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CHAPTER 1
Sheet Pan Breakfast with Bacon, Potatoes and Mushrooms
Making the whole breakfast on one sheet pan in the oven means that there's almost no cleanup in the end. You don't have to battle with splattering bacon grease while stirring potato hash and making sure that the eggs aren't overdone. Everything is cooked on one pan in the oven and comes out hot at the same time. And if you have more people coming over for breakfast, then just double the ingredients and use two sheet pans. Everything will still cook at the same time, and everyone will get to enjoy their delicious and hot breakfast together. In this recipe, hearty and earthy mushrooms mingle with crispy bacon and fragrant herbs and spices. You get a delicious potato hash, eggs and toast, all cooked together on just one sheet pan.
Serves 2 to 4
2 large potatoes (about 1–1½ lbs [450–680 g] total)
Preheat the oven to 425°F (218°C). While the oven is preheating, dice the potatoes into ¼-inch (6-mm) cubes and finely chop the onion. Place the diced potatoes and onions onto a rimmed baking sheet. I use one that is 13 x 17 inches (33 x 43 cm). Add the mushrooms, all the spices and olive oil; mix really well. I prefer using my hands to mix, but make sure to wash them well as the chili powder will make your eyes sting.
Spread the potato-mushroom mixture in one layer on the sheet pan. Cut the bacon into 1to 2-inch (2.5- to 5-cm) pieces, and scatter them all over the potatoes. Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through.
After the potatoes are cooked, take the sheet pan out of the oven and move potatoes to make four wells. Check that there's enough grease in those wells from the olive oil and bacon fat; if your baking sheet isn't nonstick, you might need to add a few drops of oil to the wells. Carefully crack an egg into each well.
Place pieces of bread, cut diagonally, onto the potatoes and return the pan to the oven. Bake for 10 minutes for runny egg yolks. If you prefer egg yolks to be fully cooked and hard, then bake for another 5 to 10 minutes to reach desired doneness.
Serve with chopped parsley, halved or quartered cherry tomatoes and extra salt and cracked black pepper to taste.
Make-Ahead Leek and Goat Cheese Strata
I discovered stratas almost a decade ago, and since then, they have been a staple for all the brunches that I host. The basic idea is that bread is covered with an egg and milk mixture, some kind of filling (vegetables, cheese, meat, fish) and then refrigerated overnight. In the morning, you just pop the whole tray in the oven, and a hot bubbling breakfast is ready when the guests arrive. No need to stand at the stove and cook eggs to order. In this particular case, I used leeks, spinach and goat cheese as my filling. I love using brioche or challah as a base for the strata, as they provide a subtle sweetness that contrasts well with the tangy and salty cheese.
Serves 6 to 8
1 tsp salted or unsalted butter
Do not preheat the oven. Butter a 9 x 13–inch (23 x 33–cm) roasting pan and cover the bottom with the cubes of challah or brioche, trying to make sure that they are in a single layer.
Wash the leek really well between the layers to make sure that there are no grains of dirt. Slice it in half lengthwise, and slice each part into thin half circles. Heat the olive oil in a medium or large pan over medium heat, add the sliced leeks and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the leeks start to soften. Add spinach and chili flakes; cook until the spinach is wilted.
Evenly spread the leek–spinach mixture over the bread. Crumble the goat cheese and sprinkle it over the bread and leeks.
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and milk together until smooth. Add the mustard, salt and pepper, and mix well. Pour the egg mixture over the bread, making sure that all the bread is covered. Top with shredded mozzarella, cover with foil and refrigerate overnight or for at least 6 hours.
In the morning, take the strata out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature while the oven is heating. Preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C). Place the strata in the oven still covered for 15 minutes. After the initial 15 minutes, take the foil off and bake for another 30 minutes or until the eggs are fully cooked and the strata is firm. I love the combination of goat cheese and dill, so I usually serve it sprinkled with chopped dill.
Easy Cranberry-Pecan Granola
I love eating granola with Greek yogurt or just plain yogurt for breakfast. For quite a few months I was buying a really delicious granola and enjoying it until one day I looked at the nutrition information. It turned out that my breakfast wasn't as healthy as I thought — it was actually full of sugars and oils. This recipe uses only a couple of tablespoons of maple syrup and a bit of coconut oil, making the granola much healthier, yet still delicious.
Makes 2½ cups (310 g)
1½ cups (120 g) rolled oats
Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Scatter the oats, cranberries and pecans on a nonstick 11 x 17–inch (28 x 43–cm) or larger baking sheet. Sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg, and mix well.
Drizzle the maple syrup and melted coconut oil over all the oats. Mix well using a spatula.
Bake for 10 minutes. Cool and enjoy.
Ricotta Cheesecake Pancakes
In Russia, one of the most popular weekend breakfasts is farmer cheese pancakes, called syrniki. They are usually made with farmer cheese, egg, a touch of sugar and just a little bit of flour. This recipe is a variation of my childhood favorite. I use ricotta in place of farmer cheese now almost exclusively, as it's a lot easier to find in stores. Instead of making individual pancakes and frying them on the stove, the batter is poured into a sheet pan and baked in the oven. The resulting concoction tastes like a mix between a regular pancake and a light ricotta cheesecake. It's soft and creamy inside and the little ripples of jam add delicious contrast to the texture.
Serves 6
Pancake Batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C). In a large bowl, combine the ricotta, eggs, milk and orange juice. Whisk until smooth. Add the rest of the dry ingredients — sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon, baking powder, salt — and mix until just incorporated. Do not overmix. It's fine if the mixture is lumpy.
Grease a 13 x 9–inch (33 x 23–cm) sheet pan. Sprinkle with a bit of flour and shake to make sure that the pan is covered. Shake the excess flour out. Spread the prepared pancake mixture evenly inside the sheet pan.
If the jam you are using is too thick, then mix it together with 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of orange juice. Dot the jam over the pancake batter and, using the tip of a knife, swirl it around to create a marble effect.
Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes. Cut into squares, and serve hot with maple syrup.
Millet Porridge with Cranberries
When I was growing up, porridge was a staple on our breakfast table. I loved all kinds of porridges: oatmeal, cream of wheat, buckwheat, rice. Millet porridge was my favorite, probably because it was quite rare that my mom made it. Millet notoriously takes a long time to cook, and standing in front of the stove and stirring for an hour wasn't something my mom was able to do often. I wish she knew about this amazing way of cooking millet porridge in the oven. You just mix all the ingredients, stick the little pots in the oven and forget about them until they're done. You don't even need to preheat the oven! The result is creamy and delicious, slightly sweetened with brown sugar and dried fruit. I love serving it with extra Baked Milk (here).
Makes 1 serving
¼ cup (50 g) millet
Add all the ingredients to a small ceramic pot and cover with a lid. French onion soup pots are great for this. You need something with more than 8.5-ounce (250-ml) capacity.
Place the pot onto a baking sheet covered with foil or parchment paper. This is important, as if you have a smaller pot there will most likely be spillovers, and parchment paper will help with cleanup.
Place the baking sheet with the little pot into a cold oven and turn it on to 350°F (176°C). Cook for 1 hour.
Once the millet porridge is cooked, take the pot out of the oven, remove the lid and mix everything with a spoon. Add butter, if using, and a little bit of milk to make it creamy.
Baked Smoked Salmon and Goat Cheese Eggin-A-Hole Two Ways
I love having people over for brunch. It's fun and less stressful than cooking a formal dinner. I usually serve a cheese platter with crackers, make a simple waffle batter in advance, cook waffles right at the dining table and serve some kind of an egg dish that I don't have to fry to order. In most cases, I make a strata (try my Make-Ahead Leek and Goat Cheese Stratahere) or a tray of Baked Smoked Salmon and Goat Cheese Egg-in-aHole Two Ways, as they are a cinch to prepare and only take a few minutes to cook. Making eggs this way means that I don't have to spend time in the kitchen instead of socializing with my friends and family. Adding smoked salmon and goat cheese makes the brunch feel special, and even a little bit festive.
Serves 2 to 4
2 tsp (10 g) butter
Preheat the oven to 425°F (218°C). Lightly butter each slice of bread. Cut out the center of the bread slices, leaving about ½ inch (1.3 cm) of the crusts to create a hollow square. Place the bread slices and the cut-out centers of bread, buttered-side up, on a nonstick baking sheet. Drizzle the oil into each hole.
For the first style of toasts, chop half of the smoked salmon into small pieces and add to a small bowl. Add half the crumbled goat cheese, half the capers and two eggs to the bowl. Mix well with a fork. Pour the mixture into the holes of two bread slices.
For the second style of toasts, cut the smoked salmon slice in half and layer at the bottom of each remaining bread slice hole. The smoked salmon should cover most of it. Top it with the remaining crumbled goat cheese and chopped capers. Carefully crack the egg on top of the goat cheese, making sure that the yolk remains whole.
Bake in the oven: 12 minutes for medium eggs or 9 to 10 minutes for runnier eggs.
Mango-Chili French Toast
I love French toast. What I don't like about it is that it takes a long time to cook, and by the time I finish cooking the last piece everything is already cold. So, I usually heat the oven and keep all the cooked toasts there. Preheating the oven gave me an idea to try making French toast there from scratch. Not the kind where pieces of bread are covered in the milky egg mixture and taste closer to bread pudding than French toast. But the actual French toast, soaked in all the goodness of milk and egg and then cooked until slightly crispy outside and firm inside. Making French toast in the oven means that you don't have to cook and flip and wait at the stove. You can just prepare everything and forget about it. So, it's a great breakfast to serve if you are entertaining. I paired my French toast with mango and spicy chili for an interesting and unique twist, but feel free to omit the pepper or even mango altogether if you prefer the classic version.
Serves 4
2 large eggs
Preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C). In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, maple syrup, cinnamon and salt. Generously spray the baking sheet with oil spray. Dip each slice of bread into the egg mixture and place on the sprayed baking sheet. Evenly distribute the remaining egg mixture on top of each slice of bread.
Peel and dice the ripe mango into ½-inch (1.3-cm) pieces. In a small bowl, mix together the mango and red chili.
Spoon a quarter of the mango–chili mixture onto the center of each slice of bread. Place ¼ teaspoon of butter onto each slice of bread atop the mango mixture.
Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. Serve hot with extra maple syrup.
Oven-Baked Maple-Sriracha Bacon
This bacon is everything you want bacon to be — sweet, salty, savory and spicy. It sounds and tastes fancy, like something you find at a hipster brunch place where a plate of eggs and bacon costs 25 dollars, yet it's really easy to make, and you get a lot of it for very little effort. My trick to making any bacon is cooking it in the oven on a wire rack over a sheet pan covered with foil. The hot air circulates all around the bacon, making it cook evenly on all sides without it getting soggy. The fat drips onto the foil, making cleanup really easy. Adding a maple and Sriracha mixture means that the bacon won't be crunchycrispy; instead, it will be almost candied. There's not a lot of hot sauce, so the heat is just barely there. Feel free to add more Sriracha for a spicier treat.
Makes 8 pieces
8 pieces bacon
Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). Line a large, rimmed sheet pan with heavy-duty foil; it'll make the cleanup a breeze. Place a wire rack onto the foil-lined sheet pan. Arrange the bacon on the wire rack so that each piece is flat and not overlapping.
In a small bowl, mix together the maple syrup and Sriracha. Brush the maple-Sriracha mixture onto both sides of the bacon pieces. Bake in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the thickness of the bacon and how well done you like it.
Thick Oven Omelet
This thick oven omelet is a staple at Russian cafeterias in schools and daycares. It's delicious to eat warm but also great cold. Don't worry about using so much milk and cream; combined with eggs, this omelet will become really tall and spongy with a delicious caramel-colored crust. It tastes light and airy. Slice it and serve on bread for a quick morning meal.
Serves 6 to 8
1 tsp butter
Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). Spread the butter all over your baking form. I use a 5 x 10–inch (13 x 25–cm) form. You can use a regular loaf pan. The narrower the pan, the fluffier and taller the omelet will turn out.
In a big bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, cream and salt until smooth. No need to whip it, just mix it all together until well blended.
Pour the eggy mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 40 minutes. The omelet will become fluffy and tall but will deflate a little bit once out of the oven.
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Excerpted from "The Ultimate One-Pan Oven Cookbook"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Julia Konovalova.
Excerpted by permission of Page Street Publishing Co..
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