As a rule, I don't do fancy breakfasts. Let me correct that: I don't make fancy breakfasts. I am not a morning person (anyone who knows me is laughing at the understatement). I will however, eat a fancy breakfast if it is presented to me.

My roommate, Claire, is a morning person. Nothing makes her happier than to get up and get outside. Also unlike me, she has the metabolism of a vole. That woman needs food, and she does food at what (to me) are ungodly hours of the A.M.

This morning she woke me up (unusual) saying I wouldn't want to miss breakfast. She was right.

Claire's Puffy Pancake

4 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup spelt flour

a lot of butter

powdered sugar
lemon juice

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Melt a lot of butter (1 stick? She said 1 stick, but I wasn't in the room to see it) in a 10" cast iron frying pan.

Mix eggs, milk, vanilla and flour together until smooth. Pour immediately into hot buttered pan and place immediately into oven.

Bake for about 8 minutes until it is very puffy and brown. (Claire left the oven light on and watched until it looked right.) Remove from oven, sprinkle top generously with powdered sugar and drizzle with lemon juice. Slice and serve.

Claire said her mother had gotten the recipe from an old brunch cookbook and Claire herself had been making it since she was twelve years old. She tells me the secret ("Which my mom never does...") is to have the butter sizzling hot when the batter is added and to place it immediately into the preheated oven.

Whatever she says--it was delicious! And I was blogging by 9 A.M.

Tags: breakfast, pancakes, spelt

Isaac's sixtieth birthday was last week, but between my schedule and his health, we didn't really celebrate. As long as I had today off, I declared it birthday day. Here's the cake.

Pumpkin Walnut Bundt Cake with Spiced Rum Glaze

• 10 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 2/3 cups white sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp spiced rum
• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 can (approx. 2 cups) pumpkin puree

• 2 cups spelt flour
• 2/3 cup barley flour
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp allspice

• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350º. Butter a Bundt pan really, really well.

Using a mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until well mixed. It will be crumbly, not creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla, beat well until it is very creamy and lemon-colored, then add the pumpkin. Mix until just blended.

Sift the dry ingredients together and add to the wet ingredients about a third at time, mixing gently with the machine or by hand. Stir in the walnuts.

Spread the batter evenly in the Bundt pan. Bang the bottom of the pan a few times on the table to shake out any air bubbles. It will pick up the details of the mold much better this way. Bake for one hour, until the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack for ten minutes ("no more, no less," according to the official Nordic Ware site ), then invert onto a plate. (Don't pick it up with bare hands; use hot pads.) With luck, it comes out in one beautiful piece.

Captain's Rum Glaze

• 2 tbsp spiced rum
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup confectioner's sugar

Stir together, then drizzle over top of the cake.

Alternately, dust with powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar.


The alert reader may notice significant similarities to the previously-posted Banana Cake. This is hardly accidental. Much of my baking consists of tweaking one recipe to accommodate other ingredients.

The aforementioned Nordic Ware site suggests spraying cooking oil on the pan, then dusting with flour, but I haven’t been thrilled with the results. I liked the butter, but I could see that dusting with flour would have helped the cake climb up the sides of the pan. However, the result was dandy anyway.

Tags: cake, dessert, pumpkin, spelt, walnuts

James Beard once said, "Don't let the lack of an ingredient stop you from trying a recipe." I found that very liberating, although lack of eggs might deliver a strange omelet. Nonetheless, it has been a window to much of my experimentation.

I don't eat wheat much anymore. One doctor told me I was allergic to it, and another told me I was not, but over all I think I do better without it. I find I tolerate spelt pretty well, which is related to common wheat (and does contain gluten, for those of you who are gluten-free) but is an older species.

I found the original of this recipe, Spelt Banana Bread, a couple of years ago. It calls for four bananas, which were sitting enticingly on the table this morning. Of course, I was out of spelt flour. However, I had some white whole wheat (I don't remember why) and barley flour. So here is what I came up with.

(Not Spelt) Banana Cake

• 10 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 2/3 cups white sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 4 ripe bananas, mashed

• 2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 2/3 cup barley flour
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp allspice

• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350º. Butter a 9x9 baking pan.

Using a mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until well mixed. It will be crumbly, not creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla, beat well, then add the bananas. Mix until just blended.

Sift the dry ingredients together and add to the wet ingredients about a third at time, mixing gently with the machine or by hand. Stir in the walnuts.

Pour into the pan, spreading evenly. Bake for one hour, until it begins to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack for at least an hour or so. If you use loaf pans, you might want to turn them out on the rack after 10-15 minutes; I used the 9x9 and just left it in the pan. Dust the top with confectioners' sugar, cut into squares (or slices) and serve.

It is light, fluffy and delicious. I think you could use two round cake pans, frost it and make a banana layer cake out of it, too, if you were so inclined. I might try that sometime. Might also be good in my Bundt pan.


The folks who posted the original recipe said they adapted it from Joy of Cooking, and now I've adapted it from them. Recipes go 'round and 'round!

Tags: bananas, spelt, cake, dessert