Easy breakfasts for Christmas morning

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Easy, special breakfasts for Christmas morning

By KATHIE SMITH, BLADE FOOD EDITOR

Whether you're up early on Christmas morning to open presents around

the holiday tree or you get to sleep in, the day calls for a special

breakfast.

Make it a true " eye-opener " with a little planning, some simple

ingredients, and creative but easy recipes.

Grape-Stuffed French Toast made has a wonderful flavor made with

almond paste, Neufchatel cheese, and red grapes pressed inside

baguette slices soaked in traditional egg batter and fried on the

griddle. The syrup is prepared by melting orange marmalade with water.

The combination is so good it even makes great leftovers.

The only downside of this recipe is you will have almond paste left

over. The ¼ cup needed was only about a quarter of the 10-ounce can we

purchased at Giant Eagle ($7.49).

Save the rest of the can for cookies or cakes such as Almond Macaroons

or almond horns, stollen, strudel, or heirloom recipes.

Almond paste, made from finely ground blanched almonds, sugar, water,

and sometimes glucose or egg white is a frequently used ingredient in

Scandinavian baking, writes Carol Walter in Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky

Buns, Muffins & More (Potter, $35). Leftover almond paste should be

well wrapped in plastic to keep it soft and refrigerated. It can be

frozen for later use. Don't use hardened almond paste as it does not

perform well in baked goods.

Use the paste at room temperature. Break it into small pieces or shred

with a box grater to help it blend smoothly. Sometimes almond paste

can be mixed with an electric mixer or chopped in the work bowl of a

food processor using the steel blade. If the almond paste turns hard,

softening it in a microwave may be possible; if it doesn't soften,

discard it.

Among the recipes in Great Coffee Cakes using almond paste is Dried

Cherry Almond Pound Cake, which can be frozen.

Kids will love this recipe: Cherry Sticky Buns are a quick hot bread

to make for Christmas morning provided the frozen white rolls have

been thawed. We used frozen rolls, with 36 to a package. These

can be thawed in the refrigerator in 6 to 12 hours, or even overnight.

Cover the desired amount of dough with plastic wrap or place in a

plastic bag.

Use greased muffin tins. Each bun has a brown sugar/nut/cinnamon

mixture in the bottom plus 4 cherry halves. Then each is topped with 4

halves of dough over the cherry mixture. The buns bake in 20 to 25

minutes. They should be cooled in the baking pan for 10 minutes on a

wire rack and then inverted onto a serving platter.

Ham & Eggs Frittata Biscuits are made with another frozen product:

Pillsbury Oven Baked Extra Large Easy Split frozen biscuits. The

biscuits are defrosted for 30 seconds in the microwave, sprayed with

cooking spray, and then pressed into a 4-inch circle on a cookie sheet.

A ham-and-egg mixture tops the biscuit and it is baked 15 to 20

minutes until the biscuits are golden brown and the eggs are set.

Holiday waffles

Maybe you will find a new waffle iron under your Christmas tree.

Waffles are a good solution for serving guests who want breakfast at

different times, writes Diane Rossen Worthington in Seriously Simple

Holidays (Chronicle, $24.95). Keep the waffle iron handy and let them

make their own.

Make classic buttermilk waffles served with maple syrup, or for

seasonal flavors or try Spiced Pumpkin Waffles from the cookbook.

Cranberry syrup or your own homemade cranberry sauce, lingonberry jam,

or pomegranate syrup make wonderful accompaniments to the spicy

pumpkin flavor.

To speed up the process Christmas morning, make the batter up to one

day ahead. Remove it from the refrigerator 30 minutes before cooking.

Whisk the batter and add a few tablespoons of milk if it is too thick.

Once made, the waffles can be frozen for a month. We heat them in a

microwave for one minute, or in a toaster.

Serve any of these breakfast treats with fresh fruit or a half of

grapefruit and juice. Be sure the coffeemaker is ready. Set the table

the night before when you put cookies and milk out for Santa Claus.

Wake up to an eye-opening breakfast: amid the wrappings of the

holiday, your table will sparkle.

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