Mini Bran Muffins with Currants

A baker's dilemma: "What shall I do with all this wheat bran I have in the fridge?"  Today, I had a little sour cream left over too, so I thought I'd make bran muffins.  I used the Cook's Illustrated recipe (the one that calls for wheat bran, not the one that uses bran cereal) but I used currants instead of raisins and baked them in a mini muffin tin for about 15 minutes.  I also used powdered buttermilk, which worked out fine.  They are very tasty.  If I eat six of these, that's like one regular muffin, right?

Peach and Blueberry Pie with Rye Flour Crust

I was going to make tarts, but then it looked like I had a lot of fruit, and the dough I made was more like a pie dough, so I made a pie instead.  I made the Cook's Illustrated vodka pie crust (for a single crust pie) but with 50% rye flour.  I also used butter-flavored shortening (Spectrum Organics makes a good one) for the 1/4 of shortening called for in the recipe.

This dough is hard to roll out!  It's very wet.  I wonder if the density of rye flour is too different to measure it by volume in a substitution.  Maybe I should weigh it next time.  I resorted to rolling it on a silicone baking sheet with a piece of plastic wrap on top and sticking it in the freezer when it got too gluey.

The filling was totally lazy.  I just cut up some peaches, added a point of blueberries, about 5 tbsps of sugar, 4 tbsps of arrowroot, and some lemon zest and juice, and poured it all into the unbaked crust.  Then I baked it at 425 for 40 minutes, which was probably 5 minutes too long.  One problem with using the dark rye flour is that it's hard to see the crust browning until it's starting to burn.

Next time, I would probably pre-bake the crust, because it didn't hold together well on the bottom.  I just had to try it without once, to see if I could skip that step.   The filling could probably stand more arrowroot, but wouldn't need it if this was done as a tart (the fruit isn't piled as deep so there's less juice).

So how does the crust taste?  Not that different from an all-white crust, IMO.  Shirley liked it though.  It's a bit more crumbly than an all-white crust, but still very tender.  I might just use whole wheat instead of rye flour next time, because I think it provides more flavor.  Or spelt, which has a great flavor in scones.

Tomato Tarts with a Corn Flour Crust

It's tomato season again.  I decided to try making a different crust, based on one from Cook's Illustrated with a different mix of flours.  I used olive oil and half corn flour (not cornmeal or cornstarch).  I thought it tasted good, but the dough was pretty greasy to work with.  I pushed it into the pans instead of rolling it out.  Maybe the corn flour absorbs less oil than AP flour.  I measured by volume, not by weight, so it's also possible I need more flour.  I think next time I'll try using whole wheat flour for more texture.

Note: These did not require pre-baking.  The crust came out fine on the bottom without it.

Corn Tart Crust

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsps all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsps corn flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 6 tbsps olive oil
• 1/4 cup cold water

Directions

1. Mix the flours, salt, and sugar in a food processor.
2. Add olive oil and pulse until mixture becomes small pebbles.
3. Add water, one tbsp at a time, and pulse until dough starts to come together.

Spelt Scones with Cranberries

We had some cream left over from Shirley's biscuit-making endeavor, so I used it to make scones.  These are very similar to the ones I used to make from The Best Recipe, but they use half spelt flour, which doesn't seem to change the color and tastes good.  I like the way cream scones are very tender and not bready or crumbly.  I also totally ignored the instructions in the recipe (does Kim Boyce not own a Cuisinart?) and used a food processor, like my usual recipe does.  The whole thing comes together in a few minutes.  The recipe is here.

Tomato and Onion Tarts

I had good luck with yeasted tart dough in a gallette, so I thought I would try it in a pan.  I made some tomato tartlets with fresh tomatoes, red onion slices, garlic, thyme, and olive oil, plus a dab of ricotta on the bottom.

The crust is basically this one, with about 1/4 rye flour because I ran out(!) of whole wheat.  Definitely has a pizza-like quality to the crust rather than a French tart crunch, but it's tasty and a dream to roll out.  It didn't need any flour at all when rolling and I got it really thin without tearing it!

A surfeit of spotty bananas on the counter and some getting-on blueberries in the fridge yesterday led me to this Martha Stewart recipe for Healthy Banana Blueberry Muffins, which I wanted to recommend.

I have an aversion to whole wheat pastry flour, but I used it here because it was all I had in the house (bought for another project) and I substituted it for about 1/4 cup of the white flour too, since I was out. The result was a lovely fine crumb that still tasted pleasantly wheaty, without that sour whole wheat pastry flour aftertaste. I also added the zest of one lemon, which I would highly recommend. Next time I'll try just plain whole wheat flour (it would give the muffins a bit more body), use the whole wheat pastry flour instead of any white, and halve the sugar: it calls for 1/3 cup of both white and brown, but I'd just stick with the brown. Martha's recipes tend to be pretty sweet. I think you could also substitute apple sauce for some of the butter if you had to, and maybe try raspberries. The recipe calls for frozen berries, which tend to hold their shape better, but fresh ones worked pretty well. The muffins are still being enjoyed by the entire household. Again, the recipe is here.

Spelt Focaccia

I had such good luck with yeasted tart dough recently that I thought I would try another yeasted bread.  The spelt focaccia from Kim Boyce's "Good to the Grain" looked easy, and it was.  I probably only spent about half an hour of active time on this bread, and it baked up delicious.  I split it into three pieces and baked the first one with chili salt (from my cousin Jamie in Boulder) and rosemary.  I plan to try the next one with roasted garlic and the last one with truffle oil.

The recipe is here.