Mushroom Black and White Barley Vegetable Soup

Mushroom, Black and White Barley, Vegetable Soup

Blue Heron Kitchen

This soup feeds a crowd (It yields about 4-5 quarts of soup), but here’s the good news:  if you’re cooking for yourself, it’s going to work for you. Portion it, freeze it, and when you come home after a long day and it’s been dark outside since, like 3:00 and all you can think of is another bowl of yogurt or cereal or a can of minestrone for dinner, you can eat dinner not from a can or a box.  Heating this up is fast, healthful and lends itself to variations. Throw in some whole wheat pasta or some cooked beans.  Cut up some cooked chicken sausage or add some meat, like turkey, chicken or pork. Grate some Parmesan cheese over it.  It’s fat-free, fiber-rich and like most of the soups I’ve been making, it has lots of kale.  I love kale.                                                  

I'm a stock cheater.  I use the organic soup bases called Better Than Bouillon. It’s a product from Canada that you can buy at places like Fairway markets, Whole Foods and other ‘better’ markets.  You can also order it on Amazon.  It tends to be somewhat sodium-packed.  So, you needn’t worry about adding salt to your soup.  I use less of this base than the label calls for.  I like to taste the vegetables. For this soup, I used the organic beef base.  But, you can use the organic vegetable base if you’re a vegetarian.  They used to make an organic mushroom base that was out of this world, but they stopped making it because I was probably the only person who bought it.  Of course, you can use your own stock.  But I didn’t feel like starting with beef bones and all that.  This is an alternative to Health Valley canned soup, not a suggested soup course for your annual “Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé!” party.

I bought black barley at Fairway.  You can probably find it at a good health food store.  It’s available at Amazon.  If you can’t find it, use regular barley.  Try Bob’s Red Mill unhulled barley.  It has more fiber. 

Equipment: A large stockpot,

Time: At least four hours for cooking

Ingredients:

3 Quarts filtered water

3 Tbsp. Better Than Bouillon Organic Beef Bouillon

¼ cup black barley

¼ cup white pearl barley, Bob’s Red Mill sells both hulled and unhulled

4 cups sliced, mixed variety fresh mushrooms

2 stalks organic celery, diced

3 organic carrots, peeled and diced

1 medium onion, diced

1 bunch of kale, chopped fine

2 small organic Yukon Gold (or other variety that aren't for baking) potatoes

1 14.5 oz. can salt free organic diced tomatoes (I used Whole Foods’ 365 brand)

Chopped, fresh parsley to taste

A few sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only

Freshly ground good quality peppercorns

Procedure:

Bring water to boil and add bouillon base

Rinse barley(s) and add to boiling stock and immediately reduce to a simmer

Add all other ingredients and when soup comes to a boil, turn heat to low, cover and cook for several hours, until barley is cooked through. (The hull-less barley won’t be as soft as the hulled or 'pearl' variety.)

You may need to add some more water as it cooks.

Have some fun and throw in other vegetables you may have laying around… cauliflower, peas, parsnips, turnips, and kohlrabi.  (I don’t ever have kohlrabi around, but I like the way it looks and how it's spelled.)

Add freshly ground pepper to taste.  If you feel you need salt, go ahead, but have your blood pressure checked soon.

Peace, love and button up your overcoats,

Jane 

Pumpkin Bread 2010

As economic recovery stalls, largely due to fear and opposition to change and the pitfalls of how government can really ruin our lives, my new mantra is "use it up". I have too much.

These aren't, as my last husband used to say, the 'salad days'. But don't poo-poo the low-cost joy and healing power of fooling around with gourds.

peace and love,
jane

Pumpkin Bread

Blue Heron Kitchen

Don't let fall leave without pumpkin bread.   

This year’s updated Pumpkin Bread, like last year’s, doesn't leave that oily residue on your fingers because it has no oil. It's better that way because it uses a little butter.  And what I like about this most is that it doesn’t have that generic clove-heavy, “autumn spice” blend that guarantees to any other ingredient you might otherwise taste. It’s not cloyingly sweet; and the subtler spicing and ‘rougher’ texture renders a true quick bread.  This bread ain't no loaf.

Feel free to play around with combinations of nuts and dried fruit.  This year, I opted for dried Monterey cherries, and I added a smidge of orange oil.

I’ve used both home-cooked organic pumpkin as well as canned pumpkin. Either is great. Today, I used Whole Foods’ “365” brand. 

Never cut corners on butter. Give it the sniff test to make sure it’s fresh. You be the judge.  Here’s how I decide whether to use it or lose it: I ask myself (probably aloud): would I make plain butter cookies with this butter?  Try to find 83% fat European style butter.  Plugra (made by Hotel Bar) and Cabot’s are two American-made brands that are excellent.  If you only buy American, Land-o-Lakes is the best. Fairway markets carry the domestic 83% butters (and they’re less expensive than Land-o-Lakes, go figure).

Ingredients:

1 ¾ c. (15 oz. can) cooked pumpkin, fresh or canned

1 c. dark or light (or a combination of) brown sugars, firmly packed (what’s critical is that it’s fresh and moist)

½ c. granulated white sugar

4 oz. (1/2 cup or 1 stick) unsalted butter (European style is best), room temperature

3 eggs, size large, room temperature

2 ¼ c. unbleached all-purpose flour

2 ¼ c. whole wheat pastry flour (Bob’s Red Mill is a great choice and it’s available at Fairway Markets, online and through Amazon)

2 Tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. ground cardamom (freshly ground is best)

½ tsp. ground nutmeg (freshly ground is best)

¾ tsp. kosher salt

1 ½ c. walnuts, toasted, cooled and chopped

½ c. dried Monterey (or other) cherries, chopped and sprinkled with 1/8 tsp. orange oil (available through King Arthur Flour and through Amazon). Or, you can soak them in a tsp. of Grand Marnier or Cointreau.

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350º F. 

Butter or spray pans with release: two medium loaf pans, several smaller loaf pans of the same capacity, or a even smaller molds (you’ll work it out) If using paper molds, (great for gift giving/impressing friends and pretending you’re a professional baker.) you don’t need to do anything but set them on a flat cookie sheet.

In a large bowl, measure flours, baking powder, spices and salt and mix thoroughly with a whisk. Set aside.

Prepare nuts and dried fruit and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugars.  When light and fluffy, add eggs and mix until blended well.  Add pumpkin (it will look curdled). Add dry ingredients, all at once. Don’t over-mix (interesting historical note: from this common but easily avoidable baker's boo-boo, the colloquialism, “tough pumpkins”). 

Remove from the mixer and using a spatula, fold in nuts and dried fruit until just incorporated.

Gently spoon (really ‘drop’) batter into prepared pans. Be sure there is batter in the corners.  But don’t press, push, flatten or mess around with this batter.  Think of plopping it, like cobbler batter, into the pans and ‘working it’ as little as possible.  This isn’t a fine-crumbed quick-bread.  It’s has more of a ‘spoon bread’ personality.  It’s a coarser crumb and more toothsome, (but it won’t be ‘dry’ if you don’t over-mix or over-anything the batter).

Bake until a metal tester comes out clean and dry. Be careful not to over-bake these loaves, or you’ll yell I should just stop this and stick to teaching Für Elise because you almost choked to death. As soon as they spring back and don’t feel ‘wet’ in the middle, they’re ‘done’. And depending on the size of the forms you use, they’ll bake for anywhere from 15 minutes (mini-muffins, anyone?) to ¾ of an hour! Your molds, your oven, your judgment. (Keep a thermometer in it until you’ve made friends.)

Remove from oven and let cool 10 minutes before turning the breads out of their pans.  (If you use paper molds, there is no need to release them.) When completely cooled, wrap well.

Like you, these grow more fabulous with age. Try to let them rest overnight.

Wrapped well, these will keep for a week or two.  I’ll be freezing mine until our annual Faux Thanksgiving this December.

Pumpkin Bread 2010

Digestive or "Wheatmeal" Biscuits

Alternative Healthcare

(A recipe for  when healthcare reform is reversed.)

While snooping around for an authentic recipe for digestive biscuits, I learned how they got their curious name. Sometimes referred to as Wheatmeal Biscuits, these date back to the mid-19^th century and they’re probably from England. It was believed that the baking soda would fend off stomach acid as well as flatulence. Also, the fiber in the whole wheat flour and oatmeal would encourage regularity. My feeling is any cookie that has this quantity of butter isn’t screaming ‘fit for life!’ Wheat is one of the more difficult grains to digest. And, finally, be honest, have you ever farted and followed up with, “Time for a biscuit!”

I like these cookies because they’re delicious. They aren’t very sweet, they pair well with fruit, cheese, nut butters and/or jam and they’re great plain (my preference).   You should bake them regularly often. You can prepare them up to the ‘cut-out’ stage; lay them on a cookie sheet on wax paper or parchment (this way, you can layer them), freeze them, and then seal them in freezer bags.  Bake them directly from the freezer, adding a few minutes to baking time.

You can get all the grains for these biscuits in the “Bob’s Red Mill Aisle” at Fairway.  Or you can purchase these products online at Bob’s own site, or through Amazon. Buy organic when you can.  Once you begin using these products, you may not stop.  The quality is unsurpassed, and the price point is remarkably good. Buy the big bags of stuff.  Go to Bob’s site and register for sale notification. (Then pounce.)

For fun, purchase a small set of round fluted cutters. I bought mine at Sur la Table, but you can get them from Amazon - easy.

My recipe is adapted from an oat biscuit recipe from Nancy Silverton’s great book, Pastries from the La Brea Bakery. 

I liked the original recipe, but nobody else did, so these curatives were born.  

And now that we have them, we can worry less about health care reform being killed as the republicans dip into deep corporate pockets to buy back the house.

Peace, love and good health always,

jane

Digestive Biscuits

Blue Heron Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup, minus 4 tsp. whole wheat flour

½ cup graham flour

2 cups old-fashioned steel cut oats

1 ½ tsp. baking soda

1 ½ tsp. kosher salt

½ cup fresh and moist light brown sugar, packed (generous, if you want a sweeter biscuit)

8 oz. unsalted European style (83% butterfat) butter, cut into 1” cubes and chilled,

            frozen (If you can’t find Cabot, Plugra or President, use Land-o-Lakes)

½ cup plus 2 Tbsp. low fat buttermilk (additional may be needed to make dough biscuit come together)
1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract (optional), added to buttermilk

Procedure:

In the bowl of a food processor, fitted with a steel blade, combine all dry ingredients, pulsing to incorporate. 

Add the frozen butter and pulse until the mixture is a fairly fine meal. 

Transfer to a large bowl and make a well in the center.  Pour in the buttermilk and with your hands, rotating the bowl, mix the dry ingredients into the center, tossing and rotating until incorporated.  (This is where you may need to add a little more buttermilk, a very small amount at a time, until you feel the dough will come together when turned out to be kneaded together.)

Turn out onto a large surface that is dusted with some whole wheat flour and knead JUST until the dough comes together. Too much kneading will make a tough cookie.


You can immediately roll out the dough and begin baking, but if the butter has become too soft, you should: 

Separate into two and flatten to two large discs. Wrap well in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm – at least an hour, but longer is preferred.  You can chill the dough overnight.

Preheat oven to 350º F. 

On a lightly floured, large surface, roll a manageable sized piece of dough, 1/8 inch thick.  Cut the biscuits with a 2 ¼” (smaller or larger) fluted (plain if you don’t have fluted) round cutter (or even easier, a juice glass works well). Place close together on parchment lined cookie sheets.

Bake for 12-18 minutes, depending on thickness and your oven, until lightly browned.

Yield: varies upon size of biscuit cutter and how many you scarf down before counting.

hummus bi tahini the way it haute to bi

This has been a distracting period, and I've shared fewer recipes and trucs.

For my cyberfriends who actually read (and try some of) these recipes, my knives were recently sharpened at Chelsea Market by Samurai Sharpening and I'm excited about sharing more and wringing my hands less.

This is an updated and GREATLY IMPROVED recipe.  And an added perc is that it's easier than the original. If you've made the original recipe, try it this way. You'll hate me for pushing the "publish" button the first time.

If you haven't unsubscribed or flagged Blue Heron Kitchen as spam, I hope this one will absolve me. (IMHO, this one is worth checking the expiration date on your Beano.) I humbly offer:

Hummus Bi Tahini the Way it Haute to Bi

Once you've soaked and cooked beans, you'll hate canned beans and save them for the next food drive. Your beans won't be mushy, and the liquid won't look like it's a potential breeding ground for West Nile Virus.  

My friend, Bernadette, whose brainchild is the Long Beach, NY's Farmer's Market, is an expert about things green and healthful She advised me to cook beans in Kombu (seaweed).

You can buy Kombu at your health food store or at better markets, like Fairway or Whole Foods.  You can purchase Kombu online. It has all kinds of health benefits, none of which I really know about.  I use it because it's supposed to minimize the discomfort and shame of gas.

If you can, buy organic beans. Soak the beans overnight, drain them and then throw in a five inch strip of Kombu and cook them according to the directions on the bag. When the beans are cooked, the Kombu will be all slimy and viscous.  Some people actually keep it, eat it, or use it for soup. Frankly, I think it's unappetizing and that it tastes like rubber, so I chuck compost it.

I like my hummus rough.  This recipe is for a more 'toothsome' product.  If you like yours creamy, just use the steel blade of your food processor and whip the daylights out of it.  See if I care.

Without a food processor, you'll need a food mill. It's a great kitchen tool that you'll use when you make tomato or applesauce.  It separates skin from the pulp, and your sauces won't come out like baby food.  You can also make great baby food with a food mill. I have an ancient one made in France by Mouli that one day my kids will bat it out over.

Buy organic ingredients whenever possible. They are better for several reasons.  A primary one is because they taste better. (You may disagree, but like it or not, when your taste buds have grown accustomed to ingredients with numbers attached to their name, mother nature is on vacation and your taste buds have been tampered with.)

Once you've soaked and cooked the chick peas, this is quick and easy.  When it's finished, so that the flavors can meld, let it sit in the fridge overnight (or at least several hours).  It can be made oil free (there is, however, oil and fat in the tahini).  You can also opt to add some oil upon serving.

Some suggestions: drizzle olive oil, flavored or 'hot oils' before serving, sprinkle with Hungarian sweet or Spanish smoked paprika, squirt on or mix in some Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce,  available at any Asian grocery store or on Amazon.
Add Harissa, grate in some fresh horseradish, or roasted and puréed red pepper, chopped olives, toasted pignoli nuts, oregano, toasted and ground cumin, chopped parsley, chopped cilantro, a swirl of pesto base, or popcorn (checking if you were paying attention).

Add your own serving suggestion in the "comment" suggestion!

What's great about this is that you're in the saddle.  So, hitch up your camel, start soaking your beans and have a gas!

Hummus bi Tahini

"Master Recipe"

Blue Heron Kitchen

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked chick peas, liquid discarded (cook your own - it's worth it)

1 small clove fresh garlic chopped, or passed through a garlic press 
                 (more to taste if you're a garlic freak)

4 Tbsp. tahini (more or less to taste)


1-2 Tbsp. excellent quality extra-virgin olive oil (you can omit this, but the flavor will
                be less 'rounded')

Juice from 3 large lemons (more to taste if you're a lemon head)

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste*

Procedure:

Using the grater disc of your food processor, pass the chick peas and garlic down and transfer to a medium sized mixing bowl.  Be careful to scrape everything into the bowl.

Add remaining ingredients (except salt and pepper) to the bowl, and using a potato masher, mash to desired consistency, adjusting quantities to taste.

Add salt and pepper, to taste (*Kitchen Truc: If you're salt-restricted, the addition of lemon juice is an excellent alternative.)

Refrigerate several hours or overnight.

Serve with fresh pita, pita chips (brush pita with olive oil, sprinkle with coarse salt and herbs, toast and cut into wedges), raw vegetables, on a sandwich with lettuce and tomato and other vegetables, or add herbs, olive oil and lemon juice and make a salad dressing. 

Yield: 1 1/2 pints 

peace,

jane

Top of the Form

Time to sharpen your pencils and shine your shoes!

Drive carefully, School's Open.

peace, love and pork,

jane

Honey Cake

Honey Cake

Adapted from Joan Nathan by Blue Heron Kitchen

Joan Nathan owes her life to celebrity chef, Tom Colicchio, who, at a star chef event, performed the Heimlich maneuver on her when she began choking on a chicken bone. 

Everyone says they hate honey cake.  That’s because they’ve never tasted this one. After baking and tasting this honey cake, like Joan, you too will be inscribed in the book of life.

Thanks to my friend Pnina, who is both a fabulous baker and a registered dietician, I’ve gotten into the habit of replacing part of my unbleached white flour for either whole wheat pastry flour, or straight up whole wheat flour. Use Bob's Red Mill flours.  They're available online, through Amazon or at better markets everywhere. 

For these honey cakes, Golden Blossom Honey is queen.  The orange blossom-ness is perfect.  It has been around forever and it's reliable, available and consistent.  I use it for graham crackers too.  Save the Manuka for health and well-being and the Tupelo for pay day and Van Morrison.

I use freshly ground coffee beans and throw in a shot of espresso. And King Arthur Flour’s, fiori di sicilia, an extract/flavoring of vanilla and citrus oil, adds an enticing “voos up mit dat?” 

These cakes rise to the heavens, so whatever loaf pans you use (I use the paper ones), fill them no more than between a half and two thirds up.

Last, you don’t have to be Jewish to make/love/honey/cake.  

Peace, love and L’shana Tova,

jane 

Ingredients:

1 cup freshly brewed strong coffee

1 ¾ cup honey

½ tsp fiori de sicilia (or flavoring of choice … 1 tsp. vanilla will work)

4 eggs, size large, room temperature

4 Tbsp. canola oil

1 ¼ cups dark brown sugar (make sure it’s very fresh and moist)

2 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. ground cloves

1/8 tsp. ground mace

¼ tsp. ground nutmeg (freshly ground makes all the difference)

½ tsp. ground ginger

1 cup chopped toasted walnuts

Procedure:

Coat the inside of your liquid measuring cup with some canola oil and measure out honey (it will pour out easily).

In a 2-qt. saucepan, combine the coffee and honey and bring to a soft boil.  Remove from heat and cool.  Stir in fiori de sicilia/flavoring. 

While liquid is cooling measure out all dry ingredients into a large bowl and with a wire whisk, mix them together well.

Preheat oven to 300º F. If you are using conventional loaf pans, grease and flour two 9 x 5 loaf pans.  Or, use paper molds (no need to prepare these).  Or use any combination of loaf pans you have available.  Cupcake molds will work, but I'm sick of cupcakes.

In the bowl of a Kitchen Aid or other electric mixer, beat the eggs, oil and sugar.

Stir the flour mixture and cooled honey mixture alternately (Truc: always end with the dry).

Pour batter into prepared (or unprepared paper) pans and bake for 60-70 minutes (in the large loaf pans) or less in smaller loaf pans, or until the cakes are springy to the touch. Wrap them up after they've cooled.

Ahead of time self-control warning:

So that the spices and honey have a chance to develop a spicy and complex relationship, DO NOT SERVE FOR 24 hours.  

Olive didn't wait and look what happened to her.

Sesame Seed Cookies

Þ  

Sesame Seed Cookies

From Desserts by Nancy Silverton, Adapted by Blue Heron Kitchen

Olive is continuing to bring me lots of unconditional love as well as a good

reason to try out new recipes. My most recent lunch included these cookies

as part of our dessert.  My mother, whose baking gene was passed on to me,

went nuts for these sesame seed gems and requested the recipe.  So, this

one’s for you, Mom.  (Olive loves her toy - thanks again!)  

This cookie is all about butter and seeds. You’ll also need sesame oil.  Unless

you’re catering a wedding with these cookies, or you’re making cold noodles

with sesame oil twice a week, buy a small bottle.  It ‘turns’ quickly. Store it in the

fridge or in a cool place.

Buy ‘brown’ or unhulled sesame seeds. Unless you’re using them right away,

store them (and all seeds and nuts) in your freezer.  Don’t buy a ‘jar’ of them at

the supermarket. In the NYC region, Patel Brothers is the place to go.  You can

shop online, get discounts up to 10% if you spend in excess of $50, and online,

7 oz. of brown sesame seeds, currently costs $2.99, and 14 oz., $4.99.  (Click

on either link, and, like, Shut up and Shop.)

These are slice and bake beauties, which stay in the freezer until you need

them.  You’re the boss.

By the way, Nancy Silverton

is a genius, and any cookbook of hers is worth all the sesame

oil in China.

Ingredients:

8 oz. unsalted butter, room temperature, not mushy (European style 83% butterfat is best)

2 Tbsp. Oriental sesame oil

½ c. granulated sugar

1 egg yolk

2 cups, minus 2 Tbsp. unbleached all-purpose flour

¾ cup unhulled (brown) sesame seeds

Procedure:

Þ   In the bowl of a Kitchen Aid or electric standing mixer, beat the butter

and sesame oil until fluffy and light in color.  It should hold soft peaks.

Þ   Beat in sugar and egg yolk, scraping down sides, as needed. (If you’ve

listened to me, you’ve already bought your beater blade,

and this task has enabled you to practice doing The Tighten Up while

your beater blade is doing all the work.)

Þ   Add flour and sesame seeds, mixing only until combined.

Þ  Wrap dough in plastic and chill for 30 minutes, until dough is firm

enough to handle.

Þ   Divide dough into three or four sections, and keeping the remaining in

the fridge, roll each into a log, by first flattening and then carefully folding

and being sure not to leave ‘air’ in the roll.  Each roll should be about 1

1/2” in diameter.  Due to the high content of butter in this batter, you have

to work quickly.  If the dough is getting sticky and annoying, you can put it

back in the fridge and work with a cold portion until that one cools down

and behaves.  You can also run your hands under cold water.  This batter

doesn’t respond to the ‘warm hands, warm heart’ theory.

Þ   Place roll on a sheet of plastic wrap with at least 4” of length on either

side of each end.  Carefully roll up and then pick up the roll and ‘twirl’ it,

one way, holding the ends of the plastic wrap, to make a tight little

‘sausage’ roll.

Frozen pre-sliced roll

Place on a flat surface in freezer. (If this doesn't exist in yours, as it rarely exists

in my horrible freezer, place on cookie sheet first.)

Þ   When frozen, you can store in a freezer bag until you're ready to slice and

bake.

Baking the Cookies (already):

Preheat oven to 325º F., oven rack in center of your oven, and line cookie sheet(s) with Silpat or parchment paper.

Using a sharp knife, (this is an inexpensive and great alternative to and electric knife sharpener that the smart knife man at Broadway Panhandler turned me on to.)

slice cookies that are slighter thinner than 1/2” and place rounds on cookie sheet.  You can ‘repair’ any crumbled off pieces by just patching them back on.  Remember, this cookie is SO high in butter content that it’s difficult to work with.  IT’S NOT YOU.

Bake 12-15 minutes, until lightly browned.  For the cookies to melt in your mouth, they must be cooked through.

Cool on racks before storing in tins between layers of wax paper.

Full recipe yields approximately 6-7 dozen


peace, love and sesame (not BP) oil,
jane

Graham Crackers

One theme for this summer seems has been "labor intensive and worth it".
In celebration of my new bundle of unconditional love, I've been working on recipes that incorporate the ingredient, olive oil.

Olive

Since her arrival, we've been having lots of visitors, so I've been cleaning entertaining more than usual. I'll have lots of great olive oil recipes to share in the coming weeks.  She's been an inspiration and tons of fun. Olive is labor intensive and worth it, and these graham crackers follow in her 10 week old pawprints.

No olive oil in these - only butter. (She's teething, regressing some in her toilet training, and can go up but not down stairs, so butter is akin to revenge calling the babysitter and taking the night off.)


Just like my pup, these cookies are labor intensive and worth it.

Bob's Red Mill's whole wheat graham flour is the ticket.
Most graham cracker recipes call for plain old whole wheat flour.  But this flour uses hard red wheat, and I think this product renders these Grahams as Martha's and not Billy's. (But, if you simply can't get this great stuff in time to start rolling, substitute a good quality whole wheat flour, preferably stone ground. (It's a texture thing.)

If you don't buy Bob's Red Mill stuff locally, you can through Amazon, or go directly to their site.

Graham Crackers

Adapted from Marion Cunningham’s The Fannie Farmer Baking Book

By Blue Heron Kitchen

Graham Crackers
Blue Heron Kitchen

Not all projects are worth the labor.  A few that come to mind are children (or pets) if you have them, homemade puff pastry, and these crackers.  

You’ll need to buy graham flour.  Bob’s Red Mill is a great resource for this (and a ton of other flours, ground nuts, grains, cereals – go to their site and see for yourself).  You’ll also need a fluted pastry cutter.  

I bought mine at Broadway Panhandler.  But you can get the one I bought there online. 

Your dark brown sugar has to be soft and fresh, and I like Golden Blossom Honey, no kidding.

Ingredients:

4 oz. unsalted butter, softened

2 eggs, size large, room temperature
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

¾ cup dark brown sugar, very fresh and moist, tightly packed

8 Tbsp. (or, if you want to use a measuring cup, 2 ½ oz., liquid or 100 ml.) honey

1 tsp baking soda

4 tsp. water

1 tsp. kosher salt

3 c. graham flour

1 ½ c. unbleached all-purpose flour [Play around and use 1 c. all purpose and 
   1/2 c. spelt flour. More nutrients and less gluten for a softer product.]

Procedure:

Þ   Preheat oven to 350º F., Line several cookie sheets with parchment paper.  You’re gonna have lots of cookies.

Þ   In a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk together the two flours and the salt.  Set aside.

Þ   Cream butter and sugar in the bowl of a Kitchen Aid, fitted with your Metro Design Beater Blade (or another type of stand mixer), until well combined.  Add the eggs and beat until batter is lighter, smooth and creamy. Add vanilla extract.

Þ   Add honey and blend. 

Þ   Dissolve the baking soda in water and add to the batter.  (Don’t be concerned if it looks separated or curdled.)

Þ   Dump in the combined dry ingredients and blend completely.  The dough will come together. 

Þ   Dust a clean, flat surface with graham flour and roll a manageable hunk of dough into a rectangle, about 1/8" thick.  

Þ   Using your fluted pastry cutter, cut into 2 or 2 1/2 “ squares.

Þ   Prick each square 3 or 4 times with the tines of a fork and with a spatula,

carefully transfer the separated crackers to the lined cookie sheets. (They don't spread much, but leave an inch between them.)

Þ   Bake for about 8 minutes and (Here’s more to do, if you’re not already cursing and muttering why hadn’t you bought those small batch, handmade, artisinal graham crackers at Whole Foods.) remove sheet from the oven and turn the crackers over.  Return them to the oven to bake for another 6-8 minutes, or until they’re nicely brown and baked through.

Þ   Remove from oven and cool on racks.

Þ    When completely cooled, store in airtight tins, lined with wax paper. (I ♥ wax paper)

Yields 5-6 dozen crackers (Plus a baker's dozen dolphins*)

Serving suggestion:  Go out and buy those small batch artisinal marshmallows at Whole Foods (or just a bag of Campfire, which is what I’d do), Get yourself some top shelf chocolate bars. (I love Valrhona.) 

S’mores.  

Or call them Artisinal S’mores. 

Or S’mosts.

In the words of the immortal Satchmo,

S'all

peace, and love,

jane and olive