Easy Recipes to Upgrade Your Summer Breakfast Routine
This is the time of year when the sun begins to shine through the window and you get just a glimpse that summer has arrived. I start to look wistfully toward those mornings where it might be warm enough to eat a late breakfast on the patio. And the fresh fruit this time of year begins to shine… I think it starts with the strawberries every year. Once you see strawberries, you know its spring and time to focus on all the good fruits and veggies that are coming your way. The best part about this time of year is that it isn’t too hot to stop you from wanting to use the oven; so baked goods are always on our spring breakfast list.
Imagine a table spread with baskets of warm blueberry muffins and scones ready for butter and honey, scrambled eggs, asparagus, a bowl overflowing with fresh strawberries, blueberries, and pineapple, yogurt, maybe some jam or granola to go on top, and crisp bacon… a table that kids and adults will lean over and try to decide what they want to eat first. My kids love breakfasts like this because these little buffets allow them to pick and choose their choices for the day, and anything left over makes an amazing snack.
Handful of Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients
½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
2-½ cup blueberries – fresh or frozen
2 cups flour – all purpose or whole wheat
½ cup milk
Instructions
- Combine softened (almost melted) butter, eggs, sugar, vanilla, baking powder and salt and mix well.
- Add flour and blueberries. Be sure to put the blueberries onto the flour so that most of them get a flour coating. Add milk to one side of the bowl. Mix very gently with a spatula until just combined.
- Line muffin tins with parchment* liners and gently spray the top of the pan with oil. Scoop batter into pan, each muffin cup will be heaping and bake at 375 for 25-35 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
* Parchment muffin liners are amazing as these blueberries really stick, but regular muffin liners work too.
Makes 12 large muffins
Cherry Almond Scones
Ingredients
2 cups flour (all purpose or whole wheat)
2 tbsp sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1-½ tsp grated orange peel (optional)
¼ cup butter
1/3 cup baking powder
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp almond extract
1 cup dried unsweetened cherries
½ cup sliced toasted almonds
Instructions
- Heat oven to 400. In a food processor (can be made in a large bowl) combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and orange peel and mix well. Add butter chopped into chunks, and pulse to make course crumbs.
- Add milk, eggs, and almond extract; blend well to form a soft dough. Pour dough, and contents of food processor, onto a cutting board and add cherries and almonds to the top of the dough. Knead the dough to incorporate the fruit and nuts. Pat dough into a round circle about 1½ inch thick. Cut the circle with a knife all the way across 4 times (like a pizza) to make 8 triangles.
- Place the triangles of dough in a circle on a parchment lined pan about 1 inch apart. Bake 18-25 minutes until scones have risen and are nicely golden brown. Check the sides to be sure they are cooked through by gently pressing a finger to the dough at the side of the scone, if you leave an indentation they need more time.
Makes 8 large scones
By Nikai Sullivan
@nikaisullivan
