Whole Wheat Berry Danishes

One very delicious blog I follow called Seven Spoons recently posted a recipe for a rhubarb danish. Naturally, I had to begin baking immediately. With no rhubarb in the house, all markets and grocery stores closed, and my beloved rhubarb plant abandoned at our old house (along with my berry patch and perennial herbs - waaaah!) I had no choice but to use the berries in my fridge.

The blogger who created the danish recipe apologizes that it is tricky and time consuming but I didn't have much of a problem. I made a few adjustments and am very pleased!

Whole Wheat Berry Danishes

6 T milk, warmed
1 egg
1 tsp dry yeast
1 drop almond extract
1 heaping cup whole wheat flour
1 pinch sea salt
1 pinch cane sugar
1/2 cup very cold butter or coconut oil, diced up
coarse sugar for finishing

In a small bowl, mix milk, egg, yeast and almond extract together.
In a large bowl, mix flour, salt, sugar and butter together. Cut the butter, using two knives, into smaller and smaller pieces until it's basically lumpy sand.
Pour the wet into the "dry" and mix.
Place in the fridge, covered, overnight.

In the morning, preheat oven to 375.
Place dough on the floured surface and roll into a rectangle. Fold in half, and roll back into the same shape. Fold again and roll, repeat.
Cut the rectangle into 4 equal servings. For each, place a handful of blueberries and raspberries, a pinch of sugar and a dash of lemon juice down the middle line. Alternatively, spread a line of berry jam down the centre. Then, like you're making a soft taco, roll the edge with the berries inside until you have a large cigar shape. Make 3 large cuts along the top, and bend into a barely "C" shape. (This danish style is called a Bear Claw and it reminds me of working at Starbucks.)

Place on a lined baking sheet and sprinkle with coarse sugar. (These have a tendency to stick so buttering the tin foil or parchment may be a good safety net.) Bake until golden (about 20 - 25 minutes).

My Whole Foods Pantry

Healthy eating is worlds easier when you cook at home. These days food that strengthens, heals and nourishes the body is pretty hard to find in fast food restaurants and donut shops.

If you want to increase the number of meals you make at home you'll need a stocked kitchen. Local, humanely-raised meats, fresh fruits and vegetables and free-range eggs are great staples to have. These can be picked up weekly at a farmers' market. But there are a number of things you can store to have on hand whenever you need them:




Oils: olive, grapeseed, coconut
Vinegars: balsamic, red wine, rice, apple cider
Seasonings: Himalayan salt, black peppercorns, fresh and dried herbs, spices, chili flakes, garlic, ginger
Grains: quinoa, millet, whole-wheat couscous, brown rice
Seeds and nuts: sunflower seeds, walnuts, cashews, chia seeds, flax, hemp
Beans and lentils: small bean mix, pinto beans, green lentils, beluga lentils
Sweeteners: raw sugar, agave nectar, honey, maple syrup, molasses, brown sugar
Other: popcorn, baking soda, vanilla extract, spelt flour, cocoa powder, cocoa butter, coconut, dates, prunes, alfalfa seeds for sprouting, cornmeal, carob chips

With these ingredients you can feel confident preparing healthy meals (even without a recipe).

Try it Tuesday: Green Kitchenware

Cooking your own meals at home is eco-friendly in itself but what if you're whipping up batches of millet & mushroom cakes all while releasing toxins into your food? You may not even know you're doing it.

So here are a few easy swaps to make to avoid poisoning your healthy food by using unhealthy kitchenware:


Stove Top Cooking

Trade in your non-stick frying pan, your electric griddle and your casserole dishes for one cast iron skillet. It's an all-in-one kitchen tool that is safe, easy to clean and even makes your food more nutritious. Scientists believe frying in a cast iron skillet will transfer dietary iron to your food - sounds good to us prone to anemia! I've been a die-hard skillet-fan for some time now but the key is to get a nice old one. New skillets have not been seasoned and tend to stick. See if a family member has one that they'll part with, or check the second hand store. If you must buy new, oil the skillet often and bake it for a while with a layer of oil. Never wash with soap, or in the dishwasher. Keep in mind a hardy skillet can wreck the nice finish on those fancy flat top stoves so it would be better suited for the BBQ. 


Storing 
It goes without saying that almost all plastic is a no-no, especially when you plan to reheat certain things in a (*hushed voice*) microwave. So many parents make an effort to pack their kids a healthy lunch for school, and then ruin it with a container that leeches yucky chemicals into the food. For storing food, choose glass. It's also nice and easy to pop into a hot oven for reheating. The glass storage containers I've seen are pretty tough and not prone to shattering easily.



Cutting 
Slicing can cause fragments of your board to chip off and enter the food. Now this is on a microscopic level so it's nothing you'll taste or hurt yourself on, but if you're cutting on plastic it's not the best thing to expose your body too. I love using a wood cutting board. There are, however, two considerations when switching to wood: cleanliness and sustainability. Wood is a bacteria-promoter and needs to be thoroughly washed after every use. Use hot water and soap. Or, for less threatening items like red bell pepper, wipe down with half a lemon. Allow to dry fully. With any wooden item we need to be cognizant of its environmental impact. Choose a product that is certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council.


Wiping 
If you're still using paper towel, it's time to stop! Disposable products like this are unnecessary and brutal for the environment. With each use you transfer a beautiful piece of our forests to garbage in a land fill - not pretty. A simple kitchen cloth can handle any of the messes that paper can, and a dirty cloth will take no space at all in your weekly laundry load (or rinse and dry for simple messes). If you really want to go all the way, purchase a cloth made of organic cotton. Cotton's one of those things that is just nasty when it's not organic.

When you're ready to convert more disposable products to reusable check out my posts on diapers and diva cups.


Lastly, Filtering
The best water system I've seen is the Santevia. The countertop model fits nicely on any flat surface and uses gravity and a layered filtration tube to remove most toxins (not fluoride however), alkalize and mineralize.

The kitchen is a great place to change the world, but you've gotta change your tools before you can do it!

How to Bake Fresh Buns

November 17th is National Bread Baking Day and what better way to celebrate than by whipping up a batch of these yummy buns. Maybe you can even share with your scruffy-faced husband a la No-Shave November.

Ingredients:
1 cup warm milk
2 T water
2 T sugar or honey (stevia won't work - it does not provide food for yeast)
2 T margarine, butter or oil
1 pkg yeast
3 c flour
1 tsp salt

Directions:
1. Mix together first 5 ingrefients and let sit.
2. After 5 minutes, mix flour and salt together and mix in with other, wet ingredients forming a ball of dough.
3. Divide into how many buns you'd like to make (I recommend 6 or if you're doing mini-buns for sliders than 8 - 10). Put these smaller balls onto a cookie sheet.
4. Let rise for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 375.
5. Bake for 15 minutes or until slightly golden.

I like to add extra ingredients like sesame seeds on top for a burger bun or caraway seeds for a sandwich bun. You could also top with olive oil and rosemary, or try mixing shredded cheese into the dough.

Enjoy your National Bread Baking Day!