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By Bev Kauffman
Breakfast or brunch is a favorite meal in my family.
I like to serve an all-you-can-eat brunch buffet. My menu usually consists of quiche, bacon, scrapple, toast, waffles or pancakes, homemade grape juice and coffee.
I'm sharing some of my favorite brunch recipes with you today.
Quiche
• 1 9-inch pie crust
• 5 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 8 slices bacon, fried and chopped
• 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Black pepper
Put the bacon, cheese and pepper in bottom of the pie crust. Mix the eggs and milk and pour in the crust.
Gently stir ingredients until blended. Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes or until set up and not jiggly.
Another quiche that I serve is a personal favorite and that's made with a sweet potato crust and it's gluten free.
• 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced thin
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 5 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Large handful of fresh spinach
• 4 sundried tomatoes, chopped
• 3/4 cup crumbled goat cheese
• 2 tsp oregano
Toss the sliced sweet potatoes in the olive oil. Spread the potatoes around the 9-inch pie plate covering the whole area and sides. Bake for 15 minutes. Allow to cool slightly.
Mix the eggs, milk and seasonings. Place the chopped tomatoes, spinach and oregano in the bottom of the potato crust. Pour the egg mixture over top. Sprinkle the goat cheese on top.
Carefully place in the oven and bake at 375 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes or until set up and it doesn't jiggle.
Another brunch goodie: Sticky buns!
Sticky buns
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp shortening
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 2 pkgs dry yeast
½ cup warm water
• 1 cup scalded milk
• 3 to 4 cups flour
Syrup:
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup corn syrup
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 tbsp water
Combine scalded milk with sugar, salt, shortening and eggs. Mix warm water and yeast. Then mix yeast mixture with milk mixture. Stir in flour until dough sticks together good. Knead.
Place in a greased bowl and cover. Let rise in warm place until double in size. 1 ½ hours.
Punch it down. Divide dough in half. Roll out half at a time into a rectangle and spread with a little butter, sugar and cinnamon. Roll up like a jellyroll.
Cut in 1-inch slices. Mix syrup ingredients in saucepan. Cook gently but don't allow to boil. Pour into baking pan and place sliced buns on top of syrup. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 35 minutes.
Flip and remove from pan immediately. Syrup recipe can be doubled for more stickiness!
On a buffet, you have to have either waffles or pancakes. These are my lemon ricotta pancakes. They are simply amazing!
Ricotta lemon
pancakes
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup ricotta
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 tbsp zest of a lemon
In a bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Set aside.
In another bowl, mix together all the wet ingredients. Be careful not to add any lemon seeds.
Gently mix the dry ingredients into the egg-ricotta mixture. Don't overmix.
Fry pancakes in a hot-buttered skillet till bubbly then turn over. Serve hot with your favorite syrup or more ricotta.
A popular beverage in our house has always been homemade grape juice.
Made in late summer when the grapes are plentiful, I make concentrate and seal quart jars for enjoying in the winter.
I use a juice steamer now instead of the old-fashioned hanging of the cloth bag to strain out the juice.
• 1/2 bushel grape bunches
• 13 1/2 cups sugar (Remember this is a concentrate)
Rinse grapes off leaving them in bunches. Place in the top of the juice steamer and gently boil till all the juice is extracted.
Pour into a large kettle and add the sugar. Cook gently until all the sugar is dissolved.
Pour into quart or pint jars and seal. When opening a jar, add water to taste.
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Bev Kauffman, of Lewistown, operated a catering business in Juniata County for nearly 20 years. She has authored the cookbook, "Preserving the Past: In the Kitchen with Bev Kauffman" in 2013 and is currently working on a second cookbook.