Breads
Ooey Gooey Monkey Biscuits for Brunch
Do you crave some comfort? We are all feeling it. I’m forging ahead with all the healthful piles of plants that I usually serve, and feeling good about it. But a balanced life also affords us a little treat. Like these caramel-drenched, walnut-studded Monkey Biscuits.
Squash and Wild Rice Make Comforting Muffins
Winter Squash and Wild Rice for the Season Everybody needs a little comfort right now. It's cold out, and these are challenging times. What better way to warm up than to turn on the oven and bake some tender, fluffy muffins? These are perfect for cozy breakfasts at...
Make a Decorated Focaccia, Brighten the Day
Decorated Focaccia is the Easiest Bread! In these days of "stay the F#%! home," many of you have been finding time to bake. If anything good comes from our current disaster, I hope that it is a new and sustained interest in baking and cooking at home. Home made has...
Stay in and Bake Banana-Tahini Muffins with Crystallized Ginger
People are putting tahini in everything these days, and these muffins are a perfect example of how versatile the sesame seed butter can be.
Whole Wheat-Chia Buns in the Slow Cooker
Start slow cooker baking to make delicious whole wheat buns with chia in about an hour and forty five minutes, for fresh, warm bread to go with your meal.
Buckwheat Biscuits, With A Crunchy Secret Ingredient
It's biscuit season, and just in time for Veganuary, I'm baking up lots of these plant-based, versatile Crunchy Buckwheat Biscuits. There are many secrets to making a great whole grain biscuit, but these pack a crunchy punch that you may never have tried before. The...
Warm Up with Tasty Scones Made From Freshly Ground Flour
Fresh Flour Makes a Great Scone Nothing makes a snowed-in morning feel cozier than a batch of scones, still warm from the oven. Scones are so simple, simple enough that little shifts in technique and ingredients can make the difference between a decent scone and one...
Chocolate Tahini, the new PB and Chocolate? Bake Some Chocolate Tahini Bread
As a recipe developer, I pay attention to the food trends that are on the move. Some are absurd, like unicorn food, or charcoal in everything. But some flavors rise to the top by just being good. The latest seductive combo I've been flirting with is the merger of...
Bake Some Kabocha Cornbread to Share
Looking for an easy, fast bread that goes with every meal? This tender Kabocha Cornbread is ready in minutes, and can be a breakfast, lunch, or dinner bread. You can even use the leftovers for the best stuffing EVER. I've been so busy getting ready for the holiday,...
Celebrate Whole Grains Month with Honeycrisp-Walnut Muffins
Happy Whole Grains Month! How are you doing so far? Are you eating at least three servings a day of whole grains? I hope it's as easy and delectable for you as it is at my house. Take these Honeycrisp and Walnut Muffins. Muffins are so easy to eat, for breakfast with...
Make Rhubarb the Star on your Blueberry Banana Bread
Perhaps we love rhubarb because it comes to us in Spring. After a long, hard winter, the insistent stalks of this hardy plant just burst from the ground like unfurling flags, heralding the coming summer. I'll take it. The "Pie Plant" The "pie plant" is the gift that...
The Jazzy Vegetarian’s Deliciously Vegan Cookbook
( A winner has been chosen in the giveaway, but you can still make this recipe!) It's gonna be jazzy! If you haven't seen the popular and long-running "Jazzy Vegetarian" on PBS, you might not know that there's a jazz-singing vegan in the kitchen, and she's got her own...
Bake Some Cranberry Sweet Potato Scones for Wintry Breakfasts
Not Just For Holidays Anymore Did you know that Wisconsin is the biggest producer of cranberries? Take that California, with your sunny, temperate weather. The snowy Midwest is the source of 60% of the bright red berries that we eat by the bushel at the holidays. As...
Orange Appeal; Savory and Sweet, Recipes for a Kiss of Orange
Orange Appeal, Savory and Sweet Oranges are one of the fruits we take for granted, aren't they? Thanks to their keeping qualities and a steady supply on grocer's shelves, we expect to be able to pack a navel in our lunches whenever it strikes us. But really, oranges...
Try a Sweet Potato and Corn Scone for Whole Grains Month
Fall, and Whole Grains Month, Come Too Soon These last weeks of summer, the sweet corn tastes like candy, and I'm buying it at the market every week, as if it could keep Fall at bay. There are still watermelons and raspberries and corn, dangit, so it's still summer,...
Kamut-Chickpea Naan with Banana Chutney- Whole Grain Riot of Flavor
The ever-evolving tradition of bringing a basket of breads to the table at restaurants is often a quandary. The reason you are there is because you are hungry, so it's very easy to dig into a basket of warm rolls and ruin your appetite. On the other hand, the breads...
Luscious Pears, Perfectly Luscious, Perfect for Scones
Loving pears can feel like a dance with a cruel temptress. You'll see one across the crowded produce aisle, all golden and curvy, aglow with sweet promise. But once you get it home, that seductive pear turns out to be mealy, gritty, or just plain flavorless. But...
Start Seeing Sorghum, Try It For Whole Grains Month
Sorghum. Maybe one day it will have the same cultural cachet as Quinoa. Quinoa is right up there with lattes and arugula as a signifier of foodie culture. It's been a long climb, but that Peruvian grain has been embraced by the gourmets, the health conscious,...
Whole Wheat Bao with Black Bean Tofu, The Steamed Bun for Everyone
Bao are hot right now. At least if you pay attention to all the chatter about places like Momofuku in NYC. Bao are simply Chinese steamed buns, and they come in many forms. The folded bao that they serve at places like Momofuku are made with a fluffy, sweet white...
It’s Peanut Butter Month-Enter A Peanut Butter Recipe, Try Mine, too
It's a fun little game to play: Ask yourself about things you'd take to a desert island. If you could only have one book, one record, etc. So think about it, if you had to pick one single food to take to the desert island, what would it be? (And if you could make up a...
Baking with Bean Juice-Trying Out Aquafaba
Have you heard about "aquafaba?" I know, it sounds like some kind of water aerobics, or maybe a hair styling product. But it's actually good old bean juice. Yes, the cooking water that we usually drain off and throw away has a new use, and a new name. "Aqua" is water,...
Playing with Purple Corn in Cornbread, Grits, and Chips!
It's funny how you find out about things. In October I attended a conference of the American Cereal Chemists International. Let's just call it "grain nerd heaven." Cereal chemists from all over the world were sharing technology and research, and there was an exhibit...
A Flatbread Hack to Make Easy Za’atar Bread
Bread is the most elemental of foods. Grain, water, salt, and some busy little yeasts to do the heavy lifting. Depending on your level of commitment, it can take days to craft a great loaf. True artisans nurture starters for decades, and slowly ferment their doughs to...
The Best Way to Save Squash, and Streusel Muffins to Savor It
Got squash? It's that time of year, and I know I have gotten carried away at the Farmer's Market a time or two. The piles of orange, blue, green and gold squashes are too gorgeous to pass by without grabbing a few choice ones. It's ok, since I love squash so much....
A Trick for the Best Rhubarb Scones
Aah, the enigmatic rhubarb still has me in its thrall. Just walking by the plants gets my mind going, thinking of things to make with those fat, vigorous stalks. At this point, it's taking up so much room in the garden that I need to use it, just to give the kale and...
Irish Soda Bread with Orange and Currants for St Pat’s!
We are all Irish on St Patrick's Day. Or so the saying goes. Woo-hoo! Green beer for everybody! St Patrick himself was not originally from Ireland, so we can all follow his lead and act Irish on his day. St Patrick was English, an unlucky guy who was kidnapped and...
Brown Rice, Arsenic, and You, and a Great Loaf of GF Bread
I have to admit, when I heard about rising concerns about arsenic in rice, I went into a denial spiral. "Not brown rice, the soul food of vegetarians everywhere!" I thought, as if the chewy, comforting grains were an old friend, now accused of a crime. Good old...
Ancient Grains May Be the Answer, Or Not?
By the time you read this, I will be digesting the latest information on Whole Grains. I'm leaving for a conference on the current state of affairs surrounding our understanding of wheat, whole grains, and gluten. You see, while the bread aisle of your favorite market...
Too Hot to Bake? Try the Grill!
Here in Minnesota, we are known for our cold weather, bland food, and funny accents (Yah-you betcha!) But we also get a very concentrated couple of months of hot, humid summer, when temps can sail into the 100's. Oh, and we have wildly diverse, International...
Sandor Katz and the Art of Fermentation
Jump in the way-back machine, and come with me to 2003. I'm working on my monthly column for the local Twin Cities Wellness paper, looking for stories. A friend asks me if I am going to see the sauerkraut demonstration, by some guy with a book. Well, I got a...