Saturday, July 18, 2009

Market Madness

Today's market was amazing! So busy at times that we could barely keep up...but we love it that way. Thanks to all the customers who visited us today. We really appreciate your business! Now, on to business. Here are the day's recipes:


Sugar-Free Apricot Sticky Muffins
I made quite a few modifications to the original recipe, so I'll post my modified recipe here. They sold out, so I can only assume they were good!



  • 1 cup apple juice
  • 1/2 cup dried apricot halves, finely chopped
  • 1 3/4 cup white all purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup dry farina (Cream of Wheat)
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 cup Margarine, melted
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 egg whites , lightly beaten
  • 8 oz nonfat peach yogurt (substitute vanilla or plain if desired)
  • cooking spray
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
  2. Microwave apple juice and apricots in a covered and vented microwave safe bowl until mixture boils (about 3 minutes on high). Let mixture rest and keep covered until fully cooled. Strain mixture in a colander set over a bowl in order to save juice.
  3. Mix flour with farina, sugar, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Whisk together 3 tablespoons of saved apple juice (from previous step), margarine, vanilla, egg whites, and yogurt. Gradually mix flour mixture into apple juice mixture. Then, mix in apricots.
  4. Divide batter among a 12-cup muffin tin coated with cooking spray. Bake muffins for 20 minutes or until set. Let muffins cool on a wire rack. When cooled, dip tops of muffins in saved apple juice and scatter with sugar.
These sold out as well. They kind of reminded me of that oh-so-delicious Girl Scout cookie known as a Caramel Delite. Instead of chocolate chips, I used Nestle Swirled Milk Chocolate and Caramel Chips. And I used these adorable baby bananas because they were the only ripe ones at my grocery store.
Oh yeah, and instead of baking mix, I used 1/3 cup each of tapioca flour, sorghum flour, and brown rice flour, plus 1 teaspoon of baking powder.

The weather has been cool this week, and I guess it got me in the mood for autumn, because these muffins definitely evoke September/back-to-school feelings. I guess other people were in the same mood, because there were only two left!

Yet another great BakingBites recipe, this coffeecake was a big hit. I forgot to layer the chocolate into the cake, but other than that I followed the recipe exactly.

I guess I was in a bar cookie-type mood this week, because these were my third. A super easy, six-ingredient recipe...only two left!

This week's scone recipe was a real winner...they turned out flaky and beautiful. Laura hand-picked the blackberries while working(!) in Peoria.

The original recipe for these calls for Corn Flakes, but I didn't have them, so I used Corn Chex. Again, only two left!

And now for the Sprouted Grain Bread update. There was a little mishap regarding the first grains I sprouted. Long story short, I visited Laura in Peoria for a couple days, leaving my poor grains to ferment. Oops! Some of them literally carbonated their sprouting water. It was not good. Anyway, I ended up re-sprouting, with the exception of the amaranth because I didn't want to deal with trying to drain it (see my earlier post about this). I also sprouted some wheat berries, because wheat is the only grain that has the necessary protein on which yeast feed (I know how ridiculous that sounds, but I hate dangling participles). Also, after a little more research into the subject, I discovered that it's preferable not to leave the grains sitting in water between rinsings. Also, I realized that the anaerobic environment created by screwing the lids/rings onto the jars probably does nothing but encourage fermentation, so I just left the jars with their window screen covering them, and no lid. I sprouted half a cup (dry) of each of the following grains: wheat berries, barley, rye, oats, millet, and red quinoa. To actually make the bread, I combined two tablespoons of instant (not fast-acting) yeast with a little warm water and a little honey. Although it's not technically necessary to dissolve the yeast when using instant, I wanted to give it a little head start since the bread contained such a small amount of wheat. After the yeast mixture was nice and foamy, I poured it into the food processor with the drained grains, a little salt, a squirt of honey, and a couple handfuls of spelt flour. When the mixture formed a dough (of sorts), I scraped it into a bowl and let it rise for about two hours...longer probably would have been better. Then I scraped it into a 9x5-inch loaf pan and let it rise again for about two hours. I then baked it in a 350-degree oven for about 45 minutes...the tap test (you know, where you tap the bottom of the loaf and it sounds hollow) doesn't really work on this bread because of its density, but the finished bread is dry yet still slightly springy. To prevent a rock-hard crust from forming, I wrapped the loaf in a clean kitchen towel and enclosed it in a gallon-size Ziploc bag for about 45 minutes. After this, I removed the bread and let it cool completely on a wire rack. Here's the finished product:
Stay tuned for further experiments with sprouted grains. We're camping in Saylorville this week...I can't wait to see the cute sprout jars sitting on our picnic table!




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