Tea "Biscuits"

Ah, one of the joys of being an American is that a "biscuit" brings to mind something that you use as a side dish -- to pretty much any meal. You can have gravy on it (sorry, not my thing) or wedge a sausage patty in it. You can put it as a side to a dinner of meat (or not) and greens. You can spread jam or honey on it. You can do a lot of things to a biscuit. And, depending on where in the country you live, biscuits might be fluffy (Southern influence) or thinner and crispier (Northern influence).

SO MANY OPTIONS.

But, Americans don't usually hear biscuit and think "a sweet."

These tea biscuits are definitely more like cookies, if you're an American reader. They're sweet (yet have protein because of the g-bean flour!), and very versatile. The original recipe comes from the Flying Apron Bakery Cookbook, and calls for placing beautiful little berries in the center of each cookie. That's yummy (and frozen blueberries work great, btw). But you can also season these with sweet spices and create something that's (still) totally appropriate for eating with a mug of hot tea (or coffee), any time of day.

I make my tea biscuits much smaller than the original recipe recommends (it recommends baseball sized, mine are closer to golf-ball sized -- but then, I'm also not selling them in a bakery). A thought about this: If you're making them for a fundraiser or something along those lines, definitely make them big. I didn't have to make much of an adjustment to the baking time, so you should only need to leave them in for a few extra minutes. 

I like that these come together pretty quickly (though they do want to hang out in the refrigerator for a few hours -- you can make the dough in advance and just make a few at a time this way), but they will leave your hands sticky (something I'm less thrilled about). I recommend making the dough as listed below, and then modifying it however you'd like (suggestions also below, probably you don't want to try all the variations at the same time).


Tea Biscuits
2 1/2 cups brown rice flour
1 1/2 cups, plus 1 tablespoon garbanzo bean flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup canola oil
Scant 1 cup cane sugar
1 cup soy milk
Berries (optional)

Additions (probably only try 1-2 at a time, based on preference):
1/2-1 cup mini vegan gf chocolate chips (such as Enjoy Life)
4-5 drops pure orange oil (a little goes a long, long way -- and orange essence is not the same thing)
1 tablespoon of cinnamon
1/4 cup minced, candied ginger

Combine the brown rice flour, garbanzo bean flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl (or if you have a stand mixer, in that), beat together the canola oil and cane sugar until well mixed. Stir in the flour mixture and the soy milk a little at a time, alternating, until well mixed. Chill* the dough at least three hours (it can go less, but believe me, you want that garbanzo bean flour to hydrate).

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place golf ball sized balls of dough on a cookie sheet that has been greased or covered with parchment paper, about 1 inch apart (these don't spread much). Lightly flatten the balls with the palm of your hand. If you're using berries, press 2-3 into the top of each cookie.

Bake until golden and firm to the touch, about 20-24 minutes.

*Optional:
Stir in the mix-in to some (or all) of the dough before you let it rest in the refrigerator. If you're only making a few cookies and want to try out one of these options, I definitely recommend reducing the amount of ingredient you're choosing to mix in. You don't want to overpower the delicate flavors in these tea biscuits.

Vanilla Cranberry Smoothie

I'll keep the prelude short, since I've been writing about smoothies a lot of recent. This smoothie continues to use my cranberry stash, and I added some rolled oats to help make it creamy. I added two leaves of Russian red kale from my CSA, because I could, and because I like adding in veggies whenever possible. In my mind, these additions, along with vanilla soy milk help the smoothie last longer -- and whether that's true or not, I felt less hungry a couple hours after finishing this smoothie, compared to some of my other recent concoctions.

Vanilla Cranberry Smoothie (with kale!!)

2 tablespoon OJ Concentrate

1 cup vanilla soy milk

1/4 cup GF old fashioned oats

1/2 cup cranberries

2 leaves Red Russian Kale

Combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend until very smooth. Add water or more soymilk if you like, to create the consistency you want (or that works for your blender). Serves 1.

Vanilla Cranberry Smoothie with Red Russian Kale

Ghost Bites (aka Muddy Buddies), a Halloween Snack

Regardless of exactly how you make it, or what you call it, chocolate-peanut butter-powdered sugar covered cereal is pretty addictive--and super quick to make. I don't think I've ever spent more than about 15 minutes from start to finish (though it does take me longer when I go the route of stove-top melting the chocolate, peanut butter, and butter). When I lived in the Midwest, I could reliably bring this to parties and people would gobble it down--and tell me their puppy chow (that's what they all seemed to call it) memories.

This snack is easy to make vegan* and gluten-free**.

I've heard it called:
Muddy Buddies ("technically" the Crispix recipe)
Puppy Chow (this is the recipe on the side of the Rice Chex box)
Kibble
White Trash (though this is made with white chocolate about as often and often has actual peanuts and sometimes mini-pretzels as well)

Ah, the joys of living all over the country and hearing colloquialisms.

In honor of Halloween, I'm dubbing it Ghost-Bites. I also took these to a movie night where we watched a scary movie and Ghost-Bites seemed a bit more in the spirit of the evening. We watched a supposed comedy, Super, which turned out to be not so much of a comedy in the laugh-out-loud or even dark humor sort of way, but a comedy in the variety of "I laugh at gratuitous violence and at the mentally ill." To keep my review short and avoid spoilers, I doubt people will see this movie and think, "Hm, I should become a superhero." At the end of the movie night, I think all seven of us felt pretty uncomfortable. E and I went home to watch a couple episodes of Coupling to help erase the images of Super.

But back to Ghost Bites (which, I was surprised, were new to several of the movie-night attendees).

If I'd thought about it early enough, I probably would have dyed my powdered sugar orange (and really, it's not too late. I have more of all the ingredients and so I might make a small batch, just to post here).

I seem to use a little less sugar than any of the recipes I've seen -- which call from anywhere between 1 bag of powdered sugar (so much waste!) to 3 cups to 1.5 cups (Chex). I use about a cup.

I tend to mix this in a paper grocery sack, because I always seem to have extra, and because it absorbs a little of the extra grease. For the same reason, I let the Ghost Bites cool on a paper grocery sack that I've cut down the sides to increase the surface area that lies flat on the counter top and let it cool several hours (preferably overnight when I don't need my kitchen counters).

A note on peanut butter: I personally like using freshly ground peanut butter, which isn't quite as smooth as some natural peanut butters, but is smooth enough. You could use chunky peanut butter, I suppose, if that's all you've got, but I would recommend a smoother version just because it makes coating the cereal a little easier.

Ghost Bites
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate (you can also use vegan chocolates if you're making a vegan version)
1/2 cup natural, unsweetened peanut butter
1/4 cup butter (or vegan margarine)
1 teaspoon vanilla
9 cups rice or corn (or a combo) Chex
1 cup powdered sugar

In a saucepan, over low heat, melt together the chocolate, peanut butter, and butter, stirring often so you don't scorch the chocolate. As an alternative, you can microwave these ingredients in a microwave safe bowl on HIGH for 1 minute. Stir and microwave for another 30 seconds, if necessary. Stir in the vanilla.

In a separate, large bowl, measure 9(ish) cups of cereal. Pour the chocolate-peanut butter mixture over the cereal and stir until the cereal is thoroughly coated.

In a large paper grocery sack, or in a sealable 2-gallon plastic food storage bag, measure your powdered sugar. Pour in the chocolate-coated cereal, close the bag, and shake until the cereal is well coated. Spread out on a cookie sheet (or another paper grocery sack slit in half) to cool. Store in an air-tight container.

*If you're making this vegan, be sure to check with your vegan and make sure you're using a vegan powdered sugar (or see if they care), vegan chocolate, and vegan margarine.

Puppy Chow

**If you're making this gluten-free, be sure to check ingredient labels. Use certified GF products.

Snake Melon & Heirloom Tomato Salad

A friend recently gifted me a snake melon aka an Armenian cucumber. I looked at it, long and thin with pale green, ribbed skin, and said thanks and then wondered "what the hell do I do with this??" But, I like cucumber, which is what this (botanically speaking) melon tastes like and so I was pretty sure I could come up with something. I stuck it in my fridge and forgot about it for approximately a week.

Then I saw it again the other evening. It lay, accusingly it seemed, in my crisper (still crisp, by the way) and so I pulled it out. I'd picked up cheap, organic, heirloom cherry tomatoes from a local farmers market the day before and I resolved I'd put the cuke and the tomatoes together and come up with something to dress them up a bit.

Armenian Cuke aka Snake Melon

Armenian cucumbers, as I said before, are actually melons--muskmelons, to be exact, which puts them as a close relative to what Americans call cantaloupe. The Armenian cucumber is reputed to get a good slicing cuke (whatever that means--I don't think I've had an experience I would call "bad" slicing cucumber) and came from Armenia to Italy in the 15th century, at least according to one of the website I found online while researching this post. It's gaining popularity as an heirloom crop and supposedly grows well both on the ground and from trellises. All of this is wonderful, but there are almost no recipes for it online.

Here, I must admit I like Greek food. A lot. And although I only live a few blocks from a Greek restaurant, I don't think eating-out Greek food is in my near future. So, I poked through my spices and dried herbs, and as I already knew, I didn't have dill weed. Okay, new plan. Kinda. I wasn't ready to give up on my plans for Greeking-up my Armenian cucumber.

So, I chopped the Armenian cucumber and halved the tomatoes, then topped them with a locally-made European style yogurt, then gave it just a sprinkle of onion powder and black pepper. Greek? No. Delicious. I think so. I'm going to see if my friend has more of these cucumbers she'd be willing to part with -- something tells me, the way cucumbers grow (all ready all at the same time) she probably does.

Snake Melon (Armenian Cucumber) & Heirloom Tomato Salad
1 snake melon, approximately 24" long, quartered & chopped
15-20 heirloom cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup plain European-style yogurt (this is a thin, runny yogurt), or to taste
Onion powder
Ground black pepper

Put the chopped snake melon and cherries in a bowl, then drizzle the yogurt on top. Sprinkle a dash of onion powder and a dash of black pepper, then toss gently and serve.

Serves 1-2.

Chocolate-Dipped Frozen Banana Bites

Banana Bite with Sprinkles

A while back, my friend Annie made chocolate-dipped frozen banana bites and brought them to a party. I'm not sure which website she found the idea from, otherwise I would try to credit that as well. However, there are a lot of variations of this recipe out there. Annie was trying to clear out extra ingredients from her kitchen before she went to Wyoming.

These banana bites are simple to make and fun to eat. I say this even though I stopped eating bananas earlier this year, after deciding that I couldn't support them ethically (even fair trade bananas have their issues) or environmentally. When I eat bananas in the future (I decided), I planned to eat ones that are not the traditional Cavendish bananas sold in stores--there are so many varieties, and eating other varieties may encourage their sale. (I could go on about this, but it's just as easy for you to Google the problems behind Cavendish bananas, if you're interested.)

However, when the local store has a bin of bargain bananas (99-cents for a 1/2 peck because they're going brown) and when I'm babysitting a 2-and-a-half year old and a 5-year-old 40 hours a week, and when the Midwest is (was) in the middle of a major heat wave, I'm willing to compromise my banana-thoughts. Especially when I'm not the one buying the bananas.

Here's what happened:

Mom of the kids brings home the 1/2 peck of bananas, after a trip to the grocery store and says: "I thought you could make make banana muffins or something with the kids. O really likes to stir." And I say, "Sounds great. I'd love to."

However, the kids did not want to make banana muffins. So I sliced three or four of the bananas into 1/2-inch  slices and melted some chocolate. I dipped the banana slices into the chocolate and shook off the extra. For the toppings I used: sprinkles, coconut, or sunflower seeds (one topping per banana slice). Then I froze the banana slices until the next day--but I've read that this could be done in three hours. The next day, chocolate-dipped frozen banana bites made a perfect treat after a couple hours playing at the park when the heat index was in the mid-110s.

For my banana bites, I only dipped the bananas in halfway and some of my slices were probably closer to 1-inch. Here's what you'll need:

Chocolate-Dipped Frozen Banana Bites

1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons canola oil
Assorted toppings (chopped salted peanuts, salted sunflower seeds, shredded & unsweetened coconut, sprinkles, mini M&Ms, toffee candy bites, etc.)
3-4 ripe bananas, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices

Microwave the chocolate and canola oil on high for one minute and the stir until the chocolate is smooth and the oil is incorporated. You don't want the chocolate too hot, but if all the lumps don't disappear after about 1 minute of stirring, microwave on high for an additional 15 seconds.

Place each topping in a shallow dish or on a plate. Line a baking sheet with foil or waxed paper and then arrange the banana slices on the foil. Using fingers, dip one banana slice in chocolate, coating halfway. Shake off excess chocolate and then dip in one topping. Using other hand, sprinkle more topping over banana (if desired). Transfer to the foil-lined sheet and repeat with remaining bananas. Freeze until firm. Pull out 10 minutes before serving so the banana can soften slightly.

Barbecue Hummus!

Hormel Nature Center Wildflowers, West Prairie Loop

I had the opportunity this weekend to go visit a friend who is living in Austin, Minnesota for the summer. My friend and I biked around town (deviant behavior! Most people drive everywhere, though the town is small, with wide streets and wide shoulders) and visited the Hormel Nature Center (aside from the people finishing up a bike race, we were the only people we saw the entire time we wandered) where we walked about four miles, looked at prairie flowers and grasses, waded through streams, and got attacked by swarms of hungry mosquitoes. After this, we biked to Hy-Vee grocery and picked up supplies for dinner. I wore sunglasses pushed back on my head and we both had on backpacks. My friend pointed out that at least one person gave us a strange look. We bought grapes, apples, and peaches (apples and peaches for immediately consumption), and the black-bean burger ingredients his pantry was missing. At the checkout, I told the bagger I didn't need a bag--I'd just put things in my backpack. Another strange look. My friend said the same thing and the bagger looked disgusted with us.

You should know, when I arrived, his host parents asked first if I was a cyclist also (yes), and if I was also a vegetarian (yes). Austin, Minnesota, if you didn't know, is the home of Hormel and, as my friend later shared, his host family makes gentle (my interpretation, not his) fun of anything remotely deviant. They consider his bike to work (3 miles) a long bike. He has a car there, he just doesn't use it--and is considering getting rid of it altogether.

While we were making Veganomicon black bean burgers (with vital wheat gluten and bread crumbs despite my suspected gluten sensitivity--he knows about this and offered to leave both items out; I didn't feel like trying to figure out how to fix it if it went wrong and now thing that these could both be left out with no problem, fyi if you decide to try the recipe), my friend mentioned that since his experiment with Swiss chard hummus worked out, he wanted to try making barbecue hummus next.

Barbecue hummus! What a great idea (crediting this to him)! I asked how he planned to make it barbecue flavored and he responded "um, with barbecue spices, I guess. I thought about using barbecue sauce but decided that would be cheating." I agreed (though that didn't make the idea of using barbecue sauce less appealing--there are a couple of barbecue sauces made locally that I adore). My mouth watered for barbecue hummus after my friend mentioned this plan.

And so when I got home Sunday, I proceeded to make my own variation of barbecue hummus. I wanted to use up some of my dried beans, so I used about 1/4 pound of dried lima beans and a cup of red lentils (I didn't measure, so this is very approximate). I soaked them before cooking, and cooked them on medium heat for about an hour, adding water as needed. I added minced garlic halfway through the bean cooking time, and at the end, added barbecue spice (which I had on hand as a "free" sample--meaning if I came in and spent at least $5 they'd hand me a tiny jar as a reward--from the local bulk spice dealer, Penzey's). The result: delicious!

I don't currently have tahini, so it isn't included in this recipe, but if you have tahini and like it in your hummus (and I do, don't get me wrong) you should definitely add it.

Barbecue Hummus (amounts are approximate)
1/4 pound dried Lima beans
1 cup dried red lentils
Water
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon barbecue spices (I used BBQ 3000), or to taste
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt, optional, to taste

Soak your limas and lentils by boiling them in water (I use approximately a 2:1 ratio for soaking) for 1 minute and then covering and allowing to rest, off the heat, for 3 hours. Add more water (I like my hummus thin, but not runny) and boil the beans and lentils for 30 minutes, adding water if needed. Add the garlic and continue to cook another 30 minutes, or until tender. Stir in the BBQ spice, paprika, and lemon juice, then blend until smooth (I use an immersion blender, but a food processor or mashing by hand would work also) . Taste and add salt, if desired.

Chill and serve.

Note: The hummus will thicken as it cools. Also, there aren't pictures of the hummus itself, because it turns an unappealing (on the camera) color. Mine looks prettier in person--BUT the exact color will vary based on the spices you use.

Product Review: Food Should Taste Good Hemp Chips

My co-op is running a sale for the first two weeks of July on Food Should Taste Good Hemp Chips (but none of the other Food Should Taste Good products), so I decided to give the chips a try. I love the FSTG sweet potato chips best, but haven't disliked any of their chips so far.

The same is true for these hemp chips, which to be honest, are glorified blue corn tortilla chips. In fact, organic blue corn is the first ingredient, followed by high oleic sunflower and/or safflower oil, THEN hemp seeds, corn bran and sea salt. All ingredients I can pronounce. Pronounceable ingredient lists is becoming increasingly important to me.

The chips have a nice crunch, are about the same size as traditional tortilla chips (but a bit thicker than many commercially available brands), and aren't particularly salty.

Chip Relative to Picture on Package

But I'd have liked a little more...hemp flavor. Hemp has a distinctive flavor--if you've ever gone the hemp nut or hemp seed milk, you know what I'm talking about, a mild nutty taste (geez, this is true of so many seeds that it feels like a non-description). It's there, but subtle.

If you've tried FSTG products before, you should give these a try. And if you haven't...maybe try one of the more interesting chips first. They aren't, nutritionally speaking, much better for you than regular chips -- similar calorie counts, more or less fat and protein depending on the variety you pick -- but they are lower sodium, which is important for some diets, gluten-free, non-GMO, certified vegan and kosher, etc. And they taste much better than most traditional chips I've tried (and I don't think that's just a psychological result of the name). These are the reasons you should try FSTG chips. And, if you're bringing chips and dip/salsa for a party, the hemp chips, or most of the other varieties would be great (maybe not the chocolate for anything but a sweet dip? I haven't tried it, but the website indicates these are good crumbled on ice cream. Hm....)

Also, if you're in the "you can get high off hemp; it should be banned" camp, you're wrong. Technically, you could get high off industrially raised hemp, I suppose, but according to my research its bred to have an incredibly low THC level (this is what gets people high) in favor of being much more fibrous. The THC that is present on the outer portion of the seed can be "dabbed off with alcohol" or scrubbed off with a brush. In other words, you'd have to eat a lot of raw hemp. A lot.

Fast & Easy Biscotti

 Biscotti. A coffeehouse indulgence. Or from a box at the grocery store. Or homemade--but gosh, what a hassle! I've made biscotti from scratch a few times and although these twice-baked cookies are actually pretty simple, they seem intimidating. Get the dough just right. Add ingredients. Hope they hold together okay when they're finished. Geez.

I made these biscotti recently, for a presentation where I was supposed to bring some sort of snack. The original recipe doesn't call for chocolate--but chocolate goes so well with coffee. If you're not a chocolate person, leave it out. The base for these biscotti allows you a lot of flexibility with your ingredients, so work with what you have. I happened to want to make my biscotti tropical, since cinnamon and nutmeg are already tropical flavors (so is vanilla, for that matter), so I added papaya, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and sesame seeds.

When I worked my dough, it came out a bit drier than I would have liked so I added some cold coffee (about 1 tablespoon) to the dough. Why coffee instead of water? Extra flavor -- specifically an earthy flavor that would blend well with tropical flavors I was already using.



Fast & Easy Biscotti (with papaya, chocolate, and sesame seeds)
1 (16.5 or 18-ounce) roll refrigerated sugar cookie dough

2/3 cup all-purpose, whole wheat flour
1 ½ cups chopped papaya, coarsely chopped semi-sweet chocolate chips, and sesame seeds*
2 tablespoons grated orange zest

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (a few drops of orange extract can be added as well)
1 tablespoon cold coffee, or water**

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly spray a cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Break up the cookie dough into large bowl; let stand for 10–15 minutes to soften.

Add flour, cranberries, orange zest, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla extract to the cookie dough; mix well with your fingers, the paddle attachment of an electric stand mixer, or a wooden spoon. Add coffee/water if needed so that the dough just holds together.

Divide dough into two equal halves. On the cookie sheet, shape each dough half into a 12 x 2-inch rectangle, 3/4-inch high, spacing the dough halves about 3 inches apart.

Bake for 26–28 minutes or until the logs are deep golden brown and spring back in the center when touched. Remove sheet from oven; keep oven on. Let cool for 3-4 minutes and then using two pancake turners, lift logs, one at a time, from the cookie sheet to a cutting board. Using a sharp knife, cut one of the logs into 3/4-inch wide slices. Note: for longer biscotti, cut at a deep diagonal; for shorter biscotti, cut log crosswise. Repeat with second log.

Place slices on the same cookie sheet (do not worry about the spacing). Bake slices for 5 minutes; remove from oven and turn over all of the slices. Return cookie sheet to oven and bake for 5 minutes longer. Turn off oven and let biscotti sit in oven for approximately 15 more minutes.

Remove sheet from oven and let cool for 10 minutes and then transfer biscotti to a wire rack; cool completely.


Makes 28 biscotti.
 
*Other fun combinations might include:

• Cranberries, chocolate chips/white chocolate chips, pistachios
• Cinnamon chips and white chocolate chips
• White chocolate chips and pecans
• Pecans and dried apricots

**You'll want the dough to hold together just enough to form it into two logs. You do not want sticky dough. Add additional liquid only if needed.