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.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are really terrific and they look beautiful.  I used Ghirardelli 60% cacao chips but otherwise followed the recipe pretty closely.  The old family Kitchenaid beat these into submission nicely.  Next time I may try some of the tips from the Cook's Illustrated cookies or even a little corn syrup after learning that's how the Momofuku Milk Bar cookies get so chewy.  Recipe here.

Multigrain Buttermilk Pancakes

More pancakes, from a Good to the Grain recipe that I hadn't tried yet.  This one uses a mix of flours, all whole-grain.  I didn't have millet or barley flour so I used quinoa flour and spelt instead.  I also used powdered buttermilk.  These came out really tasty, and not heavy.  I would make them again!
The recipe is here.

Stay tuned for whole wheat chocolate chip cookies from the same book, later today!

Sweet-Potato Muffins

Another one from Kim Boyce's Good to the Grain.

These muffins didn't rise that much.  They are not fluffy.  The flavor is good though.  They have roasted sweet potato and half traditional whole wheat flour, plus chopped dates and some pumpkin seeds I sprinkled on top.

I made two modifications to the recipe.  First, I used Earth Balance instead of butter, because I still have some and I need to use it up.  This probably accounts for the density, since it doesn't cream as well as butter.  Second, I used powdered buttermilk.  That should be fine though.

This recipe is close to what I used.  It seems like no one posts this one without changes.  I did not use any whole wheat pastry flour because that isn't in the original recipe.

We recently made our usual yeasted waffle recipe (below) using all white whole wheat flour instead of the usual half white / half whole wheat. We also used all canola oil and non-fat milk with no ill effects. I know the picture's not great but these are really delicious waffles. We all (including Max) often tear into these without even adding syrup, not to be "healthy," but just because they taste so good as they are.

From Mollie Katzen's "Sunlight Cafe"

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour [we usually do half whole wheat flour]
1 tsp yeast
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups milk
6 Tbsp melted unsalted butter, or canola oil if you want to be healthy
1 large egg
nonstick spray

Combine flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Add the milk, and whisk until blended. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap, and let it stand overnight at room temperature. (If the room is warmer than 70 degrees F, put it in the refrigerator.)

In the morning, preheat the waffle iron and melt the butter. Beat the egg in a small separate bowl, then beat it into the batter along with the melted butter. The batter will be quite thin.

Lightly spray the hot waffle iron on both the top and bottom surfaces with nonstick spray, and rub on a little butter. Add just enough batter to cover the cooking surface -- approximately 2/3 cup for each waffle.


Cook for 2-3 minutes, depending on your waffle iron. Don't overbake -- you want it crisp and brown but not too dark. Its OK to peek.

Serve hot with your chosen toppings.

Quinoa and Beet Pancakes

So, I'm still working my way through Good to the Grain.  I bought some Bob's Red Mill quinoa flour and a gigantic beet from the farmer's market and made these pancakes.  Check out how amazing the batter look!

They cook up pretty normally.  Mine were a bit thick.  I couldn't get the beet to puree perfectly in my food processor until I added some of the other wet ingredients.  You might want to use a blender instead.

I made some of my usual adjustments to the recipe, using Egg Beaters for the egg and canola oil instead of butter.  I didn't have yogurt on hand so I used buttermilk in place of the milk and yogurt.

The final product tasted quite beety.  Shirley loved them.

Full recipe

Oatmeal Pancakes

Almost forgot to take a photo.

I've been eating more oatmeal due to my high cholesterol, so I chose oatmeal pancakes as my first recipe to make from Kim Boyce's "Good to the Grain."  They're very good pancakes, with plenty of fluffiness.  If anything, I thought these were too conventional.  I might try to increase the amount of oatmeal or sub more oat flour for AP.

BTW, I used Bob's Red Mill for the oat flour and the oatmeal.  I'm buying Bob's stuff like an addict.  It's all really good.

Someone has kindly typed in the whole recipe here, so I won't duplicate it.  I subbed canola oil for butter, egg beaters for eggs, and (full fat) soy milk for whole milk.  I added a spoonful of flax meal too.  None of those seemed to be a problem, but the pancakes were kind of sweet, possibly due to the soy milk.

UPDATE:
I had more cooked oatmeal left, so I tried them again.  This time I cut the AP flour in half and added 1/4 of it back as flax meal.  I also added blueberries.  The pancakes were tasty but too thick, so I added more milk to the batter.  I think these are still too sweet if you plan to put any topping on them.  I would skip the sugar, but possibly increase the molasses, which I can't taste at all.