Before we even get to the menu, it was very important to me to make this a “special” breakfast with a tablecloth, decorations, and special cups and plates.  However, the only NEW items I purchased were the red and white snowflake plates and the fun cup (from Target).  I spent around $10.  Since The Littlest Apple is very interested in Nutcrackers, I included the 3 we own on the table.  I recruited my husband to cut out some snowflakes which I hung (okay, taped haphazardly) from the light fixture along with some red and silver ornaments.

I also tied some red tulle to the back of the chairs.  I did all of this late the night before the breakfast, and The Littlest Apple was SO EXCITED when he came downstairs and saw the table all set up.  He couldn’t wait to wake Daddy up to have breakfast.  I think these few little decorative touches really made our North Pole Breakfast extra special.

The menu was festive too!  This was not the healthiest breakfast, but The Littlest Apple certainly enjoyed it.  In fact, it reminded me very much of the types of foods that Buddy The Elf likes to eat…

North Pole Breakfast Menu

Peppermint Pancakes-(recipe below)

Strawberry Santa Hats-strawberries dipped in white chocolate

Snowballs-mini-donuts covered with powdered sugar

Snowman Snacks-banana slices with pretzel stick arms, blueberry buttons and chocolate chip eyes

North Pole Punch-fruit punch served in a neat-o cup

There were also some candy canes and Winter Oreos on the table just for kicks.  It didn’t take very long to throw this all together.  The most time consuming part was the pancakes, and you could prep the batter the night before.

Here’s the recipe for those yummy pancakes….

Peppermint Pancakes

pancake recipe adapted from The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, topping inspiration from Come Together Kids

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1-2 tablespoons cooking oil (I used coconut oil)
• red food coloring
• crushed peppermints/candy canes
• chocolate syrup
• whipped cream (I forgot to get mine out of the fridge…oops!)

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, melted butter, and then the buttermilk.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, pour the buttermilk mixture into the well, and whisk very gently until the buttermilk mixture is just incorporated (a few lumps should remain).

Pour half of the batter into another bowl and add red food coloring until you reach your desired color.

Heat a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat for 3-5 minutes.  Brush the pan bottom with 1 teaspoon oil.  Using 1/4 cup of batter per pancake, add the batter to the skillet (only 2 or 3 pancakes will fit at a time) and cook until large bubbles begin to appear, about 2 minutes.  Flip the pancakes and cook until golden brown on the second side, about 1 1/2 minutes longer.  Repeat with the remaining batter, brushing the skillet with oil as needed between batches.

Serve alternating colors of pancakes topped with chocolate syrup, crushed peppermint candy, and whipped cream.

Pumpkin Doughnut Muffins

from Everyday Food, November 2010

Makes 12

For the Batter:

• 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
• 3 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/4 cups pure pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cup light-brown sugar
• 2 large eggs

For the Sugar Coating:

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter and flour 12 standard muffin cups.  Make batter.  In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and allspice.  In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk and pumpkin puree.  In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs, one at a time, scraping down bowl as needed.  With mixer on low, add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions pumpkin mixture and beat to combine.

Spoon 1/3 cup batter into each muffin cup and bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean, 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine granulated sugar and cinnamon.  Let muffins cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack.  Working with one at a time, remove muffins from pan, brush all over with butter, then toss to coat in sugar mixture.  Let muffins cool completely on a wire rack.

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When I saw that Peabody and Tartelette were hosting Time to Make the Doughnuts, I knew I wanted to participate.  I briefly considered making beignets, having just had Mardi Gras and New Orleans on the brain.  As I mentioned in my King Cake post, I used to live in Louisiana, and whenever we went to New Orleans, we always had beignets at Cafe Du Monde at least once or twice during our stay.  Ah, the smell of fried dough and coffee in the air, the tables and chairs slightly sticky from all the powdered sugar.  I’ve made beignets once or twice before.  Beignets are delicious and fairly simple to make, but I’ve been craving apple fritters.  Besides, I’ve never made apple fritters, and there’s something really satisfying about trying/creating a new recipe that turns out well, don’t you think?   Notice how I said it’s satisfying when it turns out well.

My foray into the world of apple fritters seemed doomed from the get-go.  I had lots of trouble finding a recipe.  Many apple fritter recipes I ran across were for fried apple slices, which I’m sure are great, but not what I had in mind.  After finding a few recipes that were close to what I was looking for, I decided to do my own thing.

The key to any good donut is lots of hot oil because after all, donuts are fried dough.  I was low on oil, so decided to substitute Crisco.  Substitutions already?  That should be your first clue that things are about to go horribly wrong.  But how bad could it be?  Besides, the Crisco was butter flavored, so that should taste good, right?  Right?  WRONG.  Very very very wrong.  The first batch of apple fritters were overwhelmed by the yucky taste of artificial butter.  And they were too salty.  And the texture wasn’t quite right.  And the powdered sugar coating didn’t stick because I waited too long.  Need I go on?  All in all, disastrous.  The Picky Apple took one bite of his, and promptly spit it out and threw the rest in the trash.  I tried so hard to like them, thought maybe they would grow on me, but they did not.  I decided maybe it wasn’t meant to be….

But all weekend, I kept thinking about apple fritters, reading other entries in the doughnut event, and decided to give it one more try this afternoon with the event deadline looming.  I couldn’t stand being defeated by the apple fritters.  For my second attempt, I used oil and changed up my recipe a little.  This batch turned out much better  (because really, they couldn’t get much worse than that first batch!).   They still weren’t as good as the apple fritters from Shipley’s….not even close.  But they were decent, and I’m glad I attempted donuts for this event.

Apple Fritters

Fritter:

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1 cup chopped apple

Glaze:

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons milk

Directions:   Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, cinnamon.  Stir in milk and egg until just combined.  Fold in apple.  Pour oil into skillet so that it is approximately 1 1/2 deep.  Heat oil on high.  Oil is ready when dough floats to top.  Carefully add dough to oil in heaping teaspoons.  Cook until brown, about 2 minutes, then flip.  Cook another 1-2 minutes, until both sides are browned.  Transfer briefly to paper towels to absorb excess oil, then transfer to cooling rack.  Make glaze by stirring milk and powdered sugar together in a small bowl.  Drizzle over apple fritters.  Wait approximately 3 minutes for glaze to harden, then flip fritters and drizzle glaze over the other side.  Best served warm.