Pollan and Pancakes

Getting back into a routine is hard. In the last eight days we have had three feet of snow, 3 snow days, 5 days of fevers. And so today when the snow is plowed, school is on, and the fevers are gone we all seem crabby. Out of sorts at having to readjust back to the rhythm of daily life. Or perhaps it is more a feeling of being stretched by coping with the changes to routine. Either way it meant a whinny walk to school, and Imogen heading off to her line still teary-eyed. I hope seeing friends and familiar faces has calmed her.

For my part I wonder at how we manage to keep doing all of the things we do even with Mother Nature telling us to stay inside and rest. The plows come, we shovel out, we carry on.

Over the last month I’ve devoured Michael Pollan’s book Cooked. So much of the book sticks with me but what caused instant changes in my kitchen were the chapters on bread and fermentation. In the bread section he explains that bread made with a sourdough starter is both easier for humans to digest and more nutritious. It turns out that that the wild yeasts and bacteria in the starter digest the wheat in a way that makes it easier on the human gut and that unlocks more of the nutrients in the wheat making it accessible to us in a way that commercial yeast can’t (one study even shows that Celiac Sprue patients have no reaction to wheat that has had a long ferment with a sourdough culture). The idea that the wild yeasts and bacteria in a sourdough culture and wheat have co-evolved with us to help us get the most nourishment from what would otherwise be an indigestible grass seems logical. They help us digest the wheat and we make sure the wheat is milled and mixed with water so they can eat it. Symbiosis.

With that, I was off on a quest to change all of our wheat based recipes to use fermented dough – whole wheat flour and water that had been “eaten” by a sourdough culture.

The quest continues, but some things turned out “spot on” right away. Like pancakes. I can’t get enough of these yeasty, homey, wholesome pancakes. With butter, raw honey and cashews they make a great snack. The kids gobble them up too.

Pancakes
Makes approx 24 pancakes

The night before mix until combined:
50g sourdough starter (ours is rye flour based but any starter will work)
150g whole wheat flour
110g water

Cover and leave to rise.

In the morning add:
2 eggs
75g melted butter
60g water
19g honey
Pinch of salt

Whisk together until batter is smooth. Make pancakes as you usually would.

Perspective and breadsticks

As we walked home from school yesterday with Imogen whining about the cold whilst clinging to my left hand and Rhys nursing in the sling on my right with Imogen’s back pack dangling off that same right arm, all bundled like snowmen, I thought about how I would look back on these days in 20 or 30 years time. Would I remember?

Now, it seems impossible that I could forget the sling digging into my back while Rhys nurses because I can’t let go of Imogen to sort it, or the way I had to assure Imogen with every single step that the turkey necklace she made at school was still on her and blowing in the wind behind her back. Every moment of the day demands my full attention and it is hard to see past that moment into a future where neither Imogen nor Rhys needs my hand.

It is not that I wish to speed ahead to those days but that I sometimes find if I can project imagines of the future for myself then it changes how I feel about today’s reality. It is as if by looking ahead I can already look back at today with a knowing smile and think, “Oh yes this time will pass. It was often hard but it will pass on to other times that are sometimes hard too but in different ways.” And this perspective is comforting before my head comes back down to the present moment.

Sometimes the present moment can be pretty good. Yesterday afternoon Imogen and I “ran the bakery” while Rhys slept. We made these delicious bread sticks, and while they proofed, graham crackers. Both recipes are from Alana of Eating from the Ground Up and can be found in her book Homemade Pantry. I have had this book out of the library for about 5 months now. I guess it is time to get my own copy.

As usual I’ve changed the recipe a bit – omitted the sugar, switched to whole wheat flour and used a wild yeast starter rather than dry yeast (though I have made them with dry yeast before). This version was excellent. Packed with favor – crunchy and chewy at the same time. My kids both loved them.

Breadsticks
110g water
142g whole wheat flour
40g rye or wholewheat wild yeast starter
3/4 tsp salt
1 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp basil

The night before, mix the flour and water until combined. Cover and let sit.
In the morning add the rest of the ingredients and kneed well. Cover and let rise in a warm place for at least 6 hours.
Kneed the dough into a ball then cut into 8 wedges. Roll each wedge into a long stick. Place on a baking tray and leave for 30 minutes to proof.
Preheat oven to 350F and bake for approximately 25 minutes. If you want them really crunchy go longer. Ours were crunchy outside and chewy inside.

Spritz Cookies for Christmas

Outside our new house the blue sky expands over my head and the sun shines on bare tree branches. Beyond the pine trees I can just make out the Salmon Falls River. Inside I snuggle my sleeping son in the warmth of our wood stove while my daughter is at pre-K down the road. This afternoon we will stroll down to our local library – a sunny kids’ section in a church that has newly been remodeled into a library – where we spend many hours coloring, playing, reading, talking to new friends. After that we might go to one of the shops on Main Street. (The new fabric store is exciting for Imogen.) Or maybe we will meet friends at the park, even in the cold. We are likely to run into at least one person we know on every outing: one of the unexpected benefits of living in a small town. We will come home to toast and art projects while Rhys naps.
These details of our new life in Maine make me happy.

There are, of course, plenty of struggles over sharing: both toys and attention. And upsets over spills and “ruined” projects. We talk about Winchester and Gretchen the green bus. And I miss the cathedral and the river walk. But my days here and full of kids, friends, trees, geese heading south and the long low whistle of Amtrak trains. I missed Maine. I am glad to be home.

And so for a taste of home I made these spritz cookies. Buttery, sweet and very light, they disappear fast. As it is Christmas I have made these sweeter than I might have otherwise. They have turned out so good I don’t think anyone would notice the lack of refined sugar or the whole wheat flour.

Spritz Cookies
Adapted from the Joy of Baking

225g unsalted butter (2 sticks will be close enough this amount)
100g honey
2 eggs yolks
1&1/2 tsp vanilla extract
260g whole wheat flour (Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour works well).
1/4 tsp salt

Leave butter out to soften for several hours. By hand or with beaters cream butter till fluffy. Add honey and beat well. Add egg yolks and vanilla and beat well. Mix in flour and salt with a wooden spoon.

Scoop into a spritz cookie machine and press onto the baking tray according to your machine’s instructions.

Bake at 350F / 180C for 8-10 minutes depending on the shape,* until the edges are golden brown. Remove to racks and cool. They will firm up as the cool.

*Shapes that are very delicate have not held together for me – so skip ones with holes in the middle. Christmas trees or snow flakes are good.

Polenta Cake

Just because this cake never comes cleanly out of the bundt pan, does not mean I don’t make it. In fact, until last night I suspected that the cakes refusal to come out of the bundt pan was more due to operator error than anything else. You see, my toddler always seems to need me just when the cake is ready, so it always falls to my husband to de-pan the cake and, being British, he has little experience with bundt pans. So secretly I thought it was the technique. But last night I was the de-panner and the results were the same, well much worse actually. (Perhaps he has learned a thing or two about bundt pans after all!) This cake is too crumbly for the flop out of the pan onto the rack. It breaks and crumbs go everywhere.

The crumbs are in the freezer waiting to be turned into bread pudding one night: a treat for my husband and toddler (I haven’t even considered trying to make bread pudding dairy free). But the rest of the chunks of cake are happily in the cake tin. A cake this moist and tasty won’t go to waste. No matter what it looks like.

What I love about this cake is that it does not rely on fruit or grated vegetables to make it taste good. It uses almonds, polenta, oil and honey and that is all that is required for a moist, lightly sweet, crumbly, satisfying cake.

Update: Since writing this post I have perfected this cake. The secret is mini loaf tins, baked until very browned. The cake comes out perfect every time. I’ve changed the directions below to reflect this.

Polenta Cake
adapted from Breakfast, Lunch, and Tea: the many little meals of the Rose Bakery

225g ground almonds
110g polenta
50g corn flour (not starch, also called maize flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 scant C light olive oil
1/2 C honey
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs

Rule
Preheat the oven to 175C.
In a large bowl whisk together the almonds, corn flour, and polenta. In a small bowl whisk together the eggs, honey, oil, and vanilla. Add the wet to the dry and stir until well combined. The batter will be very thick. Divide evenly into 3 well greased mini-loaf pans – they will be about half full each. Turn the oven down to 170C and bake for 13 minutes. Then rotate the pans and bake for 13-15 minutes until they are very browned and spring back to the touch with no soggy, swishy sound. Cool in the pans for 5 minutes then remove and cool on a rack.