Best Breakfasts + The Secrets to Better Baking, with John Kanell of Preppy Kitchen

Food Friends: Home Cooking Made Easy

In this episode of Food Friends, hosts Carrie and Sonia sit down with cookbook author John Kanell to explore reliable breakfast recipes and foundational

Key takeaways

• John Kanell recommends using half a cup of butter and two cups of milk in waffle batter to ensure a crisp exterior and moist, cake-like interior
• He advises salting sliced tomatoes and patting them dry before baking to prevent soggy tart crusts

Main topics

• Breakfast meal prep & freezing techniques
• Baking science & ingredient ratios

Notable quotes

Sugar is going to like help give you a crisper edge as it caramelizes, but it also softens the batter.

Conclusion

Listeners walk away with actionable techniques for mastering breakfast baking, moisture-management tricks for

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) Hi Carrie! Hi, Sonia. I feel like breakfast is such a sticking point for so many of us, and baking is too. Yeah, Speaker 2 (0:07) I think we all get into a rut with breakfast, and I'm also getting into my baking era, and so I'm always looking for recipes that really work when I'm trying something new in the kitchen. Exactly, and that's Speaker 3 (0:16) why we have John Connell here today to help us with both these things. John Connell is the cookbook author and founder of Preppy Kitchen. He's a two-time New York Times bestselling author, and he's about to come out with his third cookbook, Preppy Kitchen. everyday baking. He's a former middle school math and science teacher. And I think that's why he's just such an incredible wealth of knowledge. And he conveys that knowledge so simply and so easily. Yeah, Speaker 2 (0:42) I really agree. His recipes really do work and they really talk you through the how and the why of what you're doing. What I really loved about this conversation is that he gave some really hot takes one about cinnamon rolls and two about waffles and why most people's waffles are really dry and tasty. I Speaker 3 (1:00) love a strong opinion too, as you know. So it was great to hear so many of his that actually teach you so much. And to find all the recipes from this week's show, you can find them linked in our show notes, but you can also get them delivered straight to your inbox by subscribing to our sub stack foodfriendspodcast.substack.com. You Speaker 2 (1:19) can also find us on Instagram at foodfriendspod and keep listening to hear our conversation with John Connell. Speaker 3 (1:27) Welcome to Food Friends, a podcast inspiring home cooks to try new dishes in the kitchen by sharing trusted recipes, tips, and friendship. Speaker 2 (1:37) Hi, I'm Sonia. And I'm Keri. We met in Los Angeles over 15 years ago as personal chefs and haven't stopped talking about food since. We're so glad you're here. Speaker 2 (1:50) Hi, Carrie. Hi, Speaker 3 (1:51) John. Hi. We're so thrilled to have you here. Thanks for coming on. Thank Speaker 1 (1:54) you for having me. I'm very excited. Speaker 2 (1:56) John, we always start by asking, what did you eat for lunch today? Speaker 1 (2:00) I had some leftovers. Does that count? Speaker 2 (2:01) What were your leftovers? I Speaker 1 (2:03) made some... butter chicken the other day. And I always like to throw in a little bit of extra lime juice. And I don't think of it as a traditional recipe at all. But I like to throw in a large portion of cashews while the chicken is kind of simmering away just to have like a little bit of extra mellow texture in there. Speaker 3 (2:22) Butter chicken is something I could eat almost every day. I think leftovers also come up a lot in our guests interviews, because if you're cooking all the time, you don't want to also cook lunch. It's nice to have something already ready to go. Speaker 1 (2:33) Lunch is my recipe. Breakfast is, hey, we're ready for the day. Lunch, it's like, okay, everything's kind of already in the fridge, ready for me to take out. I Speaker 3 (2:40) love that you already brought up breakfast because we're going to get deeper into that. But you spent more than a decade teaching middle school math and science before turning Preppy Kitchen into your full-time career. You're a two-time New York Times bestseller. And now you're coming out with your third cookbook, Preppy Kitchen, Everyday Baking. What was the first thing you ever cooked or baked that made you think? I might actually be good at this. And maybe I should share what I'm making with other people. Speaker 1 (3:04) Well, there's a photo of me as a very, very awkward looking 14 year old. And I have a big chocolate cake that I had baked for a family gathering. And I think I used my mom's recipe, but I did it all myself. That kind of started my love affair with making things on my own. Because before that, I had been my mom's sous chef and shadow in the kitchen. And that was like a nice way to... spend some time bonding with her because she was the busiest lady that you could ever imagine. As an adult, she put herself through night school to get her high school diploma and then eventually got her doctoral degree in bilingual education while she raised us, while she had a job, while she made all of our meals from scratch every night, including dessert. So I was there to help her. Speaker 3 (3:51) It Speaker 1 (3:51) was like a good way to like catch her. Speaker 3 (3:53) It's such a formative experience with food. But when you started working and having a professional life, is there also a dish that people maybe commented on? You know, that leap from I love to cook and I love to be around food to I want to help other people make delicious things. I Speaker 1 (4:07) was a teacher and one of the things I looked forward to was my week to... provide snacks for the teacher's lounge. So I would be in a kitchen that was like the smallest kitchen you'd ever imagine in my first apartment. And I'd be making stuffed mushroom caps or like little appetizers that I could bring to school the next day. Speaker 1 (4:28) teach it to comment and say, oh, this is like much fancier, much more effort than I've expected. But I really enjoyed it and I loved sharing things and also trying family favorite recipes that I hadn't made before or new things that I found in cookbooks. And then eventually when my husband and I wanted to have kids. One of us needed a flexible job so that they could be here and help raise them, do the work. And my husband had a very crazy job that was quite demanding. And he said, you know, you love teaching, but you also love food. Maybe you could pivot and kind of still do the best of both. And he really helped me out and let me spread my wings in there. Speaker 2 (5:05) John, we would love to really get into. breakfast. You have such a huge range of breakfast recipes on Preppy Kitchen and also in your new cookbook. What's your favorite breakfast for a busy weekday or school morning? I Speaker 1 (5:18) love meal planning and doing some work on the weekend. I have two boys at home. They happen to love being in the kitchen, so on the weekend we make waffles. Like, I'll make a few batches of waffles and they can do them on their own at this point. And then we just freeze them for the morning. And then we have things that are more full meals, like little breakfast cups that you can make and muffin tins, and those reheat really well too. We can make muffins for the first part of the week. In my new cookbook, I have a cinnamon swirled pumpkin muffin that is... really, really, really good. And you know, it's like very fall. But for me, I would have pumpkin any day of the week, any time of the year. It's Speaker 3 (5:59) definitely the time though, to start whipping out the pumpkin, whether you're roasting it or using canned and all the pumpkin breads, all the pumpkin muffins. So you're really known for making baking feel approachable and reliable. So going back to the weekend, I spend a lot of time on Sunday making dishes ahead because it's so nice to just spend a day in the kitchen and then not have to spend as much time during a busy week. But when you have a little more time in the morning, when you have a relaxed weekend and you want to make something really special, do you have a favorite breakfast that you make when you have that time to linger? I Speaker 1 (6:29) love making cinnamon rolls. One of our family traditions is like if it's a holiday, we will have cinnamon rolls or sometimes sticky buns. They're like my husband's favorite. The kids love them too. Those I like