In search of healthier granola, (or in which I discover Toasted Muesli)

Last weekend, I found myself in need of granola. Normally, I make a batch once a month - but that was before the Boy-O came into the obsessed with granola food phase. Now, he requests granola for 3 meals a day. At least he's moved on from the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (and with that, I find myself making a lot less bread), but I actually had to make another batch today, since the other was nearly gone. Granola making is an easy task; you don't even need to accurately measure if you don't feel like it. You can use what grains/seeds/nuts/dried fruits you have on hand, and have a completely different experience every time you make it quite by accident. Normally, I don't write down what I'm doing as I'm doing it, but in my quest for a healthier granola, I did.

I did ship off a quart jar of my last batch to a new "Internet friend", so that accounts for something, but since the Boy-O is seriously garnering most of his nutrition now from granola, I am forced to seek out ways to increase the healthiness a little. Last weekend, I replaced all of the refined sugar with agave syrup and honey (I used to use a little brown sugar) - but today I went a bit further and used rolled grains that were higher in protein: kamut and wheat flakes. I had never tried kamut before, and while munching a few of the raw, flattened grains, I could tell they were much tougher than plain old oats. They also had a peculiar striation pattern that made me think of gnocchi.

Kamut, is an older varietal of wheat, so is not gluten-free. From my last Daring Baker Challenge, I learned that oatmeal is GF, if it is processed in a facility that does not allow cross-contamination with other products. Kamut grains are roughly 3 times larger than regular oats (though not in their rolled state), and contain about 8 grams of protein per half cup serving. There are 5 grams of protein in regular rolled oats, at least according to the co-op bulk bins. So, for a Boy-O who won't eat meat (other than bacon), seldom eats an egg, and is rather picky about greens in general right now, I figure those 3 little grams must add up!

I didn't have any particular reason for trying out this grain. As I perused the bulk grains aisle as the co-op, I actually wanted to try the quinoa flakes because I know that quinoa is a complete protein. Since they were out, I asked a worker which were his favorite and both the bins of his recommends were barren as well. It wasn't a good day to shop the bulk aisle I think, and in the end I just went by amount of protein on the nutritional information cards. I figured that the grains would toast mostly the same as rolled oats, and in the end, I was mostly correct.

Last Saturday's batch had a couple of T.'s of olive oil in it, but since I had a small portion of butter out on the counter in its wrapper, I figured to use it up. It gave me a change to use one of my favorite garage sale finds, an incomplete set of copper measuring cups. I can put them directly on the heat to melt butter, and one of them is a 3/4 c. measure which comes in handy and is not normally included in modern measuring sets. They are like miniature pots, really.

My method for granola making is always the same, I mix the dry and ingredients separately, toss them together in a stainless mixing bowl and then spread onto a baking sheet. I have found that I can either line the sheet with parchment or leave it unlined and it doesn't make much difference especially when using little to no added fat. I always add the dried fruit after baking, but when there is still a little warmth left in the granola.

Ultra Crunchy Granola (or Toasted Muesli)

• 1 1/4 c. kamut flakes
• 1 1/4 c. wheat flakes
• 1 1/2 c. thick rolled oats
• 1/2 c. coconut (I like the Let's Do...Organic brand, and it's actually really inexpensive in Whole Foods!)
• 1 c. walnuts, chopped
• 1/4 c. sesame seeds
• 1 t. cinnamon
• pinch of Kosher salt
• 1 1/2 T. butter
• 1/2 c. agave syrup (I used raw dark for the first time, and was pleasantly surprised at the flavor)
• 1/2 c. raisins
• 1/2 c. dried cranberries (more or less of any dried fruit, really)

Bake at 350, stirring every 10 minutes until it looks as brown as you'd like it. Remember, that it gets crunchier as it cools. This batch baked for about 30 minutes.

I could hardly wait for it to cool enough to try. Everything I've tried with agave syrup lately I've ended up loving. It's so delicious on its own, and really gives a pleasant amount of sweetness without being at all sugary. It has the added benefit of absorbing slowly into the bloodstream, preventing the sugar spiking effect that is the bane of Mothers everywhere. Prior to this, my favorite sweetener for granola was a combination of honey and maple syrup. I hate to say, that maybe this is going to become my new staple - especially since it was so crunchy I decided to soak it like a muesli.

I do love muesli, as I described here, normally in the summer when I enjoy eating a cold breakfast. Just a moment of forethought before bed, and the oats magically transform into "fully cooked" by morning. I never thought of soaking a granola before, but tried it right away since the crunch factor was so high with the kamut. Even a quick 30 minutes in the refrigerator covered in milk, and the grains swelled and the cinnamon popped - I did use the cassia, which I reserve for just such this kind of welcomed effect.

If 30 minutes was a serviceable soaking, then 8 hours was completely transforming. I just tried a spoonful that I've had soaking since about noon, and it is silky and delectable. Now, I can't wait for breakfast tomorrow.

It's Not Too Late for a Very Important Date...

I think dates are some of my favorites in the vast world of dried fruit. While figs are charming, there are seeds to contend with. While raisins are workhorses, especially when soaked to proper plumpness in either liquor or boiling water, they can err on the side of sweet. Dates, however, are perfectly palatable in sweetness and texture when properly stored. In either sweet or savory application, there is no better candidate for versatility either. Tagines with lamb and dates are perfection in my mind, and these cookies that I'm about to share with you are now officially on the Food Obsessions list in the sweet category.

One of my favorite new blogs is innBrooklyn, which is a design/food/green living/technology/knitting blog run by Noerah and Talia. They began late in December, and have a number of good ideas - and all of it makes for a unique experience each time you visit. I couldn't wait to try these Date Biscuits that were posted on Jan. 30th, but I made myself wait judiciously until the very last piece of my chocolate cake was gone. For those of you keeping track, I actually kept a chocolate cake on my counter for 8 days. Boy-O and I were the only eaters, and though it wasn't my favorite recipe, it got the job done in the dessert department.

Now this will tell you something, since normally, I would have made the date biscuits anyway and then tried not to eat two desserts simultaneously. I'm well on the road to reducing my consumption by just simply making less food. This is hard for me! I love to bake especially, and to not turn on my oven is excruciatingly hard. But not only did the day finally come that my cake was gone, in true innBrooklyn green living fashion, I didn't even need to turn on my oven to make these amazing "cookies".

This recipe melts butter stovetop, and adds the remaining ingredients without heat involved: a no-bake method. I'll let you look over at the link for the proper recipe, but will note that it calls for British Marie Biscuits, which you may be able to find in a specialty foods store, but are very closely related to Maria cookies, which are widely available in the Hispanic food section of many stores. I weighed a package on my digital scale, and removed just one cookie to get the 200 grams called for in the recipe. Bet you can guess where that one went...

At this point, I'd have to say that SOMEone NEEDS to make a pie filling based on this date/butter/cocoa powder filling! My first choice would be none other than Gina, the Goddess of Pie. If the GOP can't find a way to turn this recipe into the most delicious pie ever made, I'd be surprised. The only other alteration I made to the recipe was to let the date mixture cook just slightly after I added the egg to make sure it got hot enough, since I melted my butter at a pretty low temperature. After adding the hot mixture to the Maria cookies, I found it near impossible to stop "sampling", hence my dreams of a forthcoming pie.

We had pretty snow globe snow most of the day yesterday, and as I used the remaining afternoon light to photograph these roly morsels, I thought how perfect to make such snowy looking things on a day like this. Promptly after photography, the eating ensued. Bite sized things are always hard to resist, and these are deservedly no exception. Boy-O loved them, and I had to be a good example and not eat them all in one sitting. My confession is that they are probably almost half gone, and that just thinking about them makes me want to go and sneak another. But like I said to Lo earlier, they can be nearly be construed as healthy, what with all of the fiber packed in there svelte, round selves, so why not?

Mustard and Muffins

A frequent sight around my kitchen are magazines with marked recipes, a case in point:

The top of this stack was from a year ago already, and was found when attempting to de-clutter some organized, obviously, but overwhelming stacks of recipes to try in my hutch cabinet. I confess that I actually have a problem getting rid of recipes that I think I'll try someday, and it isn't until the weight of a shelf or my well-hidden stashes get filled up to capacity that I consider some clearing out and paring down.

I also find it exceedingly difficult to toss out back issues of Saveur. I think I have every issue of my 4 plus year subscription run. They are stored neatly, but recently have reached the capacity of the shelf holding them - so I need to decide what to do. You can bet that most of them contain as many flags as the issue above. But that above issue will have to stay, since it was one of my most favorite "episodes" of the Saveur 100: The Home Cook Edition.

It came out in February of 2009, and peppered throughout were condiment recipes that I knew would make the list of keepers. In the back of my mind, I thought at some point last year I would have made them all, but sadly I'd either forgotten or was busy with other things while the pile of Sadly Neglected Things to make grew steadily in the hutch.

It's such happy occurance to remember, and revisit, those brightly colored flags of the forgotten - since I just found a new obsession: Spicy Guinness Mustard.

It always amazes me how easy some of the best and most versatile kitchen condiments are among the most easy of things to create from scratch. This no effort recipe simply needs to be mixed up, rest for 24-48 hours, and then blended into spicy emulsified oblivion.

I had to include this above shot, since the Saveur test kitchen photos accompanying the original article used a bowl of the same design as this dish I use for underneath my plants. Strange coincidence.

I only needed to let the mixture rest 24 hours, since the mustard seeds surprisingly swelled to double their size. I do love the smell of vinegar, which was the predominate aroma surrounding my project so far, and I was more than a little surprised at the spiciness that emerged after the spin in the food pro. One (over indulgent, since it actually brought tears to my eyes) sniff into the top of the whirring machine and I was instantly transported to my Dad's ever present little Inglehoffer jar on the top shelf of the fridge when I was a kid.

I always think of my Dad when I eat (or now make) spicy brown mustard, and my Mom for plain yellow (preferably French's), since those are their tastes respectively. I don't think I would have thought to claim a side in this happy Mustard War until now, when I am certainly convinced that Spicy Guinness Mustard is THE mustard of choice for me.

So why Muffins and Mustard, you ask? Because last week, Deena at Mostly Foodstuffs made Dorie Greenspan's Corniest Corn Muffins, where she also dictated the recipe, and I remembered how much I loved them. As I was invited to a Soup Nite, this was the perfect time to remember them, and thanks to Deena, I also remembered not to over mix.

Dorie uses a cup of fresh or frozen corn (frozen in my case), and also said to use up to 1/3 cup more corn if you so desire. I opted to chop up the same amount of some of my candied jalapenos for one batch, and some piquant Peppadew peppers for the second - which is the correct choice in my book since these muffins are on the sweeter side of corn-muffindom, and they can handle it! Luckily, I had an extra muffin - the larger, more rotund, gentleman seen below:

He gets his looks, which really is more of a muffin top physique, from baking these If You Care muffin liners without popping them into a muffin tin first. I actually never knew you could bake them on their own, until reading the side of the box one day. It's a good thing to know.

Since the corn muffin scent was lingering intoxicatingly in the air as I whirred up the mustard (3 short minutes is all it takes - it took longer to clean up the dishes from the mustard making ordeal!) I knew that taste test would have an inevitable outcome:

Not bad on a sweet Corniest Corn Muffin... but even better on a plain cheese sandwich on fresh bread - my lunch of choice yesterday when I ate so much mustard in one bite I had the dreaded "Wasabi Effect". Boy-O was looking at me wondering how he got saddled with such a strange and obsessive Mami...

Adventures in Saltware...

It doesn't take much effort for me to get excited about experimentation in my kitchen. I actually found it hard to sleep the other night after the Salt Block cooking class, just imagining what fun I'd have playing around the next day. My first order of business was to get some better looking photos with a full charge on my batteries and some much appreciated sun coming in the dining room window.

That miserable looking spider plant on the right may do well to soak up some much needed light in its new location: I've had it since high school, and this is the final piece.

The first thing I needed to do was bring the Saltware up to temperature slowly. Since this was my first experience, I may have been a bit overly cautious, and waited a full ten minutes from the time I heard the *beep* signaling the increase, before inching up 20 degrees at a time. As I had started at 200 degrees, this seemed to be taking a while. I used my favorite timer, pictured below.

Around 300 degrees, I started to notice that the incremental temperature change seemed to be speeding up. I started to increase by 25 degrees every time I heard the *beep*, and before long, I was finally at the 450 mark. I had formed my small round of bread (from my recipe of stored dough) prior to the oven heat, and made sure to use a small enough amount so it would fit nicely on the 8x8 salt block.

I also took Chef Malavenda's tip of letting the dough rise on parchment, and then sliding it out from under it about 5 minutes after it hit the salt - making sure that the dough was set enough that it wouldn't move. I think the bread turned out fine, but not too noticeably different than the breads I usually cook on a stone. I also noticed the flavor wasn't noticeably different, but I'm wondering if I shouldn't crank the oven up to 500 next time, and try and slide the dough right onto the slab.

It was delicious bread, and because I used no steam in the oven, the crust was nicely chewy. The interior texture was about normal, if not a little more moist, and it was very, very tasty. I even ate some today with butter (something that never happens in the privacy of my own home), after Chef Malavenda said to store unsalted butter on a slab of salt, since it slowly draws out the flavor.

I decided I had to make fried eggs for supper, since I had fresh bread, some local Saxon cheese, and a still warm salt slab. I began my oven heat increments a bit faster, since the block was still fairly warm to the touch, and when I hit 450 degrees I placed the stone stovetop on top of a sheet pan, just in case.

As soon as the salt slab was in place, I poured some extra virgin olive oil, and brushed it around evenly. I knew immediately this was the proper choice for my inaugural egg-frying experience. The fruity, mineraly steam that rose from the salt was intoxicatingly good. I quickly opted for further insurance, and used egg rings until the eggs were just barely set. I wasn't sure just how hot the stone actually was, and was a bit worried that they would run a little too much.

Just a quick sprinkle of Aleppo pepper, and a quick bat of my right hand by my left out of the salt dish... old habits are hard to change! You can kind of see in the above photo how the salt seemed to "crack" under the weight of the oil and eggs - it even seemed to have changed color when the eggs were removed. It is so interesting to see how natural products change as you use them! (It also reminded me of when GOP and I decided to crack an egg onto the black, hot asphalt of the next door bank parking lot one particularly scorching summer's day. It did not work, if you're wondering...)

After the photo, I remembered the cheese!

Perfectly salted fried eggs, with dreamily runny yolks were my reward! I was so excited at the taste of these eggs on their own, I couldn't even bring myself to add my usual hot sauce. I gratefully lapped up all of the yolks off the plate with the help of a bit more bread, and called it a night.

After a few hours, the Saltware was still warm, but cool enough to handle. I gingerly ran it under warm water to clean it, and towel dried it before leaving it to air on a wire rack overnight, again intrigued at the feel of such a mass of salt under warm, running water. I also remembered that in my last post about the Saltware class, I shamefully neglected to mention the POSH salt founder, Linda Castelli.

She was a Registered Nurse and then a lawyer before finding her passion for salt, and indeed inventing the concept of using the salt to actually cook food, instead of just flavoring the food with the salt. These slabs come in a variety of sizes, and even have been custom fit to line pizza ovens and table side grills of adventuresome restaurants. As long as you are careful, the slabs appear to last a long time, and I can't help but draw the similarity to a human being: resilient and sturdy, yet inelastic and fragile. Perhaps it's due to our own salt content that has increased our in interests in baking salts, cooking salts, finishing salts and now Saltware. Whatever the reason, you can be sure that the hype is very deserved, and that I certainly will be doing a whole lot more experimentation!

Oh, Canada: Nanaimo Bars! January 2010 Daring Baker Challenge

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and http://www.nanaimo.ca/.

I had never heard of Nanaimo bars, or even of Nanaimo, BC Canada. I also was unaware that some people actually detest these bars and even chose to sit this month out. Being from the Midwest, where bar-making is somehow an inherent gene, I was more than excited to make them. I pretended to not be so excited to eat them, since there was well over a half pound of butter in one 9x9 baking dish... but they were delicious, and completely worth the splurge. (It also helps that I was able to give half the pan to Maeckel, and that they freeze like a miracle!)

I actually did this challenge on the 8th of the month, instead of waiting until the last second - which has sadly become my usual habit. Though Lauren chose to use gluten-free ingredients (her recipe is here), I opted to use my pantry staples. As I grow in experimentation of the gluten-free universe, I may try these graham crackers again using rice flour and the like. But for this challenge, I used the 101 Cookbooks recipe which is actually Nancy Silverton's.

I adore Nancy Silverton, and credit her for my original love of baking bread. Though, I don't follow her rather labor intensive approach, reading all about her method a few years ago was fascinating, and obviously the stuff of passion that is absolutely infectious. You can tell that dough runs in her veins. Ordinarily, I wouldn't even consider altering a proportional baking recipe of hers, such as this one for graham crackers, but I did - since I wanted to use whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose.

I did use the food pro to mix everything up, and since I used the wheat flours, I knew I would need more liquid. Fortunately, there were verbal clues as to how this dough should feel: very soft and sticky. I simply added a splash of half and half and pulsed until the dough looked appropriate enough to me. Then I dutifully stashed it in plastic and placed it under cold storage for 2 hours as recommended. When it came to the rolling, however, I did not refrigerate the cut crackers for 30 minutes prior to baking as recommended. I simply don't have space in my fridge for half-sheet pans unless it is completely empty. Happily, it worked just fine!

Whole Wheat Graham Crackers (by way of 101 Cookbooks, Nancy Silverton and Rebecca Gagnon)

• 1 c. whole wheat flour (I use King Arthur Flour)
• 1 1/2 c. white whole wheat flour (KAF)
• 1 c. dark brown sugar
• 1 t. baking soda
• 3/4 t. kosher salt
• 7 T. butter, cut into 1 inch slices and frozen
• 1/3 c. honey
• 5 T. milk (I used the 1% I had on hand)
• 2 T. vanilla extract (this is the main flavor component, so try not to skimp!)

Combine flour, sugar, soda and salt in a food pro - or a stand mixer with paddle attachment. (If using the stand mixer, I'd probably cut my pieces of butter a bit smaller before freezing them.) Pulse (or mix, if using the stand mixer) to blend, and then add frozen butter. Pulse or mix until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

Mix honey, milk and vanilla and add at once to the dry mixture. Pulse or mix until a dough comes together, using a couple of T.'s more of milk or half and half to make the dough feel soft and somewhat sticky.

Form into a disk about an inch thick and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350. Divide dough in two halves, and roll out to about 1/8 of an inch, and cut into squares using a pizza roller or fluted pastry wheel. Gather scraps and set aside. Transfer to baking sheet lined with parchment and bake 12-15 minutes until browned. They will continue to harden as they cool. (I actually re-baked some of my first batch when they were not crisp enough after cooling, and it worked fine.) Re-roll any scraps and cut into squares or use cutters to make shapes. If you prefer crackers with a cinnamon sugar topping, sprinkle the mixture on the crackers prior to baking... you may use the proportion 1 t. cinnamon to 3 T. granulated sugar.

I omitted the cinnamon sugar topping, since I knew there would be plenty of sugar in my finished product. The square crackers above were the first rolling, using plenty of AP flour to prevent sticking. Don't be shy with the flour either, since it is extremely sticky, especially since I did the additional liquid by feel. I made a second batch of crackers later in the month, complete with cinnamon sugar dusting, and didn't add quite as much additional milk. Still sticky! Fortunately, the texture is the only thing that changes with additional rollings and additional flour on the board. I like them both ways equally.

The stars were the very last rolling, scraps really, and were probably my favorites since they were nice and crisp. Graham crackers have officially made the list of things I'll never buy again.

No complaints from my taste tester, either. We now have a graham cracker spread with peanut butter nearly every day for a snack. One day, I had some leftover MonkeyShake (bananas, milk, honey and cocoa powder), and happened to eat a graham cracker spread with peanut butter while I was drinking it... I don't even need to tell you how good that was!

The second batch later in the month. I need to invest in a fluted pastry wheel, since I used a fluted french fry cutter, and it wasn't working so well.

So, now on to the actual bars! As if the graham crackers alone aren't worth their weight in gold for this month's challenge, I now knew that bars made with them had to be wonderful. You can, of course, make them using regular store-bought graham cracker crumbs, but what fun would that be? The Nainaimo link above has the recipe.

When I began my melting of a whole stick of butter together with sugar and cocoa powder, I knew that I was going to be in for something special. Everything is heated in the top of a double boiler, and when hot and melted, an egg is added. It's startling to see how thick the hot mixture becomes. It is then added to a mixture of unsweetened coconut, ground almonds and a cup and a half of fresh graham cracker crumbs and pressed into a baking dish.

I chilled it well at this point, before adding my other two layers. After an hour or so, I mixed up the mostly butter "frosting" layer for the middle.

After sitting another hour or so, I melted the now small amount of butter - 2 T. - with 1 oz. of bittersweet chocolate for the ganache top. I had to spread quickly since I had such a firm and cold base, and the chocolate was cooling very fast.

My only mistake was trying to cut the bars too soon out of the fridge. I was eager, after all, to taste these. They were ragged and tasty, though not nearly as professional and texturally pleasing as the ones I cut after sitting at room temperature for 30 minutes. All of the butter in the middle layer became infinitely more palatable, and the whole bar tasted like the most amazing and luxurious candy bar you've ever had. These are rich, and one bar certainly will hold you for a while.

I was secretly glad my Husband knew there was coconut in them and wouldn't even take a bite... he dislikes it except for, strangely enough, in curry. I served them when Maeckel came for dinner, and then sent some along with him. The rest popped into the deep freeze. I have only 2 left, that I'm still saving for some dessertless occasion. One bar on the counter at room temperature thaws in about 3o minutes - not a bad wait for bar perfection!

Thank you to Lauren for this month's challenge! I'm glad to know of Nainamo, BC Canada, and of these bars of legend. This challenge did make me stop and think a bit more about food allergy. I am becoming increasingly perplexed with the amount of food allergy in the world, and secretly wonder if all this genetic modification and chemical application in our agriculture is partially to blame. I am thankful that should food allergy arise, there are inspired people working on ways to make an "eggless" egg so to speak, and the creative abilities of trial and error home cooks out there are astounding. Whatever your allergy or food preference, you can rest assured that a baker somewhere is tirelessly at work so that you can enjoy something sweet on occasion. What a comforting thought that is!