Zucchini Madness III: Bacon-Feta Summer Squash Muffins and Spicy, Honey-Sweet Zucchini Bread

The race to keep up with the squash plants continues, and this afternoon my kitchen was positively aflame while the toddler napped and the newborn nestled against my chest in the sling. The result: more savory muffins, this time with the unexpected combination of feta and bacon, and secondly a dark, spicy zucchini bread with natural sugar sources and whole grain flours.

Bacon-Feta Summer Squash Muffins

makes 12 muffins

1/2 C olive oil

1 C plain yogurt

2 eggs

1 green onion, minced

3 strips bacon, cook until crisp and crumbled

4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled

3 C grated summer squash

1 1/2 C whole wheat flour

1 C barley flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp Greek seasoning (or a mix of garlic, oregano, mint, fennel)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together oil, yogurt and eggs. Stir in bacon, feta and squash. Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then add to wet. Stir until just combined. Fill twelve muffing cups completely full.

   

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

 

Spicy, Honey-Sweet Zucchini Bread

Makes one large loaf

1/2 C oil

1 C honey

1/2 C maple syrup

1/2 C milk

2 eggs

3 C grated zucchini

1 1/2 C whole wheat flour

1 C barley flour

1 C brown rice flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 Tbs ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp cardamom

Whisk together oil, honey, syrup, milk and eggs. Stir in zucchini. Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then add to wet. Stir until just combined. Pour into a well-greased 9-in loaf pan.

 

Bake for 50-55 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Savory Summer Squash Muffins

makes 12 muffins

 

The garden—and in particular the squash plants—is running amok. I’ve already got three bags of frozen shredded zucchini waiting to emerge on a winter day in need of a little sunshine. And now the summer squash is starting to overwhelm me, and I am kind of sick of sweet quick breads (blasphemy!). Enter the savory muffin! I have great plans to experiment on this technique, especially since my friend Lisa recently shared with me that she’s been making muffins on the BBQ (!!). But for round one, I made a fairly basic incarnation of the savory muffin.

1/2 C oil (olive or canola)

1 C milk + 1 Tbs lemon juice (mixed together and left to curdle 5 minutes—or if you have real buttermilk, even better!)

2 eggs

2-3 C shredded summer squash

1/4 C minced chives or green onion

1 C whole wheat flour

3/4 C all-purpose flour

1/2 C barley flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp dried dill

1 tsp Parisian bonnes herbes

1/2 – 1 C shredded cheese (I used cheddar jack)

Whisk together oil, milk + lemon juice and eggs, then stir in squash and chive/onion. In a separate bowl whisk together dry ingredients (including spices). Add dry ingredients to wet, stirring until just combined. Gently incorporate shredded cheese. Preheat oven to 350. Fill muffin cups close to full. Bake 18-20 minutes, or until muffin tops spring back when touched.

Sliced in half, toasted, with some scrambled egg and ham…about the most satisfying breakfast I can think of.

Spinach and Beet Greens Quiche

Serves 8

Quiche is one of my favorite speedy meals, also great for freezer dinners and for using up wilty veg. The latter was my motivation this time—loads of spinach and beet greens were about to go to waste until I girded my loins and put two quiches together. Needless to say, one is in the freezer for after the tiny bundle arrives. My favorite all-time quiche recipe is from Mark Bittman—it’s supremely indulgent, no-fail, and very rich. I don’t use it every time—in fact that’s what I like about quiche. You can mix a few eggs, some form of milk (skim, whole, half and half, whatever), and some cheese, and it will always turn out delicious. But if you’re aiming to impress, I recommend following this one.

Crust:

1 1/2 C flour (whole grain flours work well)

1 C cold butter cut into chunks

1/2 tsp salt

4-6 Tbs ice water

Filling:

1 onion, chopped

1 bunch spinach, washed, rinsed and chopped

1 bunch beet greens, washed, rinsed and chopped

6 eggs

2 C grated Swiss cheese (Jarlsburg, Emmenthal, Gruyere are all good choices)

2 C milk or half and half

1/2 tsp salt

Combine flour, butter and salt in your food processor and process until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Slowly add ice water while processing until dough comes together in a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill one hour (I admit, I NEVER do this, but I’m sure it makes for an extra flaky and delicious crust). Preheat oven to 425. Roll the dough out to fit a 9-in pie pan or a 10-in tart pan (again, I’m such a lazy bastard, I always just press the dough in with my fingers, which makes for an ugly, ugly crust, but whose homemade aesthetic touches my heartstrings). Prick crust with a fork and bake for 15 minutes (lots of people cover it with foil and weigh it with beans…I find that this particular crust doesn’t really need that step).

In the meantime sauté the onion until translucent, then add greens. Sauté until they begin to wilt and onion begins to caramelize. Spread greens in your hot crust, like so:

Reduce the oven temperature to 325. Whisk together eggs, milk, cheese and salt (optional: a dash of nutmeg), and pour over vegetables. Note: this is not in Bittman’s recipe, but this time I added loads of fresh parsley, and it was delightful. Bake for 30-40 minutes until the quiche is set, but still moist. It’s ok if it still jiggles a little in the middle.

 

Serve warm or cold, with a smile.

Cornmeal popovers

Makes 10-12

We had these with our tofu scramble the other night…mmmmm.

1 cup milk

2 medium eggs

2/3 cup flour

1/3 cup cornmeal

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

The instructions say to do these in a muffin tin, but I opted for the toaster oven and soufflé cups, and made them a lot bigger than you would in a muffin tin. You get to choose. Preheat your oven to 450°. Oil or grease a muffin tin or soufflé cups. Put the pan/cups into the oven to preheat while you prepare the batter.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the milk and eggs. Add the flour, cornmeal, sugar and salt. Beat very well, making a nice thick, smooth batter. Take the hot muffin tins out of the oven and distribute the batter evenly among the hot oiled cups. Return the pan to the oven and cook for 15 minutes. The tops will start to puff up at this point. Turn the oven down to 350° and cook for 15 to 20 minutes longer. Let popovers cool for a few minutes before removing from muffin tin or soufflé cups. Very tasty with a little honey.

Whipped Cream Streusel Coffee Cake with Apples

Serves 6

No, not whipping cream or whip cream, but whipped cream. After the mother’s day family dinner last night I found myself with about 2 cups of leftover whipped cream from the pavlovas…so I invented this coffee cake recipe to deal with the excess, since we’re not the kind of people that eat many things a la mode. Did any other mothers make their own mother’s day breakfast this morning? I don’t mind. To me mother’s day is having time to do some of the things I love, hence a morning of cake baking. And this turned out to be delicious—the whole wheat flour gives it extra nuttiness, while the brown sugar imparts caramel overtones.

Cake

2 eggs

1/4 C white sugar

1/4 C brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 C whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 C white flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 C whipped heavy cream (mine was sweetened ever so slightly)

3 small apples, cored, peeled, thinly sliced

Streusel

4 Tbs butter

1/4 C brown sugar

6 Tbl walnuts or pecans

2 Tbl flour

2 Tbs cinnamon

Prepare apples and set aside.

Combine streusel ingredients in the food processor and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

For the cake: Beat eggs until fluffy and pale yellow. Add sugar and vanilla and beat another 2-3 minutes. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Alternately add dry ingredients and whipped cream, beating well after each addition.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-in round cake pan.

Spread half of the cake batter in the pan, top with apples and half of streusel. Spread remaining batter over apples, top with remaining streusel.

Bake for 30 minutes, until cake is golden and apples are soft.

Leftover Cereal Muffins

Makes 12 muffins
 
I don’t know if other families face this problem, but Chris is a cereal eater--a particularly nocturnal cereal eater, I might add. But being forced to more or less be a lone ranger when it comes to finishing a box (I have different cereal tastes, and sometimes prefer other things for breakfast), he often leaves a few in the pantry with just a half cup or so, and they sit there for weeks, stalled out, in cereal limbo. So today I decided to clean up the loitering flavors and make them into some healthy muffins.
2 C leftover cereal (today’s mix included granola with raisins, some kind of banana clusters and Product 19)
2 C milk or soymilk
1/4 C olive oil
2 eggs
1/3 C honey
1 banana, mashed
2 small apples, cored and grated
1 1/2 C flour (I mixed whole wheat, barley and rice in equal parts)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Pour the milk over the cereal in a large bowl and let it sit for an hour or so. The cereal will absorb the milk and get nice and soft. Next stir in the oil, eggs, honey, banana and apple:

Add the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Fill your muffin cups to the brim, and bake for 16-19 minutes, or until muffins spring back when toughed lightly.

Best Banana Bread, Truly…

makes 1 9-in loaf

I imagine most people have or have encountered a banana bread recipe that they believe to be the alpha-banana bread, the referent from which all banana-y signifiers spring, and this is mine. I was reminded of it, actually, when Mark Bittman (that name again!) reposted the recipe on his New York Times blog recently, a testament to its greatness, I suppose. As always I tweek it a little to diversify the flours, but like most recipes for standards such as this, it’s a great template for your imagination. According to Bittman, the coconut is the key.

1 C butter, softened

1 1/2 C white flour + 1/2 C whole wheat flour (I combined whole wheat, barley and rice, as I usually do)

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 C sugar (I used brown sugar)

2 eggs

3 ripe bananas

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 C grated coconut (Bittman recommends unsweetened, but I only ever have sweetened on hand and haven’t found that it’s too much)

1/2 C chopped nuts, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pulse bananas in the food processor until coarsely chopped.

Cream the butter and the sugar until fluffy, beat in the eggs and vanilla (I do this in my food processor too). Stir in eggs, then dry ingredients: flour, salt, baking soda, until just combined.

Allow little toddlers in dinosaur pajamas to taste the batter.

Pour batter into a greased 9-in loaf pan. Bake for 40-50 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out fairly clean. 

Homemade Granola

Makes 8-12 servings

 

Oh, man, what a great day. The boys have gone to the park, leaving me in a quiet house, there’s a cup of herbal tea cooling next to me, the kamut is on the stove (first try, I’ll keep you all posted), our little family is growing (#2 kicking in-utero as I type), and the sky is that sentimental shade of grey that inspires the imagination and effaces regret. It’s a day when creation feels right: just spent a load of money on things to grow and improve our vegetable garden, but since I won’t be tasting any of those fruits for a few months still I need the immediate satisfaction of a kitchen concoction instead. Spurred on by a big package of raw pumpkin   seeds that I acquired recently, I set out to try some homemade granola. This took me about 3 minutes to put together, and the only attention it needed was being stirred every 10 minutes or so during the cooking time.

One day later: what a perfect Sunday breakfast this made today with a little fruit and yogurt. I love that it’s not too sweet.

2 1/2 C rolled oats

1 C sliced almonds

1/2 C pumpkin seeds

1/2 C wheat germ

1/2 C flaxseed meal

1/2 C shredded coconut

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 C olive oil

1/4 C maple syrup

1/2 C pineapple juice

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Spread on a cookie sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 40 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon every ten.

Let it cool completely on the cookie sheet (it will crisp up during this time) before transferring it to a tupperware for storage.

Best Pregnancy Breakfast 7: Banana-Almond Shake

 

This has been a favorite this week at the Gray house, and a friend just asked for the recipe, so here it is:

2 frozen peeled bananas, in chunks

1 1/2 C milk or soymilk

2.5 oz almonds (mine were sliced; I imagine whatever would work, but sliced makes an easier job for your blender)

1-2 Tbs maple syrup

a few drops almond extract

Place the almonds and the milk in the blender on high and let them blend for 3-4 minutes, until the almonds are completely pulverized. Add the bananas, maple syrup and almond extract and blend until smooth.

Whole Grain Zucchini Bread

 

My whole grain zucchini bread, pictured here with a gentle smear of cream cheese and a lazy drizzle of maple syrup, represents the fruits of a most propitious discovery: while rooting around in the freezer the other day looking for who-knows-what, I found two whole bags of shredded zucchini from last summer’s garden. And so, helping them to fulfill the measure of their creation (which I’d apparently wiped from my mind), I used one of them last night to concoct a whole grain recipe that is full of goodness. You always know a recipe is a success when Chris repeatedly, in between meals, slices the product, pours milk over it, and eats it with a spoon.

2 C grated zucchini

1/2 C olive oil

1/3 C honey

1/3 C real maple syrup

1/2 C thick plain yogurt (or 1/2 C silken tofu + 1 tsp vinegar or lemon juice for dairy-free version)

2 eggs

1 C whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 C brown rice flour

1/3 C barley flour

1/3 C oat flour (grind oats in your blender or food processor)

1/4 C wheat germ

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 Tbs cinnamon

optional: 1/2 – 3/4 C walnut pieces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together oil, syrup, honey, yogurt and eggs. (If using tofu, puree first, and add lemon juice/vinegar along with other ingredients.) Stir in zucchini. In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to wet, stirring until just combined. Add walnuts if desired. Ok, this is where things get sketch. Since I just made this recipe up as I went along, following my instincts, I wasn’t sure if I had too much batter for a single pan, or how that whole scene was going to play out in the oven. To be safe, then, I split the batter into two 9-inch loaf pans. I baked them for 30 minutes, and they were perfect, but made loaves that were only about 2-inches tall. If you’re worried about portion control maybe this is the best choice for you. But in retrospect, I think it all could have fit into one 9-in pan…but you’d have to bake it for, gee, I dunno, 40-50 minutes, I would guess. You’ll have to figure that out on your own. I think two 7-in loaf pans would also work well. Anyway, some experimentation to be undertaken still with this particular recipe, if anyone has nothing to do in the next few weeks.

Irish Soda Bread

I get into phases of baking Irish Soda Bread whenever I see buttermilk on sale at the store. The first time I’m sure I consulted a recipe, but afterwards I just tossed things together each time, tweeking this and that (especially with my whole grain obsession), making, apparently, blasphemous variations on the real thing. Or at least this is what I learned when I discovered the The Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread. With St. Patrick’s Day coming up, I thought I should go back to the source and make something more or less authentic, and I discovered that:

“If your "soda bread" has raisins, it's not ‘soda bread! ‘ It's called ‘Spotted Dog’ or ‘Railway Cake!’  If it contains raisins, eggs, baking powder, sugar or shortening, it's called ‘cake,’ not ‘bread.’  All are tasty, but not traditional Irish Soda Bread! (…)  If one searches the internet using the term ‘Traditional Irish Soda Bread’ about 63,500 sites are listed. 98% of them aren't even close to being traditional.  Google ‘Irish Soda Bread’ and you will find 126,000 sites. Would ‘French Bread’ (15th century) still be ‘French Bread’ if whiskey, raisins, or other random ingredients were added to the mix?  Would Jewish Matzo (unleavened bread) used to remember the passage of the Israelites out of Egypt still be Matzo if we add raisins, butter, sugar, eggs, and even orange zest?   So why is traditional ‘Irish Soda Bread’ (19th century) turned into a dessert and labeled ‘Traditional Irish Soda Bread?’”

If you’ve been wandering through the wilderness of life for decades looking for a cause, the preservation of Irish Soda Breads seems to be a good one. Or, if you’re like me, enjoy the traditional one day and the hybrid fruits of modernity and blessed invention another day. Today I went somewhere in between, because when I'm riffin' on 'Traditional Irish Soda Bread' I DO DO DO add sweetner and raisins; dear Irish, I hope you'll absolve me. So, I used the recipe from the above society for Brown Irish Soda Bread, but I added some butter (which they allow “if you must deviate”) and some sweetener. Is it less of a travesty if I’m actually part Irish (a very, very, very small part)?

3 C whole wheat pastry flour

1 C white flour

2 Tbs butter

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

2 Tbs brown sugar

1 3/4 C buttermilk

2 Tbs molasses

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease and flour a small corning ware dish or a cake pan. If you have a food processor, combine the flours, butter, salt, baking soda and sugar and blend until mixture resembles fine crumbs. If not, use your fingers to blend the butter into the flour, then add the other ingredients. Add the buttermilk and molasses until a thick, sticky dough is formed.

Form the dough into a ball and turn into the greased pan/dish, and score the top with a knife.

Cover with the corning ware lid, or with another cake pan, and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for 5-10 minutes more. Let cool in the pan 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack, and let cool 20-30 more before cutting. Here’s my slice at breakfast this morning, toasted and spilling o’er with butter and honey. No one has said yet how much of an adulteration that is, but it’s freaking good.

Best Pregnancy Breakfast 6: The Blue-Green Shake

makes 2 medium-sized servings

I know what you’re thinking: that’s not blue-green at all. In fact it looks just like all the other shakes I make with blueberries. I was surprised, actually, that a shake with a cup of fresh spinach in it didn’t have more of a green tinge. But maybe that’s a positive thing, because it will convince you even further that a breakfast shake with spinach will offend neither your taste buds nor your aesthetic sensibilities. Truth be told: you really can’t taste it at all.

1 C thick plain yogurt (you can’t beat my recipe!)

2 Tbs real maple syrup

1/2 C soymilk (vanilla soymilk would be especially good)

1 banana, peeled and broken into chunks

1 overflowing C frozen blueberries

1 generous cup fresh (preferably organic) baby spinach

Look at this beautiful, stratified portrait of health! Hit the button and blend it all up!

Spinach Mushroom Strata

serves 6-8

 

Whenever I have leftover heels of bread that no one wants, or inedible slices that sat too long and are no longer even toastable, strata is my first thought. Strata is a savory bread pudding that is wildly flexible in its ingredients—whatever flavors, meats and vegetables you are craving, you can put them in a strata (though I don’t recommend putting broccoli in a breakfast strata—that didn’t go over very well, even with me). The basic premise is that you break your stale, leftover bread into cubes, cook up some meats and vegetables, make an egg-milk-cheese mixture, then toss it all together and bake it. Many people love stratas (strati?) because they are great make-ahead foods: assemble it the night before, bake it in the morning. Though the bread is able to soak the juices up better overnight, I don’t find that omitting this step does any harm to the native deliciousness of the dish. So try the recipe below, and next time choose your own meats, vegetables and cheeses. And when you’re craving a sweet bread pudding, go here.

1 (16 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, squeeze of all excess liquid

1 large onion, chopped

1 package sliced mushrooms

3 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

8 C cubed French or Italian bread in 1-inch cubes (I use whole wheat because that’s all we ever eat at home)

2 C grated gruyère or jarlsburg cheese

1 C grated parmesan cheese

1 3/4 C milk

1 C half and half

8 large eggs

Sauté onion in butter in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat until soft, about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook (I like to cover it) until mushrooms release their juices (6-8 minutes)  Stir in spinach, remove from heat and set aside.

While this is cooling, whisk eggs, milk, salt, pepper and nutmeg together in a large bowl. Spread one third of the bread cubes in a well-buttered 9x13 pan or other ceramic baking dish. Top with one-third of one-third of spinach mixture and one-third of each cheese. Repeat layering twice with remaining bread, spinach and cheese. Pour the egg-milk mixture evenly over strata. Or you can just mix it all up in the stinkin’ bowl like I did (and always do):

But then, technically, we can’t call it strata (“layers” in Italian). This would be the time to cover it and stick it in the fridge if you’re planning on baking it the next day. If so, let it stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before baking. If not, preheat the oven to 350°F and bake strata, uncovered, in middle of oven until puffed, golden brown, and cooked through, 40 to 50 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

 

Homemade Yogurt (…sigh of ecstasy)

 

I haven’t made any yogurt for awhile, and now, sitting with this luscious bowl in front of me, savoring the thick, silken, creamy goodness on my tongue, I’m cursing my own name and saying, “What was I thinking!” It’s incomparable. It’s not that I’ve been buying store bought yogurt instead—which is too sweet, too runny, and too full of mysterious starches and gelatins for me—it’s that I’ve been missing out on this glorious staff of life that brims over with healthful bacteria and is as close to paradisiacal as earth foods come. And it’s SO damn easy to make. Here’s how you do it:

Simmer 8 cups (1/2 gallon) of (ideally whole, ideally organic) milk on your stove top with your cooking thermometer inserted. When it reaches 180 degrees, turn off the heat and let it cool until it reaches about 115 degrees. Remove about a half cup of milk and mix it with three tablespoons of plain yogurt (I bought stoneyfield farms greek yogurt—doesn’t matter, just make sure it has live cultures). Return this mixture to the pot, stir it all together, and pour it into your receptacle: I used an old milk jug that I’d washed well. Some people like to use jars or a thermos. Just make sure it’s clean. Put said receptacle inside a cooler and pack towels around it tightly. Here’s my set-up.

Now leave this undisturbed for 5-7 hours, or longer if you like your yogurt very tangy.It’s completely brilliant when you open up your receptacle and discover…yogurt!

Since I’m obsessed with really thick yogurt, I always strain mine. Line a strainer with cheesecloth or a clean kitchen towel, and set it over a bowl in the fridge (my strainer doesn’t have much of a foot so I elevated it in the bowl with some mason jar rings—this is important because your yogurt will probably bleed about 1 1/2 cups liquid, and you want it to be able to drain properly, as opposed to sitting in a lake of whey). I put some wax paper over the top to keep out any floating bits of whatever.

   

About three hours later I was able to spoon this miraculous, creamy goodness into a container, later to be enjoyed with fruits, granola, in shakes, or just in giant, lovely globs on a spoon…

Update, March 15: I've now made three batches of this yogurt in the past two weeks, and have found that putting the warm milk either in mason jars or in old 32 oz yogurt containers works better than the milk jug, which, because it was big and had a lot of air in it, caused the yogurt to cool faster and therefore grow fewer cultures and end up less tangy. I've also been adding more like 4-5 Tbs of yogurt for the starter, to increase the tang factor. Additionally: I've used 1 1/2% percent organic milk for the last two batches, and it's ALMOST as satisfying as whole milk. I know lots of people out there will only want to indulge in whole milk yogurt every once in awhile, so I wanted to make sure that a lower fat yogurt would pass the test. And it did! I always strain it, as I've said, and it makes 32 oz. of creamy lusciousness--it's just not QUITE as creamy.

Mango Lassi

Yes, in truth, it’s basically a fruit shake, but it’s so wonderfully exotic; it really transcends the genre. If you don’t have rosewater or cardamom it won’t be the end of the world…but it will be just a fruit shake, as opposed to a flavor-teleportation to a distant land that you’ve only ever dreamed of.

Flesh of two ripe mangoes (put them in the fridge beforehand so they’re good and cold)

1 C tart plain yogurt

1/2 C milk or buttermilk

1 tsp rosewater

a pinch of cardamom

a few ice cubes

1-3 Tbs sugar

My mother-in-law gave me this groovy mango slicer, and it’s changed my mango life—everyone knows that the biggest pain with mangoes is trying to get the stubborn flesh off that accursed pit.

 

Blend all ingredients, except sugar, until smooth. At this point you decide how sweet you want your lassi—add sugar by tablespoons until you’re content. Light some incense, turn on a little Ravi Shankar, and enjoy.

Poppy Seed Kolaches

 

What are kolaches? And where did I get this crazy idea? They’re a traditional Czech pastry, and no, I’m no Czech, nor do I know any Czechs. It’s just that since I made that borscht I’ve been on kind of an Eastern/Central European cuisine kick, looking up all sorts of recipes and dreaming of what to try. Somewhere in there I saw the word kolache and it sent me back to a blissful night and morning that I once spent in Houston, Texas. The father of the friend we were staying with came home that morning with several large boxes full of steaming kolaches, and I’ve had them on the brain every since. I’m pretty sure they were from the Kolache Factory, which has taken the Czech pastry to new heights and new levels of culinary debauchery, by stuffing it with eggs, jalapenos, ranch dressing, etc. You have to decide for yourself where you stand on this kind of adulteration of ethnic specialties. I thought they were delicious, but when I got it in my mind to make a first foray into kolache production, I decided to start as authentically as possible, with the traditional golden pastry with a glob of filling dropped into an indentation in the dough. Note: this recipe included a crumb topping, which I skipped, as well as a variety of other possible fillings, such as apricot, prune, cream cheese, etc. If you’d like to see the details of said variations, you can consult the original here: http://www.recipezaar.com/Sweet-Kolache-Recipe-39387

Also: Below is the full recipe, but I cut it in half and it made 24 kolaches. They are very delicious this morning halved, toasted, with a little butter…

Dough

3 packages active dry yeast

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon sugar

1 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

3 egg yolks

2 3/4 cups milk (scald and cool to lukewarm)

7 1/4 cups flour

3 teaspoons salt

Poppyseed Filling

1 1/2 cups poppy seeds

1 cup sugar

2 cups milk

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon flour

Make the filling first: combine poppyseeds, sugar and milk, and cook over medium heat until mixture begins to thicken. Add butter, then flour which has been dissolved in a little bit of water. Cook, stirring constantly until thick-ish, about30 minutes. Allow to cool before use. (These are the original directions: I used the butter and flour to make a roux instead, then added milk, sugar, poppyseeds.)

To Make Dough And assemble Kolaches: Dissolve yeast in the 1/2 cup warm water in a tall glass, sprinkle with 1 teaspoon sugar and set aside to proof. In a large bowl, cream sugar and butter, add egg yolks and salt and mix well. Add the dissolved yeast, 1 cup of the flour and mix slowly with an electric mixer. Add the milk and continue adding as much of the remaining flour as you can mix in with a wooden spoon. Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately soft dough. (I found the dough to be very soft even after I’d added all the flour—in Colorado you do NOT add extra flour! I found my dough scraper to be immensely helpful in the kneading process to mediate the stickiness). Continue kneading until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place dough in a greased bowl, turn once to grease surface.

Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Punch dough down and turn out onto lightly floured surface. Pinch off egg size portions and roll into a ball using the palm of your hands in circular motion. Place about 1 inch apart on greased pans. Brush kolaches with melted butter, cover with a cloth and let rise until light, about 1 hour.

Use your fingers to make an indentation in each ball and fill each opening with about 1 tablespoon of filling and let rise again for 20 minutes. Bake in a preheated 425ºF oven for about 10 minutes. Brush kolaches with melted butter as they come out of the oven (I skipped this, cause it seemed like I’d used a lot of butter already…but I’m sure it would have increased the tastiness factor by…at least 10).

Supermoist Whole Grain Banana Breakfast Muffins

I like weekend breakfasts to be a little bit special, with a little something out of the ordinary; no cereal allowed--unless it’s some awesome and nostalgic kind that we can’t normally afford to buy, like Cracklin’ Oat Bran, that suddenly went on sale for under $4 a box. When I decided on muffins this morning I of course got out my bags of whole wheat, barley, and rice flour, because I always use them in baking. They make the lightest, yummiest treats. And since I’ve been experimenting with using silken tofu in place of eggs for a friend whose son has allergies, I’ve decided that I should always replace an egg or two, as the tofu makes for a smooth texture and adds variety to the protein sources in our diet. End result: sweet, soft, springy, delicious, banana-full goodness, with the slightest hint of coconut and sunny overtones of honey.

3 medium bananas

1/3 C canola oil

1/2 C coconut milk

1/2 C honey

5 oz. silken tofu

1/2 C milk or soymilk

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 Tbs brown sugar

1 C whole wheat pastry flour

1 C barley flour

1/2 C brown rice flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbs wheat germ

Peel bananas and place in food processor; pulse until cut into small chunks. Transfer bananas to a large mixing bowl.

Pour oil, coconut milk, honey and tofu to food processor and process until smooth. I just can’t express how much I love my food processor; I use it at least once almost everyday.

Add milk, egg, vanilla and brown sugar, and process again until well mixed. Pour mixture into mixing bowl with bananas. In a separate bowl whisk the dry ingredients together, then add them to the wet ingredients, stirring gently until just combined. Do not over mix. Spoon batter into greased muffin pan. Sprinkle nuts (walnuts used here) on some or all of the muffins, if you desire.

Bake at 375 degrees for 18-20 minutes, or until the top of muffins spring back when touched lightly. Allow muffins to cool in pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.        

Tropical Blueberry Shake

 

Yes, yes, it looks just like my tangy blueberry shake, but I promise you that the flavor is toute autre. In fact this shake is a flavor explosion, and is full of all sorts of goodness for humans looking to start their day off right.

1 banana

5 oz. silken tofu

1/2 C pineapple chunks

1 C frozen blueberries

1/2 C tangy fruit yogurt

1/3 C coconut milk

3 Tbl orange juice concentrate

a few drops of vanilla

milk or soy milk, if necessary

Put it all in your blender/food processor and puree until smooth. Add a little milk and blend again if the shake seems too thick.

Best Pregnancy Breakfast 5: Whole Grain German Pancakes

German pancakes were one of my favorite weekend breakfasts when I was a kid; it’s pretty magical how they puff up like an alien planet and then deflate into a buttery, custardy plane. Now, with the substitution of whole grain flours, they’re not a total nutritional loss. Too bad I’m going to have to slather them in syrup.

6 eggs

1 C milk or soymilk

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 C whole wheat flour

1/4 C barley flour

1/4 C brown rice flour

2 Tbs butter or margarine

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the 2 Tbs butter in a 9x13 pan, and put it in the oven while it’s pre-heating. Place all other ingredients in your blender or food processor and blend until well mixed and bubbly, like this.

When the oven is ready, and the butter is melted and sizzling, pull the pan out of the oven and pour the batter in.

 

Return pan to oven and bake for 17-20 minutes (less time at high altitudes, more time at low altitudes) until pancakes are puffy and golden (they puff a little less at high altitudes, unfortunately). Serve with your favorite sweet condiments: maple syrup, honey, powdered sugar, jam, etc. Here’s the action shot of the powdered sugar raining down. Mmm, these are so delicious, I’m eating them RIGHT NOW.