Stocking Stock (and Soup)

I am a soup-making fiend. Thankfully, my mom is a soup eating fiend throughout all the four seasons of the year, but I've taken her lunches at work to a level a wee bit above the standard "can of whatever" she originally settled for mid-day. In addition to whipping up soups with whatever inspiration strikes me that day, I've gotten into the habit of making the bare bones of the meals as well - the stock.

Back to Bagels

So most of you know that if you hear about me making bread, chances are it's the weekly (or twice-monthly, depending) offering for my mom's workplace snacks and lunches that's going into the oven. I pride myself on being able to come up with one unique combination of flavours after another, without much advance notice. Of course, it helps when you have a pantry stocked to the gills like mine is, but even with the very basic elements of flour, water, salt, yeast and maybe a touch of sugar and a dash of spice it's more than possible to churn out a batch of bread in as little as two or three hours!

Of course, if you want to get fancy with your doughs, all bets are off. You can take that lightning-fast, incredibly simple 4 ingredient loaf and add fruit, vegetables, nuts or seeds to it. You can stretch the fermentation period out, mess with the flours, enrich the mixture with egg and fat or simply change the shape of the final baked good. If you're feeling particularly frisky in your ventures, you can even bring a big pot of boiling honey water to the party and make one of my favourite kinds if bread - a Montrealer style bagel.

This recipe has some fun new goodies in it that I was fortunate enough to win from a Foodie Blogroll contest, too: dried cherries and tart cherry concentrate courtesy of Michelle's Miracle®. I also kneaded in ground almonds, minced pecans and a crushed All Bran cereal bar. Boiled up and baked in a hot oven, they're perfectly dense, filling and wholesome rings fit for breakfast. Wonder what else will be on the YeastSpotting table this week at WildYeast?

Very - Cherry Crunch Bagels

Makes 10 bagels

1/3 cup pecan halves

1 All-Bran "Honey Nut" Bar, broken

1/4 cup ground almonds
1 tbsp instant yeast
2 tbsp sugar
2 cups flour
2 cups whole wheat bread flour
1 tbsp gluten flour
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup warmed (1%) milk
1/4 cup tart cherry juice concentrate (like Michelle’s Miracle®)
1 egg
2 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup dried cherries, soaked in hot water and drained
1 tbsp honey (for boiling)

1. In a food processor, combine pecan halves, All-Bran bar and ground almonds. Process until pecans and All-Bran bar are ground to a coarse, mealy texture.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine yeast, sugar, flour, whole wheat bread flour and gluten flour, whisking to incorporate everything.
3. Add warm water, warm milk and tart cherry juice concentrate and begin mixing on low speed.
4. After about a minute, add egg, honey and salt. Continue kneading for 15 minutes, until the dough is very elastic.
5. Cover the bowl and allow to rest 45 minutes.
6. Turn onto a floured board and knead in the ground nut mixture and dried cherries by hand.
7. Re-cover and allow to rest 15 minutes.
8. Bring a large pot of water to a boil with the honey, and preheat the oven to 375F.
9. Divide dough into 10 even balls and shape each into a ring.
10. Place the bagels, two at a time, into the boiling water for 2 minutes per side.
11. Drain well, and place on lined baking sheets.
12. Bake for 30 minutes and cool on a rack.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 298.7
Total Fat: 5.4 g
Cholesterol: 21.9 mg
Sodium: 35.3 mg
Total Carbs: 54.3 g
Dietary Fiber: 5.0 g
Protein: 9.8 g

Blueberries, Baby!

 This Sunday was all about the blueberries for those of us in the GTA. Well to be totally honest, I really should say for those of us in the know this Sunday was all about the blueberries. Why, you ask? Well, you'd have to ask the good folks of the Evergreen Brick Works for the answer to that one. They were the organizers and hosts of the first annual Wild Blueberry Festival held on the property, and let me tell you, it was a BLAST! Tons of stuff was all going on at once - from beer and wine tastings, to pancake making kids, to live entertainment - by the time I got there with my grandparents, who I wanted to introduce to the whole market's atmosphere. Being just this side of the "traditional" mindset, my grandparents were more than game to face the fairly "liberal" crowd that frequents the Brick Works - even if it did involve them making a few comments about the "hippies" and "hemp wearing and smoking" crowd they felt dominated the day (which then makes me wonder - I love that market, so what am I then?). At any rate, I was incredibly grateful to have them along, since not only did I want company for the day, but I needed my own cheer squad.

You see, I had entered their blueberry pie bake-off contest with my own kind of "crunchy granola", healthified version of the pastry. I know I've posted a blueberry pie already this summer, but for the bake-off I wanted something a little bit more "out there", something that would mirror the eclectic crowd at the festival's general ideals of healthful, natural, minimally processed and (preferably) organic food for the people. So instead of your traditional (albeit tasty, I'm sure - mind you I don't particularly like blueberry pie!) thickened sugar, citrus and berry filling in a buttery, lily-white crust, I went way out of left field when I wrote this recipe. I mean, the fresh, local blueberries were still the front and centre star of my pie, but other than that there was pretty much nothing "traditional" about it. However, just because it wasn't your commonplace pie didn't make it any less delicious - nor did it really reduce the whole "guilt" factor of the fat-laden crust!

I suppose if you really wanted to break the whole thing down, my pie was one of the more "wholesome" ones on the table of 17 - call it my obsessive nutritionist mentality if you will. My crust, while containing "evil" and highly "ungourmet" shortening (trans-fat free stuff, though) and regular unbleached flour, also had a hearty dose of wheat germ for colour, flavour, protein and fibre. Why shortening, with all that goodness? Well to be honest with you I grew up making shortening-based pie doughs. I've made all-butter and part-butter crusts before, and frankly they're way more hassle than they're worth. Heck - you're having pie anyways, you might as well go out all the way. I'll save my butter for shortbreads, thankyouverymuch. The filling of my pie was completely unlike any other that I've seen, and in my ever-so-humble opinion way more flavourful. In place of white sugar, good for sweetening but not a whole lot else, I decided to bring in two of the best natural sweeteners I could think of: luscious, local honey (from a Brick Works merchant, no less!) and sticky, rich dates. The combination of the three flavours in the partially cooked filling (I followed the same method I used before, cooking 1/4-1/3 of the berries with the thickener and sweeteners before folding in the rest of the fruit) was exotic, almost reminding me of a Canadian-esque baklava, and nobody in my taste-testing pool could place just what that flavour was, though they all declared it delicious.

In the end, my pie didn't find top favour with the "celeb" judging panel. The flavours, though delicious, were just "off" enough from the standard blueberry-ness of a blueberry pie to throw the votes, but the crust (I heard through the gravevine) was a favourite. You know what though? I may not have won the battle of the day, but I won the war in my own household: making a dessert that everyone I served it to liked!

Honeyed Date Blueberry Pie

Serves 12, one 10" pie 

Crust

7.5 oz (2 cups + 2 tbsp) all-purpose flour

2.9 oz (2/3 cup) wheat germ

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg

2.4 oz (1/3 cup) butter-flavoured shortening

4.8 oz (2/3 cup) "plain" shortening

5 tbsp Grand Marnier

3 - 4 tbsp ice cold water

Filling

1/4 cup water

4.3 oz (2/3 cup) sugar

1.6 oz (1/3 cup) diced dates

3.7 oz (1/3 cup) honey

2 1/2 pints (5 cups) fresh or frozen blueberries

1.6 oz (1/3 cup) tapioca flour

7 1/2 tbsp water

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 egg, beaten (for brushing crust)

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, wheat germ, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.
2. Cut in both shortenings with a pastry cutter or your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
3. Add Grand Marnier and stir in well, then add water by the tablespoon until a crumbly but workable dough forms.
4. Turn onto a well floured board or counter and divide - one portion roughly 2/3 of the dough, the remainder 1/3 of the dough. Wrap the smaller portion of dough in plastic and chill.
5. Roll remaining dough into a large circle and fit into a 10" pie plate. Place into the refrigerator while preparing the filling.
6. Preheat oven to 400F and place rack on the bottom shelf of the oven.
7. For filling, combine 1/4 cup water, sugar, dates and honey in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer and cook 5 minutes over low leat, stirring occasionally.
8. Stir in 1 1/2 cups of the blueberries and cook until they begin to burst - about 5 minutes.
9. In a small bowl, whisk together tapioca flour and remaining water.
10. Stir starch mixture into the cooking berries and cook gently over low heat until the mixture thickens.
11. Remove from heat and stir in nutmeg, then fold in remaining berries and pour into the chilled pie shell.
12. Roll out remaining 1/3 of dough into a rough rectangle and cut thin strips of dough with a sharp knife or pizza cutter.
13. Brush outside rim of crust with beaten egg.
14. Weave a lattice pattern with the dough strips overtop of the filling, pressing into the crust edge to seal.
15. Brush lattice with remaining beaten egg and place pie on a baking sheet.
16. Place onto the bottom shelf of the hot oven and immediately reduce the temperature to 375F.
17. Bake for 40 minutes.
18. Cool for a minimum of 12 hours before cutting and serving.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 387.1
Total Fat: 17.3 g
Cholesterol: 17.7 mg
Sodium: 10.5 mg
Total Carbs: 49.8 g
Dietary Fiber: 3.1 g
Protein: 4.7 g

Spreading Good Taste

Depending on who's place you're visiting, the "chip and dip" station at a party can be a nutritional minefield... or a tastebud's nightmare. Over the years, I've eaten more than my fair share of over-buttery, over-creamy offerings with enough potential to stop an elephant's heart but posessing a decadent taste to match - while thanking God I was only at that cousin or aunt's house once a year. On the other hand, I've also choked back an equal amount of pureed cardboard masquerading as different spreads or dippers, prepared by well-meaning, waist-watching hosts and served with nothing but celery and carrot sticks, broccoli and (if you were lucky) a few cherry tomatoes. Having gone through that transformative period myself, I'm guilty of doing both to my guests, and though I'm sure I've improved my ability to balance the elements of flavour and nutrition the fact remains that it's always a bit of a crapshoot in that department.

There is one dip that I believe I inherited an innate ability to create: hummus. My grandfather has an uncanny ability to whip up this chickpea spread with his eyes closed (and one hand behind his back), laced with a ton of roasted and raw garlic, a touch of tahini, lemon juice and spices. I've done different versions of hummus over the years, with additions from yogurt to pumpkin to orange zest and honey, but I think this is the first "mostly raw" one I've ever attempted. This dip combines three of the healthiest things I know of in a super-garlicky blend: chickpeas, fresh garlic, and the process of sprouting.

Never sprouted legumes (or anything, for that matter) before? Don't worry. Sprouting anything - provided the seeds or beans are viable in the first place - is incredibly simple. All it takes is a jar, fresh water, a piece of cheesecloth and a cooling rack, and you've got yourself a sproutatorium that rivals the $25 behemoths at the health food store. If you need instructions beyond what I've got written here, there's an incredible resource put together online to peruse at your leisure. Whatever you decide to do in preparation for sprouting  up some hummus, do try it. No, it won't taste like the common tubs of the dip you buy at the store. But that's part of it's allure - it's a fresh, beany, vegetal flavour that gets tempered by the garlic's heat and the bouquet of the ground spices.

There's one other striking difference between my hummus and more traditional recipes - mine has no tahini. None. Nada. Zilch. And because it uses sprouted, rather than cooked or canned chickpeas, it's an almost raw concoction! Why almost raw? Well, in order to replace the tahini (which I didn't have on hand), I settled on an equally flavourful, richer fat for body: toasted sesame oil. Of course, the fact that it's made from toasted seeds pops the flavour to the forefront, but also strips away the "raw" label. No matter - the taste it brings is more than worth any type of category-shuffling it incurs!

Almost-Raw, Tahini-Free Hummus
Serves 8
1/2 cup dry chickpeas
3 cloves minced garlic
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

1 tbsp full-bodied olive oil

2 tbsp water
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp smoked sea salt

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp Spanish paprika
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp nutritional yeast

1. In a wide-mouthed jar, soak chickpeas in cool water overnight.
2. Drain and rinse well, place back into the jar.
3. Fit jar with a square of cheesecloth and place onto a rack upside down to allow drainage.
4. After 12 hours, rinse and drain chickpeas, again following the procedure with the jar and cheesecloth.
5. Repeat the rise-drain operation for 5 days, ensuring each time that you drain as much water as possible before placing back into the upside-down jar. Seeds will start to sprout and split.
6. In a food processor, combine sprouted chickpeas, garlic and sesame oil.
7. Process until peas are coarsely ground, then add olive oil, water, lemon juice, smoked salt, garlic powder, paprika, cumin and nutritional yeast.
8. Process until a relatively smooth puree forms, adding water (or oil) if necessary.
9. Store, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 302.1

Total Fat: 29.5 g

Cholesterol: 0.0 mg

Sodium: 3.3 mg

Total Carbs: 8.1 g

Dietary Fiber: 2.3 g

Protein: 2.7 g

Banana-Lama-Ding-Dong

I'm sure I can't be alone in thinking my family is singlehandedly keeping the banana producer industry afloat. Oddly enough, I actually can't stand the fruit - I find it way too sweet, and even as a sugar-loving (i.e. typical) kid the only time you'd find me eating a banana was if it was almost entirely green. The soft, velvety sweet flesh of a perfectly ripe fruit was lost on me. My sister, on the other hand, was the banana queen for most of her childhood. As soon as they were yellow and fragrant, she'd be into the bunch like a dirty shirt - and mom would be left wondering where the hand of 6 or 7 bananas disappeared to! Ironically enough, T now detests anything to do with bananas. The smell, the taste and certainly the inherent ability of the fruit to go south in a matter of hours, drawing fruit flies to our kitchen from what feels like all over Ontario as they swarm towards the pile of no longer yellow food.

So these days, a potential household of five banana eaters has been reduced to one - my stepdad. My mom is eschewing the starchy banana in favour of grapefruit segments for her fruit selection, I prefer the Divine apples or Ontario peaches in our fridge, and my sister and stepbrother... well, they just don't eat fruit. And although my stepdad likes bananas, he still insists on buying three times as much fruit as anyone in the house can possibly eat (especially him, being a Type II diabetic), often leaving the quickly softening tropical selection to rot on the counter. By the time he's ready to declare them unfit for consumption (we have yet to convince him to put most fruit and vegetables in the fridge even after several mould incidents) the bananas are just this side of walking out the door under their own power, and sometimes it really is a matter of a day or two that separates banana bread-suitable and composter-fodder fruit.

Luckily, my stepdad, grandfather and dad (all diabetic or pre-diabetic) all love banana bread. And given the constant state of the union here, I make a lot of it! So while the baked treats aren't as healthy as a fresh piece of fruit, I'm able to control the sugar, fibre and total carb counts moreso than what storebought mixes or pre-made cakes can offer. Needless to say, the loaves I make are not "diet food"... I mean sure, you can dial back on the fat and add applesauce or something like that, but my stepdad in particular (are you getting the sense he's a bit picky?) turns his nose up at anything overtly whole grain, low-fat or low-sugar. Sigh. Well, I can try, right?

This first batch of banana bread came courtesy of the fact that the "adults" in the household (read: mom and stepdad) had gone away for a few days, leaving a bunch of the fruit sitting out in the summer heat. By the time I got to them, they were a little worse for wear, and there was a handful each of roasted chickpeas and soybeans dusting the bottom of two large containers in the pantry. I started out attempting to grind a mixed-legume "butter" out of them in my food processor, but after only managing to achieve a fine mealy mixture I opted to just shove the blend into a good old fashioned nanner concoction. To cover up any sort of "off" flavour or texture, I threw in some coconut and chocolate chips too. Hey, it's banana bread, how bad could it be?

"Back From Vacation" Banana Bread
Makes 12 Slices
7 oz dry-roasted soy beans
4 oz dry-roasted chickpeas
2 tbsp canola oil
3 tbsp water
1.5 oz butter, softened
2 tbsp coconut oil
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup agave nectar
2 large, over-ripe bananas, mashed
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
2 tbsp ground flaxseed
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 oz shredded, sweetened coconut
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350F, grease a loaf pan.
2. In a food processor, grind soy beans, chickpeas, oil and water until a fine mealy texture is formed. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat together butter, coconut oil, sugar, and agave nectar until well blended.
4. Beat in ground mealy mixture, bananas, egg and vanilla.
5. Stir in flour, flaxseed, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, coconut and chocolate chips.
6. Bake for 55 minutes. Cool in the pan for 20 minutes before turning out onto a rack.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 326.3
Total Fat: 14.7 g
Cholesterol: 25.2 mg
Sodium: 44.2 mg
Total Carbs: 44.1 g
Dietary Fiber: 5.0 g
Protein: 10.2 g
 
Of course, the problem with getting rid of the "banana problem" one week means that one or two weeks later, the same glut of fruit will be hanging around again. This time, there was quite the large bunch of them turning their merry selves black on the countertop, and when I offered to make a loaf out of them to spare the composter, my mom agreed - on the condition that whatever I made was moist at the same time as not wreaking havoc on the pancreases of potential eaters. I had always thought of my banana breads as being moist creations... certainly nobody had ever complained to me about them before... but I figured I'd take it up a bit considering the textural concern was worth a mention at all. So I doubled the bananas and added eggs, ricotta cheese, honey and oil to my basic recipe, and played around with the flours a bit - adding chickpea and almond meals to balance out the carb load a bit and bump up the fibre. Roasting the bananas brought their sweetness and rich, velvety texture to the forefront, which both helped override the taste of the artificial sweetener I used (Splenda, this time) and allowed me to use less total sweetening in the batter.
 
Low(er) Carb Banana Bread
Makes 12 Slices
6 medium, over-ripe bananas, broken into chunks (not mashed)
1 cup flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup almond flour (ground almonds)
1/4 cup chickpea flour
1/4 cup wheat germ
2 tbsp ground flaxseed
1/2 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tbsp low-fat ricotta cheese
1/3 cup Splenda Granular (sucralose)
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup Demerara sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 400F, grease a baking dish.
2. Place banana chunks in one layer in the dish and roast 25 minutes. Mash with a fork and set aside.
3. Reduce oven to 350F and grease a 9x5" loaf pan.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, wheat germ, flaxseed, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
5. In a large bowl, beat together butter, oil, ricotta, Splenda, honey and Demerara sugar until well blended.
6. Add eggs and vanilla, beating well, then add the mashed bananas and stir in.
7. Add the flour mixture and stir just to combine.
8. Pour into the loaf pan and smooth the top.
9. Bake for 65 minutes, until it tests done.
10. Cool in the pan for 25 minutes before unmoulding onto a rack.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 270.2
Total Fat: 11.7 g
Cholesterol: 46.4 mg
Sodium: 45.6 mg
Total Carbs: 41.3 g
Dietary Fiber: 3.4 g
Protein: 5.4 g