adios

so.  yeah.

it's been over a year since i last posted....

i felt like the hey spelty blog was going pretty well for awhile- but then things changed.

i hate change.  hate it.

change is hard.  change sucks.  

and this particular change pretty much killed hey spelty.

killed it.  dead.

and what is this change? 

well....

as much as i was hoping that spelt was the answer to my wheat allergy, it turns out that i am gluten intolerant after all.  no wheat.  no rye.  and NO SPELT.

sigh.

so, hey spelty has pretty much died.  i've been 100% gluten free for almost 6 months now, and while i'm not prancing around with unicorns and moonbeams, i do feel better.  the last time i intentionally ate wheat i felt like i had been run over by a truck.  i ached and ached and ached and felt like i had aged 100 years in a couple of days.

so.  no more.

ever.

SIGH.

so.  what next?  i've been tinkering with the idea of a new blog, but nothing has coalesced just yet.  but soon.

soon.

bread(machine)

i've been tinkering around with a recipe for spelt bread that uses the bread machine.  after numerous loaves of BLAH- i've finally hit upon a combination that tastes good and also has a good texture.

spelt bread (machine)

1.5 cups rice milk, warmed
3 T honey
2 T melted butter
1.5 T salt (kosher)
1 cup whole grain spelt flour
3 cups white spelt flour
1 T potato starch
1 T oat flour
2.5 tsp yeast

i add all the ingredients (in the order above) into the machine, set it to 2lb loaf, whole wheat, medium color and push the button.  apparently bread machines are not all the same- so make sure you read the instructions for your machine before starting.

p.s.  this bread makes awesome toast (unless you prefer the scratchy kind.....)

f is for flakes

it seems like every time i go to whole foods i pick up a box of this cereal and put it in the cart, only to put it back on the shelf because it is too expensive.  but yesterday?  yesterday it was on sale!

it wasn't until i got home that i noticed this little gem on the back of the box:

Spelt Flakes, "a Living Legendary Folk Cereal".  One of the first grains to be grown by early farmers as long ago as 5,000 BC, "nutty" flavored Spelt combines with fruit juice sweeteners in this whole grain organic cereal to offer you a good source of fiber and a low fat way to revitalize and energize your body.

living legendary folk cereal??!?  uh......what does that even mean??

all i know is that this cereal tastes almost exactly like wheaties.  and i love wheaties.

now if only i could have normal milk.....

a better butter?

butter, i love you.  you are such a lovely shade of the palest yellow.  you melt into happy little puddles on my toast.  you make baked goods taste like baked goods.  oh butter butter butter!

but lately i've been wondering about the butter i'm eating.  blood tests have shown that i have a very slight milk allergy (but mysteriously not to the lactose nor to the casein.....sigh....), so i've painfully eliminated all other dairy products from my diet.  no milk, no yogurt, no cheese (sob!)......but i haven't been willing or able to give up the butter.

to complicate matters, i'm also (supposedly) allergic to soy and corn, which are the primary ingredients in most margarines.  so i'm wondering, is it better to eat the butter, which usually has one or two ingredients (cream, salt) or margarine which has 12?

yes, yes, i KNOW!  the answer is to cut out both the butter and the margarine and use something else like coconut oil or petroleum......

gluten tag

greetings from the frozen arctic!  okay, okay, i'm not really in the arctic, but with more than 2' of snow on the ground and snowbanks that tower above my head, it certainly feeeeels like the great snowy north. 

i suppose i should come clean right off the bat and warn you that this post is.....spelt free!  gasp!  i still think i can eat spelt (although these days i'm so confused about food that i really don't know), but i've realized that no matter what, i need more variety in my day-to-day diet.  overall, i think my diet is reasonably varied (possible wishful thinking....), but i tend to eat the same things over and over day after day until i get sick of them and move onto the next thing that i will eat over and over.  there is a theory out "there" that one way to resolve/prevent food intolerances is to adopt a rotational diet.  the general premise is that you can eat foods that you might otherwise be intolerant of if you space them out over many days.  since i don't seem to have any severe food allergies (other than to tree nuts- which i'm not even sure of anymore), it might mean that i can eat certain foods as long as i can muster up some discipline.  i'm still learning about it, so we'll see......

anyway! in the search for variety i have decided to explore some gluten-free baking.  i still love spelt (which is a good thing since i still have at least 15lbs of spelt flour.....), but eating a spelt-centric diet seems almost as bad as a wheat-centric one.  right?  time to let some other grains in on the fun!

one of my favorite blogs is gluten free girl.  even though i don't have celiac disease, i find her writing to be incredibly inspirational.  for gluten free baking she suggests a 70/30 ratio of grains to starches (see this post for more information).  following her suggestions i made my own mix using potato and arrowroot starches and brown rice and oat flours.  i don't have a kitchen scale (yet!) so i used this handy conversion chart to work out the amounts.

my mix was:

1/2 cup potato starch
1/4 cup arrowroot starch

1 1/4 cup brown rice flour
1 cup oat flour

which i used to make......

gluten free tollhouse cookies!  yum!  because honestly, what diet doesn't need MORE cookies?


update! (2/7)

i've been playing around with the various gluten-free flours and starches trying to come up with just the right combination of flavors and textures.  i made this same recipe using some of this mix:

2 cups king arthur ancient grains flour (which is 30% amaranth, 30% sorghum, 30% millet, 10% quinoa)

1 cup brown rice flour

1 cup white rice flour (used as a starch)

1 tablespoon arrowroot starch

the texture of the cookies was good- but the taste was off....kind of grassy?  i think it might be the amaranth or the quinoa that i don't like....

anyway- i'll keep trying!

back in the saddle

so.....um......yeah.....i've been gone for awhile.  no real reason- just lots of little excuses for not focusing on food and health.  i totally fell off the proverbial wagon over the holidays, and for awhile i was actually feeling fine.  i even started to think that all this food allergy nonsense had been blown out of proportion.  whole wheat tortillas?  fine!  cheese?  fine!  was i wrong?  yes!

little by little i started to feel more and more meh.  not AWFUL, but very very meh.  i also started to experience some heartburn and reflux issues, both symptoms of the eosinophilic esophagitis which i have been diagnosed with but had previously been asymptomatic of.  lovely.

so.  back to reality for me.  no more wheat cheats, and (crushingly) no more dairy.  i'm hoping this is less of a "farewell" and more of a "see you later" situation, but i'm not going to hold my breath.  when i eat wheat and dairy i feel sick.  doesn't take a rocket scientist to sort that one out.  the only dairy product i'm still eating is butter.....i might have to give that up at some point as well, but for now it doesn't seem to bother me.

as for this blog, i'm no longer going to be focusing solely on spelt-centric foods.  i'll still be using spelt in baking, but i want to explore other foods as well......things like nutritional yeast and vegan cheese.  oh how i wish i was kidding!

anyway- before i go all "crazy food-allergy girl" on you (or is it too late?), here is a new recipe for:

spelt banana bread, with orange and dates 
(adapted from spelt healthy by marsha cosentino)

this is an adaptation of her chocolate variety bread, i halved the recipe, omitted the chocolate and made some other tweaks

2 large eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil (i used canola)
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cup white spelt flour
1/4 cup whole grain spelt flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder (corn free)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1-2 ripe bananas, mashed
8-10 medjool dates, pitted and chopped
1/2 tsp orange zest
1 tablespoon orange juice

1.  preheat oven to 350.

2.  spray or grease 1 9"x5" loaf pan.

3.  mix eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla together in one bowl.  add the bananas, dates, orange zest and juice.  mix well.  set aside.

4. in another bowl, mix together the flour, leavening, salt and spices.

5.  add dry ingredients to the wet, mix thoroughly but do not over mix.

6.  spoon batter into prepared pan.

7.  bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out cleanly.

8.  allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes.  remove from pan and place on a rack until cool.

enjoy!

returning the gauntlet

sorry i have been missing in action lately- i haven't been feeling well and have really started to question whether any of this is food allergy related.....sigh....

anyway- onwards and upwards, eh?

recently a friend challenged me to make a baguette using spelt.  in my typical fashion i hemmed and hawed and waited for her to actually be in my kitchen with me before i made an attempt.  we followed the recipe for pain ordinaire in this book, which, until now, had been a reliable resource...

sadly, this trend did not continue.

this bread was nice to work with and resulted in 2 beautiful looking loaves.  but as with most things in life, looks weren't everything.  the wonderful thing about real baguettes is their almost honeycomb-like interior structure.  they are crisp and chewy on the outside and soft and stretchy on the inside.  the spelt version was none of these things.  instead it was tough on the outside and dense on the inside....pretty much a total failure.

deep breaths.......

m is for mad

food allergies suck.  we can pretend that everything is hunky dory and that we are perfectly happy eating quinoa mush and drinking coffee with rice milk.  but we are lying.

over a year ago i decided that it was time to figure out what was going on with my "delicate" digestive system.  i had suffered a broad range of unpleasant symptoms for years and had finally reached my limit.

since then i've been poked and prodded and had just about every test conceivable.  i've eliminated more foods from my diet than i've kept.  i no longer eat wheat, corn, soy, dairy or legumes (and countless others).  until the last couple of weeks i was eating spelt (i've tested negative for celiac- both with the blood test and the biopsy), but after a recent round of yet another undefined ailment, i've eliminated that as well.

as you can probably tell by my snarky tone, i've lost my patience with all this.  does my digestive system feel better?  yes.  is my life better?  no.

now what?  i don't know.

b is for bagels

now that the big competition i was working on is over, i have some time to play around in the kitchen again.  i know i've made grand promises of spelt baguettes (ahem), but i haven't quite worked up the courage for that just yet (although i do have PLENTY of flour).

so while b will eventually be for baguette, for today, b is for bagels.  and they be good.  very very good.

spelt bagels
(very slightly adapted from the fabulous spelt healthy by marsha cosentino)

i know this recipe may appear overly complicated, but there is plenty of time to complete all the steps while the dough is napping. 


1 package (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
1 1/4 cups warm water
3 T sugar
1 T salt
4 1/4 cups white spelt flour

extra flour for kneading
extra sugar (1 T) for boiling water

1 egg beaten with 2 tsps warm water (egg wash)


1.  add warm water to bowl of stand mixer.  sprinkle yeast on top of water and allow to sit for 10 minutes until the yeast blooms.

2.  add 3 1/4 cups of the spelt flour and mix (using the paddle attachment) on low speed (2) for about 90 seconds until the dough appears smooth and long strands have formed.

3.  add the remaining 1 cup of flour in 1/4 cup increments beating for 30 seconds after each addition.

4.  after all of the flour has been added, switch to the dough hook and knead for 60-90 seconds until the dough forms a ball and cleans the sides of the bowl.  do not over knead!

5.  turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead very briefly until the dough forms a nice ball. 

6.  place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 30-40 minutes until is has roughly doubled in size. 

7.  after the dough has risen, gently deflate the dough and turn it out onto a floured surface.  cover with a towel and allow to rest for 15 minutes. 

8.  while the dough is resting, add water to a large stockpot (mine holds 6QT) and add 1 T of sugar.  the sugar helps to create a shiny outer surface. 

9.  after the dough has rested for 15 minutes, cut the dough into 8 equal pieces.  roughly shape each piece into a ball and poke a hole into the middle using your thumb.  gently stretch the dough into a ring approximately 4 inches across.

10.  place each of the 8 bagels onto a floured surface (i used a baking sheet), cover with a towel and allow to rest for another 15 minutes.

12.  while the bagels are resting, pre-heat the oven to 375 and boil the water in the stockpot.  once the water has boiled, reduce the heat to a simmer.

13.  cover a wire cooling rack with a towel and set aside.

14.  once the bagels have rested, gently transfer them (one at a time) into the simmering water.  i used my hands but next time i will use a spatula as the dough was very sticky.  the bagels will expand once they are in the hot water.  i was only able to fit 3 at a time in my stockpot.

16.  simmer the bagels for 3 minutes on each side and then transfer them to the cooling rack to drain.  repeat until all of the bagels have been boiled.

17.  line 2 baking sheets with parchment and lightly coat with olive oil.  place 4 bagels on each sheet and bake for 10 minutes.

18.  after 10 minutes, remove from the oven and brush with the egg wash.  return to the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until they are golden brown.  take care not to over bake them as the bottoms may burn.

19.  allow to cool

20.  enjoy!

awakening

the last few weeks have felt like months and months.  could it really only be october 20th?  i counted up the hours i've worked in the last 18 days and it made me dizzy just to think about it.

now that i've had a couple of days to recover i'm feeling more excited than ever to spend some quality time in the kitchen and to tackle some of the crafting projects i had abandoned abruptly when i was called in to work on the competition. 

i've been collecting recipes that i'd like to try, especially this and these...mmmmm......

but first, a good friend has thrown down the gauntlet:  i must bake a (good) spelt baguette....

uh oh....

spelty returns

somehow i managed to survive the last couple of weeks at work.  we were doing a big competition but now all we have to do is wait to hear the results.....

after an entire spring and summer of cooking almost everything i ate, i was feeling kind of burnt out on cooking.  but after a couple of weeks of working- i couldn't think of anything i'd rather do than putter around in the kitchen.  the grass is always greener, eh?

anyway, i don't have any new cooking adventures to share with you just yet, but i did want to tell you about these amazing spelt tortillas.

earlier this fall i made a trip out west and was so excited to find these at the market.  i had seen spelt tortillas before but they had other weird ingredients (like flax seeds.....yuck), and if you have read my previous posts you can probably guess i how feel about that.  these tortillas, on the other hand, are about as perfect as can be.  the ones i have made from scratch are pretty good, but opening a bag beats washing the food processor any day.

so imagine my despair when i returned home and couldn't find these anywhere!  you can buy them on-line but the shipping costs put them out of my reach......what was a girl to do?  the answer?  pester local grocers into carrying them!  whoo hoo!

so now, fingers crossed, i have my own local supplier (and hopefully i'm not the only one who will buy them......)

time for lunch....i think i'll have something with tortillas!!

don't despair!

there is more spelty goodness coming soon....but first i must survive a huge work deadline.....the outcome is not assured.....

in the meantime, check out this great blog,  i wish i was at home making this right now (instead of working on a sunday)....

apple cake

as i mentioned in the previous post, i am currently swimming in apples (figuratively of course).  what i've really been craving is a simple apple cake.  not too fancy.  not to sweet.  just a simple apple cake.

i first tried to modify this one, using spelt and rice milk with lemon instead of buttermilk.  i should have learned from my lemon cake debacle that these types of cake do not take kindly to over modification.  it turned out oddly bread-like, and also kind of gummy and gluey, despite baking for almost an hour.  undeterred, i decided to try adding apples to a spelt cake i knew worked.  ta da!  success!

i am totally not a professional baker nor a food scientist, but it seems like spelt works better in recipes where you cream the butter and sugar together (like with cookies) instead of adding melted butter to make a batter.  i wonder why that is?

apple spelt cake
adapted from king arthur flour

2 apples, cored and chopped
1 T butter
1 T brown sugar

1/3 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk (i used rice milk)
1 1/2 cups spelt
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp salt

preheat oven to 350.  

butter 8x8 baking dish.

melt 1 T of butter in a saute pan.  add apples and brown sugar and cook until the apples have softened slightly.  you do not want to make apple sauce, just partially cook the apples.  after the apples have cooked, remove from heat.

cream together butter and brown sugar.  add the eggs one at a time and beat until the mixture is fluffy.

add milk.  

add flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and cardamom, mix well.

fold in cooled apple mixture.

pour into buttered baking dish and bake for 30-35 minutes, testing for after 25.

enjoy!

how about them apples?

last weekend a friend and i went apple picking and, as predicted, picked waaay too many apples.  note to self:  1/2 bushel = 63 apples = too many!

to make matters worse, i can't actually eat raw apples (i have oral allergy syndrome), so i've been trying to find ways to work them into baked recipes.  so far i've had mixed results.  i made an apple "cake" which was more like a gluey bread (yuck), and this apple cobbler which was fantastic!

apple cobbler with spelt crust

filling:
4 apples (i used macoun and cortland), cored (i left the peels on)
1 tablespoon spelt flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted

crust:
(this delicious crust is based on this one)
1 1/4 cups spelt flour (i used white)
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 oz cold butter (i prefer salted)
3-4 tablespoons ice water

preheat oven to 375.
butter a baking dish (i used an oval dish, but an 8x8 or 9x9 pan would work as well)

for the filling,
cut the apples into medium sized chunks, roughly 1/4 to 1/2 inch cubes
stir in the melted butter, then the sugar and the flour.  mix well.  place apple mixture into the prepared baking dish.

for the crust,
add the flour and salt to a bowl, mix well.
cut the butter into small pieces and add to the flour.
using a pastry cutter, work the butter into the flour until it looks like a coarse meal.
gradually add the water, mixing until the dough forms a ball.

turn the dough out onto a floured surface and form into a disc.  cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes.

after the dough has "rested", take it out of the refrigerator and remove the plastic.  place on a floured surface and roll out until it is about 1/4 thick.  carefully lift the dough from the counter and drape over the apples.  tuck in the edges and make sure there are vents for steam to escape.

bake for about 45 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the fruit juices are bubbling to the surface.

stuffed

i'm house (and dog) sitting this week so i have the perfect opportunity to try some dishes that have been kicking around in my head for awhile.

even though most of the leaves on the trees are still green, fall has started to arrive in new england.  personally, i couldn't be more excited.  i love fall.  it is, hands down, my favorite season.  of course i love the explosion of color that is about to happen, but mostly i love the cool crisp days that feel like a reward for surviving yet another hot and humid summer.

i love the return of fall foods, the wild assortment of winter squashes, the apples (more on those later....) and the deep and earthy flavors that we associate with this time of year.

a few days ago i received a fantastic package from beth at spelt right baking.  inside were loaves of their lovely breads and bagels.  i'm a huge fan of their frozen pizza dough, so i was really excited to try their other products!

so, what to do when you've got fall flavors on the brain and some lovely spelt bread?  bread stuffing of course!  this is the traditional stuffing at our thanksgiving table (we add sausage to make it even better).  as you can see, it is from a well-loved betty crocker cookbook that has seen better days.  the binding has split, so one half is cape cod dip to pot roast and the other is corn-stuffed pork chops to mustard kohlrabi.  bread stuffing is happily located in the second half, in the poultry section.

spelt bread stuffing (adapted from betty crocker)
makes 4 servings

1/2 yellow onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced (i include the leaves)
3T butter (plus 1T for topping)
poultry seasoning

6-8 slices spelt bread, cubed and toasted
3/4-1 cup chicken broth

salt and pepper to taste

preheat oven to 400

melt 3T of butter in a large skillet.  add the onion, celery and poultry seasoning and cook until the onions are translucent.

add the spelt cubes to a large bowl, then add the melted butter mixture.  stir to combine.

add the chicken broth and stir to combine.

add stuffing mixture to a buttered baking dish and dot the top with bits of butter.  cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.  remove foil and continue to bake until the top is golden and crispy.

do you want spelt with that?

recently i was in a car with a friend who was eating some fast food onions rings.  since i can't eat wheat (or soy, corn, or preservatives), fast food is usually completely off my radar.  but as the car filled with the (oddly) intoxicating scent of fried onion rings, i became filled with an emotion i can only describe as a mixture of sadness, anger and longing.

most of the time i succeed at keeping a pretty positive outlook on all this food allergy/intolerance crap.  i keep telling myself that i feel better now that i've eliminated so many possible offenders from my diet.  the truth is that i do physically feel better than i have in years.  but it is also true that it hasn't always been easy.  i miss the easy camaraderie of eating out with friends.  of grabbing a slice of pizza and a beer just because.  more than anything, i miss participating.  

part of what keeps me coming back to this little blog is that it makes social the inherently solitary pursuit of puttering around the kitchen fussing over new ingredients.

so, from my kitchen to yours,

spelt onion rings (makes roughly 16 rings)

1/2 large sweet onion
1/3 cup white spelt flour
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup spelt bread crumbs (i used leftover spelt toast)

salt
pepper
red pepper flakes

preheat oven to 400
line baking sheet with parchment

slice onion into 1/4-1/2 inch rounds and separate into rings

set out three shallow pans or plates. 
add flour to one pan, eggs to the next and breadcrumbs to the third

(i added seasoning to both the flour and the breadcrumbs)

dip the onion rings into the flour, then the egg and lastly the breadcrumbs
place on the parchment lined baking sheet

bake for 15-20 minutes, turning once

serve with corn-syrup free ketchup!

spelthouse cookies

as you may have gathered from my previous posts, i'm not a big fan of super duper whole grain foods. don't get me wrong, i like to eat (mostly) healthy foods, but i just don't think that everything needs to be made with 100% whole grains.



take chocolate chip cookies, for example. sometimes it is best not to muck around (too much)with a classic.




spelthouse cookies (very slightly adapted from the tollhouse classic)


2 1/4 cups white spelt flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (corn-free)
2 eggs
2 cups chocolate chips




preheat oven to 375


beat softened butter, both sugars and the vanilla in a medium bowl until creamy.


add the eggs and beat until well incorporated.


add the spelt flour, baking soda and salt. stir to combine.


stir in the chocolate chips.


using a small scoop or spoon, portion out roughly 12 cookies per baking sheet.


bake for 8-11 minutes.


place on cooling rack until you can't stand it anymore and must have a cookie!!  (ahem)


makes roughly 60 cookies.

martha martha martha!

i'm out of town but wanted to put in a quick post about this posting on the everyday food blog at martha stewart dot com.  

as you can see by my recent calzone obsession, spelt right pizza dough has become a staple in my kitchen.

the crazy thing is that if you click on the pizza dough link near the end of the post- it brings you to hey spelty!

aaah!

(thanks beth!)

spelt ≠ farro (or does it?)

i'm currently chained to my printer (long story), so instead of cooking i'm wandering aimlessly though the interwebs.

i came across a really interesting article in the new york times about the differences between spelt and farro.  like many people i had mistakenly thought they were the same thing.

now i know.



yesterday i posted the above article explaining how spelt and farro were not the same thing.  it turns out that there is a lot more confusion about this whole topic than i was expecting.  a speltie (in the know) forwarded me some information that she had received from a spelt farmer in washington.

it turns out that "farro" is an umbrella term for three types of grain, einkorn (Triticum monoccocum), emmer (Triticum diccocum) and spelt (Triticum spelta). 

further internet searching explains that in italy (where the term farro comes from), that there are three sizes of farro, piccolo (einkorn), medio (emmer), and grande (spelt). 

it seems as if the most common "farro" sold is farro medio (aka emmer), but that confusion and mislabelling abound.

i guess the moral of the story is that spelt = farro.  sometimes.

it was only a matter of time

it was bound to happen eventually.  things in speltlandia had been going great, so clearly i was due for something like this.

this was a CAKE FAIL.  more specifically, a lemon CAKE FAIL.

i had read that spelt flour could be substituted for whole wheat flour, so i hunted around for a whole wheat lemon cake to try.  of course i had to make a couple of other substitutions, rice milk for buttermilk and i had to make my own baking powder (commercial baking powder has either cornstarch or potato starch- both on the forbidden list).  the result of my over-tinkering is a heavy, gummy, rubbery mess.  the flavor is good.  the texture?  not so much.....

anyway, here is the recipe i tried to adapt to wheat and dairy free.  tried and failed.