Soaked Raisin Pecan Oat Bread

I made this last month, but am just getting around to posting it. I'm still terribly behind on posting. I'll get there someday, I figure. So anyway, we went to my SIL's house for dinner one night last month. She asked me to bring some kind of bread. I had recently come across a recipe for Cranberry-Pecan Bread on The Nourishing Home and thought I'd make it to take. The original recipe calls for cranberries, but I didn't have any on hand, so I substituted with raisins.  I really liked it with raisins.  Maybe someday I'll try the original recipe with the cranberries, but I rarely buy them, so I'll more likely always use raisins or other dried fruit. This was a very good bread - very moist and flavorful. And I like that it is soaked. I will definitely make this again!  The recipe below makes one loaf.  I doubled it to make a second loaf to have at home since we were taking one to Grand Rapids.

Raisin Pecan Oat Bread

Step One: Soaking

1 cup organic whole spelt flour
1/4 cup Rapadura (or Sucanat)
1/2 cup organic thick-cut rolled oats (not quick-cook)
1/2 cup organic plain whole milk kefir (or cultured buttermilk)
1/4 cup filtered water

Add above ingredients to a large mixing bowl. Add kefir (or cultured buttermilk) and water and thoroughly combine. The mixture will be a very sticky, wet dough.  Cover the bowl and place it in a warm area of your kitchen for 12-24 hours.

Step Two: Baking
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons pure organic maple syrup
1 large egg
1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup unsweetened dried cranberries
1/4 cup chopped crispy pecans

After soaking for 12-24 hours, get ready to bake your bread.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add melted butter to the batter and fold into the batter, just until incorporated. Then, add maple syrup, egg, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Thoroughly combine by folding into the batter. Then, fold in the cranberries and pecans.

Place the batter into a well-oiled loaf pan. Bake for approximately 30 minutes, until the bread is a rich brown color and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

This post is linked to Monday Mania at The Healthy Home Economist and Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop, Simple Lives Thursday at GNOWFGLINS, and Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade.

Whole Wheat Noodles

I have been wanting to try making some homemade pasta for quite some time now.  I have been debating about trying a sourdough recipe, or this whole wheat recipe from Heavenly Homemakers.  My SIL, Mary, made the whole wheat noodles a few weeks ago and loved them.  I decided I was going to give the sourdough noodles a try.  Then my husband asked me what I was doing and I told him I was going to make sourdough pasta.  While he's been a trooper through all of my sourdough trials... and generally likes most of the sourdough things I've made... he asked if I could make something "normal" for once.  So I changed it up and made the soaked whole wheat noodles.  We were all very happy with the result, too! 

These noodles are very easy to make and don't take much time at all.  I really like that they are soaked, therefore increasing the nutrition and digestibility of the grains.  I made some lasagna noodles and made a pan of lasagna for dinner last night.  This was seriously the first time I've ever eaten lasagna where I didn't get an upset stomach afterwards.  It was great!  I'll definitely be making these again and again.  Although, I will be making the sourdough noodles this week so that we can compare. 

Whole Wheat Noodles

2 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 beaten eggs
1/3 cup water (or an acid medium (buttermilk, kefir, yogurt, whey) for soaking)
1 teaspoon olive oil

To soak grains:

Use the same ingredients, substituting the water with an acid medium like buttermilk, plain yogurt, kefir, or whey. Mix ingredients as described below in a bowl.  I started out with a spoon and then just used my hands.  If your dough is really sticky (mine was), add in a tablespoon or so of flour at a time and mix in.  You don't want the dough to stick to your hands or the bowl... once you get to that point, you'll know the dough is ready.  You also should keep in mind that whole grains will take a bit of time to absorb the liquid/moisture.  If you're not sure about your dough, let it sit for about 15 minutes or so and then go back and check it.  If its still sticky, add a little bit of flour.  If it seems too dry, add a splash of buttermilk/acid medium and knead it in.  Knead for a minute or two, then cover with a towel and let it sit for 12-24 hours. You'll pick back up with the rolling step below.

To make without soaking grains:

First mix the flour and salt together in a bowl and make a little”pit” in the middle. Beat your eggs in a separate bowl, then pour them into the flour mixture. Add the water (or acid medium) and olive oil. Stir well until the ingredients are mostly combined.  Dump the noodle dough out onto a floured surface and knead it a little bit to get the ingredients combined well.

(If soaking grains start here after dough has soaked.)

Make sure your surface has a LOT of flour all over it so that your noodles won’t stick when you roll out the dough. Sticky noodles are not fun.

Use a well floured rolling pin and roll and roll and roll until your noodle dough is very thin, about 1/16" in thickness. You may need to keep tossing some flour under the dough as you roll to keep it from sticking.

Use a pizza cutter to cut long strips in the noodle dough. Cut your noodles any length you want... short, fat, skinny, wide, etc. 

Once you’ve cut your noodles you can either use them right away, or you can let them dry so that you can store them and have them ready for when you need them.

You can use a dehydrator to dry the noodles, or you can just leave them on the countertop to dry if you want. It will take a while…like several hours or even an entire day. You may also need to turn the noodles over after a few hours so that the under side can dry.  I used my dehydrator and they were dry within a couple of hours. 

 

This post is shared as part of Monday Mania at The Healthy Home Economist and the Tuesday Twister at GNOWFGLINS.

Yummy Yummy Coffee Cake - made healthy(er)

I have been wanting to try making the Yummy Yummy Coffee Cake a little healthier for awhile now.  I figured why not make it for a breakfast during the holidays?  So I made it to have for breakfast on Friday morning.  I used whole wheat and spelt flours and I soaked them in homemade buttermilk.  I also used homemade cultured butter, half sucanat and half cane sugar, farm-fresh pastured eggs, homemade vanilla, sea salt, and aluminum-free baking soda for the cake.  I used sucanat and cane sugar, plus cinnamon for the filling.  And I used unbleached powdered sugar and raw milk for the glaze.  Everything was organic and local where possible.  Its still not a healthy dish, but making it this way is much better for you than making it with processed, conventional ingredients. 

Yummy Yummy Coffee Cake

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup spelt flour
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar (I used half sucanat and half cane sugar)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Filling:
1/3 cup sucanat
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup nuts (optional)

Glaze:
1 cup unbleached powdered sugar
2-3 Tablespoons milk

If you are soaking the flours, mix flours and buttermilk together in a small bowl.  You may need to add an extra 1/4 cup of buttermilk.  You want to have just enough moisture to cover all of the flour.  Cover the bowl with a plate or kitchen towel and let sit at least 8 hours or overnight. 

When you are ready to bake, heat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan with coconut oil or butter.

Beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla together. Add baking soda and salt.  Then add the soaked flour mixture.  Stir well. 

Mix filling ingredients in a separate bowl.

Put half of the dough in the prepared pan. Top with half of filling. Spread the remaining dough on top. Then remaining filling.

Bake 35-40 minutes.

While still warm, mix glaze and drizzle over top.



This recipe was shared in the Kitchen Stewardship Soaked Grain Recipe Carnival.

Chocolate Sourdough Cake

I've mentioned before that I'm taking the GNOWFGLINS Sourdough E-Course, but I haven't posted anything yet that I've made as a result of the e-course. I made this chocolate sourdough cake before we left for vacation. The recipes for the e-course that week included this chocolate cake and also a spice cake. I'm planning to make the spice cake very soon and I think this will be my go-to chocolate cake recipe from now on. This is SO good! Its so moist and flavorful and just delicious! I ended up making the cream/yogurt cheese frosting rather than the chocolate coconut cream frosting because I was having trouble finding coconut butter. I'll have to order some and try it again with the chocolate frosting. But it was very tasty with the cream/yogurt cheese frosting!

Dutch Baby Pancakes

I decided to give soaking grains a try. I figured I'd start with something simple and easy - dutch baby pancakes. I used the recipe from Passionate Homemaking. It just sounded a little easier to me, being cooked entirely in the oven, than the one in Nourishing Traditions. This was super easy to make and so yummy! I soaked my flour for only about 18 hours because my kitchen was so hot from having a broken a/c. Even soaking 18 hours, they got pretty sour. We had them with strawberry syrup and they were just delicious! All three of us really liked the a lot. They come together so quickly, this is something I can actually make on work days, too. I think these will definitely be a regular breakfast for us. I've got another breakfast or two in the freezer now, too! That's always great!

Dutch Baby/German Pancakes

1 cup acid medium - whole milk kefir, yogurt, or combination of water and lemon juice (for dairy intolerant)
1 cup whole wheat flour, spelt or kamut, as desired
4-5 large eggs, free range/pastured is our preference, as desired (I used 5)
1/3 cup coconut oil and butter, any combination (I used butter
dash of vanilla extract

Combine acid medium and whole wheat flour. Cover and allow to sit at room temperature for 12-24 hours.

When you are ready to serve, heat oven to 425 degrees. Place oil/butter in small chunks in an 8×11 inch glass baking pan. Place pan in oven to melt. Meanwhile, beat eggs in a blender (or food processor) for 1 minute. Add soaked flour mixture and beat (or process) again for 1 minute. Add dash of vanilla extract.

Pull out the baking pan from oven and rotate around to spread the melted butter/oil around to cover the entire bottom of pan. Slowly pour the pancake batter into the pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes until lightly brown and fluffy. Enjoy!

Yield: 4-6 servings.