Kamut Pancakes

These are my favorite pancakes. I like them thin, but with a light, fluffy texture inside.

1 large egg
1 cup kamut flour
1 1/4 cup milk (add a little more if you want the pancakes even thinner)
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
2 Tablespoons oil (I usually use olive oil)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon table salt

Oil the griddle or skillet and heat to medium low. Meanwhile, fill a plastic squeeze bottle with the batter (think honey bear, or ketchup bottle with the pointed tip). When a drop of water in the pan sizzles and dances around the pan is hot enough. Use the bottle of batter to draw fun shapes in the pan. When pancake is covered with bubbles, and fairly dry around the edges flip and cook on the other side for about 15 to 30 seconds (give or take, depending on how hot your pan is).


My second favorite recipe is Janet's whole wheat & flax pancake. Someday I'll find that and post it too.

Valentine's Day Goodies / Candy Rings

I got excited about making candy rings and this is my first try. I made some to give as Valentine's Day gifts...shhh, don't tell! First I made some from a traditional hard candy recipe. They worked pretty well. Then I tried some using agave syrup. They also worked pretty well, plus they're much easier on the body. The agave candy doesn't get quite as hard as the traditional hard candy, but it is clear and tastes nice. It's the easiest recipe ever:

Ingredient: agave (as much or as little as you like)

Directions:

1 Heat agave syrup in a saucepan on High until it reaches 330 degrees Farenheit or until the syrup forms a hard ball when dropped in ice water.

2 Pour hot syrup into greased candy molds, or onto a sheet of greased parchment paper or a silicone mat.

3 Let cool for 20 min or until completely cooled, then remove candy from molds and eat! You can dust them with powdered sugar then package in an airtight container to save for later.

Chocolate Cake Recipe

Here is the chocolate cake recipe I make all the time (at least every other month).

Moist and Tender Devil's Food Cake

Regular, or natural, cocoa like Hershey's can be used with good results, though the cakes will bake up a bit drier, redder, and with slightly less chocolate flavor. If you don’t have a standing mixer don’t worry, an electric hand mixer works fine.

Makes three 8-inch cakes

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate , chopped
1/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups water (boiling)
1 1/2 cup whole grain kamut flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp table salt
8 ounces unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened, plus extra for greasing pans
1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract { 2 to 3 drops of coffee flavoring can be added to make a deeper chocolate flavor }

( This cake is very light and fluffy, sometimes even crumbly because the kamut has less gluten than wheat. Sometimes I add an extra egg to counter this, although I usually do not add the extra egg and it still works beautifully. )

1. Adjust oven rack to upper- and lower-middle positions; heat oven to 350 degrees. Meanwhile, grease three 8-inch cake pans with butter and line bottom of each pan with parchment paper round. Combine chocolate and cocoa in medium bowl; pour boiling water over and whisk until smooth. Sift together flours, baking soda, and salt onto large sheet parchment or waxed paper; set aside.

2. Place butter in bowl of standing mixer and beat at medium-high speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add brown sugar and beat on high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Stop mixer and scrape down bowl with rubber spatula. Increase speed to medium-high and add eggs one at a time, beating 30 seconds after each addition. Reduce speed to medium; add sour cream and vanilla and beat until combined, about 10 seconds. Stop mixer and scrape down bowl. With mixer on low, add about one third of flour mixture, followed by about one half of chocolate mixture. Repeat, ending with flour mixture; beat until just combined, about 15 seconds. Do not overbeat. Remove bowl from mixer; scrape bottom and sides of bowl with rubber spatula and mix gently to thoroughly combine.

3. Divide batter evenly among cake pans, smooth batter to edges of pan with rubber spatula. If baking three 8-inch cakes, place two pans on lower-middle rack and one on upper-middle rack. Bake until skewer inserted in center comes out clean, 20 to 23 minutes for 8-inch cakes (My cake pans are pretty heavy duty and actually require a longer cooking time by at least 5 minutes, sometimes more. Start checking at this point though). Cool on wire rack 15 to 20 minutes. Run knife around pan perimeter to loosen. Invert cakes onto large plate; peel off parchment, and reinvert onto lightly greased rack. Cool completely before icing.

Kamut Zuchini Yellow cake with Cranberries

These cupcakes were delicious!! I mixed dried cranberries into the batter before baking, then candied freeze-dried cranberries for the garnish. The candied cranberries were a bit hard to chew, so although they looked beautiful and tasted wonderful, they weren't completely perfect. This is my own recipe.

Zucchini Yellow Cake

Yield: 2 loaves or approximately 24 muffins

3 eggs
1 cup butter (2 sticks) or “Earth Balance” or “Smart Balance”
1¾ cups sugar (can use turbinado sugar)
2 cups grated zucchini (for a drier cake squeeze out excess water after shredding)
5 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ¾ cups whole grain kamut flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup dessicated coconut (optional; this makes the cake more dense)
1 cup chocolate chips or dried fruit (optional; for best results soak fruit in warm water before adding to mixture)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour two 8×4 inch loaf pans or a 9x13 cake pan (grease liberally) or line with parchment paper then spray lightly with cooking oil spray. Alternately, line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a large bowl, beat the butter till light and fluffy. Cream in the sugar till light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating on high for about 10 seconds after each egg is added. Mix in vanilla. Mix in zucchini.

In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, as well as coconut, chocolate chips and/or dried fruit, if using.

Add dry ingredients to wet and mix just until fully incorporated. Do not overmix. Pour batter into pans.

Bake loaves for 60 minutes, plus or minus ten, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Muffins will bake far more quickly, approximately 18 to 25 minutes. Cake pans usually take at least 30 minutes.

When completely cooled frost with ganache or cream cheese frosting (or both... a thin layer of each. You can frost before they're cooled, just make sure they get chilled afterward.)

Note: Here is a variation for delicious cookies. Make sure to squeeze excess water from the zuchini; add 1/4 cup of rolled oats at the end. Cookies will spread so leave at least 3 inches between cookies. Make sure to bake on parchment paper. I like to spray the parchment paper lightly with cooking oil to make it easier to remove the cookies. Make sure cookies have cooled completely before removing from tray. Bake till golden brown. Start checking for doneness after 15 minutes.
Note: It is very important to make sure the cakes are COMPLETELY cool before eating. I recommend refrigerating them for at least 20 minutes. The reason: cakes with vegetables added taste nasty when warm. You have to chill the cakes, then they taste great!

Spaghetti Sauce — fresh from the garden

This beautiful bolognese sauce starts with sauteéd onions and carrots (use olive oil). The meat is added and cooked till the pink is gone, but the meat is not browned yet. Then milk or cream is added and cooked till reduced (sometimes I add other liquids after the milk cooks down and cook till reduced as well, such as white wine, or red wine vinegar). Here you see cream added.
The tomatoes are blended well. I never remove the skins, so the blending assures that the skins don't detract from the final result.
The blended tomatoes are added. The whole mixture cooks for an hour or so till it becomes thick enough and yields a lovely pms 179.
This sauce is the bomb. Full flavored, satisfying, and intricate enough to provide an exciting experience for the full-fledged foodie.

Fresh Mint Lemon-Limeade

All summer our favorite drink was this minty lemon-limeade:

Fresh Mint Lemon-Limeade

3 cups of ice
1/2 cup lime juice
1/2 cup lemon juice
a few mint leaves (5+ big leaves, more if the leaves are small)
1 cup sugar

In a saucepan combine the sugar with a few tablespoons of water and heat, stirring occasionally till the sugar is dissolved (about 3 to 5 minutes, or maybe less, I don't remember).

Fill blender with ice, then fill with water till the waterline is about a 1/2 inch or so above the top of the ice. Add juices and sugar water and mint leaves. Blend until the ice gets light and fluffy, and a little frothy.

Note: All measurements are approximate. Sorry for the lack of precision.

This could be a cure for pms (not that I'd know, and certainly not the color kind, which can be a cure for the other kind). Matches pms 365, and is a very nice complement to Josh's pizza.