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

   

Happy Birthday, Pops

Born on the Fourth of July.

Carrot Salad with Mango and Cumin

Carrot Salad with Mango and Cumin

Blue Heron Kitchen

Locally grown carrots are available at the farmer’s market. Buy them.  Buy small ones and don’t bother peeling them; just wash them.  They taste like carrots.  

Several zestless lemons have been waiting for me in my fridge. 

When life gives me lemons, I bake Buttery Lemony Möhn Kichel (the next fabulous cookie in my hopeful debut cookbook, "365 Ways to Bake Möhn Kichel"), or I make this great salad, which uses 1/3 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice. 

Be patriotic and buy organic lemons. 

And, on Independence Day Eve, consider this: 

Let’s become independently healthy .. not just in our diets, but politically too. 

This gorgeous, fat-free salad is loaded with vitamin A for America!

Ingredients:

4 cups of grated carrots

¼ cup currants

1 small or ½ large mango, diced

1/3 c. freshly squeezed lemon juice, strained

½ tsp. toasted ground cumin (see directions below for toasting and grinding)

1 Tbsp. Agave syrup (you may use Lyle’s Golden syrup or a mild honey)

¼ c. chopped fresh herbs, one or mixed, your choice:

                                                  parsley, pineapple sage, cilantro, dill

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Procedure:

To make toasted cumin: in a small cast iron skillet, heat whole cumin seeds, being careful not to scorch them, until toasted and aromatic.  Cool slightly and grind in a spice grinder (I have a coffee grinder that I use solely for spice grinding.) Store in a glass jar. You will be astonished at the difference between your ground cumin and ordinary ground cumin you buy commercially. 

Grate carrots into a medium sized bowl.

Add currants, and mango and toss.

In a small bowl, whisk the lemon juice, toasted ground cumin and Agave syrup and pour over carrot mixture.  Toss.

Add chopped herbs and salt and pepper to taste.

Refrigerate for several hours or overnight before serving.

Serves 4-8 (In my house, 2)

     

The Best Plain Cake

The Best Plain Cake

or

French Yogurt/Almond Cake

Adapted from Baking by Dorie Greenspan by Blue Heron Kitchen

Baking shortcakes for the Fourth of July is always on the a-list, but I don’t have heavy cream in my fridge these days.  I always have Total Fage Greek Yogurt. Don’t let anyone convince you that Trader Joe’s own brand is ‘just as good’.  It doesn’t come close.

This is one of those cakes that ‘every’ French homemaker/baker has in their arsenal, and thanks to Dorie Greenspan’s brilliant recipe, it’s now in mine and I’m sharing it with you. 

When wrapped well, these cakes will keep for (in a cool room) for several days, up to a week in the fridge, and for a month or two in the freezer.  Dorie's recipe calls for a marmalade glaze, but I’m keeping this simple.  If you want to get fancy, you can make a simple jam glaze by heating up marmalade (lemon) and a little sugar, until liquid, straining it and then glazing the loaves when they’re cooled. Adorn or n’adorn.  

This is the best goddamn plain cake in the world, and you can make it by hand.

Berries are a natural complement.  Sorbet, sherbet, ice cream, crème fraiche, whipped cream. Bosco.  You name it.  Instead of all ‘flavorless oil’, I opted for ¼ toasted almond oil.  La Tourangelle, a French sounding company, but actually based in California, makes a reasonably priced product that has a round, warm flavor.  (The picture and link is on the left, but I found a can of it at Home Goods for eight bucks.) You can use this in other baked products. Or, try it in pesto!  Bob’s Red Mill’s almond meal/flour is my brand of choice. You can buy it at Fairway or online at their website. French almond flour is gorgeous and much more refined, and it’s easy to find in the supermarkets in France, but not ici.  You can play around with this and use other nut flours/oils/extracts; and if you’re adverse to nuts, just substitute flour (try some whole wheat flour instead of the nut flour.)

Happy 4th, 14th, whatev. You’re going to love this recipe and make it all year round.

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ cup ground almonds (or, whole wheat flour or just more all-purpose flour)

2 tsp. baking powder (I use Rumford – no aluminum)

¼ tsp. kosher salt

1 cup granulated sugar

Grated zest of a lemon (use organic if you can)

½ cup 2% Total Fage Greek Yogurt

3 eggs, size large, room temperature

½ tsp. vanilla extract

2 Tbsp. toasted almond oil

¼ c. + 2 Tbsp. flavorless vegetable oil (If you omit almond oil: ½ cup flavorless oil)

Procedure:

Center rack in oven and preheat to 350º F.  Butter and flour, or spray release and flour medium sized loaf pan (8 ½-x-4 ½ inch) or smaller loaf molds. (If using paper molds, which are great for ‘giving’, freezing, and looking like you know what you’re doing, you don’t have to grease them.) You can also bake this in a round cake pan and then turn it into a filled layer cake!

In a medium bowl measure the sugar.  Using your Microplane Zester, being careful to not include the bitter pith (the white stuff) of the lemon, zest the rind and with your fingers or a fork or a small whisk, incorporate the rind into the sugar.  Set aside and the oils of the zest will get into the sugar and make it smell really great.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour/almond meal, baking powder and salt.

You can use the whisk attachment of your Kitchen Aid, or by hand, a human whisk. Start with the sugar, add the yogurt, eggs and extract and whisk vigorously until well blended.  Still whisking, add the dry ingredients, making sure to whisk until the batter is no longer lumpy.  Stop the machine and remove the bowl, or if doing this manually, switch to a rubber spatula.  Fold in the oil.  The batter should be smooth, shiny and thick.

Fill prepared pan(s) and bake, depending upon size of pan, anywhere from 30-50 minutes.  Cake is done when top is golden, it springs to the touch and a tester (or sharp knife) inserted in the middle comes out clean. 

Transfer to a rack and cool for 5-10 minutes.  If the cake doesn’t easily release, run a knife between the cake and sides of pan.  Unmold and cool to room temperature before wrapping.

peace, love, and get out of Afghanistan

jane