July's Breakfast Club Challenge

For a lot of people, and I include myself in that to some extent, 'Continental Breakfast' means the selection at the end of the buffet table in a hotel with a scattering of limp pastries, mini pots of jams, and an industrial sized tub of muesli. Most of my experience of the continental breakfast I will be honest has been in the Brewer's Fayre type eateries attached to Premier Inn's when I've been away on business, although I still vividly remember being three years old, and on an all inclusive holiday in Spain, where the morning slice of ham on toast seemed like the most exotic thing I'd ever eaten, compared to my everyday bowl of Rice Crispies! 

A recent trip to Brussels however for a work conference, introduced me to the heavenly taste of freshly made Belgian Waffles for breakfast, hot off the waffle iron, and dusted in icing sugar, and when I got home I made it my mission to read up on the European idea of breakfast, rather than relying on the British interpretation. And whilst there are some commonalities between each country, you only have to read Wikipedia's page outlining the different types of breakfast from around the world to get a feel for how cultural and climatic differences change what and how people eat breakfast. 

So, for this month's breakfast club, I'd like you to consider not just 'Continental' as a generic label, but some of the regional variations from all around Europe. I'm talking Belgian Waffles, French Pastries, Brioche, Crusty breads with meat and cheeses, German pumpernickel and Russian Pancakes! Let's take this chance to recreate a breakfast from a cherished holiday, tackle a new type of bread, or put a twist on a classic pastry.

As always...

• Mention Breakfast Club in your post, and use the logo
• Link back to this post, and to Helen at Fuss Free Flavours
• You can link back old posts, just update them with the link to this challenge
• You can enter as many times as you want
• Entries close on the 28th July, and the round up will appear shortly after
• Posts can be linked to other challenges too, just respect their individual rules
• Links can be tweeted using #breakfastclub to @ThePantryDoor1 and @FussFreeHelen and we will RT any we see
• Enter via the linky below, otherwise email the post to me at kickatthepantrydoor@gmail.com

Honey-Nut Oat Clusters, and a Review of Clarks Honey

Honey-Nut Oat Clusters

Earlier this month I was sent a selection of Maple Syrups and Honeys to review from Clarks. I have already reviewed the Maple Syrups along with my recipe for Superfood Pancakes here. Clarks have also branched out into a great range of honeys, you can buy them here from Amazon. I was sent a Clear Blossom Honey, as well as Acacia and Lavender varieties. The recipe below uses the Clear Blossom, however you could use any flavour honey in the recipe, to achieve different tastes and flavours to suit.

Of the samples sent out to me from Clarks, my favourite has to be the Acacia, which is a milder tasting honey by its nature, and is great for adding to beverages as a replacement for sugar, or using to sweeten dishes. If however you are making something where you want the honey flavour to be one of the key tones, using a blossom honey will give a more distinctive taste.

A selection of the Maple Syrups and Honeys available from Clarks

I have developed this recipe for Honey-Nut Clusters as I recently won an Easi-Yo yoghurt maker after entering my Plum and Almond Crumble into the Credit Crunch Munch challenge. I have been experimenting with homemade yoghurt ever since, but both Gary and I agreed that we needed to find something with a bit of 'crunch' to top it off. This is a great basic recipe, and could easily be adapted by adding various dried fruits, nuts or even some chocolate chips to achieve different flavours and textures.

Ingredients

300 grams Rolled Oats
50 grams Golden Caster Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
100 grams Mixed Chopped Nuts
150 grams Blossom Honey
1 teaspoon Vanilla Bean Paste

Method

Combine the oats, sugar, salt, cinnamon and mixed nuts in a large mixing bowl, stir well. 

Add the honey and vanilla bean paste to a smaller bowl, and mix together. Blossom honey can crystalise, and if yours has, place the bowl in the microwave for 15 seconds to thin the mixture back down again. 

Pour the honey and vanilla mixture into the dry ingredients. 

Mix well so that the honey is evenly distributed throughout the dry ingredients.

Transfer the mixture onto a lined baking sheet, spread evenly, and press down with the back of a spatula or wooden spoon to compress the mixture. 

Bake at 180 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes until golden brown, take care not to let the edges go too dark or they will taste bitter. Once golden, remove from the oven and set aside to cool completely.  

Finally, once cool, break into clusters. Stored in an airtight container, these will keep up to 2 weeks. Sprinkle over fresh yoghurt, and add an extra glug of honey for a tasty breakfast. 

DIY McBreakfast: Homemade Sausage and Egg Breakfast Muffins

I've been blogging now for eight months, and I can honestly say I love everything about what I do on this site, from experimenting to sharing tried and tested recipes, setting myself challenges to reviewing new products. I go to sleep thinking of new recipe ideas, and I can't wait to finish work at night so I can fire up the laptop and check my messages. But the biggest thing to come out of my blogging has been discovering that I cannot help competing with every major food supplier out there. I simply cannot walk down a supermarket aisle, or eat out, without starting to think... "I could make that." And Gary doesn't help, in fact the opposite, he knows me so well, and he deliberately goads me "Oh you couldn't possibly make chocolate eclairs..." he says, knowing full well that once he's said it I won't rest until I've proved him wrong! Which is exactly what happened when we were sat watching TV the other night, and an advert for a well known fast food chains breakfast menu came on...

Let me tell you, when that well known fast food chain took it upon themselves to take an English muffin, and fill it with sausage meat, egg and cheese, they were really onto something, and as always, homemade is soooooo much better than takeaway. Making these at home, you get light fluffy muffins, freshly made sausage patties, and whilst I couldn't possibly tell you that this is a healthy morning meal, at least you know exactly what has gone into it, and you get to eat it hot from the pan, rather than after it has been sat on the side for 20 minutes bathing in its own grease!

Homemade Sausage and Egg Breakfast Muffin

The quantities listed here make 5-6 English muffins, which will keep for up to 2 days if placed in an airtight container.

To make the English Muffins;

7 grams fast action yeast
125 ml tepid water
75 grams natural yoghurt
225 grams strong white bread flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
handful of semolina

• In a medium sized bowl, dissolve the yeast in about half of the water. Add the remaining water and the natural yoghurt, and mix well until smooth and combined. 
• Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl, add the salt and quickly stir. 
• Pour the liquid mixture into the flour, and mix together to make a dough.
• Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead well for 5 - 10 minutes until a smooth pliable dough is formed. Return the dough to the bowl, cover and leave to prove for 1 hour, or until doubled in size. 
• Turn the dough back out on the surface, and knead quickly to knock back. Roll the dough out to about 2 cm thick, and cut out rounds about 3 inches wide. Knead the offcuts back together, re-roll and continue to cut out rounds until all the dough has been used. 
• Place the rounds on a lightly floured baking tray, sprinkle the semolina over the tops, cover, and leave again to rise for about 40 minutes.
• Heat a little oil in a large frying pan. Place the muffins in the pan, and cook for about 7 minutes on both sides. Keep the heat down low so as not to burn the outside of the muffins before the inside cooks. 
• Set aside to cool. These muffins can be kept for a couple of days in an airtight container, just halve and toast and they are ready to eat. 

Freshly cooked English Muffins

To make into Sausage and Egg Muffins;

50g sausage meat per patty
1 teaspoon bread crumbs per patty
salt and pepper to taste

eggs
sliced cheese

• To make the sausage patties, mix the sausage meat well with the breadcrumbs and salt and pepper. transfer the mixture onto a well floured surface, and roll out to around 5mm thick. Cut into 3 inch rounds. 
• Coat both sides of the rounds with the flour, and fry in a hot pan with a little oil, for about 4-5 minutes on both sides. (You can make the patties up to 24 hours in advance, just wrap individually in clingflim once coated in flour and keep in the fridge).
• Once the sausage patties are cooked, set aside to keep warm. 
• Take the muffins, and slice in half. Place under a grill or in a toaster to toast. 
• Fry the eggs, turning over halfway through so that yolk cooks through entirely. 
• To assemble, layer up the bottom of the muffin, add a slice of cheese, the sausage patty, and the egg.

• Finally, place the top half of the muffin on, and there you have your very own DIY McBreakfast!

The main thing I noticed when we bit into these is how savoury they tasted compared to the ones from the fast food chain. There must be a huge amount of sugars added to the muffins and the sausage meat in their version!

I am entering this recipe into Made with Love Mondays run by Javelin Warrior at Cookin w/ Luv as a great example of making a well known meal at home, and totally from scratch!