Seeded Emmer Pan Loaf

While the rest of the world may be striving to recreate Chad Robertson's cult status country bread, the breads that caught my attention when I first read through his Tartine Book No. 3 were his dense pan loaves, resembling my favorite German Volkornbrot. I adapted his toasted barley loaf recipe to my pantry supplies from Lonesome Whistle Farm and Camas Country Mill, using cooked emmer (instead of barley), flax seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, and Red Fife wheat flour instead of spelt and einkorn.  

Packed full with all this particulate matter, the dough felt like wet concrete, as the recipe describes. And although never destined to rise above the rims of the baking pan, it achieved the lofty goal of living up to my German bread memories. My starter and I will be moving on to attempt some airier levain breads, inspired by a recent visit from wheat breeder Stephen Jones, who runs what the New York Times describes as "a Wonka-esque wonderland for crusty, airy-crumbed experimentation," but I know I'll be returning to this seeded pan loaf recipe again for its dense delivery of flavor.

Seeded Emmer Pan Loaf

adapted from the Toasted Barley Loaf from Tartine Book No. 3

200 g emmer berries cooked in 400 g cold water
250 g Red Fife or other high protein whole grain flour
157 g buttermilk
10 g dark malt syrup
238 g water
155 g leaven (well fed bread starter, described here)
8 g fine sea salt
102 g flax seeds
52 g sesame seeds
45 g sunflower seeds

1. Two days before you will bake the bread, give your stater an extra feeding halfway through its 24 hour cycle to make it extra active. Also go ahead and cook your emmer berries, simmering and covered, for about 40 minutes, until they have absorbed all the liquid. If you like, you could toast the emmer berries on a baking sheet at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes before cooking. Cool completely before using.

2. Start the dough the morning of the day before you will bake the bread. In a large bowl, combine the leaven with the buttermilk, malt syrup, and water, and mix by hand to incorporate.  Add the flour and mix by hand until thoroughly combined, about 5 minutes. Let the dough rest, covered, in the bowl for 30 minutes (this is the autolysis step). Add the salt, cooked emmer, and seeds and continue mixing by hand until incorporated. The dough should have the feel of wet concrete. 

3. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen fowl and let rise at warm room temperature for about 3 hours (this is the first proofing). Every 45 minutes or so, fold the dough to strengthen the gluten network, either with your hands as shown here, or if you are less ambitious, with a scraper as shown here.

4. Butter a loaf pan very well. Scoop the dough into the pan and smooth the top with wet hands. Let the dough rise in the pan, uncovered, at a warm room temperature. Cover the pan with a clean, dry kitchen towel and let rise overnight in the refrigerator (this is the second proofing). 

5. The next day, preheat the oven to 425 degrees C. Use a pair of scissors to make shallow cuts in the top of the loaf to score and brush with water. Bake for about 1 hour and 20 minutes or until the internal temperature has reached 210 degrees F. Let the loaf cool on a wire rack for at least half a day before cutting. The bread keeps well for up to one week properly wrapped.

Barley Flake Porridge

At a recent visit to Camas Country Mill, I picked up a bag of their streaker barley flakes. This barley variety, developed through a barley breeding project at OSU, gets its name because it is naked, or hull-less. From its local seed selection, to its production on the Huntons' farm, and processing at Grain Millers, this is a local product.

I tried these barley flakes in lieu of Scottish oats in my favorite weekday porridge with teff grain and flax seeds. These flakes need a little less liquid and they keep their shape more than oat flakes, resulting in a deliciously hefty and satisfying breakfast. 

Barley Flake Porridge

(1 serving)

1 tsp butter or coconut oil
1 scan Tbsp teff grain (or chia seeds)
1 scan Tbsp flax seeds
1/4 cup barley flakes
generous pinch of salt
2/3 cup boiling water
1/4 cup cow or almond milk

The evening before, boil a kettle with 2/3 cup water and set a small saucepan over medium heat. In a 1/3 cup measuring cup, sprinkle in the teff grain and flax seed (you can eyeball these) and fill to the top with barley flakes. Melt the butter or coconut oil in the pan, add the grains and salt, and cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes until they give off a nice toasted aroma and the seeds begin to pop. Turn off the heat. Carefully add the hot water (it will splatter), stir, and cover. The next morning, add about 1/4 cup milk, and cook, stirring frequently, until the porridge has reached the desired thickness (about 5 minutes). Serve with nuts, dried or fresh fruit, and a sprinkle of brown sugar or maple syrup.

For a more leisurely morning meal, this can of course be prepared all at once. The grains will need about 15 to 20 minutes to cook. 

Leftover Oatmeal Apple Sauce Muffins

I was traveling for just a few days this past week, but seemed to miss out on all sorts of important events at home: a valiant loss in an OBOB battle, a dramatic playground fall that required a trip to the nurse's office, and an ambitious, last minute project fair presentation. Even after a short trip, it takes a couple of days to get caught up on the latest jokes, bedtime book story lines, and the status of food supplies.

So after a leisurely Sunday morning breakfast of teff and flaxseed oatmeal, it felt satisfying to roast up a couple of aging apples and use the apple sauce, along with the leftover oatmeal, in a batch of mini muffins to pack as snacks for the week.

I adapted a recipe for banana cereal muffins from Kim Boyce's Good to the Grain, described by Molly Wizenberg of Orangette as "a garbage disposal-style recipe" in the best sort of way. In went our leftover oatmeal, the roasted apple sauce, and even the end of a tub of sour cream. Out came some very tasty muffins, pictured here with my daughter's spelling list from last week, including the words "anxious", "whether", "succeed", "business", and "companion", which seemed to form an accidental poem about the mixed emotions of traveling away from home.

Leftover Oatmeal Apple Sauce Muffins

adapted from Kim Boyce Good to the Grain, described here

makes about 28 mini muffins

roasted apples sauce
2 apples, cored and peeled 
1 tsp butter
pinch of salt

muffin batter
4 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sour cream
1 egg
1/2 cup cooked oatmeal
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup rye flour
1/2 cup soft white flour
1/2 cup red fife flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon

1. To prepare a small scale, accelerated version of this apple sauce, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Peel and core two apples and cut each into about 24 pieces. Arrange in a small baking dish, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and dot with about a tsp of butter. Roast for about 25 minutes until the apples are soft and just a bit charred. Mash with a potato masher, leaving it a little chunky. This should make about a cup of sauce. You could also substitute a cup of store bought apples sauce or two to three very ripe bananas, mashed.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffins tins (enough for 28 mini muffins or 12 regular muffins).

3. In a large bowl or a standing mixer, cream together the butter and the brown sugar until very creamy. Mix in the sour cream (or use 2 more Tbsp of butter, as in the original recipe). Mix in the egg, then the cooked oatmeal, the apple sauce, and the vanilla extract.

4. In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients until just combined. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins. Bake for about 24-28 minutes for mini muffins, or 35-40 minutes for regular muffins, rotating the pans halfway through, until they are nicely browned on top and a fork comes out clean. Best eaten warm or reheated for a few minutes in a toaster oven.

Elkdream Bars

Last week my daughter and I needed to come up with a snack for her girl scout troop meeting. It had to be healthy, transportable, peanut and nut-free, and fun. I knew just the thing: Elkdream bars from Elin England's forthcoming book "Beans, Grains, Nuts and Seeds: Further Adventures in Eating Close to Home", a sequel to "Eating Close to Home: A Guide to Local Seasonal Sustenance in the Pacific Northwest", which I described here. 

The best thing about these bars is that they are extremely accommodating. We omitted the hazelnuts and used sunflower butter to make them nut free, we didn't have pumpkin or sunflower seeds on hand, so we increased the sesame seeds and flax seeds, and added some chia seeds for good measure (on hand for favorite sauce, porridge, and pancakes), we'd run out of honey, so we used maple syrup, and we added some chopped apricots along with the cranberries. The end result after all this tampering was so delicious that it was completely devoured by the troop. This weekend I'll make another batch to pack for school snacks. After all the harrowing news from Boston this past week, from which I've assiduously shielded my children despite anxious phone calls with their grandparents in lockdown, because how can one begin to explain such senseless destruction, it is somehow comforting to laden their lunch boxes with homemade treats when sending them out into the world. 

Elkdream Bars

from Elin England's forthcoming book 

"Beans, Grains, Nuts and Seeds: Further Adventures Eating Close to Home"

In a large mixing bowl, stir together:

2 1/2 cups rolled oats (not quick-cook oats)
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup flax seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts

Spread on a rimmed cookie sheet and toast at 325 degrees for 15 minutes. Pour back into the bowl. Leave the oven on, as you'll use it again in a few minutes.

Meanwhile, combine in a small saucepan:

1/2 tsp ground ginger, or substitute cinnamon or cardamom (optional)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup peanut butter, or substitute sunflower butter, almond butter, or hazelnut butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 to 3 Tbsp butter

Heat over medium-low heat, stirring until dissolved, then remove from the heat (so it doesn't burn). This is the glue that holds the bars together.

Pour the glue mixture over the oat/nut mix and add:

1 cup dried cranberries (or your choice of chopped, dried fruit)

Mix the oat/nut mix, the glue, and the dried fruit together very well.

Line a 9x12 baking pan with parchment paper (you can oil the pan to help the parchment stick down). Cut the paper long enough that it comes up all 4 sides of the pan (you can pleat the corners). Plop the mixture into the pan and press down HARD all over. A good way to do this is to spread a piece of waxed paper over the top and press down with your hands.

Bake for 15 minutes at 325 degrees. Let cool COMPLETELY (this part is really important). Lift the whole arrangement out of the pan onto a cutting board, using the overhanging parchment paper as a handle. Cut whatever sized bars you like, and store in an air tight container, using waxed paper to separate layers. Save any crumbs that accumulate to sprinkle over yogurt. 

Teff Grain, Flax Seed and Oatmeal Breakfast

After I started experimenting with cooking Scottish oats for weekday breakfasts and combining them with flax seeds in granola, it was a natural extension to explore mixing other ingredients into my oatmeal. Here is an especially tasty combination with fine teff grain to add body to the porridge and flax seeds to add a little texture. Dried apricots, hazelnuts, and maple syrup finish it off with sweetness and crunch. Will including the nutritional powerhouse of teff grain and superfood of flax seeds in your daily breakfast bring you health and superhuman powers? Maybe not. But taking the extra few minutes in the evening to start a warm bowl of oatmeal for the following morning, and infusing your house with the fragrance of buttery, toasted grains in the process, will make you feel cared for, which apparently accounts for a great deal of the healing power of placebos. A good breakfast when you'd like a little extra insurance for getting through a demanding day.

Teff Grain, Flax Seed and Oatmeal Breakfast

1 serving

porridge
1/4 cup Scottish oats (or use rolled oats, or a mixture of rolled and steel cut oats)
1 scant Tbsp teff grain (or substitute chia seeds)
1 scant Tbsp flax seeds
1 tsp butter
small pinch salt
1 cup boiling water (divided)

toppings
dried apricots
hazel nuts
maple syrup
splash of milk

1. The evening before, heat a small saucepan and set a kettle with 2/3 cups water. When the pan is warm, melt the butter. Then add the grains, and cook, stirring, for about five minutes, until they are toasted and very fragrant. Turn off the heat. Carefully add 2/3 cups boiling water (it will splatter), stir, and cover.

2. The next morning, add 1/3 cup water to the pan and reheat (for a richer porridge, use 1/3 cup milk). Let the oatmeal and teff mixture simmer for about five to eight minutes until it is the desired tenderness and thickness. Serve warm, sprinkled with the toppings and a splash of cold milk.

For a family of two adults and two kids, I triple the recipe:
3/4 cups oats
1/8 cup teff grain
1/8 cup flax seeds
1 Tbsp butter
pinch salt
3 cups boiling water

You can of course cook this all at once if you have more time in the morning. Simply add all of the boiling water to the toasted grains and cook for about 15 minutes.


Other whole grain breakfast recipes
Buttery Five Minute Oatmeal Breakfast
Homemade Granola
Rye Waffles with Clementine Syrup
Swedish Oatmeal Pancakes
Gluten-free Waffles
Buckwheat Blini
Buckwheat Crepe