After a few days spent recovering from graduation festivities, we’re finally ready to post the final component of our goodbye brunch – a delicious and mildly alcoholic baked French toast that we’re proud to have come up with ourselves (mostly!). The inspiration comes from Smitten Kitchen’s boozy baked French toast, but since we already doused our sorbet in kahlua (Smitten Kitchen’s booze of choice), we decided to try ours with almonds and apricot brandy.

You may be unfamiliar with apricot brandy, but we know it from such things as the apricot brandy sour, a drink that’s quite popular among friends. Apricot brandy is actually very tasty and light, perfect for fluffy, soft French toast. Since baked French toast soaks overnight and cooks in the oven in the morning, we just added a bit of the brandy to our soaking mixture and let the flavor seep through. We added layers of almond slivers between the layers of toast, and served it with (your choice of) powdered sugar or berry topping.

Ingredients:
1 loaf Challah, brioche, or thick Italian bread, cut int0 1-inch slices,
3 cups whole milk
3 eggs
3 tbsp apricot brandy
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup almonds
powdered sugar (optional)

(for berry topping)
2 cups frozen berries of your choice (we chose mixed)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (or to taste)

Instructions:
Grease a 9×13-inch baking dish. Arrange one layer of bread tightly in the pan, sprinkle with half of the almonds. Arrange the second layer on top, and sprinkle with remaining almonds.
Whisk together milk, eggs, sugar, salt, brandy and vanilla, and pour over the bread. Wrap the baking dish tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, bake at 425 for 30 minutes, or until puffed and golden. To make berry topping, combine berries and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a soft boil, then simmer for an additional 5-10 minutes. You can mash the berries to your desired consistency. Serve toast with powdered sugar, berry topping, or both.

Yesterday, Penn sponsored an event for Senior Week called Walnut Walk, an eight-hour bar crawl across Philadelphia. There were 18 stops, and all offered drink specials for those of us graduating (and some offered drink specials for everyone, which made for severe crowding). There are about 2500 seniors in our class, so the event was inevitably a hot, hot mess.

But if there’s anything that we’ve learned from our four years here, it’s that days like yesterday go much more smoothly when everyone is stuffed with food before they begin. We’d been meaning to serve one final brunch after we had so much fun cooking for Homecoming, and yesterday gave us the perfect opportunity. It’s amazing how much you can do without homework.

We knew that we had to do cinnamon buns, as we’ve been meaning to do them forever (along with bagels, which we have yet to accomplish). Both of us love the mall-bought variety, but there’s an artificialness to them that we thought we could avoid. We chose a recipe from Epicurious for Ultimate Sticky Buns that reviewers raved were easy and out of this world — our two criteria. We modified it slightly by increasing the filling, so I’ll post what we did below. In the end, they turned out ridiculously delicious. The dough was so sweet and thick, and the filling was gooey and sticky and wonderful. It seeped throughout the buns so that every single bite was dreamy.

Don’t touch that dial, more brunch recipes to come in the next few days!

Ingredients:
(dough)
1 cup warm water
4 tsp dry yeast
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup dry nonfat milk powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

(glaze)
2 1/2 cups light brown sugar
1 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1/2 cup water
3 cups pecan halves

4 teaspoons sugar
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Instructions:
To make dough, mix 1/4 cup warm water, yeast, and pinch of sugar in small bowl. Let rest until foamy, about 8 minutes. Beat remaining sugar, butter, milk powder, and salt in large bowl. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Mix in remaining 3/4 cup warm water and yeast mixture, then 3 cups flour (1 cup at a time.) Using rubber spatula, mix in 1 cup flour, scraping down sides of bowl frequently (dough will be soft and sticky). Sprinkle 1/4 cup flour onto work surface and knead until smooth and elastic, adding more flour if sticky, about 8 minutes. Butter another large bowl. Add dough; turn to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rise in warm area until doubled, about 2 1/2 hours.

To make glaze, grease one large pizza pan (or two 10-inch round cake pans) Beat brown sugar, 1 cup butter, honey, corn syrup, and 1/4 cup water in medium bowl to blend. Spread half of glaze in bottom the pan. Sprinkle pecans over.

Punch down dough, and divide in half. Roll each dough piece out on floured work surface to 12×9-inch rectangle. Brush any excess flour off dough. Grease dough rectangles with remaining 1/4 cup butter. Mix sugar and cinnamon in small bowl. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar over rectangles. Starting at 1 long side, tightly roll up each rectangle into log. Cut each log into 12 rounds. Place rounds, cut side down, prepared pan, spacing evenly. Cover with plastic wrap. (Can be made 1 day ahead; refrigerate.) Let buns rise in warm area until almost doubled, about 1 hour (or 1 hour 25 minutes if refrigerated).

Preheat oven to 375°F. Bake buns until deep golden brown, about 30 minutes. Run small knife around pan sides to loosen sticky buns. Turn hot buns out onto platter. Cool about 30 minutes and serve.

Obviously: happy halloween! Tonight, we made granola bars — perfect for tomorrow when we anticipate vomiting at the sight of candy (Alex’s mom sent up a HUGE bag, and too many pieces are gone already).

As granola bars nuts (haha), the realization that we could make them ourselves was very exciting. See, we have a habit of becoming obsessed with a variety of bar for about two months, then tiring of it and switching to another. But now, we’ll be able to switch ingredients in and out depending on season and mood, and never again have to assume the stressful task of picking a new brand! Except, I literally have three boxes of TLC Honey Almond Flax bars waiting for me in my pantry, and I love them too much to abandon completely.

In any case, this recipe is remarkably easy; It onlytook about five minutes of active cooking time. And though ours didn’t look super pretty, they tasted great — almost like oatmeal cookie bars. We used smart balance but you can use butter, and I imagine that adding coconut would be great as well. Also, feel free to add or substitute your favorite nuts, dried fruits, etc.

Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups oats
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup smart balance
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups raisins
1 1/2 sunflower seeds

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 325. In a large bowl, mix all of the ingredients together (we used a mixer, though you could probably do it with a fork and a lot of effort). Lightly press the mixture into a lightly greased 9×13 inch baking pan. Bake them for about 20 minutes, until golden brown. Let them cool for 10 minutes before cutting them into bars, and let them cool completely before removing them.

In my family, there is such a thing as having “Malke’s.” The term is a reference to a story, Malke’s Secret Recipe, in which a man tries to duplicate a recipe for potato latkes that taste as light as clouds. When he recreates them, however, they taste like ordinary latkes. Thus, when someone remembers something (particularly a food) as being better than it is, we say that they have a case of Malke’s.

Enter crepes with lemon and powdered sugar. Once upon a time, many years ago, I ordered them at the Original House of Pancake, my hometown’s token breakfast establishment. Like the latkes of Malke fame, they were as light as clouds. I remember sinking into the soft, chewy crepe, and feeling the powdered sugar escape from the inside and melt over my tongue. For years, I’ve dreamed of making them myself, but I always feared that I was just having Malke’s, and that any attempt would dissapoint me.

Last night, I toughened up, and we made crepes — first savory, then with lemon and powdered sugar. And guess what? It wasn’t Malke’s! We didn’t have a crepe pan, we didn’t use real butter, and the ordeal lasted under 30 minutes, which leads me to conclude that either Mark Bittman is in cahoots with my pancake house, or crepes prepared that way are simply unbelievable, possibly even impossible to ruin! Oh the relief.

And she lived happily ever after. The end.

Ingredients:
(crepes)
1 1/4 cups milk
2 eggs
2 tbsp butter or butter substitute, melted
1 cup flour
pinch of salt

(savory filling)
2 chicken cutlets, sliced into strips
2 cups broccoli, cut into small pieces
2 cups mushrooms, cut into small pieces
4 cups spinach
1 cup onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 lemon
2 tbsp dijon mustard
sherry cooking wine
feta cheese (optional)

(sweet filling)
lemon
powdered sugar
butter or butter substitute

Instructions:
To make the crepes, simply wisk the batter ingredients together in a large bowl until smooth. Take a large, non-stick pan, or spray a large pan with non-stick spray, and turn the heat to medium high. Using a 1/2 cup dry measuring utensil, scoop up batter and pour it into the pan. Move the pan in a circular motion so that the crepe assumes a nice, circular shape. Once the top of the crepe is no longer liquid (about 30 seconds), turn the crepe over with a spatula and cook for about another 15 seconds, until it is light brown.

For the savory filling, we sauteed the garlic and onion together in a teeny bit of oil, then added the chicken until it began to brown, then added the other vegetables. Then we squeezed the juice of one lemon over the mixture, followed by the mustard and a splash of the cooking wine. We covered it for a few minutes to let the vegetables steam, and then turned off the heat. If you use the feta, add it in when you are filling the crepes.

For the sweet filling, simply squeeze fresh lemon juice over the crepe. Add a bit of smart balance or butter, then sprinkle powdered sugar. Roll up the crepe, and repeat on the outside. It sounds simple, but it tastes amazing.

People fall in love with odd things sometimes.

Once, I read about a woman who married a snake, and I’ve witnessed my roommate become dangerously enamored with a pair of white Marc Jacobs pumps. I scoffed them, but now I fear I’ve joined them. I confess I’ve fallen utterly into love with a scone.

It wasn’t love at first site. I was tentative of the commitment (the recipe calls for day-before prep work, and letting the dough refrigerate overnight), and I even doubted our compatibility — I mean, I like figs, but I’m no enthusiast. But when we began to prepare the scones last night, I began to feel that “something” — just a bit when I sampled the dough. By the time we arranged them so neatly on the trays this morning, I knew it was love, and tasting them with jam made me want to pronounce my vows then and there: Until death do us part, you will be my favorite scone.

Special thanks to the Metropolitan Bakery Cookbook for introducing the happy couple.

Ingredients:
4 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar, plus some to sprinkle
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
grated zest of two lemons
3 cups old-fashioned oats
2 cups (4 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1 1/2 cups dried black mission figs, stems removed, chopped
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 tbsp heavy or whipping cream

Instructions:
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, lemon zest and oats. Add the butter and toss. On a low speed, beat the butter into the flour until it becomes a coarse meal. Stir in the figs. Add the buttermilk and mix (we used a spoon here) until it comes together as a dough. Scoop the dough onto a floured surface and press it together into a ball, then divide it in thirds. Press each third into a 3/4-inch disk, wrap each one with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours (we left it overnight, which is recommended). After refrigeration, pre-heat the oven to 375. Unwrap the disks and cut each one into 6 equal wedges, place them on a greased or nonstick baking sheet (you will need two), keeping the scones 2 inches apart. Brush the cream over them, and sprinkle some more granulated sugar. Bake the sheets one at a time on the center rack for about 25-30 minutes, until lightly golden. Serve slightly warm.

It’s Homecoming at Penn! And since there is no superior way to celebrate than with a pre-Big Game brunch, we decided to host one. Go Team.

I tricked Alex into agreeing to the idea via text message Thursday (“Oh my god I have the best idea let’s have a brunch Saturday please please please!”), and upon his consent, I became obsessed with executing the perfect meal. I feverishly consulted the blogs and all of my cookbooks for recipes, changing and revising the menu hourly. Alex was scared.

Eventually, I settled on a Spinach Cheese Strata for the main dish, accompanied by scones (will post next!) and the vanilla mint fruit salad that we wrote about earlier. Plus mimosas. Now, we are not shy about complimenting ourselves on this blog — sometimes deservedly, and sometimes not. But today, we really were awesome. Everything tasted delicious, and we polished off every last bite.

The recipe for the Strata is on Epicurious, but it was my mother who suggested it. And as per her recommendations, we doubled the spinach and the nutmeg. Also, we used fresh, local spinach from the market instead of a frozen package. If you do that too, just be sure to chop it. Also, because we were slightly pressed for time, we turned up the heat and cooked it for slightly less time — it became so golden and delicious that I totally recommend it. This dish is perfect for crowds and it really really tastes amazing.