Easy Natural Fermentation Sourdough Bread

Published by healthyblender.blogspot.com.

I call this my Swiss cheese bread because of its texture and taste. I use a combination of natural fermentation and no-knead techniques to develop chewy, but not too tart bread. The entire process takes a week since I develop a fresh starter for each loaf. For convenience I use the same container to age the starter and then soak the dough.

Very little work is required and no specials skills are needed. No store bought yeast is required as we are capturing the natural yeast from the flour and the environment. Store bough yeast has no flavor and we are creating a full-flavored bread. I’ve found cornmeal speeds up the fermentation process. Start the process for the next loaf after you bake this loaf so you can keep on rolling!

Ingredients
1 cup cornmeal
5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups water
1 cup sunflower seeds (optional)

Recipe
First we will build the starter. Pour 1 cup of water into a container with a lid. Add 1/8 cup of flour and the same amount of cornmeal each day for 5 days. This is called feeding the starter. After about 2 days the mixture should develop mild air bubbles and turn slightly yellowish. The mixture will smell slightly sour with a wheat aroma.

Keep the starter at room temperature during the days and refrigerate overnight.

On day 6, add 1 more cup of water to the starter and the remaining cornmeal and flour. Stir, but don’t worry about lumps. Add the optional sunflower seeds and stir. Let the dough sit covered in the refrigerator for 24 hours. This will allow the gluten to form without the yeast being too active.

On day 7, pour the dough into a large bowl and let rise for 6 hours. Stir or fold at the halfway point.

Preheat the oven to 400°. Butter a 5 by 9 inch bread pan and pour the wet sticky dough in. Bake for 45 minutes.The bread should fall right out of the pan. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate. The bread cuts best after it is completely cold.

Light and Fluffy Pumpkin Muffins

Published by healthyblender.blogspot.com.

I’ve found that the ratio of liquid ingredients to flour determines whether muffins are lighter like bread or heavier and more crumbly. The higher the liquid contact of the batter to flour, the lighter the muffins will become. An extra cup of flour would give you a very dense crumbly muffin. Remember to count the pumpkin as a liquid.

Pumpkin makes a good base for a variety of spices. I like cinnamon and some raisins for extra sweetness. You can substitute honey for raisins or add ground nutmeg or cayenne pepper for some heat.

This recipe makes 8 to 10 large muffins. The muffins in the picture are spiced with cinnamon and sweetened with honey. To my disappointment, I forgot the raisins.

Ingredients
3 eggs
1½ cups water
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
15 oz. can of pumpkin
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon honey
1 cup raisins (optional)

Recipe
Whisk eggs in a large bowl, then whisk in water and baking powder. Add cinnamon and whisk. Add pumpkin and whisk.

Stir in flour with a large wooden spoon. Add honey and thoroughly stir until all of the flour and honey is absorbed in the batter. Then fold the optional raisins into the batter.

Preheat the oven to 425°. Butter large muffin pans with 8 to 10 wells. Ladle batter, filling the wells to about ¼ inch of the top. Bake for 20 minutes and let sit for 10 minute before removing. The muffin will need to cool on a baking rack in about 1 hour.

Easy Peanut Raisin Bread

Published by healthyblender.blogspot.com.

This is a hearty breakfast or dessert bread. Chewy and very filling; this is a satisfying treat without the need for any sweetening. No kneading is required, just a little stirring or folding of the dough and time will develop the gluten. Let patience do the work for you!

Ingredients
2 to 3 cups water
5 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup cornmeal
¼ tablespoon rapid-rise yeast
1 cup raisins
1 cup peanuts
¼ cup sunflower seeds for topping

Recipe
Mix water, flour and cornmeal in a container with a lid and let sit for 24 hours. It’s okay for the mixture to be lumpy. Include enough water for the mixture to be very moist, including a thin layer of water on top of the mixture. Leave at room temperature covered (sealed) for at least 12 of the 24 hours and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning, pour the sticky dough with excess water into a large bowl, then sprinkle the yeast of the dough and stir. Add the raisins and peanuts and fold the dough. Let the dough sit for at least 6 hours. Cover bowl with wax paper. Fold the dough at the midway point.

Preheat the oven to 400°. Butter a 5 by 9 inch bread pan and pour the wet sticky dough in. Sprinkle the sunflower seeds over the top of the dough. Bake for 45 minutes.

Bread should fall right out of the pan. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate. The bread cuts best after it is completely cold.

Easy Wheat Kernel Bread

Published by healthyblender.blogspot.com.

When is a slice of bread a meal? When you make your own thick and chewy bread, you are on your way! Combine a slightly sourdough base with hearty wheat kernels. The kernels are the actual wheat seeds from which flour, bran and germ are derived. This bread takes time, but not much effort. So give yourself a few days and have some fun!

Ingredients
1 cup wheat kernels
5 cups all-purpose flour (unbleached)
2 cups water

Recipe
Soak 1 cup of wheat kernels for 24 hours in covered container. The kernels can be refrigerated while soaking.

Stir 5 cups of all-purpose flour into 2 cups of water and let sit for 24 hours in a separate covered container. Don’t worry about lumps or dry flour spots; as the damp dough rests the moisture will develop the gluten. The dough can be refrigerated overnight, but it should be left at room temperature for at least 12 hours.

Drain the kernels and simmer on the stove for at least 3 hours. After simmering, drain the kernels and stir into the dough. The simmer juice makes a nice soup broth. Add ¼ tablespoon of rapid-rise yeast and stir gently. Let the dough sit in a wax paper covered bowl for 6 to 8 hours. Stir the dough once or twice during the wait.

Preheat the oven to 400°. Butter a 5 by 9 inch bread pan and pour the wet sticky dough in. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. Bread should fall right out of the pan. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate. The bread cuts best after it is completely cold.

Note: Given the liquidity of the dough, do not fill the bread baking pan higher than a ½ inch from the top.

Easy Peanut Butter Raisin Muffins

Published by healthyblender.blogspot.com.

Enjoy the pure taste of natural peanut butter with the slight sweetness of natural raisins in a rich dense muffin. Make sure your peanut butter does not contain anything more than peanuts and possibly a slight amount of salt. If you can find salt-free natural peanut butter with no chemicals or preservatives, all the better. Your raisins should be unsweetened; raisins are sweet enough on their own.

In this recipe any old “Jif” won’t do. Peanut butter dominates the batter, so only the best will give you truly outstanding flavored muffins. Remember the word natural is key; I’ve had some pretty dreadful organic peanut butter with thickeners, stabilizers and all sorts of other chemicals.

This recipe makes 16 large muffins.

Ingredients
3 eggs
1½ cups water
3 rounded tablespoons baking powder
2 lbs. natural crunchy peanut butter
1 to 2 cups of unsweetened raisins
4 cups whole wheat flour

Recipe
Whisk eggs in large bowl. Add water and baking powder and whisk.

Add the peanut butter and breakup the large clumps with a large wooden spoon. Don’t worry for now if smaller clumps of peanut butter remain. I prefer crunchy peanut butter for this recipe, but creamy will work just as well. Next add the raisins.

Add the flour and fold until the peanut butter and flour are evenly distributed and fully absorbed in the batter. This will take a great deal of strength. The batter is very thick.

Preheat the oven to 425°. Cut a ½ inch slice of cold butter and thoroughly coat the sides and bottom of the wells in your muffin pans.

Fill each muffin well near the top. They will rise slightly during baking. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes in the muffin pans after baking. Run a butter knife along the sides of each muffin well to pop the muffins out.

Banana Pancakes

Published by healthyblender.blogspot.com

Surprisingly, when I forgot to add baking powder to my experimental banana pancakes they still fluffed up nicely. I guess the extra fiber and creaminess of the banana did the trick. If you find them too heavy, go ahead and add a tablespoon of baking powder to the recipe.

Spread some butter over the pancakes before eating for extra taste, and then add a couple of sunny side up eggs on top for a hearty breakfast or brunch.

Ingredients
1 cup of milk
2 eggs
1 large banana
1 tablespoon baking powder (optional)
½ cup cornmeal
¾ cup whole wheat flour

Recipe
Preheat a nonstick fry pan on low. If your pan’s finish is good, no butter will be required for cooking the pancakes.

Add milk and eggs to the blender. Cut the banana in 4 or 5 parts and add to the blender. Blend 5 to 10 seconds. Do not over blend. Specs of banana are ok; we want to cream, not liquefy the mixture.

Pure the blender contents into a glass bowl. Add the optional baking powder and whisk. Add the cornmeal and whole wheat flour and whisk until the gluten is developed.

Turn up the fry pan to medium. I make 4 to 6 inch pancakes one at a time over the stove. Flip after the edges harden and the center bubbles.

Tofu Cocoa Pudding

Published by healthyblender.blogspot.com

I know real men don’t eat tofu, but after watching The New York Times Mark Bittman video for chocolate pudding made from a tofu base I became inspired. For being “THE MINIMALIST” his recipe was still too complicated for me. I didn’t have the patience to melt semisweet chocolate when my staple raw unsweetened cocoa provides a much more pronounced flavor. I also saw no need for expensive soy milk; there is plenty of soy in tofu already.

I dropped Mark’s extra sugar and spices, so I could enjoy the essence of pure cocoa. The main taste sensation is savory and slightly bitter. Try the basic recipe first before determining whether you need to sweeten.

Ingredients
14 oz. to 1 lb firm tofu
1 cup nonfat milk
4 heaping tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

Recipe
Add milk and cocoa to the blender, but do not start blending. Depending on how heaping your tablespoons are, you can add an extra tablespoon or two of coca for good measure. We delay blending because we don’t want the cocoa to turn the milk into a paste before adding the tofu.

Drain the packaging water from the tofu. (Whole Foods 365 brand firm tofu 14 oz package is the least expensive in my area. It’s close enough to a pound for me.) There is no need to press the excess liquid from the tofu. Crosscut the tofu in ¼ inch squares and add to the blender on top of the milk and cocoa.

Blend on low speed for 5 seconds, then high speed for 5 seconds. Stop the blender and stir with a large wooden spoon. Push the tofu chunks down and the blended part of the mixture up. Repeat a few times until smooth; 3 to 4 blends should suffice.

Do not over blend. A few tofu specs on the sides of the blender are ok. We want the pudding to remain thick. Too much blending will turn the pudding into soup.

Cool in the refrigerator for about 3 hours, then enjoy!

Cocoa Peanut Butter Muffins

Published by healthyblender.blogspot.com

I call these cocoa peanut butter muffins, but I prefer to blend raw blanched peanuts rather than use store bought peanut butter since I cannot find salt-free peanut butter. (Whole Foods 365 brand natural crunchy peanut is a reasonable substitute. It contains only peanuts and salt.)

Don’t confuse natural with organic. Natural contains only ingredients that you can pronounce. Organic peanut butter might contain all sorts of chemical sweeteners, thickeners and stabilizers. Natural peanut butter will separate (with the peanut oil on top) at room temperature.*

As I said in my cocoa protein drink post, I use Nestlé’s unsweetened cocoa. Dutch cocoa is a little less harsh, but I have read that some nutritional value is lost in the processing.

This is a very rich muffin, even in its unsweetened form. One muffin will carry you from an early lunch to a late dinner. The recipe makes 8 large muffins.

Ingredients
1½ cups of water
2 eggs
4 rounded tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 lb. raw blanched peanuts or 1 lb. natural crunchy peanut butter
2 rounded tablespoons baking powder
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup raisins

Recipe
Add water, eggs and unsweetened cocoa to the blender and blend low speed for 10 seconds.

Add peanuts to the blender. (If you are substituting crunchy peanut butter, skip to the next paragraph. Do not add peanut butter to the blender.) Blend low speed for 5 to 10 seconds. Then stop blender and stir with a large wooden spoon to push the peanut chunks down. At the same time pull the creamy part of the mixture up. Repeat until the mixture is relatively smooth with specks of peanut. A pasty texture with dimples is perfect.

Empty the blender into a large bowl. If you are substituting crunchy peanut butter, add it to the bowl now and break it up with a large wooden spoon. Stir in the baking powder with the wooden spoon.

Add the raisins and whole wheat flour to the bowl. Fold the mixture until the flour is absorbed. Folding controls the flour from becoming airborne. The mixture is very thick and plastic, so it cannot easily be stirred.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Butter 8 large muffin wells. Rub a slice of cold butter against the sides and bottom. Then fill each well using the wooden spoon and a spatula. The dough holds together during baking, so you can fill to the top.

Bake for 25 minutes, and then cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Run a butter knife along the sides of each well to loosen and remove muffins. Let cool on a wire rack for at least 1 hour.

*Natural peanut butter must be kept refrigerated after opening.

Honey Cinnamon Corn Muffins

Published by healthyblender.blogspot.com

When you are tired of those supposedly healthy corn muffins available at Whole Foods and your neighborhood groceries and supermarkets, drop the excess oil and sweeteners and bake with me. The rule of thumb is when the store muffins glistens or stains its box, it is too greasy. And keep in mind artificial sweeteners might be even worse health-wise than real sugar.

I have a dry cinnamon corn muffin for you, only slightly sweetened with natural honey. This muffin has a texture closer to a quick bread, but also crumbles slightly like a traditional muffin.

The recipe makes 16 large muffins. I don’t use an electric mixer, so some strength is required to stir the dough in its final stages. You can try a strong mixer with whisk and dough hook accessories.

The recipe is very forgiving – exact measurements are not required. So set forth and create yourself a hearty breakfast or lunch muffin.

Ingredients
3 eggs
3 cups water
3 rounded tablespoons baking powder
2 rounded tablespoons cinnamon
4 rounded cups whole wheat flour
¼ cup honey
4 rounded cups cornmeal

Recipe
Butter your nonstick muffin pans. 16 large muffin wells are required. Just take a slice of cold butter and rub the sides and bottom of each well until thoroughly coated.

Whisk eggs in large bowl. Add water and whisk. Add baking powder and whisk. Add cinnamon and whisk.

Add the whole wheat flour and whisk until the gluten develops. Next add the honey and whisk until thoroughly distributed. Now rinse off the whisk, we need to switch to a stronger tool.

Add the corn meal and fold in with a large wooden spoon. Folding first will prevent the cornmeal from becoming airborne. Use all your strength to stir the dough with the wooden spoon until the cornmeal is thoroughly integrated.

Preheat the oven to 425°. Use the wooden spoon and a spatula to fill each of the 16 muffin wells. Bake for 20 minutes.

Let sit for 10 minutes after baking; the muffins will begin to separate from the pan. Slide a butter knife down the sides of each well to free the muffins.

Let the muffins cool for 1 to 1½ hours before eating. I have refrigerated these muffins successfully for 2 to 3 weeks.

Extra Thick and Creamy Strawberry Banana Smoothie

Published by healthyblender.blogspot.com

When the choice is between frozen fruit and adding ice cubes to fresh fruit, I’ll always freeze the strawberries and banana and skip the ice cubes. Once you try this you’ll never settle for strawberry ice cream again. Even the best ice creams leave you feeling the tiny ice crystals on your tongue – YUK!

The optional ground flaxseed acts as a thickener to the smoothie and adds a touch of fiber to your diet. This smoothie is so thick you might want to eat it with a spoon.

Warning! Increasing the size of this recipe will cause excess strain on your blender.

Ingredients
1 cup non-fat milk
1 medium frozen banana
10 medium frozen strawberries
1 rounded tablespoon of finely ground flaxseed (optional)

Recipe
Cut the banana in 4 pieces and freeze overnight. In the case of this drink, the size of the banana is not critical. Medium to large is fine. However, too much banana will overpower the strawberry flavor. I’ve had good luck buying fresh bananas.

Right now the frozen whole strawberries are cheaper and better quality than fresh. A variety of strawberry sizes is fine.

Add milk, ground flaxseed, 2 frozen banana pieces and 2 frozen strawberries and blend low until smooth (about 5 seconds). Repeat with 2 more frozen banana pieces and frozen strawberries. If the blender freezes, does not vortex the mixture or overheats, stop blending and breakup the mixture with a wooden spoon.

Add 3 more frozen strawberries and push down with the wooden spoon. Blend low for about 5 seconds. Add the remaining frozen strawberries and push down again with the wooden spoon.

Now blend high until the mixture forms a vortex. Stop blending every 10 seconds or so and stir the mixture with the wooden spoon.

The mixture will show some dimples when it’s done and that’s ok. The smoothie will pour out into your serving glasses in thick blobs. Over blending will cause your smoothie to melt – a major disappointment.

NOTE: The blender should always be turned off when you are adding ingredients and using the wooden spoon.