This morning I made banana nut bread for the kids, since they're going camping at nickerson state park. Usually I don't add chocolate chips, but my daughter asked for it.
2 cups kamut flour
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp light brown sugar
1/4 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup milk/lactaid
1 tsp salt
2-3 ripe bananas
Before you start, preheat the oven to 375F. The key is ripe bananas, so make sure they're spotted or dark. Peel the bananas and mash them with 2 tbsp light brown sugar. Add eggs, melted butter, vanilla and milk. Stir until mixed.
In a separate bowl combine the walnuts, baking powder, baking soda, salt, flour and chocolate chips. Stir a little to mix the dry ingredients. Pour the wet mixture to the dry and stir. Don't over mix. Pour the batter into a oiled loaf pan and bake for 55-65 minutes or until done. When a took pick or bamboo skewer comes out clean, the bread is done.
Last year I experimented with rice cakes for ride food. I first heard about it on YouTube from skratch labs. Like allen lim, I grew up eating glutinous rice balls on special occasions like Dragon Boat Festival. In Chinese tradition, the rice balls are wrapped with Bamboo leaves and they can have a wide variety of fillings. Some have pork belly, others have quail eggs and there's even vegan ones.
I made a batch of bacon rice cakes yesterday for today's rice and it turned out nice. Here's the recipe I used.
3 Cups sushi rice (medium or short grain)
5 tbsp mirin vinegar (rice vinegar with sugar)
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
2 tbsp maple syrup
5 tbsp soy sauce
10 strips of bacon - I used maple smoked bacon
4 tbsp sesame oil
For me, I like the rice to be nice and mushy. It makes very easy to eat and stays moist. One note, don't use short grain rice, it won't hold and doesn't get sticky mushy. Chinese call it glutinous rice because it's soft and sticky.
Before you cook the rice, rinse it 3-4 times and then soak it in water for 1 hr. This is a trick for chinese rice balls. Cook the rice. I use a rice cooker, which has a "sweet rice" setting. If you don't have a rice cooker, add 3 1/2 cups of water and bring it to a boil. Once it boils, turn it down to simmer and cook for 30min. While the rice cooks, cook the bacon.
With a spatula, mix the vinegar, soy sauce and sesame oil with the rice. Add the bacon, sesame seeds and maple syrup. Once it's all mixed, put it in a square pan that's about 3-4" high. Cut the cakes into squares and wrap them like the skratch labs video.
Time time, I think I'll use 3 tbsp mirin and add either more maple syrup or mini chocolate chips.
My daughter is sick with the flu right now, so I thought it would be good to make a soft white loaf for her in case she is ready to eat.
3 cups KA all purpose
1 egg
1/2 tsp yeast
1.5 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1.5 cup warm water
Mix the ingredients. It should look like a wet no knead dough.
After rising for 12-14 hours, the dough should look like the picture above. Form the dough into a loaf or individual buns. I decided to make little buns, since my daughter like mini pancakes and little buns.
Preheat oven 375F. Let the dough rise for 1-2 hours and bake for 30-45 minutes. I do 30 minutes with convection bake or 45 min on regular bake. I brushed them with an egg wash first. Egg wash is optional.
I decided to try a new flavor and thought "what goes well with turmeric?" Indian curry dishes usually have garlic and ginger, so I thought it might be a good combination.
2 cups of Kamut flour
1 cup King Arthur All-purpose
1/4 tsp yeast
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp turmeric
1.5-2 cup water
I mixed all the dry ingredients in the bowl, gave it a stir and then added minced ginger to it. Next I added 1.5 cup of water and gave it a quick stir. The dough looked quite dry, so I added another 1/4 cup of water and mixed it some more. I ended up adding 2 tbsp more water before the dough was right. One thing I've noticed with kamut flour is it tends to need a bit more water than all purpose or einkorn flour. I don't know why, but the last few loafs I made with kamut, I noticed it did need a little bit more water.
Let the loaf rise over nite 12-14 hours and then form it into a loaf. Let the formed loaf rise for 1-2 hours and then bake at 500F for 30 minutes in a dutch oven.
How does it taste? To my surprise, really good. It doesn't taste like I thought it would.
I decided to make a Kamut sour dough loaf and see how it tastes.
2 1/2 cups Kamut flour
1 cup sour dough starter
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp yeast
1 1/4 cup water
1 tsp oregano
As usual, I mixed the dry ingredients with the sour dough starter and then added the water. Once the dough was mixed, I let it proof in the oven for 2 hours before turning it off to rise over nite.
The next morning, the loaf was ready to shape. It was quite wet, so I did knead it for a minute with lots of flour.
This time I decided to experiment with the baking and rising to see what would happen. Once the loaf was shaped, I put it in the dutch oven to rise for 2 hours. Normally, I let it rise in the bowl and preheat the dutch oven. I got the idea from a friend and both of us were curious what would happen.
This is how it looked before baking. The bread tastes great and has a really nice sour dough flavor. With a little bit of butter it is perfect.
It kind of looks like a cake instead of a regular round loaf.
I bought 10lbs of Montana Kamut flour to see how it works for breads. According to the kamut website, it is a brand name for khorasan wheat. I first heard about khorasan from the wheat belly videos on youtube.
This morning I got up early to start a kamut challah. The flour looks similar to regular King Arthur all purpose flour. When I mixed the dough, the texture was smooth and more elastic than einkorn.
5 cups kamut flour
2 cups warm water
1/4 cup honey
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp yeast
2 eggs
4 tbsp butter
First I dissolve the salt, yeast, and honey in the warm water. Next I scramble the eggs, and add the melted butter to it. Combine egg and water mixture. I gradually added 5 cups of flour until I got a nice dough. Normally, when I use KA all purpose flour it takes about 6 cups of flour to 2 cups of water. I kneaded the dough for about 5 minutes, then let it double in the oven. I use the proof setting and it took about 2 hours.
Knead the dough for 10-15 minutes, then form into a challah loaf. My daughter likes 6 braid, so that's what we did. Let the loaf rise for 1-2 hours, then bake at 375 for 40-45 min. Since my new oven has convection bake, I do 375 for 30 minutes.
How does kamut challah taste? It tastes awesome. It rose just like King Arthur all purpose flour, but the flavor is different. It is richer, the crust was crunchy without being hard, the crumb was soft and moist and the color is darker than all purpose flour. Overall, I like the flavor better than all purpose flour.
Since the sour dough loaf turned out so nice on Monday, I decided to see how it would work with scallion loaf.
3 cups Einkorn flour
1-1 1/4 cup sour dough starter
2 tsp salt
2 cups chopped scallion
1 cup warm water
1/4 tsp yeast
Having learned my lesson about sour dough starter, today I tried a different approach. I mixed the chopped scallion, flour, salt and yeast first. I added 1 cup of water to the flour mixture. It looked a bit dry, so I gradually added water 1 tbsp at a time until the dough came together like a normal no-knead loaf. The way I chop the scallions is to first cut length wise down the stalk and then 1/4" thick.
I let it rise in the oven on proof setting for 2 hours and then over nite. The next morning the loaf was ready to form a loaf. This time it was pretty sticky, so I had to flour the counter liberally. Before I started forming the loaf, I oiled the mixing bowl. Once the loaf was formed, I put it in the bowl and let it proof in the oven for 1.5 hr. Preheat the oven at 550F. Once it ready, bake the loaf in the preheated dutch oven for 30 minutes.
The loaf turned out nice. I suspected the sour dough would compliment the scallion flavor, but it's unreal how good it is. I'm definitely making this recipe again.
