Brunchiness

Anticipating a busy Sunday (yard! house! work!), we moved our Easter brunchiness one day earlier this year. I made the family favorite baked eggs, with hash browns and a fruit salad. There were the assorted breakfast "meats" as well, and french toast. I also wanted to bring in some rhubarb--it's such a lovely seasonal fruit, and a big favorite of the husband. So I went browsing for some sort of cake/bread recipe and ended up on a buckle coffeecake... I adapted it to suit my whims of the day, and it was quite yummy. Still is. Might need to dish some of that up with my morning coffee...


When I was in catering mode, this baked eggs dish was one that I could pull out very easily for a crowd--a hotel pan of this goodness would feed between 25-30 people. The pharma reps would send me in to a number of different local medical establishments, and when they'd see me pull up with the eggs, the nurses would come running. I never really had the heart to tell them what is in it... this is one of those special occasion dishes! Your jeans will thank me if you don't make this every weekend.

Baked eggs to die for
Feeds 8
Mix together:
10 eggs
1 16 oz. container cottage cheese
2 cups grated cheddar cheese, mild

Mix together:
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder

Now mix them all together. Pour into a 9-inch glass pie pan, or equivalent baking dish. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 30-40 minutes, until puffed and golden, and try not to eat it all in one sitting. This will be difficult.
Rhubarb buckle coffeecake

Adapted from Whole Grain Baking by King Arthur Flour Co.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and non-stick spray a 9-inch baking dish

Streusel:
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup oats
1 tsp cinnamon
3 T unsalted butter, softened

Mix together all ingredients except butter. Cut butter in and mix to make medium-size crumbs.
Set aside.

Buckle:
2.5 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
4 T. unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
5 cups rhubarb, tossed with 3/4 cup sugar (This is the main deviation, as the original recipe called for 2 cups of fruit. That seemed to paltry to me, and I wanted to proportion of fruit to batter to be MORE in the fruit department.)

Cream together butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy, then add the eggs, one at a time, stopping to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl between additions. Stir in half the dry ingredients, then the milk and vanilla, scraping down the sides. Stir in the remaining dry ingredients, then gently fold in the rhubarb. Spread the batter in the prepared pan and sprinkle the streusel evenly over the top.

Bake the buckle until a cake tested inserted in the center comes out clean, 45-50 minutes. Remove from the oven and let it cool, in the pan, on a rack.

I was a bit worried when I had ALL the fruit folded in, that it would spill over the sides of the pan I used (an old quiche dish from Mom, about 12 inces across but only an inch deep), so I baked it over a cookie sheet to save my oven from yet another layer of baked who-knows-what. The good news is that it rose nicely but didn't spill over. You can't see the pretty pink rhubarb in this picture, but it was quite yummy and the whole grains didn't ruin the sweet-baked-goods aspect of it, either!