Romantic Valentine's Day - Breakfast Ideas

Because Valentine's Day is on Sunday this year and our church isn't until 2pm I figured some of you wouldn't want to pull of an entire dinner that day. So here are a few fun ideas and recipes for a special Valentine's Day breakfast - - if you are still doing the dinner, drop hints to your husband that you would like something like this from him...

Easy:

Heart-Shaped Eggs and Toast

Why settle for ordinary eggs and toast when you can show your love with this version?

Using a 3-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter, remove the center of a thick slice of bread, and toast it. Melt 1 1/2 teaspoons butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Place bread slice in skillet, and cook until underside is lightly browned. Add another 1 1/2 teaspoons butter, and flip bread. Fit cookie cutter, coated with cooking spray, in bread's cutout heart, and crack an egg into cutter. Cover skillet, and cook until egg is set, 2 to 3 minutes. Use tongs to remove cutter. Serve with toasted heart for dipping into yolk.

Intermediate:

Banana Sour Cream Pancakes (Makes 12 pancakes) 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 3 tablespoons sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt 1/2 cup sour cream 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk 2 extra-large eggs 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest Unsalted butter 2 ripe bananas, diced, plus extra for serving Pure maple syrup In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Whisk together the sour cream, milk, eggs, vanilla, and lemon zest. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones, mixing only until combined.

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat until it bubbles. Ladle the pancake batter into the pan. Distribute a rounded tablespoon of bananas on each pancake. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until bubbles appear on top and the underside is nicely browned. Flip the pancakes and then cook for another minute, until browned. Wipe out the pan with a paper towel, add more butter to the pan, and continue cooking pancakes until all the batter is used. Serve with sliced bananas, butter, and maple syrup.

Hard:

Lemon Souffle Pancakes with Raspberry Syrup

1 cup and 2 Tablespoons All-purpose flour

3 Tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

grated zest of 5 lemon

3/4 cup ricotta (or cottage) cheese

6 Tablespoons buttermilk

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and kept warm

2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

3/4 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 eggs, seperated

For Syrup:

1 1/2 cup corn syrup

1 1/2 cup raspberries

1 1/2 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

non-stick cooking spray

confectioners' sugar (powdered sugar)

fresh mint sprigs, for garnish

In a large bowl, stir together the flower, 1 tablespoon of the sugar, the baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and lemon zest.

In a small bowl, combine the ricotta cheese, buttermilk, melted butter, lemon juice, vanilla extract, and egg yolks and whisk until smooth. Add the yolk mixture to the flour mixture and whisk until smooth. The batter will be quite dense.

In a bowl, using a mixer set on medium speed, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Sprinkle in the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form. Using a rubber spatula, carefully fold about 1/4 egg whites into batter, then fold in the remaining egg whites. Do not attempt to make the batter completely uniform; a few streaks of egg whites are fine. Cover and refrigerate for up to 1 hour.

For syrup:

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the corn syrup, raspberries and lemon juice. Bring slowly to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and continue to cook at a bare simmer until a light, crimson-colored syrup forms, about 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and immediately strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, pressing on the berry pulp with the back of a spoon to extract as much of the liquid as possible. Cover to keep warm.

Lightly coat a griddle or a large nonstick frying pan with nonstick cooking spray, then preheat over medium heat for 2-3 minutes. For each pancake spoon about 3/4 cup of the batter into the pan, to form rough cakes about 5 inches in diameter. Do not crowd the pan. Cook until large bubbles form on top, 3-4 minutes longer. Remove from the pan and keep warm while you cook the rest of the pancakes.

To Serve:

Divide the pancakes among warmed individual plates and top with the raspberry syrup. Sprinkle with the confectioners' sugar and garnish with mint sprigs.