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.....)
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!
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!
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.
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.
