Apple Marzipan Cake and Gingerbread Creatures

2016 has not stacked up to be the most beloved year, but I didn't want to let it slip away without documenting a few personal holiday baking triumphs. Above, from Luisa Weiss' Classic German Baking (a much appreciated Christmas cookbook present), is a towering apple marzipan cake. Infused with almond paste, and with apples both cubed within and splayed artfully on top with a glaze of apricot jam, it evoked powerful childhood taste memories of afternoon outings to elegant German cafes for the ritual of Kaffee und Kucken. The recipe can be found here.

In anticipation of Santa's visit, we had fun making gingerbread creatures, following the recipe from the Joy of Cooking (the classic version). When we ran out of patience for rolling and cookie cutting, we used up the final dough with free form snails, pretzels, and a friendly mole skink, sporting fetching icing spots.

Best wishes for peace and happiness in the new year.

Gingerbread Men 

from Joy of Cooking (makes 2 sheets of cookies)

gingerbread dough
1/4 cup butter
1/2 brown sugar
1/2 cup dark molasses
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/3 tsp salt
1/4 cup water

icing
1/4 cup confectioner sugar
a few drops of water

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Blend until creamy the butter and brown sugar and then beat in the dark molasses. Sift the flour and then resift with the remaining dry ingredients. Add the sifted ingredients to the butter mixture in about 3 parts, alternating with 1/4 cup water. You may have to work in the last of the flour mixture by hand. 

3. Roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness, cut out shapes with cookie cutters and place them on parchment paper lined cookie sheets. You can combine the scraps and chill in the freezer for a few minutes before rolling out again. When you run out of patience, turn the last scraps into hand-formed shapes like snails. If you like, decorate them with dried fruit such as currents and cranberries. 

4. Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes, according to their thickness. You can test them for doneness by pressing the dough with your finger. If it springs back after pressing, the gingerbread cookies are ready to be cooled on a rack. 

5. To decorate them with icing, stir the confectioner sugar and a few drops of water together in a small bowl to make a paste. Apply the icing with a toothpick or pipe through a sandwich bag with a tiny opening snipped in the corner. Allow to dry. The cookies will keep for a week or so if stored in an airtight container.

Prune and Almond Pie

I couldn't let today, Pi Day (3.14.15), go by without baking a pie. 

I'd recently remembered an old favorite recipe from Patricia Wells' Bistro Cooking: Tart aux Pruneaux et aux Amandes. Technically a tart, but certainly in the phylum pie. Prunes are soaked in strong black tea (I used the dregs of a pot of this), and then bathed in a ground almond and creme fraiche filling. Wells spikes hers with plum eau-de-vie, which I didn't happen to have on hand (mon dieu!), so I added a bit of vanilla extract, for a more kid-friendly version. A lovely way to celebrate this memorable, once in a century day.

Tart aux Pruneaux et aux Amandes

from Patricia Wells' Bistro Cooking

2 cups brewed strong black tea
1 lb (500 g) prunes, pitted
1/4 cup (35 g) whole unblanched almonds
1 large egg
5 Tbsp (60 g) granulated sugar
2 Tbsp plum eau-de-vie or brandy (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
3/5 cup creme fraiche or heavy cream
1 Pate Sucre shell (recipe below) partially baked and cooled
1 Tbsp confectioners' sugar to garnish (optional)

Pate Sucre
1 1/4 cup (175 g) all purpose flour
8 Tbsp (1 stick) butter, chilled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
~4 Tbsp ice water

1. Make the dough. In a food processor, pulse together the flour, sugar, and salt. Add the butter pieces and pulse about 20 times until the butter is in pea sized pieces. Add the ice water and pulse about 8 more times until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a silicone mat or work surface and shape into a disc. Wrap in the silicone mat or saran wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.

2. Shape the tart shell. Lightly flour the dough and roll it out on the silicone mat or a floured work surface, rotating to ensure the dough is not sticking, into a 12 inch wide disc. Transfer to a 10 1/2 inch loose-bottomed black tart tin and gently press the dough into the corners. Trim the overhang, leaving one inch of dough. Tuck the overhand inside and fortify any thin parts with the trimmed dough. Shape the edges and prick the bottom all over with a fork. Chill the shaped dough for at least 20 minutes. 

3. Partially bake the shell. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line the shell with aluminum foil and some pie weights (some rice or dried beans that you can reuse for years). Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and weights and bake another 10 minutes. Cool completely.

Prune and Almond Tart
1. At least 1 hour before preparing the tart, pour the hot tea over the prunes and set aside to marinate.

2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

3. In a food processor, grind the almonds to a fine powder. Add the egg, sugar, liquor (or vanilla extract), and creme fraiche. Process until very smooth.

4. Thoroughly drain the prunes, discarding the soaking liquid. Carefully arrange the prunes in the cooled tart shell. Pour the almond filling over the prunes.

5. Place the tart in the center of the oven, and bake until the filling is set and the tart shell is nicely browned, about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven. If you like, sprinkle with confectioners' sugar.

Roasted Poblano Romesco Sauce

This Sunday at at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market, you can look forward to a selection of pastured chicken and grass-fed lamb cuts from Fair Valley Farm, handcrafted vegan hazelnut cheese from Avellana Creamery, and beautiful fresh cut flower bouquets from Tiger Lily Art Company. Good Food Easy at Sweetwater Farm will have the following offerings: 

Fresh
Blueberries (make a blueberry buckle)
Lots of tomatoes (Romas and red, yellow, and orange slicers) 
Eggplants (try grilled in Middle Eastern or Asian spreads)
Bell peppers, jalapeños, anaheim and poblano chile peppers (make this romesco sauce)
Artichokes, baby beets, new potatoes, and broccoli
Carrots, summer squash, and cucumbers
Chard, collard greens, and kale (try this quinoa, kale, and beet salad)
Garlic and fresh herbs (basil, oregano, sage, thyme) and home-grown lemon grass
Lettuce, including ready-to-eat bagged mix
Cherries and Blenheim apricots (from Washington)

Preserves, Beans, and Grains
From Sweet Creek Foods:
Dill Pickles, Chili Dill Pickles, Bread 'N Butter Pickles, Pickle Relish
Blueberry, Strawberry, Blackberry, and Raspberry Fruit Spreads
Enchilada Sauce and Salsa
From SLO Farm: Applesauce
Assorted beans and grains from Camas Country Mill

Sweetwater Farm's peppers are reaching their peak at this point in the summer. Poblanos are particularly delicious roasted, so I decided to use them in a twist on a traditional red pepper romesco sauce.

Many romesco recipes incorporate stale bread as a thickener, but Freshwater's dainty cauliflower clusters inspired me to use these as a bread substitute, roasted alongside the poblanos in cast iron skillets under the broiler.

The roasting brought out the peppers' sweetness, toasted almonds and olive oil gave the sauce richness, and lemon juice and a splash of sherry vinegar made it sharp and bright.

This sauce is as versatile as pesto and could be used on pasta (I might combine it with grilled vegetables and feta cheese), on grilled meat, or in sandwiches. We enjoyed it slathered on my latest attempt at the Bread 101 class' final exam (this Chad Robertson recipe), which proved to be the perfect nourishing fare for summer travels. 

Roasted Poblano Romesco Sauce

1/2 cup whole almonds
2 large or 3 medium poblano peppers
1 small cauliflower head
3 Tbsp olive oil (divided)
zest and juice of 1 small lemon
1 tsp sherry vinegar
salt to taste

1. Turn on your broiler, and as it's warming up, quickly toast the almonds in a dry cast iron skillet, being careful not to scorch them (or to be safe, toast them in the skillet on the stove top). Transfer them to a food processor or blender. 

2. Rinse the poblanos and place them into the hot skillet. Roast them under the broiler, turning every couple of minutes until the skin is brown and blistered on all sides. Transfer them to a bowl and cover with a plate to steam. When the peppers are cool enough to handle, peel off the blistered skin, core and seed them, and transfer them to the food processor.

3. Rinse the cauliflower and cut into small florets. Toss the florets with a Tbsp of olive oil and a pinch of salt in a hot skillet (either the one used for the poblanos once they are done, or a second one). Roast under the broiler, shaking every couple of minutes, until the cauliflower is cooked through and browned around the edges. Transfer to the food processor.

4. To the food processor, add the remaining 2 Tbsp olive oil, lemon zest and juice, sherry vinegar, and a generous pinch of salt. Process until smooth. Taste and add more olive oil, lemon, vinegar, or salt as needed. Use as a spread on bread, a sauce for grilled meats, or mix into pasta. Can be kept refrigerated for several days.

Baking Brioche and Cheater Bostock

Last weekend, in my continued adventures with baking with a bread starter, I attempted a recipe from Chad Robertson's Tartine Book No. 3 for golden brioche. "This is a very forgiving dough" he promises. But not simple. It calls for three forms of yeast: the starter or leaven, an overnight poolish (a sponge inoculated with a small amount of instant yeast), and some instant yeast added at the time of mixing. It also calls for flour from kamult, an ancient grain that is a relative of durum wheat; I substituted in Red Fife. Most importantly, it calls for an ingredient almost impossible to procure in our modern world: uninterrupted time. I tried to attend to my dough's various needs for risings, turnings, and shaping, but it was given short shrift to dance lessons, karate birthday parties, and soccer games. By the end of a long day, the dough had not reached its growth milestones, but I needed to stick it in the oven, just as I needed to send over-exhausted and sugar-ramped children to bed despite the unlikelihood of their falling asleep. Bread baking, I decided, is not unlike parenting and one can only do one's best.

The resulting bread was decided more squat than the lofty brioche loaves pictured in Robertson's book, but it had a beautiful crumb and delicious flavor. I was excited to try it in the recipe on the next page for Bostock, which Robertson explains is simply "twice-baked brioche." It looked easy enough when I scanned the recipe (making a mental note not to trim the crusts as instructed, because discarding even a millimeter of my hard labor would be too painful). But when I began to assemble the ingredients, my heart sank. Not only would I need to make an orange syrup, to be layered underneath marmalade and sliced almonds, but I'd failed to notice the additional ingredient of "Pistachio Frangipane (page 325)." Leaven and polish had been asking a lot, but this was the last straw. Instead, I simply slathered a brioche slice with apricot marmalade, sprinkled on some sliced almonds, and stuck it in the toaster oven. It was scrumptious. And so, below I give you the recipe for Cheater Bostock, made with brioche that you can bake or procure by whatever means possible, because unlimited time is even harder to source than ancient grains.

Cheater Bostock

slices of brioche
orange marmalade or apricot jam
sliced almonds

Slather your brioche with orange marmalade or apricot jam, sprinkle with sliced almonds, and toast in a toaster oven until the almonds are golden and fragrant. Enjoy and savor your free time.

Cardamom Lamb Koftas with Almond Yogurt Sauce

If you've never tried it before, you should grind some whole cardamom pods with a mortar and pestle. Inside those green shells are little black kernels that release a potent fragrance when pounded. I used some freshly ground cardamom to flavor lamb kofta made with our frozen stash of ground lamb from Fair Valley Farm. (Fair Valley Farm will be at 19th and Agate this Sunday Dec. 9th from 2-3 PM; if you'd like to stock up on their pasture-raised meat contact them ahead to place your order.) 

I packed these cardamom patties with minced shallot and cilantro and rolled them in garbanzo bean flour, which I had on hand and had seen used in a beef kofta recipe from Madhur Jaffrey. To simmer the kofta, my husband made a simplified version of a nut yogurt sauce from Neelam Batra's 1,000 Indian Recipes with garam masala. The final dish was deliciously rich  and flavorful, complemented by our stash of homemade Indian pickled beans and carrots and Asian pear chutney. I'm looking forward to making these kofta again, after we restock our freezer on Sunday, to help brighten Oregon's drizzly winter with warm spices.

Cardamom Lamb Kofta with Almond Yogurt Sauce

serves four

for the kofta

1 lb ground lamb
2 tsp whole green cardamom pods
1 shallot or 1/2 small onion
1/4 cup cilantro leaves
plenty of black pepper
salt
~1/4 cup garbanzo bean (chickpea) flour for dusting
1 Tbsp ghee or butter

for the sauce
1/2 cup whole almonds
2 tsp garam masala
1 shallot or 1/2 small onion
2 garlic cloves
2 cups plain yogurt
1 cup water
1 Tbsp ghee or vegetable oil
salt

1. To prepare the kofta, grind the cardamom pods in a mortar and pestle. Strain out the green shells and put the ground kernels in a mixing bowl. Mince the shallot and cilantro leaves and add to the bowl, along with the ground lamb. Add a generous grinding of black pepper and salt. Mix the meat to combine all the ingredients. Then form into 2 inch-long, finger-shaped patties (recipe will make about eight) and roll them to coat lightly in garbanzo bean flour. To help them hold together during cooking, chill the patties while you prepare the yogurt sauce.

2. To prepare the sauce, toast the almonds in a dry skillet for a few minutes until fragrant. In a food processor or electric spice mill, grind the almonds with the garam masala into a fine meal. Finely chop the shallot and garlic. In a food processor, or by hand, whisk together the yogurt and water until smooth. Heat a large pan and add 1 Tbsp ghee or oil. Add the shallot pieces and cook over medium high heat until they are very brown and crispy. Add the garlic, cook for a minute, then add the almond spice mix and saute for another minute until fragrant. Now turn up the heat and slowly add the yogurt mixture to pan, stirring vigorously to prevent it from curdling. Bring the sauce to a boil, then lower the heat and allow it to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes while you brown the kofta. 

3. Heat a skillet over medium high heat and add 1 Tbsp ghee or butter. Place the kofta into the hot pan and let them cook, undisturbed, until they are nicely browned. Rotate and cook on the other sides until they are browned all over (about 10 minutes). Now transfer them to the simmering yogurt sauce and allow them to cook through, about another 10 minutes. Taste and season the sauce with salt as needed. Serve the kofta and sauce over rice.

Calypso Bean Dip with Romesco Sauce

Good bell peppers are still plentiful this time of year. I used some of these rosy beauties from Open Oak Farm in a roasted pepper romesco sauce layered on top of a creamy dip made from Lonesome Whistle Farm's calypso beans, following this recipe for Ireland Creek Annie Bean Bruschetta, but minus the toasting. The romesco sauce gives a pretty autumnal blush to the bean spread, and together they make a tasty appetizer served with thinly sliced baguette from Eugene City Bakery.

Bean dip
2 cups cooked calypso beans, or your favorite bean variety
5-6 garlic cloves
~1/4 cup olive oil
salt to taste.

Romesco Sauce
1 red pepper
1/3 cup slivered almonds
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
salt to taste

1. To make the bean dip, roast the garlic cloves in a dry skillet or in the oven until the skin is blackened in spots and the garlic is soft. Combine all of the ingredient in a food processor (save a few beans for garnish) and blend until very smooth. Add salt to taste.

2. To make the romesco sauce, char the red pepper over an open flame or in the oven until the skin is blackened. Place in a bowl covered with a plate to steam off the skin. Toast the almond slivers and place in a food processor. Scrape off the charred skin from the pepper, remove stem and seeds and add to food processor. Add remaining ingredients and process into a course paste.

3. Spread the bean dip into a shallow bowl and layer over the romesco sauce. Enjoy with thin slices of baguette, warm pita wedges, crackers, or crudites. 

Garlic Scape Pesto Pizza

This past week at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market, Sweetwater Farm offered garlic scapes. These fleeting spring treats are delicious ground up into a pungent pesto. The punch of the garlic flavor will vary with the scapes, from subtle to powerful, depending on their age and thickness. For hefty scapes, you can temper the garlic flavor by sauteing them first in a little olive oil before pureeing them, or you can bake the pesto afterwards on a pizza. 

We dolloped our garlic scape pesto on whole wheat pizza dough and topped them with spring vegetables: sauteed asparagus spears on one and sauteed zucchini slices with diced ham on another. This pungent green paste would serve as a delicious backdrop as well to any number of summer or fall vegetables (cherry tomatoes, peppers, cubed squash), so if you get a chance, freeze some garlic scape pesto for later in the season. 

Garlic Scape Pesto Pizza
makes two medium pizzas

garlic scape pesto
1 bunch garlic scapes
1/2 cup whole almonds, toasted
1/2 cup olive oil
salt to taste


pizza dough
1 1/2 tsp yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tsp salt 
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup medium or course ground corn meal
2 cups all purpose white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour (I used red fife from Lonesome Whistle Farm)


topping suggestions
~4 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese
~4 ounces crumbled feta cheese 
sauteed asparagus spears
sauteed zucchini and diced ham

1.  At least two and a half hours ahead, prepare the pizza dough. In a large mixing bowl, mix the yeast and 1/4 cup warm water and allow to sit for a few minutes until it foams up. Mix in the olive oil, salt, and corn meal. Mix in the remaining ingredients, alternating between the flour and water. You may need a little more or less of the water or flour, depending on ambient moisture. When combined, turn the dough onto a work surface (I like to use a large silicone mat for easy clean up) and knead for several minutes until the dough is satisfyingly elastic. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, or if using, loosely wrap the dough in the silicone mat and transfer it right back into the dough mixing bowl. Allow the dough to rise until it has doubled in bulk for a coupe of hours. You can also make this dough in the morning and let it rise in the refrigerator during the day and it will be ready at dinnertime.

2. Prepare the garlic scape pesto. In a toaster oven or on the stovetop in a dry skillet, toast the almonds until fragrant. Place in a food processor. Coarsely chop the garlic scapes and add these to the food processor, as well as the olive oil and a generous pinch of salt. Process until you have a fairly smooth, bright green paste. Taste and add more salt or olive oil as desired. Reserve.

3. Prepare toppings. Snap the hard ends off the asparagus spears and cut into 1 inch long pieces. Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Add a splash of olive oil and saute the asparagus with a pinch of salt for a few minutes until they are bright green and have started to soften. Reserve. Slice the zucchini in half moons and dice ham. Saute together with a little olive oil until the zucchini have just started to brown. Reserve. Dice the feta cheese and slice the mozzarella.

4. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and insert a pizza stone if you wish. Divide the dough in half and roll out two pizzas, each about 10 by 14 inches. If using a pizza stone, assemble the pizza on a peel, or assemble it on a baking sheet sprinkled with some coarse corn meal. Spread half the pesto over one of the pizzas, then top with the asparagus and half of the cheese. Repeat with the second pizza, using the zucchini and ham. If using a pizza stone, carefully slide the pizza from the peel onto the stone. Bake the pizza for about 12 minutes until the crust sounds hard when tapped and the cheese has started to brown. Serve at once. 

Moroccan Beef and Chickpea Stew

The silver lining to this week's cold and gloomy weather was the chance to try out a stew recipe from the Moroccan cookbook my mother-in-law gave me for my birthday. The one I chose is a Sephardic sabbath stew called Dafina, made with beef and chickpeas and flavored with dried fruit and saffron. 

The meat requires no browning, so you merely toss together all the ingredients in a big pot and slide it in the oven. Magically the flavors infuse, the meat and chickpeas become tender, the barley melts into the background as it thickens the stew, and the yam pieces dissolved into the broth, adding depth to the fruity sauce.

I wanted something fresh, tangy, and salty to complement the stew's mellow sweetness. Lacking preserved lemons, I improvised a lemon, caper, and parsley pesto dressing for a salad of chopped kale and almonds that did the trick. 

This stew is traditionally served with eggs that have been cooked in their shells in the meat pot, giving them a brown, mottled appearance. For the under ten crowd in the household, I hard boiled the eggs separately and the over ten crowd enjoyed them layered on the stew with a dollop of harissa. 

Sephardic Sabbath Stew

adapted from Cooking at the Kasbah by Kitty Morse

serves 6-8

1 cup dried chickpeas (if they are older, soak them in water overnight)
1/2 cup golden hulless barley (from Lonesome Whistle Farm)
2 lb beef chuck, cut into 2 inch pieces
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cinnamon
8 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 onions, finely chopped
4 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped into 2 inch pieces
1 large or 2 small yams, peeled and chopped into 2 inch pieces
6 prunes, pitted and chopped
8 dried apricots, chopped
pinch saffron threads
3 1/2 cups beef or chicken stock
hard boiled eggs (optional)
harissa (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Toss the cubed beef in the cumin, coriander, paprika, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt. Soak the saffron threads to 1/4 cup of boiled water. Prepare all of the vegetables.

2. In a large Dutch oven combine all of the ingredients except the eggs. Cook in the oven, covered, for about 3 hours, stirring occasionally, and adding more liquid if necessary, until the beef is very tender and the chickpeas are soft but still firm. Raise the temperature to 400 degrees, uncover the pot and cook for an additional 20 to 30 minutes to allow the stew to caramelize.

3. Serve with harissa and quartered hard boiled eggs, if desired.

Kale Salad with Lemon, Capers, and Almonds

serves 4 as a side salad

4-6 lacinato kale leaves
2 Tbsp capers
1 cup Italian parsley leaves
1 large or 2 small lemons
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup whole almonds

1. Cut the kale leaves from the stem, cut wide leaves lengthwise, and then cut the leaves crosswise into 1/4 inch strips.

2. Prepare the dressing. In a food processor or blender, combine the capers, the parsley leaves, the zest and juice from the lemon, and the olive oil. Blend into a pesto with some texture. Toss the kale leaves in the dressing to coat well.

3. In a dry skillet or a toaster oven, toast the almonds until fragrant. Chop them coarsely and toss them into the salad. Serve along side the stew.

Buckwheat Chocolate Cake

It is birthday season in our household. For her birthday party, my daughter considered offering her favorite meal of homemade pasta with pesto and rhubarb buckle, but was worried that not all of her friends would like this menu, so she decided instead on pizza and chocolate cake. Her thoughtfulness in this matter is exemplary of her gentle and generous nature, nascent nine years ago in her deep brown newborn eyes and more apparent with each passing year.

She is not a fan of flamboyant cakes and cloying icing. Instead she favors subtle, fresh flavors and (a girl after my own heart) bittersweet chocolate. Searching for a suitable birthday cake, this buckwheat chocolate one from Beatrice Peltre caught my eye, especially since we still have a sizable stash of buckwheat flour from our Lonesome Whistle Farm CSA. 

This is almost a flourless chocolate cake (and an entirely gluten-free one). The small amount of almond meal adds a rich texture and the buckwheat gives a hint of sourness that complements the bittersweet notes of the chocolate.

A decorative dusting of powdered sugar and a scoop of vanilla ice cream elevated this subtle cake into party fare suitable for celebrating a truly sweet daughter.

Buckwheat Chocolate Cake

adapted from Smitten Kitchen, 

adapted from La Tartine Gourmande: Recipes for an Inspired Life 

7 Tbsp unsalted butter, plus extra for buttering pan
4 ounces bittersweet dark chocolate
4 large eggs at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
A good pinch of sea salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup buckwheat flour
scant 1/4 cup slivered almonds
Confectioners’ sugar to serve (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch cake pan and line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper. Melt the butter and chocolate together in in short bursts in the microwave, stirring frequently. Set aside.

2. Prepare the almond meal by pulsing together the slivered almonds and buckwheat flour in a food processor until finely ground.

3. In the bowl of a stand mix or with a handheld mixer, beat the eggs and sugar with salt until light and pale and doubled in volume. Deb Perelman advises that one spend 5 to even 9 minutes on this to develop the cake's crumb, but with my little handheld mixer I didn't have quite the stamina for this and the cake still turned out nicely.

4. Gently fold in the vanilla and melted chocolate mixture. Sprinkle the buckwheat and almond mixture over the batter and fold gently to combine. Pour into prepared pan and bake for about 25 minutes until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out dry.

5. Let cool for five minutes on a rack then invert onto the rack, remove the parchment paper, and return upright on a serving plate. Serve in wedges, dusted with powdered sugar.

UPDATE: I made a Pacific Northwest version of this cake with ground hazelnuts instead of almonds and it was delicious.

Rye Waffles with Clementine Syrup

Waking up last Saturday to an unexpected dusting of snow on top of the tulips called for a cozy waffle breakfast. And with plenty of rye flour from our Lonesome Whistle Farm CSA, I thought I would experiment with rye waffles, along with the trick of using corn starch in the batter for an extra crispy outside.

We often turn to our freezer chest of summer berries and peaches for waffle topping, but on this wintery morning, I thought I would use some seasonal clementines quickly warmed in maple syrup.

The rye flour gave the waffles a pleasant tartness, whipped egg whites kept them etherial, and the corn starch trick worked for crispiness. The clementine syrup, drizzled over a dollop of yogurt and a sprinkle of toasted almonds, had the taste of sunshine. And the smell of waffles lingered in the kitchen all morning, outlasting the snow.

Rye Waffles with Clementine Syrup
(makes about 6 waffles)

waffle batter 
3/4 cup soft white winter wheat flour
3/4 cup rye flour
1/2 cup corn starch
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
2 cups buttermilk
2 eggs, separated
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract


for topping
plain yogurt
slivered almonds, toasted
clementines (about 1 per person)
maple syrup (about 2 Tbsp per person)


1. Combine the dry ingredients (flours, cornstarch, leaveners, and salt). Whisk together the buttermilk, egg yokes, vegetable oil, brown sugar, and vanilla extract. Combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, but do not over mix. At this point you should let the batter sit for at least 30 minutes to allow the cornstarch to cross link gluten in the flour, which will give the crispiness to the waffles.


2. Prepare the clementine syrup. Peal the clementines, slice them to bifurcate the sections, and separate them. In a small saucepan, combine the clementine pieces and the maple syrup and heat just until small bubbles start to form on the edge of the pan. Turn off and reserve for serving. Toast the almond slivers and reserve.


3. To finish the waffle batter, beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold these into the batter. 


4. Heat a waffle iron and cook the waffles. Store them in a 200 degree oven or eat them immediately as the come off the waffle iron, topped with a dollop of yogurt, a sprinkle of toasted almond slivers, and the clementine syrup.

Other recipes for locally grown grains

Creamy Barley Risotto with Dandelion Greens

Barley Risotto with Grilled Vegetables

Barley Stuffed Cabbage

Barley and Cranberry Bean Soup with Kale

Barley and Root Vegetable Salad

Barley and Braised Cabbage with a Fried Egg

Buckwheat Blini

Buckwheat Crepes

Gluten-Free Waffles

Quinoa Salad with Roasted Beets and Kale

Swedish Rye Cookies

Swedish Rye Knäckebröt

Teff Grain and Ricotta Pancakes with Apple Topping

Wheatberry Tabbouleh with Green Beans and Feta

Wheatberries with Snap Peas