Chickpea Flatbread

Served with Pesto

I received this recipe in a Washington Post newsletter a few weeks ago. You can see the original here. I am drawn to recipes that incorporate different flours, and this one uses chickpea flour. These can easily be made in one day, and take hardly any time to bake.

The recipe says it makes 1 10'' flatbread, cooked in a cast iron pan, or two smaller ones made in 8'' round cake pans. I opted for the cast iron pan and found that the flatbread came out too thick. The second time I made these, I put less batter in the pan and made multiple flatbreads.

Ingredients:
1 c chickpea flour
1 c cool water
3 1/2 T olive oil
3/4 t kosher salt
*2 t fresh rosemary, chopped (about 4 sprigs)
black pepper, to taste

*you can add other fresh herbs or spices in place of or in addition to this

Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl. Add water, 1 1/2 T olive oil, and rosemary and whisk together. Let this sit at least 2 hours, or overnight.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 500 F with a medium cast iron pan on the top rack (about 4'' from the element). When the oven is ready, carefully remove the pan and add the remaining olive oil. Place the pan back in the oven to allow the oil to heat for a few minutes.

Remove the pan again and pour in the batter. Replace the pan in the oven and bake 5 minutes. Turn on the broiler for 3 minutes so the top browns. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with pepper, and serve immediately.

These are very tasty, but also very oily. The second time I made them, I added less oil and the flatbreads were much better.

Zucchini Bread (Made with yellow squash)

I bought some yellow squash last week and it sat in the fridge for a bit too long so I decided to make it into some delicious zucchini bread. I didn't already have a recipe for this bread, and a quick internet search yielded this result for Mom's Zucchini Bread. I followed it almost exactly, substituting the squash for zucchini, cutting the sugar in half, and using 1/2 whole wheat flour instead of all white flour. The bread was flavorful and moist, as many of the reviews stated, and I will definitely be making it again. Maybe next time I will cut 1/4 c sugar out.

Note: I am baking around 6300 feet so I changed this recipe for the altitude. I added a little more flour and salt, less baking powder and baking soda, and increased the baking temperature by 25 degrees F. The ingredients and recipe listed below are for sea level.

Yield: 2 loaves

Ingredients:
3 c flour, 1/2 whole wheat 1/2 regular
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
3 t cinnamon
3 eggs
1 c vegetable oil
1 1/4 c white sugar
3 t vanilla
2 c grated zucchini
*1 c chopped walnuts

*I did not have walnuts, so I omitted these

Spray loaf pans and preheat oven to 325 F. In a large bowl, blend together eggs and sugar. Add the vanilla and oil and blend. Sift together the dry ingredients then combine with first mixture until consistent. Stir in zucchini and walnuts. Spread into prepared pans and bake 40-60 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. If making muffins bake 18 minutes.

Remove from oven and enjoy. (It pairs nicely with a glass of milk.)

Beer Bread

This is some of the easiest and tastiest bread to make. It takes a few minutes to mix together and is delicious to eat right out the oven!

Ingredients:
3 c flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
2 T honey
12 oz beer--anything works but preferably something with a little flavor

Preheat oven to 300 F. In a large bowl sift together the dry ingredients, then add the honey & beer. Mix quickly and pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake 55 minutes until hollow on the bottom.

Remove from pan, brush with butter, and serve.

Chocolate Banana Muffins (and other flavors)

Muffins are some of my favorite, most-satisfying recipes to make for breakfast because they are fast, flavorful, and easy to change depending on what ingredients are available.

Today I had one very ripe banana and was craving some chocolate, so I made chocolate banana muffins.

This recipe makes 1 dozen muffins.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 c flour

3/4 c sugar

2 1/2 t baking powder

3/4 t salt

1/2 c cocoa powder

1 beaten egg

1 mashed banana

1 c milk

1/3 c oil

Variations:

Regular muffins: reduce sugar to 1/3 c, reduce milk to 3/4 c, omit cocoa powder

To these you can add 3/4 c chocolate chips, blueberries, nuts, chopped apples + 1 t cinnamon, or mashed banana. If adding banana use 1/2 c milk. 

You will need 2 bowls, 1 large & 1 medium. In the medium bowl combine all wet ingredients with a whisk: egg, milk, oil, banana, & sugar. Sift the dry ingredients into the large bowl and make a well in the center. Pour the wet mixture into the well & mix together quickly so the batter is still lumpy & just moistened. Do not overmix!

Divide into a greased muffin tin or loaf pan. If making muffins, bake at 400 F for 18 mins. If making a loaf bake at 350 F for 30 mins. They are done when golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Enjoy warm!

Oatmeal Pan Bread

This recipe makes perfect homemade chewy bars with lots of oatmeal, cinnamon and options to add fruit and nuts. It is also really simple too. Everything gets tossed into one bowl, mixed together, and baked for 30 minutes.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c oatmeal
1/2 c flour
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 t cinnamon
*pinch nutmeg
1/2 t salt
1/2 c milk
1/4 c butter, melted
1 egg
*1/2 c dried cranberries or raisins
*1/3 c chopped almonds

*optional ingredients I have added to make these bars more delicious

Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine ingredients in a large bowl & mix completely. Spread evenly in a 9'' x 9'' greased pan and bake for 30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean and the edges are browning.

Banana Honey Tea Loaf

This variation of banana bread is much denser & offers a new array of flavors. I noticed the taste of the walnuts & cinnamon more than the banana. I think a nice addition to this recipe would be 1 chopped apple to complement the nuts & spice.

I found this in Bread Winner's by Mel London & it makes 1 large loaf.

Ingredients:
1/3 c mild-flavored honey
1/2 c light oil
3 medium ripe bananas, mashed
1 t vanilla
2 eggs, beaten (at room temperature)
1/2 c wheat germ (I substituted 2 T flax for this)
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 c chopped walnuts
1 1/2 c flour (1/2 whole wheat, 1/2 regular)

Preheat oven to 325 F & grease loaf pan.

In a large bowl mix together the honey & oil. Then stir in the bananas, vanilla, & eggs. Sift the dry ingredients into another bowl, then add to the first mixture & stir until just combined. Add the walnuts & gently stir.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan & bake 1 hr, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let sit 5 mins in pan, then flip onto a wire rack until completely cool.

The recipe says to wrap snugly & refrigerate overnight before slicing but I couldn't resist trying a piece. I had some while it was still cooling and it was very good. Definitely something I will make again!

Banana Bread

Somehow our kitchen's stock of bananas seemed to triple over the weekend. We went from having a small bunch of 3 bananas to a plateful of a dozen or more. All are past the green stage, and beginning to turn speckled brown. Time to start making food with banana!

This recipe for banana bread is one initially taken from an old version of Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook that my mother made a few changes to. If you look in the cookbook today, the original recipe has been completely revised.

Ingredients:
2 eggs (room temp)
1/3 c butter, melted
1/2 c sugar
1 3/4 c flour (1 c white, 3/4 whole wheat)
*optional 1 T flax
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 c mashed banana
*optional 1/2 c chocolate chips
*optional 1/2 c walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 F. Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl & set aside. In a smaller bowl, mix together the mashed banana, eggs, melted butter, & sugar until well blended. Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour the others into the well & mix until combined & light. Add chocolate chips & walnuts if using, and mix in a few quick strokes.

Pour into a greased loaf pan & bake 35-45 mins until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

In a good oven (i.e. not one in a college apartment), this usually takes the full 45 minutes to bake. When the oven not as dependable, I've had to lower the temperature to 325 as the outside cooked faster than the inside. This is also true if you are baking in a glass loaf pan.

Irish Soda Bread/Brown Bread

I decided to make Irish soda bread after I returned from a trip to Europe that ended in Ireland. I tasted soda bread several times in Ireland and the flavor was unlike any bread I had before. Even my last meal in the airport--porridge and soda bread--was delicious and very distinct from anything I could get in the U.S. When I arrived home I was determined to replicate the soda bread flavor as best I could, and I did quite a bit of research to find the perfect recipe.

I found this recipe online at http://www.sodabread.info/. They stress that traditional Irish soda bread is made with only flour, baking soda, salt, & buttermilk/sour milk.

There are also two variations: traditional (all white flour) or brown bread (some whole wheat and some white). Both methods of preparation and baking are the same. Today I made brown bread.

Ingredients for Brown Bread:
3 c wheat flour & 1 c white flour
1 1/2 t baking soda
1 t salt
14 oz buttermilk


Ingredients for Soda Bread:
4 c white flour
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
14 oz buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425 F. Grease & flour a 9'' round cake pan or dutch oven.

Sift all dry ingredients into a bowl and slowly add the buttermilk while mixing with a spoon. When combined into a dough, pour onto a floured surface, knead lightly, & press down into 1'' round.

Place into prepared pan and cut a large X in the top. Bake 30 mins with a cover on top, then 15 minutes uncovered. Remove from oven and cover with a towel to keep fresh.

The X on top is traditional and also so the bread can be broken into 4 pieces when served.

Oops, as I re-read the recipe to type it up here, I noticed that I added baking powder instead of baking soda. I don't think it will make much difference but I'll make a note once I taste the bread later.

UPDATE:
The bread came out of the oven, and it was kind of flat. It rose a little, but not as much as I would have liked. I blame this on two things: mistaking baking powder for baking soda and kneading. Kneading is very important and definitely a learned skill. I've made many an "okay" bread due to poor kneading, not enough kneading, (or in this case) over-kneading! Usually the bread will taste okay, but the texture will be ruined if you don't knead the bread correctly. So all I can say is practice, & follow the directions carefully.
I got a little ahead of myself & just dumped the dough out onto the board & started kneading, before I went back and re-read the directions which said "knead lightly". By then I was already past the point of no-return. I also selected a bowl that was too small for my ingredients, so I had trouble combining them all properly in the bowl, and used the kneading to properly get them to form together.

Next time I think I'll try using a method similar to how I make biscuits: combine the ingredients completely with a fork. Dump onto a floured surface & lightly fold the dough over and shape into a circle. Not much kneading involved and very delicate handling of the dough in general.

Baking Powder Biscuits

Biscuits were the first recipe I ever made by myself and they are easily the recipe I have made the most times in my life. They only have 5 ingredients, are easy and fun to make, and I have the recipe memorized, so I've made them many times while traveling or staying with friends.

In New Zealand I used to call these "American Biscuits" since their cookies are biscuits.

Ingredients:
5 1/3 T butter (1/3 c)
2 c flour (I like to do 1/2 whole wheat 1/2 white)
3 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
3/4 c milk

If you would like to add some variation to your biscuits, you can also add in fresh fruit like blueberries, peaches, plums, or sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar.

Preheat oven to 450 F.

Prepare your dry ingredients before you remove the butter from the fridge. The colder it is while you work, the better they come out. Sift the flour, salt, & baking powder into a bowl. Then add the butter & cut it in quickly. I used to use my hands to mix it in until it was a crumb-like texture, but this warms up the butter. I now have a handy little tool for cutting-in butter that also works well for pies. Hands work just fine though, plus its more fun :)
 
After your butter is mixed in, grab a fork in your right hand and the 3/4 c milk in your left hand. Pour the milk in the bowl while you stir with the fork. Stop stirring when everything is combined into a clump and there are barely-to-no crumbs left. You want the dough to be wet to the touch & stick to your finger.

At this point you have two options.
1: Drop biscuits, where you simply remove clumps of dough and drop them onto an ungreased sheet pan. Make sure you flour your hands so the dough doesn't stick and make a mess.

2 (I usually do it this way): Dump out onto a floured surface and press down to about 1/4'' thick. Here you can add anything you like--blueberries, other fruit, cinnamon sugar--then fold in half and press down again. Do this about 4 or 5 times, adding toppings each time. Make sure you save some to sprinkle on top. When you're done, only press it down to about 1/2'' and cut into pieces. Makes 10-12 pieces. Place on ungreased baking sheet & poke with a fork.

Bake 8-10 minutes.

When I made them this morning I made half with cinnamon sugar & half with fresh plum. I had to use Sea Salt instead of regular table salt and they came out incredibly salty. I found it very distracting, though others who ate them didn't mind at all.

Corn Bread

A nice accompaniment to any meal, corn bread also makes a delicious snack. Unlike most breads, I like to eat it immediately after it comes out of the oven, while its still steaming. Tonight I made it as a side dish with dinner--vegetable soup, salad, & corn bread--yum!

Choosing a good bread recipe is more difficult than one may think. The first time I made corn bread, I found one called "Grandma's Corn Bread", thinking this would be delicious. It took forever to bake, and was still soggy on the inside when the outside was brown and crispy. It was also incredibly buttery. Sorry Grandma, but this recipe was just okay.

This time, I pulled out my favorite bread book, "Bread Winners" by Mel London. It's an ancient text, with yellowing pages and a torn cover, but the recipes it holds have yet to disappoint. My goal is to try everything in this book at least once.

The index listed several recipes, including: Sour Milk Corn Bread, Texas Corn Bread, Sourdough Corn Bread, Buttermilk Corn Bread, Extra Corny Bread, and 2 for just plain Corn Bread. I glanced at the ingredients list for Texas Corn Bread (which I had bookmarked previously), and the plain Corn Breads. I settled on making the following corn bread recipe because it called for plain milk instead of buttermilk (which I did not have), and had less sugar than the other recipes.

Ingredients
1 c flour
1 c yellow cornmeal
2 t baking powder
3/4 t salt
1 1/8 c milk
2 eggs
4 T melted butter
3 t honey

Preheat oven to 425 F & grease 12 muffin tins. Alternatively, you can bake in an 8''x8'' square pan, but it will take a few minutes longer.

Sift dry ingredients into a bowl & make a well in the center. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, melted butter, honey, and eggs, slightly beaten. Pour your liquids into the well in the dry ingredients and mix together to combine. Do not overmix. Pour into prepared muffin tins and bake for 18 minutes.

The recipe says to bake 20-25 minutes, but mine came out a bit crispy. I'm not sure why, but 18 minutes seems to be the secret number with muffins or cupcakes. That being said, the cornbread was still moist and delicious--unlike past attempts--and my whole family was pleased with the result. I wouldn't change anything about it, there was a perfect balance of sweet, salty, and buttery, and I will definitely be making these again.