Graham Crackers with Teff Flour

Graham Crackers with Teff Flour

Adapted from Blue Heron Kitchen

If you’re interested in exploring and working with flours and grains that take you beyond the all-purpose white or whole wheat arena, I recommend you get a copy of Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce. It’s a fantastic resource.

Teff flour is known, primarily in Ethiopian cuisine to make injera, a flat, spongy bread that's served with just about all Ethiopian food. It offers twice as much iron as wheat and it’s loaded with calcium too. It’s another one of those miracle grains like Quinoa that people outside of “civilized culture” have been eating for centuries. We’re just getting it.

Don’t know where to find Teff flour? Bob’s Red Mill is a great resource. If you don’t live  near a market that carries this line, buy it online, directly from the company.  In this recipe, I also use and recommend Bob’s Red Mill’s whole wheat graham flour (organic or not organic, your preference.)

Gluten 101: This isn’t my first recipe for graham crackers. The original one I published calls for the addition of spelt flour. Graham, spelt and teff flours have in common that they’re all low in gluten. Gluten is the protein that binds stuff together, like bread. The more you mix or beat a batter or a dough, the more gluten you’re creating. When you roll out a pie crust and it shrinks back to the center, saying “NO!”, it’s because you’ve worked it too hard and there’s all this gluten activity. (You should put it back into the fridge and let it relax for a while before rolling it again.) Lower gluten flours produce a softer or product. Nobody likes a tough cookie. Not enough gluten, and your cookie crumbles.

You can play around with the spices (I did). I used a mild ‘golden blossom’ flavor honey, and as always, if you can get your hands on it, European style butter (83% butterfat). Brer Rabbit brand molasses is unsulphered and it isn’t blackstrap. The recipe calls for (“not blackstrap”). Blackstrap may be too dominant a flavor. If you only have blackstrap molasses, or are committed to it for its nutritional powerhouse value, use it and you could lighten up a little on some of the spice profile (or not). I’m on the fence about cloves in this recipe. In certain products, cloves are akin to wearing red lipstick. You decide. Cloves are personal.

Don’t forget to score and ‘dock’ the crackers. “Docking” means using the tines of a fork to prick tiny holes in each cookie. This keeps them from rising when they bake. You can be exact or random. Docking is tedious relaxing!

You won’t need anything but measuring devices, a whisk, a couple of bowls and a rolling pin and you. An electric mixer isn’t necessary, but using one will put this together faster than you can say, “Walmart screws women and Mexicans!”

peace and love,

jane

Grahams

With Teff Flour

Adapted from Kim Boyce’s Good to the Grain by Blue Heron Kitchen

Ingredients:

Dry Mix:

1 c. graham flour

½ c. teff flour

¾ c. all-purpose, unbleached flour

½ c. dark brown sugar (be certain that it’s moist and fresh – no lumps!)

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. kosher salt

¼ tsp. ground cinnamon

¼ tsp. ground allspice

1/8 tsp. ground cloves (opt.)

Wet Mix:

3 oz. (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly (Plugra, Cabots, Kate’s, Kerrygold are all great choices.)

¼ cup honey

1 Tbsp. unsulphured (not blackstrap) molasses

1/3 c. whole milk

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract (I recommend Baldwin’s)

Topping (optional):

¼ c. sugar

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

Procedure:

1.            In a medium to large sized bowl, whisk together the flours, salt, baking powder and spices. Then, whisk in the (fresh and lump-free) brown sugar. Set aside.

2.            Over low heat, melt the butter and set aside

3.            (Truc: For an easy pour, coat the inside of your measuring cup with tasteless oil or soft/melted butter.)

4.            Measure out the honey and add the molasses.

5.            Pour milk, honey and molasses into a smaller bowl. Add lukewarm butter and whisk together. Add vanilla extract.

6.            Pour wet mixture over dry and mix together, using a wooden spoon and then your hands.

7.            Flatten into two discs and wrap in plastic wrap.

8.            Refrigerate for several hours, overnight, or up to three days.

9.            Baking: Preheat oven to 350º F. and line several baking sheets with parchment paper (or butter them).

10.         Dust the work surface with flour and roll the chilled dough out to 1/8” thickness. Using a pastry wheel, fluted or non-fluted, a sharp knife, or you can use cookie cutters to make cute shapes, cut rectangles, whatever size you fancy your graham crackers. You can cut them out completely or cut out strips and leave some partially ‘scored’ and break them apart after they’re baked. It’s fun to do this.

11.         Dock them with the tines of a fork and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

12.         Transfer to the prepared baking sheet.

13.         Bake for approximately about 15 minutes, until the edges are darker than the rest    of the cracker, rotating the sheets half way through the bake, top to bottom and front to back. 

14.         Remove from sheets and cool on rack.

15.         If you don’t polish them all off with some cold milk, these are the bookends for the ultimate s’mores.  Use homemade plain or flavored (Grand Marnier!) marshmallows (click here for the recipe!) Choose a black tie chocolate bar like Lindt, Godiva or Valhrona or even Hershey's dark, and you've got  S’Mosts.  

16.         Unless you live in a humid climate or are at sea (and provided you’ve baked them thoroughly), these will keep for a week in an airtight container. They may be packed well and frozen.

Marshmallows!

Marshmallows

Adapted from Ina Garten by Blue Heron Kitchen

Over the past several weeks, I’ve been fooling around with marshmallows. With determination, I’ve soaked gelatin sheets, separated eggs, substituted Agar for my religious and vegetarian friends, added booze to some and broke the bank, opting out of Betty Crocker red dye #4 for vegetable based food dyes to tint my sugar pillows.

Marshmallow 101: etymology: Marshmallow plants’ mucilaginous roots were used medicinally ( and presumably sweetened), in concoctions to help cure sore throats.  

In a casual marshmallow discussion with a passionate and talented baker, my colleague Rhonda asked if I was working with Ina Garten’s recipe. I’d been going nuts experimenting with both David Lebovitz’s and Nancy Silverton’s recipes, finally merging the best of both. David’s and Nancy’s recipes used raw egg whites and I wasn’t thrilled. Rhonda’s suggestion came just as I was about to pop open a bag of Campfires.

Ina’s marshmallows were perfection. And they’re fun. (Thanks, Rhonda!)

These are neither vegetarian nor vegan. Gelatin is a pork by-product. By replacing gelatin with agar (a seaweed extract), you’re good to flow. Go to a health food store, a kosher market or a good market, like Fairway (where I bought mine). If you can’t find it, go the Amazon route.

Here’s the poop: High fructose corn syrup, sugar and gelatin don't cure sore throats and they aren’t good for you. In defense of marshmallows, six ingredients that have the alchemic power to evoke childhood, complement hot or melted chocolate and bring joy and delight to anyone who simply looks, holds or tastes at one, should be labeled at food group.

Ina Garten is a world. I don’t turn to her recipes, but maybe I should.

If you have a candy thermometer (a digital one is a good choice) and an electric stand mixer, you’re in business.

Homemade marshmallows will make your hot chocolate worth the disgusting schmutz you just threw out your back shoveling. Slip some fancy chocolate and a few of these fluffy pillows between some graham crackers you’ve baked (see either of my recipes, updated or from July, 2012). Out with S’mores, in with S’mosts.

Plain are perfect. Use excellent quality vanilla extract. I’m a huge fan of Baldwin’s. It’s a small, family run business in Massachusetts. Theirs is a unique and rich vanilla, made in West Stockbridge, for generations. You can order it online and you’ll find it up there at their old-fashioned store and in local supermarkets.

I played around and added Grand Marnier (you could substitute Triple Sec), a little orange oil and some vegetable based food coloring to make pale orange adult marshmallows. You can use any liquor! Try Grand Marnier, Kahlua, Amaretto or Peppermint Schnapps marshmallows in your hot chocolate!

You’ll be surprised at how simple they are. Try making them with your kids! Keep the

boozed-up marshmallows out of their reach! Be creative with color, flavor and shape.

Above all, have fun!

jane

Marshmallows

Yield: 20-40 marshmallows, more or less, size is your call

Tools: Stand Mixer, fitted with wire Whisk, Candy thermometer

Ingredients:

3 packages unflavored gelatin/24g sheet gelatin

½ c. cold water (more if using sheet gelatin)

1 ½ c. granulated sugar

1 c. light corn syrup

¼ tsp. kosher salt

1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract

Confectioner’s sugar for dusting

Optional: food coloring (India Tree makes plant based, natural dyes), ‘other’ extract, orange, lime or lemon oil (use VERY sparingly), booze.

Procedure:

Using a sifter or a fine strainer, prepare an 8 x 12-inch/ 20 x 30-cm non-metal baking dish by
dusting it generously with confectioner’s sugar. Set aside.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, cover powdered gelatin with
½ c. cold water, making sure to cover all with water. If using sheet gelatin, soak the gelatin in
a separate bowl, in cold water. You will throw it into the stand mixer’s bowl and add 2 Tbsp.
of the water to the soaked sheets.

Using a small saucepan, pour in corn syrup, sugar and salt. Cook together on medium heat
until the sugar dissolves.

Using the candy thermometer, turn heat to med/high and cook the syrup to soft ball stage,
240º F/116 C, remove from heat.

With mixer on low speed, SLOWLY pour the syrup into the dissolved gelatin.

Turn mixer to high and whip until mixture is very thick, approximately 15 minutes! (If you’re
adding coloring, wait.)

If you’re adding coloring, after about 10 minutes, reduce speed enough to drop in coloring
until you’ve reached desired tint. Return mixer to high.

After five more minutes, add extract or other flavoring. If you’re using booze, start at a Tbsp.
and then continue, to taste or combine with some vanilla. For my Grand Marnier
marshmallows, I used about 5 teaspoons of liquor.

Pour the marshmallow mixture into the prepared pan, smooth the top and sift more
confectioner’s sugar over the top.

Plain

Grand Marnier

Allow to stand, uncovered, until they dry out. Overnight is best. I was able to cut and toss
mine in confectioner’s sugar after eight hours.

Turn them out onto a board and cut into squares (or desired shapes).

Toss them in a bowl with more confectioners sugar and then, using a sieve, shake them
vigorously to remove any excess.

Candy Cane Kisses

Candy Cane Kisses

From Masala Farm by Suvir Saran, with gratitude to Suvir,
adapted by Blue Heron Kitchen

For Nancy

This recipe will make you look forward every year to the arrival of fresh candy canes in the market. I’ve tried substituting those “starlight mints”, the ones you get in bags at the pharmacy, but they're not as good. Candy Canes are a seasonal food choice.

Here’s a truc: Leave them in their wrappers and pound them with a heavy skillet. Snip them open. Ta-da!

I found Ghirardelli mini chips. They're inexpensive and they worked well. Of course, you can upgrade to higher end chocolate and chop it into small bits.

Meringues are child’s play if you’re careful meticulous when separating eggs. If any yolk gets into the white, make an omelet. If there's any trace of fat in the bowl you're using, on the wire whip or whisk or even on the dishtowel that you’ve used to wiped your mixing bowl, both you and your whites will weep.

Suvir Saran is a gifted chef, cookbook author and teacher, and several years ago, I had some great fun with him, socializing, traveling and eating. If you’re the tiniest bit interested about Indian cooking, buy his books. Even if you’re not interested in Indian cooking, buy this one, Masala Farm, which is a “farm to table” mélange of recipes that he and his partner, Charlie and collaborator, Raquel, published in 2011. Nominated for a James Beard Award, this gorgeous book is one you should consider owning. It’s Kindle-ready too!

These are fantastic, beautiful; and be advised, they're addictive. In a clear cellophane bag, tied with a ribbon or bakery twine, these make a great homemade gift!

Here are a couple of today’s, ready for their close-ups:

More recipes soon: 

Marshmallows! 

Updated graham crackers made with teff flour!

(just add a chocolate bar and what's that spell?) 

care, live well, work for peace (and gun control) and cook,

jane

Ingredients:

4 egg whites, size large, at room temperature (they whip up better at room temperature)

¼ tsp. cream of tartar

1/8 tsp. kosher salt

1 ½ c./300 g granulated sugar

3 Tbsp. crushed candy canes (8-9 minis)

8 oz./225 g semisweet mini chocolate chips (Ghirardelli or better, please)

            or fine quality chocolate, finely chopped

1 tsp. vanilla extract (I use Baldwins)

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 240º F/120º C

Line three baking sheets with parchment. (If you don’t have three sheets, you must let the sheet cool before you use it again. If it's not your summer now, try putting it outside, or use it to prop open the window for five minutes.)

Using a Kitchen Aid or electric mixer fitted with the wire whip, or a hand mixer, beat the whites until foamy.

Add salt and cream of tartar and beat on medium speed until soft peaks form.

While the mixer is running, add the sugar, one tablespoon at a time. (Be patient and be careful. Today, the spoon hit the whisk and my reaction including some words I'm not printing.) You can crank it up to medium/high and beat the meringue until stiff, glossy peaks are formed.

Remove the bowl and fold in the remaining ingredients (crushed candy canes, chocolate and vanilla) using a rubber spatula.

Form dollops of meringue using a tablespoon or a small scoop (I used a small scoop and when it stopped releasing, I rinsed it with cold water.) Here, uniformity is cool.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, transferring sheets half way through the bake top to bottom, front to back. When the meringues are slightly cracked on the top, they’re ready to be fully cooled on wire racks.

These can be stored in airtight containers for about a week; and I've had success freezing them!

Yield: with the small cookie scoop, about 7 dozen. With a tablespoon, about 5 dozen.