Sausage Jalapeño Cheese Kolaches #BreadBakers

These sausage jalapeño cheese kolaches are best made with quality beef franks, sliced fresh jalapeños and sharp cheese. They are the perfect filling for the soft, slightly sweet dough that surrounds them.

Kolaches, as you might remember from my Bread Bakers post three and a half years ago, are breakfast treats that can be either savory or sweet. If you’d like to know more about how such a traditional Czechoslovakia baked good made its way to Texas, check out my apricot kolaches recipe.

I also mention in that post that my personal favorite kolac (<that’s the singular) is one filled with sausage, jalapeños and cheese. This month, at my instigation, my fellow Bread Bakers and I are sharing breakfast breads that are made the night before, so you can have freshly baked breakfast in the morning. True confessions: This theme was completely driven by my desire to make my favorite savory kolaches, since they rise overnight in the refrigerator.

Sausage Jalapeño Cheese Kolaches

This dough is a bit different from the one I made to fill with sweet apricots. It’s a little less enriched – no sour cream, for one – with a little less sugar per kolache. I adapted this recipe from one on The Brewer and the Baker.

Ingredients – to make 10 kolaches
For the dough:
1 package (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
2 tablespoons warm water
1/2 cup or 120ml milk
2 tablespoons butter
1 large egg
1/4 cup or 50g sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
 3 1/8 cups or 400g bread flour

For the filling:
1/2 cup or about 40g finely grated cheese
2-3 fresh jalapeños
5 good quality bun-length beef franks

For brushing the kolaches before baking:
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

Method
Sprinkle the yeast over warm water in the bowl of your stand mixer along with 1 teaspoon of the sugar and 1 tablespoon of the flour. Let prove for 5 minutes. It should start to foam up and get bubbly. If it doesn’t, start over with new yeast.

Meanwhile, warm the milk and butter until the butter just melts. Set aside.

Turn the mixer to low and add the milk and butter mixture, egg, sugar, and salt. Beat until they are mixed thoroughly.

Add the flour gradually until you have a soft but kneadable dough.

Knead for 5 minutes by machine or 8-10 minutes by hand, until the dough isn’t quite as sticky as when you started. Add additional flour as necessary, but try not to over do it.  We want a soft dough. You may not use all the flour.

Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for about an hour in a warm place, or until the dough has doubled in size.

Cut the beef franks in two equal pieces. Slice the jalapeños into thin rounds.

When the dough has doubled, punch it down and divide it into 10 equal pieces and tuck them into balls. Mine were about 70+g each.

Using your clean hands, press each ball out into a rectangle. Add some grated cheese and a few jalapeño slices to the middle of each one. Place the half frank on top then use a spatula or dough scraper to fold each long side in.

Crimp and tuck to close the ends. Place the kolache in your lined pan, seam side down. Continue until all the kolaches are filled and formed.

Cover them with cling film and pop them in the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning, remove them from the refrigerator and then set your oven to preheat to 375°F or 190°C. Fill your kitchen sink about an inch deep with warm water and set the pan in it, being careful not to get any water in the pan.

When the oven has preheated, brush the kolaches with the melted butter and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the kolaches are golden brown.

Let the kolaches cool for 15-20 minutes then pull apart gently to serve. I love mine with some yellow mustard but you can eat them plain as well, as my husband did. To each his own.

Enjoy!

Check out all the other overnight breakfast breads my fellow Bread Bakers are sharing today!

• Blueberry Cinnamon Rolls from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Morning Buns from A Messy Kitchen 
• Overnight Apple Gingerbread Cinnamon Rolls from All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Overnight Breakfast Rolls from Anybody Can Bake
• Overnight Sourdough Boule from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Sausage Jalapeño Cheese Kolaches from Food Lust People Love

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all of our lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the BreadBakers home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin these Sausage Jalapeño Cheese Kolaches!

 .

Sweet Buttermilk Pie #BakingBloggers

Sweet buttermilk pie is a traditional southern dessert with a creamy tart filling, topped with a generous helping of snowy white whipped cream. Add a little fruit too, if you like.

This month my fellow Baking Bloggers are sharing recipes that remind us of snow, you know, the bright white kind that everyone loves until it turns wet and mushy and grey. I almost didn’t participate because I’ve been so busy, but then I remembered this wonderful sweet buttermilk pie, just hanging around in my folders, waiting for a chance to be shared.

You could, of course, serve the pie without whipped cream but why? Everything is better with whipped cream on top!

Sweet Buttermilk Pie

This is one of my mother’s favorite desserts. It’s not just a southern tradition but a southern favorite as well. Best of all it’s easy to make. Mix all the ingredients in one bowl and pour it into your pie crust to bake. I made my own pie crust from this recipe (stop before baking blind) but if you have to use a store-bought one this time of year, no worries.

Ingredients
1 unbaked 10-inch basic piecrust shell
1/2 cup or 113g unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups or 300g granulated sugar
3 large eggs
3 rounded tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1/4-1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups or 355ml buttermilk

To serve:
Whipped cream
Fresh fruit like raspberries, blueberries or even sliced peaches

Method
Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C.

 In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar and butter and beat until fluffy. Add the eggs in one at a time, beating well in between. Beat in flour, lemon zest and vanilla. Stir in the buttermilk with the beaters on very low.

Pour the buttermilk mixture into the unbaked pie shell. Grate on a little nutmeg or sprinkle on powdered nutmeg very lightly.

 Bake until the top is lightly browned and the center is just starting to set , about 40-45 minutes. It should be just the slightest bit jiggly. Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature. The filling with set completely as it cools.

Slice the pie into individual servings. Garnish with a small mountain of whipped cream on each piece and a few berries for a pop of color.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to this month’s host, Sue of Palatable Pastime and her group co-organizer, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. Between them they keep this group ticking along smoothly and I am grateful. Check out all the other snow-white recipes my Baking Blogger friends are sharing today:

• Billowy Gingerbread Trifles from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Christmas Cookie Tree from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Eggless Nankhatai from Sneha's Recipe
• Grandma's Meringue Cookies from Our Good Life
• Kourabiedes Greek Cookies With Powdered Sugar from Recipe Pocket
• Mexican Wedding Cookies from The Schizo Chef
• Snow Ball Cupcakes from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Snowflake Cupcakes from Palatable Pastime
• Snowy Mountain Cookies from Jolene's Recipe Journal
• Sweet Buttermilk Pie from Food Lust People Love
• White Texas Sheet Cake from Making Miracles
• Winter Wonderland Cake from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking

Baking Bloggers is a friendly group of food bloggers who vote on a shared theme and then post recipes to fit that theme one the second Monday of each month. If you are a food blogger interested in joining in, inquire at our Baking Bloggers Facebook group. We'd be honored if you would join us in our baking adventures.

Pin this sweet buttermilk pie!

.

Pecan Streusel Maple Coffee Cake #FoodieExtravaganza

Crunchy streusel sweetened with brown sugar and maple syrup bakes inside and on top this maple coffee cake. It’s finished with a sweet maple syrup glaze for a perfect seasonal treat.

I’m learning all sorts of things this week, up in Baltimore. First, in these parts, a horse drawn cart that sells fruit and vegetables is called an Araber. I haven’t seen it yet but there is apparently one still active in the neighborhood where my daughter and son-in-law live. Unrelated to my current location, I also found out that maple syrup is not just produced in the northern United States and Canada. While looking for a cocktail recipe using maple syrup and Kentucky rye, I came across Kentucky maple syrup. Who knew?

Last but not least, I learned that when a hand mixer dies, if you open it up to see if there is a replaceable fuse, you will never, ever get it back together again. Also, sadly, there is no replaceable fuse.

Fortunately for me, I didn’t need a mixer for my version of this pecan streusel maple coffee cake.

Pecan Streusel Maple Coffee Cake

This recipe is adapted from one on Maple Syrup World. Theirs was adapted from a recipe on One Perfect Bite, which was itself, in turn, adapted from a Martha Stewart Living recipe. Both of them are made in the traditional way of cake, creaming the butter and sugar then adding the other ingredients. Trust me when I say that my way is much easier and just as delicious.

Ingredients
For the streusel:
1 cup or 125g all-purpose flour
1/3 cup, firmly packed, or 65g light brown sugar
1 /4 cup or 60ml pure maple syrup
3 tablespoons or 42g unsalted butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup or 65g chopped, toasted pecans

For the cake batter:
2 cups or 250g all-purpose flour
2/3 cup, firmly packed, or 66g light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs
3/4 cup or 185g sour cream
1/2 cup or 113g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup or 60ml pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the glaze:
1 tablespoon or 14g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 cup or 62g confectioners' sugar

Method
To make the streusel: In a food processor blend flour, brown sugar, maple syrup, butter, cinnamon, and salt until the mixture is crumbly. Stir in the chopped pecans and set aside.

To make the coffee cake: Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C. Butter a 9-inch pan and line the bottom and up the sides with a circle of parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. In another smaller bowl, whisk the eggs, melted butter, sour cream, maple syrup and vanilla.

All at once, pour the wet ingredients into the dry, then fold them together to create a very thick batter.

Spoon half of the batter into your prepared pan and spread it evenly.

Sprinkle the top with half of the streusel topping. Spoon the balance of the batter on top. This is really thick so I suggest putting spoonsful of batter all of the cake.

Spread the batter out to cover the streusel then sprinkle the rest of the streusel on top.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick or raw noodle comes out clean. Place the pan on a wire rack for about 10-15 minutes, then invert it on a plate to remove the pan. Invert it once more onto the wire rack and leave it there till the coffee cake has cooled completely.

When the cake is cool, slide it onto a serving plate. Measure the maple syrup and butter for the glaze into a microwave proof vessel or a small pot and heat till the butter is melted. Whisk in the powdered sugar and drizzle the glaze over the top of the cooled cake.

Enjoy!

This month my Foodie Extravaganza friends are sharing recipes using maple syrup in honor of National Maple Syrup Day on the 17th of December. Many thanks to our host, Juli of Pandemonium Noshery. Check out all the great maple syrup recipes below.

• Canadian Maple Bear Claws from Pandemonium Noshery
• Maple Brined Pork Chops from Making Miracles
• Maple Coconut Cookies from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Maple Pecan Caramel Corn from Palatable Pastime
• Mapled Pink Banana Pumpkin Pie from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Maple Yogurt from Sneha's Recipe
• Oatmeal Maple Bread from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Pecan Streusel Maple Coffee Cake from Food Lust People Love

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays by cooking and baking together with the same ingredient or theme each month.

Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board!

Pin this Pecan Streusel Maple Coffee Cake!

 .

Sausage Honey Cornbread Muffins #MuffinMonday

If you are a fan of sweet cornbread and spicy breakfast sausage, you are going to LOVE these sausage honey cornbread muffins. They are the perfect combination of sweet and salty.

A few days ago I woke up in the middle of the night and I couldn’t go back to sleep because I couldn’t stop thinking about muffin recipes for Muffin Monday. Should they be sweet, maybe with fruit or something seasonal like pumpkin or sweet potatoes? Or completely savory, perhaps with sausage or cheese or both? I finally dozed off again when I hit on this unusual combination of honey cornbread with breakfast sausage. Sweet and savory dreams.

I was a little bit nervous because I had invited a few friends over for coffee on Saturday morning and if the muffins were terrible, we’d go hungry. I am pleased to tell you that everyone loved them! It was an experiment that paid off.

Sausage Honey Cornbread Muffins

The actual cornbread muffin batter ingredients are almost identical to some honey thyme muffins I made several years ago, except I dropped the thyme and reduced the amount of sugar. I wanted these sweet but not too sweet. I also substituted canola for the butter and buttermilk for the yogurt, because that’s what I had on hand. The breakfast sausage is the kind that comes in a chub, meant to be sliced into patties.

Ingredients
1 lb or 450g hot or regular breakfast sausage (for example, Jimmy Dean or Owens – I used the store brand sausage from H-E-B.)
1 cup or 180g fine cornmeal (white or yellow but yellow makes prettier muffins)
1 cup or 125ml all-purpose flour
1/4 cup or 50g sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup or 240ml buttermilk
2 large eggs
1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light oil
1/4 cup or 60ml honey – plus more for drizzling, if you really have a sweet tooth

Method
Fry the breakfast sausage in a skillet, breaking it into crumbles as it browns. When it’s completely browned, remove the sausage with a slotted spoon and drain it of grease on some paper towels.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and grease your 12-cup muffin pan or line it with paper liners.

Mix the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add in the drained sausage crumbles and stir so that they are coated with the flour/cornmeal mixture.

In a small bowl, whisk together your buttermilk, eggs, canola and honey. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

Divide the batter evenly between your muffin cups.

Bake the muffins in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until they are a nice golden brown. Allow to cool briefly and then remove the muffins to a wire rack.

These are delicious warm, plain or slathered with extra butter and/or honey. Enjoy!

Check out all the other great muffins my Muffin Monday friends are sharing today!

• Carrot Ginger Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Garlic Bread Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Mini Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins from Making Miracles
• Sausage Honey Cornbread Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Stout Gingerbread Muffins from Passion Kneaded

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

Pin these Sausage Honey Cornbread Muffins!

 .

Speculoos Stuffed Brownie Bundt #BundtBakers

Fudgy brownie batter is baked with a filling of cookie butter for a delicious sweet treat I’ve named speculoos stuffed brownie Bundt. It is super more-ish and disappears in a jiffy.

Since my husband retired and we moved from Dubai, I’ve kept baking - because I love it - but I can no longer send my baked goods into his office. Or share with my wonderful taste tester Bible study ladies! I miss them a lot too. I've sent baked goods home with my mom but she can only eat so much.

We are having our almost 100-year-old front porch completely rebuilt so the last couple of days have been a bit noisy. On the other hand, I have a new home for treats I’m baking. I sent most of this stuffed brownie Bundt home with the construction guys the day I baked it, and then, because there was such swooning, they got the last two slices today.

There really is no substitute for appreciative eaters.

Speculoos Stuffed Brownie Bundt

Speculoos is also known as biscoff spread or cookie butter. It used to be quite a challenge to find in normal grocery stories but I bought my jar in Walmart of all places. That said, my porch worker bees had never heard of it so I showed them the jar. It's lovely!

Ingredients
For the brownie batter:
1/2 cup or 113g butter, plus extra for buttering the pan
3 1/2 oz or 100g unsweetened baking chocolate
1 2⁄3 cups, packed, or 332g light brown sugar
3⁄4 cup or 60g natural high fat cocoa
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1⁄3 cups or 166g all-purpose flour, plus extra for flouring the pan
1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
3⁄4 cup or 100g chopped pecans (or your favorite nut)

For the filling:
3/4 cup or 210g speculoos spread aka biscoff or cookie butter

For the glaze:
1/4 cup or 70g speculoos spread aka biscoff or cookie butter
2-3 teaspoons warm water

Method 
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and grease and flour a 10-cup Bundt pan. If your pan has a black interior surface, lower the temperature by 25°F or 4°C so it doesn’t brown more quickly than it bakes through. I’m not sure why but dark pans seem to cook quicker.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Remove it from the heat and add the chopped chocolate. Let it stand for 30 seconds, then whisk together until smooth. Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl.

Add in the brown sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla and espresso powder and whisk until smooth.

Whisk in the eggs one at a time.

Sift the flour along with the baking powder and salt into the bowl. Use a rubber spatula to fold it in, until all of the flour is almost combined.

Fold in the chopped pecans, which should take care of any visible flour. This is going to become a soft buttery dough.

Spoon half of the dough into your prepared Bundt pan. Press it down with a clean hand or spoon to form a channel in the middle.

Spoon the cookie butter filling in the batter channel.

Use your clean hands to make dough patties to cover the filling.

Tuck bits of dough all around to make sure the top layer is covered, even into the corners of your Bundt pan.

Bake your filled brownie Bundt for 30-35 minutes or until it is a little springy to the touch on top and baked through. The toothpick test is a challenge because of the filling.

If you aren’t sure, err on the side of a little under-baked. These are brownies, after all, and it’s best to leave them chewy. No one, I mean No One,  wants a dry brownie.

Cool the brownie Bundt almost completely in the pan before inverting onto serving plate. It's a good idea to loosen the edges with a toothpick before inverting.

For the glaze, whisk the speculoos with one teaspoon of warm water at a time until it gets thin enough to put in a piping bag. Use a Ziploc bag with corner cut off to pipe the glaze on to decorate the brownie Bundt.

Slice to serve.

I suggest you wait till it cools completely before serving. As you can see in my photos, the Bundt was still a bit warm so the cookie spread dripped out a little. Once completely cold, it was quite a solid filling.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to this month's Bundt Baker hosts, Catherine and Tammy of Living the Gourmet. Check out all the other lovely Bundts made with cookie butter:

• Biscoff Bundt Cake by Living the Gourmet
• Biscoff Lotus Crumble Toffee Bundt Cake by Patyco Candybar
• Biscoff Sock-It-To-Me Bundt Cake by All That’s Left Are The Crumbs
• Brown Sugar Bundt with Biscoff Glaze by The Sweet Sensations
• Gingerbread Bundt with Cookie Butter Frosting by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Pumpkin Biscoff Bundt Cake by Making Miracles
• Speculoos Stuffed Brownie Bundt by Food Lust People Love
• Swirl Biscoff Bundt by Sneha’s Recipe

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all of our lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers, can be found on our home page.

Pin this Speculoos Stuffed Brownie Bundt!

 .