Category Archives: whole grains

fruit and nut oatmeal bars

23 Wednesday May 2012

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I sampled another one of Lorna Sass’s recipes this weekend. These Fruit and Nut Oatmeal bars were very moist and did tend to fall apart a little. I found that toasting them in my toaster oven just before eating them dried them out a bit and prevented them from falling apart. Otherwise, these are very flavorful! Feel free to use any combination of dried fruits and nuts.

Fruit and Nut Oatmeal Bars

1-3/4 cups rolled oats

1/4 cup honey

3 tablespoons orange juice concentrate

2 tablespoons walnut or hazelnut oil (or canola oil)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/3 cup dried apricots, chopped

1/3 cup dried cranberries

1/3 cup raisons, preferable golden

1 teaspoon grated orange zest

1/2 slivered almonds, toasted

1/4 cup hilled, raw unsalted sunflower seeds, toasted

3 tablespoons ground flax seed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Grease an 8×8 square baking pan. Sprinkle two tablespoons of the rolled oats on the bottom of the pan and reserve two tablespoons to sprinkle on top.

In a medium saucepan, bring 1/2 cup water to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and blend in the honey, orange juice concentrate, oil, salt and cinnamon. Cover and turn off the heat.

Place 1/2 cup of the rolled oats in a spice grinder and process into a flour. Stir the oat flour, baking powder, baking soda, remaining cup of oats, apricots, cranberries, raisons, grated orange zest, almonds and sunflower seeds into the honey mixture in the pot. Cover and let sit for 10 minutes.

In a small bowl, mix together the ground flax seed and 1/2 cup of water. Whisk vigorously until the mixture becomes gummy, about 1 minute. Fold the flax seeds slurry into the oat mixture. Pour into the prepared baking pan and and smooth off the top. Sprinkle the remaining oats on top and gently press them into the batter. Bake until the bottom and sides are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 30 to 35 minutes.

Cool in a rack. Slice the cake down the middle while it is still in the pan. Then cut each half into 1-inch wide bars. Enjoy warm, at room temperature or chilled. You can refrigerate the bars in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Enjoy!

Resource:

Sass, L. (2006). Whole Grains Every Day Every Way. New York: Clarkson/Potter Publishers.

quinoa with zucchini and basil

22 Tuesday May 2012

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Another great recipe from Lorna Sass’s Whole Grains cookbook. I adapted it by omitting the anchovies (as I had run out) and using zucchini instead of yellow summer squash. Lorna mentions that instead of quinoa, you might also try using farro, kamut or coarse bulgur.

Quinoa with Zucchini and Basil

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

2 teaspoons mashed oil-packed anchovies

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

1 pound (3 medium) zucchini or yellow summer squash, coarsely grated

3 cups cooked quinoa

salt, to taste

1/4 cup (tightly packed) fresh basil, chopped

Mix the anchovies and balsamic vinegar in a small bowl.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, stirring frequently, until the squash is tender, about 4 minutes.

Add the quinoa, the remaining tablespoon of oil, salt (to taste) and the basil. Serve immediately. Enjoy!

Whole Grains Every Day Every Way by Lorna Sass (book review)

19 Saturday May 2012

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I want to introduce you to one of my new favorite books: Whole Grains Every Day Every Way by Lorna Sass. I found her cookbook online last month while hunting for ways to cook ‘whole grains’. As a foodie, I love to cook with a wide variety of ingredients and have always loved my trips to ethic grocery stores, health food stores, gourmet cooking shops and of course, visiting food stores and markets on my own travels around the world. I am always eager to learn more… and taste more, and I always come home with a new idea or ingredient to try.

I love Lorna’s cookbook as she begins with a “Whole Grains 101” chapter, taking you through each grain (alphabetically), describing the various forms the grain comes in, its nutritional properties, and the various ways to cook and incorporate the grain into your meals; for example, cooked in water and added to soups and salads, or milled into flour for baking, or enjoyed on its own as a breakfast cereal. The rest of the book is a compilation of delicious recipes that incorporate the grains into your daily meals.

So far I have tried Savory Barley Muffins with Thyme and Romano (note: I adapted this one), and her Chocolate Chip-Hazelnut Cookies (which I have been eating all week, yum). This weekend I plan on making her Fruit-and-Nut Oatmeal Bars, Blue Cornmeal Muffins with Chili and I’d like to cook up some of the amaranth that I bought last week and try adding it to a salad.

Lorna’s cookbook contains over 150 recipes and is full of excellent ideas for those under-appreciated whole grains that we always want to buy but never know what to do with. The whole grains include: amaranth, barley, buckwheat, corn, job’s tears, millet, oats, quinoa, rice, rye and tritcale, sorghum, teff, wheat, and wild rice. Categories include: stand-alone soups and salads, risottos, pilaf and polentas, stir fries and skillet dishes, braises, stews, casseroles and savory pies, breakfast and brunch recipes, and desserts and baked goods.

Lorna Sass has a doctorate in medieval literature and has her own blog focused on Nourishing Body and Spirit where she offers her skills as a Transformational Life Coach and promotes her cookbooks. Along with “Whole Grains”, she has written cookbooks on pressure cooking, vegetarian dishes, and a whole cookbook dedicated to cooking with soy. You can find her cookbooks online, in stores, or click here to order directly from her and she will personally autograph it for you.

I am happy to have discovered Lorna and am particularly looking forward to working my way through her book ‘Whole Grains” and learning to work with these tasty grains under her expertise.

Resource:

Sass, (L). (2006). Whole Grains Every Day Every Way. New York: Clarkson Potter/Publishers.

adventures with whole grains: chocolate chip-hazelnut cookies

14 Monday May 2012

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This recipe is adapted from Lorna Sass’s Whole Grains Every Day Every Way. These tasty morsels are tasty, chewy and decadent with the toasted hazelnuts. I like to keep a bag of these in your freezer for unexpected visitors!

Chocolate Chip-Hazelnut Cookies

2 cups spelt flour

½ cup raw cane sugar

½ packed brown sugar

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon baking powder

1 cup semisweet (or dark chocolate) chocolate chips

1 cup hazelnuts, coarsely chopped and toasted

1 large egg

10 tablespoon (1 ¼ sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degree (F). Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, blend the flour, sugars, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Stir in the chocolate chips and hazelnuts.

In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg. Whisk in the melted butter and vanilla extract. Stir in the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients to create a soft dough.

Form the dough into 1 ½ -inch mounds. Place on cookie sheet and flatten. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes (a few minutes longer for crisper cookies). Place cookies on a cooling rack (slide the parchment onto the rack). Cookies may appear fragile but they will firm up as they cool.

Store in an airtight container in a cool place for up to 5 days or freeze for up to 3 months. Enjoy!

Resource:

Sass, L. (2006). Whole Grains Every Day Every Way. New York: Clarkcon Potter/Publishers.

adventures with whole grains: cheesy barley and spelt muffins with thyme

08 Tuesday May 2012

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I adapted this recipe from Lorna Sass’s ‘Whole Grains Every Day Every Way’ cookbook. This delicious recipe uses barley and spelt flour- both of which are easy to find at your local health food store or Farmers Market; unless you mill your own flours as I have been doing since getting the mighty WonderMill last month.

Cheesy Barley and Spelt Muffins with Thyme

1 cup spelt flour

1 cup barley flour

2-1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teasoon dried thyme

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1-1/2 cup buttermilk, well-shaken

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons honey

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (half for the batter, half for the topping)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees (F). Grease 12 standard muffin cups.

In a large bowl, combine the spelt and barley flours, baking powders, baking soda, thyme and salt. In a smaller bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Blend in the buttermilk, oil and honey.

Stir the egg mixture into the dry ingredients, just until most of the flour is absorbed. Do not over-mix. Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Top with a generous pinch of grated cheese over each muffin. Brush away any cheese that lands outside of the muffin cups.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the muffins are golden brown around the edges and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set the muffin tin on a cooling rack. Let cool for a few minutes, then twist the muffins to release them or run a knife around the edges to pop them out. Serve warm. Enjoy!

Note: If not eating the same day, freeze in a zipper-topped freezer bag for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature or in a warm oven.

Resource:

Sass, L. (2006). Whole Grains Every Day Every Way.  New York: Clarkson Potters Publishers.

adventures with whole grains: buckwheat & spelt pancakes

04 Friday May 2012

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I’ve been having so much fun with the new WonderMill! Last weekend I milled some buckwheat and spelt flour and tried out this recipe for breakfast. The pancakes were quite flavorful, especially when served with homemade wild berry jams and jellies. The sausage in the picture below is hormone free, organic bison sausage from a local farm.

Buckwheat & Spelt Pancakes

1 cup buttermilk

1 egg

3 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 cup spelt flour (or whole wheat or all-purpose)

1/2 cup buckwheat flour

1 teaspoon white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 tablespoons butter

In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, egg, and melted butter.

In another bowl, mix together the spelt flour, buckwheat flour, sugar, salt and baking soda. Pour the dry ingredients into the egg-mixture. Stir until the two mixtures are just incorporated. (Add a bit more of the flour if you find that your batter is too runny.)

Heat a griddle or large frying pan to medium heat and place 1 tablespoon of butter or oil into it. Let the butter melt before spooning the batter into the frying pan. Once bubbles appear on the top of the pancakes, flip them over, and cook them on the other side for about 3 minutes. Continue with this process until all of the batter has been made into pancakes. Serve immediately. Enjoy!

six seed soda bread

27 Friday Apr 2012

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I have been looking for an intense seedy bread and found this one recently at Heidi Swanson’s wonderful blog, 101 Cookbooks. She adapted this recipe from ‘River Cottage Everyday’ by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and I have quoted her recipe verbatim. Normally I am not a big fan of soda bread but this one was yummy, dense and chewy… just the way I like my bread! I will try substituting the all-purpose wheat flour with other flours and let you know if I find a winning combination. Also, I made two smaller loaves instead of one large one so my baking time was reduced. A keeper, for sure!

Six-Seed Soda Bread

2-½ tablespoon each of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, poppy seeds and flax seeds.

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

1-3/4 cup spelt flour

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

1-3/4 cup buttermilk

a bit of extra buttermilk or milk

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Place a rack in the center of the oven. In a small bowl combine all the seeds and set aside.

Sift the flours, baking soda and salt into a large mixing bowl. Stir in all but 2 tablespoons of the seeds. Make a well in the flour, pour in the buttermilk and stir until the dough just comes together. If you need to add an extra splash of buttermilk because the dough is too dry, you can. As Hugh says, “Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead lightly for about a minute, just long enough to pull it together into a loose ball but no longer- you need to get into in the oven while the baking is still doing its stuff.”

Place the dough on a lightly floured baking sheet and mark it with a deep cross across the top, cutting two-thirds of the way through the loaf with a serrated knife. Brush with buttermilk and sprinkle with the remaining seeds, making sure that plenty of seeds make it down into the cracks. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the bread is golden crusted on top and bottom (you may want to move the oven rack up for the last 15 minutes if you need more color on the top of the loaf.) Cool on a wire rack.

Makes a single loaf.

adventures with whole grains: almond oatmeal cookies with spelt

25 Wednesday Apr 2012

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I took my basic oatmeal almond cookie recipe and simply substituted freshly milled spelt flour for the all-purpose flour. The cookies turned out a bit darker in color but there was no other difference in taste or texture. They were just as yummier as the ‘unhealthier’ version (using white flour) only with the added benefits of a more nutritional flour that also has a lower Glycemic Index. Oh… I added half a cup of chocolate chips to this batch just for fun!

Oatmeal Almond Cookies with Spelt Flour

1/2 cup raw organic sugar (or maple syrup)

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

1/2 cup spelt flour

1/2 ground almonds, toasted

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 cups large-flake oats

1/2 cup sliced almonds

Heat oven to 350 degree (F). Mix together sugars, butter, vanilla and egg. Stir in oats, flour, ground almonds, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir in sliced almonds. Drop dough by rounded teaspoons about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes or until light brown. Cool for 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheet. Enjoy!

adventures with whole grains: French bread using spelt flour

22 Sunday Apr 2012

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I took another one of my ‘tried and true recipes’: French Bread and wondered what would happen if I substituted freshly milled spelt flour for the all-purpose white flour? I found that the bread did not rise quite as high, making for a bit of a heavier bread (which I prefer) and the flavor was wonderful! In the future, if I need a lighter bread, I can try blending the spelt with other lighter flours. I’ll keep you informed on my continuing experiments and explorations with whole grains!

French Bread with Spelt Flour

1 oz (or 1 tablespoon) dry active yeast

1 cup warm water

1 tablespoon honey (or natural sweetener of your choice)

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

3 cups organic spelt flour

1 egg white, beaten (to glaze the loaves)

Place yeast and water in a large mixing bowl and allow to sit for about 5 minutes. If yeast has begun to bubble or foam a little, add the honey, olive oil and salt and mix together. (If yeast isn’t bubbling, discard as this means that your yeast is dead and your bread will not rise.)

Add 2 cups of the spelt flour, mixing in with a wooden spoon until the dough is smooth. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes, incorporating as much of the remaining 1 cup of flour as needed for a smooth, elastic dough.

Place dough into a large, oiled bowl. Cover with a damp tea towel and allow to sit in a warm place for an hour and a half (or for one hour in the oven on the ‘proof’ setting).

Punch down dough. Cut in half. Roll out each half on a floured surface to about 1/4-inch thick, then roll up the dough into a long loaf. Make three diagonal cuts in the top of the loaf and place on a baguette or loaf pan. Repeat with the other half of the dough.

Place loaf pan(s) in a warm place to rise for about an hour or until double in size. Brush beaten egg white over the loaf just before baking.

Bake in a 375 degree (F) oven for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Enjoy!

adventures with whole grains: spelt waffles with Saskatoon berries

18 Wednesday Apr 2012

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I have been busy having fun with the new WonderMill and experimenting with freshly milled spelt flour. As spelt flour is very versatile and can be substituted for most flours, I thought I’d start with my ‘tried and true’ recipes just to observe how it behaves as opposed to the all-purpose flour that I was used to.

I decided to start with waffles. I used the same recipe, as previously posted. The only difference is the substitution of spelt flour for the all-purpose, I used buttermilk (as I was out of almond milk) and I added about 1/2 cup of Saskatoon berries. The waffles turned out beautifully! They were light, fluffy, crisp and flavorful. I served them with my rose hip jelly. I made the full batch as I like to refrigerate (or freeze) the extra waffles and pop them in the toaster for quick breakfasts.

Spelt Waffles

2 eggs (preferable from organic, free-range hens)

2 cups spelt flour

1/2 cup canola oil (or extra virgin olive oil or melted butter)

1-3/4 cup almond or soy milk (I used buttermilk as I was out of almond milk)

1 tablespoon maple syrup (or raw cane sugar, brown sugar or natural sweetener of your choice)

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Heat waffle iron. Beat eggs with a whisk until fluffy. Beat in remaining ingredients just until smooth. Pour batter from a cup or ladle onto center of waffle iron. Bake about 5 minutes or until steaming stops. Remove waffle carefully and serve immediately, or keep in a warm oven until ready to serve.

Yield: 12 four-inch waffles

Resource:

Zeman, A. (1991). Betty Crocker’s 40th Anniversary Edition Cookbook.  New York: Prentice Hall.