You will love this simple popover recipe! They are perfectly light and delicious, and so easy to make.

Popovers are hollow rolls / biscuits made with an egg batter. They puff up in the oven and become airy and crispy and delicious. They are called popovers because they “pop over” the sides of the pan as they bake. And yes, I had to look that up after Zeke asked why they are called popovers. 🙂

I’ve been wanting to try making popovers at home for years now. I can’t believe it took me this long to get around to it because it turns out they are so simple to make! And they are so good that we now have a new weekend tradition.

A few years ago Mike and I took a kid-free vacation to Bar Harbor, Maine and Acadia National Park. We had a great time hiking, biking, and exploring, but one of the things I most remember from the trip is the amazing food we had. I’m pretty sure we had some form of lobster for almost every meal! After the lobster, however, the food we most enjoyed was the famous popovers from the Jordan Pond House.

Jordan Pond House is a cute little tea shop in the middle of the park. They are famous for their popovers (look how big they are!), so of course we had to try one! We definitely enjoyed our popovers (with butter and strawberry jam!), and I came home wanting to try to make popovers at home. It took me a few years, but I’m glad to report that it’s super easy to make delicious popovers in your own kitchen!

I love that you don’t need a special popover pan to make these. All you need is a normal muffin pan and a few simple ingredients. We ate these fresh out of the oven with butter and strawberry jam, and they were absolutely delicious! Seriously, we couldn’t stop eating them and I already made them again this weekend. Best of all, they aren’t unhealthy, so I don’t even feel bad feeding them to the kids! All 3 boys loved these, and Emma looked on sadly because she isn’t old enough to eat real food yet. 🙂

Please give these a try – they have already become a new weekend tradition!

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It’s blueberry season here in Michigan, and you know what that means! Lots and lots and lots of blueberry baking going on over here. 🙂 I’ve already made and frozen plenty of blueberry vanilla butter, I just made blueberry pudding dessert last night, and blueberry muffins are making a very frequent appearance on our table.

These fresh blueberry scones are just the latest in a long stream of blueberry recipes I’ve tried. And they are delicious! They are tender and moist with just the right amount of crunchy sugar on top. They are chock full of bursting blueberries and are absolutely delicious when served warm.

They have just the right amount of sweetness – they are plenty sweet, but you don’t feel guilty eating one (or two!) for breakfast. 🙂 These scones didn’t last long around our house – I hope you like them as much as we did.

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Thanksgiving is coming up quickly and we have a big dinner planned with Mike’s extended family. I figured it’s about time to start thinking about what I’ll bring and start brainstorming some Thanksgiving-friendly recipes. That’s where these sweet potato biscuits come in. I made these last weekend for a late brunch after church, and they were wonderful! Buttery and fluffy and just the slightest bit sweet. I love that the addition of the sweet potato makes these otherwise traditional biscuits into something that is perfect for this time of year. The biscuits are simple to make, especially if you think ahead and already have a sweet potato cooked and ready to go in the fridge. If not, you can cheat and microwave it until it’s soft. 🙂 They definitely taste best warm out of the oven, but I had great success reheating them in the toaster oven as well. If you’re looking for traditional biscuits with a fall twist, give these sweet potato biscuits a try. They are definitely worthy of a spot on your Thanksgiving table!

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My love for fresh apple baked treats is well documented on this blog (here are my top 15 favorite apple recipes!), and these apple cinnamon scones rank right up there with some of my favorite treats!

After I bought my first bag of apples at our local farmer’s market I was looking for a fun new way to bake with apples and ran across this scone recipe.

I tend to think that scones are so complicated to make, but they’re really not. They’re just like slightly sweetened biscuits. These scones came together in about 20 minutes, and before I knew it we were enjoying fresh scones straight out of the oven. And we loved them!

The apple cinnamon flavor is strong and the chunks of fresh apple add the perfect chewy texture. The scones themselves are light and flaky and sort of melt in your mouth. They’re not overly sweet, but you do get an extra dose of sweetness from the crunchy cinnamon sugar topping.

This is definitely a recipe you need to try this fall – they make a great weekend breakfast treat!

p.s. They also taste great served as a dessert with vanilla ice cream on top! 🙂

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I have a nice fall treat for you today – homemade apple pie spice! This homemade spice mix smells like all the best parts of fall and tastes like apple pie (without the apples of course). This mix is great to use in baked goods this time of year. You can, of course, use it in any recipe that calls for apple pie spice, but I also like to use it to replace the cinnamon in any number of recipes. It’s really just a mix of fall spices, so don’t let the name confuse you. It’s great in apple pie, apple crisp, any sort of pumpkin bread or apple bread, etc. The options are endless! I’ll be giving you a few ideas in the coming weeks, but in the meantime it doesn’t take any time at all to mix this up to keep on hand. Plus it smells great and really gets you in the mood for fall!

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Blueberry Season is still going strong here in Michigan, and I am having a great time trying out new blueberry recipes. Mike loves anything with blueberries in it, so I knew he would love these blueberry biscuits. I’m not the biggest blueberry fan, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed these. The biscuits are fluffy and light, and the blueberries inside keep them nice and moist and add a great burst of flavor. These biscuits are on the sweeter side, rather than savory, and would be great topped with a simple powdered sugar glaze. As you can see from the picture, I opted for even more blueberries and made a blueberry sauce to serve with the biscuits. These biscuits are definitely best fresh out of the oven, but I reheated the leftovers the following day and they still tasted delicious!  If you’re like me and love baking with blueberries, give these blueberry biscuits a try!

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I figured it’s about time for something unhealthy. I’ve been posting way too many recipes for salads and vegetables. Don’t worry though, these cheddar, bacon and scallion scones are anything but healthy. They sure do taste good though! They are light and fluffy and chock full of delicious flavors. There’s enough cheese and bacon to be noticeable in every bite, which is a wonderful thing. These would be great alongside some eggs for a hearty breakfast, but I think they’d be just as good served with a salad for lunch or dinner. Plus if you eat a salad, you don’t feel as bad eating a bacon filled scone. 🙂 Enjoy!

Cheddar, Bacon and Scallion Scones

Yield: Makes 8 large scones

Ingredients:

2 cups (8 1/2 oz) all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp baking powder
2 tsp sugar
4 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1 cup very coarsely grated or diced cheddar cheese
1/2 cup snipped fresh chives, or finely diced scallion greens
1/2 pound bacon, cooked, cooled and crumbled (about 1 cup)
3/4 cup heavy cream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425. Lightly grease a baking sheet or line with parchment.

Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar. Work the butter into the flour until the mixture is crumbly. Mix in the cheese, chives and bacon. Add the cream, stirring to combine. If the dough is too crumbly and won't hold together, add a little extra cream until the dough comes together. Transfer the shaggy dough to a well floured work surface.

Pat the dough into a smooth 7" disk about 3/4" thick. Transfer the disk to the prepared baking sheet. Cut the disk into 8 wedges, spreading the wedges apart a bit on the pan. Brush the scones with a bit of extra cream to help the crust brown. Bake for 22-24 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.

*Note: I cut this recipe in half, which is why my scones are on the small side.

from King Arthur Flour

Happy Easter! I realize these lemon thyme biscuits are a little late for those of you had just had a big Easter brunch, but they are still perfect for Spring! They have a light and tender texture, and a bright lemon taste. There’s something about the taste of lemon that is so cheerful, don’t you think?  I was initially intrigued by this recipe when I saw it in a magazine, but wasn’t sure how I’d feel about lemon flavored biscuits.  Thankfully the taste was subtle and I ended up really liking these.  The thyme is not a strong flavor in these biscuits, which was fine with me, but if you really like the taste of thyme, you may want to add some extra. Mike liked the biscuits as well and we both agreed that they are a great accompaniment to eggs. 🙂

Lemon Thyme Biscuits

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp wheat germ
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme, plus more for sprinkling
4 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup buttermilk

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, wheat germ, salt, lemon zest and time. Using a pastry blender, work the butter into the flour mixture until it is in pea-sized pieces. Gently stir in the buttermilk with a wooden spoon just until moistened. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead briefly, 3-5 times. Any more than that will cause the biscuits to be tough. Roll the dough out to 1/2 inch thick and cut out biscuits with a 2-inch round biscuit cutter. Re-roll the scraps to cut out more biscuits. Brush the tops with water and sprinkle with kosher salt and thyme. Bake until golden brown, 12-15 minutes. Serve warm.

Food Network Magazine, July/August 2011

These cinnamon biscuits are like a cross between a gooey cinnamon roll and a comforting breakfast biscuit. I’m not sure why I never tried to combine the two before, but trust me when I say that this idea is a good one. You get the warm, sugary goodness of a cinnamon roll, but in less than half the time. The biscuit is light and fluffy, the cinnamon filling is rich and gooey, and the cinnamon glaze on top makes this breakfast into something so good that it really should be called dessert. Mike absolutely loved these, and he didn’t even get to try any straight out of the oven. He ate one cold, and another one reheated and is definitely asking me to make them again. I, of course, ate one as soon as I finished photographing it and promptly declared it a new favorite breakfast treat.

Cinnamon Biscuits

Yield: 8 biscuits

Ingredients:

Cinnamon Filling:
6 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp ground cinnamon
4 tsp shortening
4 tsp corn syrup

Biscuits:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups light or heavy cream

Cinnamon Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
½ teaspoons Cinnamon
2 teaspoons Corn Syrup
1 teaspoon Vanilla
Heavy Cream (Enough To Let Icing Reach Consistency Of Honey)

Directions:

Heat the oven to 425°F. Grease an 8x8 pan and set aside.

For the cinnamon filling, combine the sugar, cinnamon, shortening and corn syrup with a fork until crumbly and evenly blended. Set aside.

For the cinnamon glaze, Mix the first 4 ingredients (powdered sugar, cinnamon, corn syrup, vanilla). Add heavy cream in small amounts at a time, stirring often, until icing reaches the consistency of honey. Set aside.

For the biscuits: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Pour in 1 1/2 cups cream and mix quickly, just until combined. Dump the dough out on the countertop and pat into a long, thick rectangle.

Slice the rectangle into 16 equally-sized squares. Lay half the squares in the prepared baking pan. Sprinkle the cinnamon mixture over each square. Cover with a second square of biscuit dough and lightly press the edges to seal. Repeat with each biscuit.

Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, or until the biscuits are barely golden on the outside and just cooked through. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly. Drizzle with cinnamon glaze and serve warm.

from The Kitchn and Taste of Home

These little sugar dusted cakes are a traditional Welsh snack that I discovered while visiting Wales last summer.  I brought the recipe home with me as a souvenier on a piece of Welsh slate and have been wanting to make them ever since. I first tried them in a delightful little cafe in the town of Tintern (the same place we had the delicious Welsh scones!) and they were the perfect afternoon snack with a cup of tea!

The ingredients are similar to scone ingredients, but the dough is possibly a little bit sweeter (although that could have been all the powdered sugar I sprinkled on top!) The dough is easy to work with and it only took about 15 mintues to throw these together. They cook quickly on the stove and are just perfect served hot off the griddle. The insides of these flat little cakes are light and fluffy with a texture similar to a biscuit or scone. The original recipe calls for a sprinkling of raw crunchy sugar on top, which would add a wonderful crunch!

These would be perfect served as an accompaniment to breakfast or brunch, or as a snack with tea or coffee.  I froze some of the rounds of dough (there are only two of us after all), and can’t wait to pull them out of the freezer to cook for a quick treat!

Welsh Cakes

Ingredients:

8 oz flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 pinch allspice
1 pinch salt
2 oz unsalted butter
2 oz lard (or shortening)
3.5 oz sugar
1 egg
milk
powdered sugar

Directions:

Mix the flour, baking powder, allspice and salt in a large bowl. Rub in the butter and lard. Add the sugar. Stir in the beaten egg with enough milk to make a stiff dough. (Start with a small amount of milk and add more as needed).

Roll the dough on a floured surface to about 1/4 inch thick. Using a biscuit cutter, cut into 2 inch discs. Cook on a lightly greased griddle or heavy frying pan for about 3 minutes per side, or until golden brown. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve warm.