

2 tbsp Butter

1 tbsp Plain Flour

Nutella

Handful of Raspberries

1 Banana

Method:

1. Whisk the egg and milk together in a shallow bowl.
2. Melt 1 tbsp of butter and add to egg mixture.
3. Add vanilla essence, cinnamon and flour and whisk until combined.
4. Cut bread into thick slices.
5. Make a hole in the crust of each bread slice, big enough to fit a tsp of Nutella in.
6. Put a tsp of Nutella into each hole.
7. Put each bread slice into the egg mixture for about a minute on each side to soak up as much of the mixture as possible. 
8. Melt 1tbsp butter in a frying pan and once melted, add the slices of bread.
9. Cook for about 1-2 minutes on each side, until golden.
10. Remove from the heat and place on plate.
11. Serve with raspberries and bananas or whatever fruit/toppings you fancy and enjoy!

A sweet burst of energy to start your morning...try these Banana and Honey Muffins

There are two reasons why I decided to make these yummy muffins:

i) I've just bought these cute little silicone cake cases on a recent excursion to Ikea and I couldn't wait to try them out. Just look at them, how could anyone resist?

ii) I LOVE breakfast! But cereal everyday gets a bit boring after a while and I wanted to experiment with something different. If you make these muffins in advance, you can just heat them up in the microwave in seconds..and voilà, a quick (fairly) nutritious breakfast that fills you up. A perfect start to the day in my opinion!

Another great thing about these is that they're not dry at all. Perhaps it was the honey addition which made them more gooey than usual, but whatever it was, they have just the right texture you want from a muffin. I also added a drizzle of extra honey on them just before serving. Pop it in the microwave for about 30 seconds and then the honey will soak into the muffin, giving you that extra burst of sweetness you need in the morning. They're only small (and I tend to be quite a hungry person when I first wake up!), so have two. You can make yourself feel less guilty by telling yourself that they're healthy - I mean, they have banana in them! Of course, I had the usual problem with the oven (I'm sorry, this is getting boring now, but it's just SO frustrating). Normally, muffins take about 20 minutes to cook, but realistically, with my extremely outdated oven, they had to be in for about 45 minutes. What I thought was going to be a quick bake stretched out into the night - who needs to go out partying when you can stay in and bake all night?! Their smell and beautiful taste afterwards made it all worth it though...who says that these breakfast muffins have to be eaten for breakfast? They taste just as good (if not better) straight from the oven at 11.30pm at night. Just keep reminding yourself they're healthy and you won't feel so bad when they're gone in days!

Banana and Honey Breakfast Muffins makes 12

Ingredients:

225g Self Raising Flour
125g Butter
100g Caster Sugar 
1 Egg, beaten
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
300ml Milk
1 Banana (mashed)
1 1/2 tbsp Runny Honey (plus extra for drizzling when serving)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line cake tray with cases or grease individual silicone ones.
2. Cream together butter and sugar.
3. Beat in the egg.
4. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, milk and honey. Stir gently until all ingredients are combined.
5. Stir in mashed banana, but be careful to not over stir.
6. Spoon into cases, so they're about 2/3 full.
7. Bake in the oven for about 15 to 20 minutes. A knife should come out clean when inserted into one of the muffins. 
8. Enjoy...straight out of the oven as a late night snack or a burst of energy in the morning!