We're reprising this festive theme -- there's always room for more make-ahead egg dishes, more pancakes and waffles, more pastries to keep around for the early-risers.
These are not your usual contests. We have a slightly nutty system but it works. Together, the Food52 community has created two cookbooks this way -- there’s no stopping us now. Read about it
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The ingredients: flour, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, orange zest, sugar, baking powder, butter, milk and egg.
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Baking powder makes the puffs "puff."
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The puffs themselves have four different spices, but not too much of any of them.
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Zesting an orange for the batter.
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Amanda, deep in concentration, butters the muffin tin.
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The batter starts with brown butter, which you should cool a little before adding the other ingredients.
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Creaming the melted butter with sugar and eggs.
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Why so cheerful? We rarely get to use the hand blender (it often gets overlooked, tucked into a low cupboard).
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Adding the dry ingredients, in stages.
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And alternating with splashes of milk.
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You don't want too much batter in each muffin cup -- a few tablespoons at most.
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Golden and pillowy, the puffs emerge from the oven, and we flip them out while they're still warm using a sharp knife.
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We found that piercing the bottoms with a sharp fork worked well for dipping the hot puffs in the melted butter.
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Teamwork.
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Breakfast is served!
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Check out the Q&A and meet this week's winner!
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What you'll need: bread for toast, kale, eggs, apple cider vinegar, sweet potato, shallot, nutmeg, maple syrup, white onion and pecorino.
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Peeling taters.
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There's a hint of maple syrup in the roasted sweets -- but not enough to make them cloying.
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Roasting potatoes -- or any vegetable -- on aluminum foil keep the cleanup to a minimum.
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We softened a mix of onion and shallot in a pan large enough to be able to hold all the kale.
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Giving the kale a rough chop. Who wants to deal with a whole kale leaf on their toast?
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Some chicken stock.
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And then the kale -- a full bunch (ours was medium-ish).
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A little apple cider vinegar and some salt and pepper to finish it off.
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We eschew the swirling method when we poach eggs -- but it's up to you!
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See the tiny bubbles on the sruface of the water at center stage? That's what you're looking for when you poach eggs -- the barest simmer.
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Meanwhile, Amanda whips up some beautiful toast and layers it with paper-thin slices of pecorino.
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Assembly!
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