Sophie's Sourdough......

If you follow my photos on Instagram you'll already have seen that I have been slightly obsessed with baking bread just recently. At the beginning of the year I was tasked with looking after my neighbour's sourdough starter while she went away to Australia for several weeks.....This is where my sourdough journey began. I was feeding this jar of goop and desperately trying not to kill it and started to read a little about the process of baking bread that is naturally leavened, i.e baked without the use of commercial yeast.  It was fascinating and I started to experiment with baking. My very first loaf turned out pretty great (at the time) and I was hooked. I began feeding my starter every day and baking two loves of bread every day. I think this has been the key to my success. In feeding my starter every day I got to know it's rises and falls, or as I like to think...it's moods :)  I baked for a few weeks and was having success and enjoying the bread I was creating, then I read Tartine.  This changed everything! I had read the book back when we lived in Tofino and Neil and I had made attempts at sourdough but it never really clicked. Now, after having fed and sustained a lively sourdough starter, baked some reasonable bread and grown a basic understanding of and passion for the process, it suddenly all made sense! I read the recipe for the basic country loaf once and now it's in my head forever. I bought myself a cast iron combo cooker figured out a baking schedule that works for our family and I haven't looked back. The bread is just flour, water, salt and some of my starter. It's an ancient process and the results are truly outstanding! I haven't bought a loaf of bread from the supermarket since January and I don't intend to any time soon! I mix it entirely by hand and let it proof overnight so that I can bake first thing in the morning. I make bread every other day usually and if I don't feel like baking two loaves we'll use the extra half of the dough for pizza. I can't explain to you how surprised I am that I found this passion for baking bread and I can't really express how yummy this bread is without sounding like I'm tooting my own horn but I am so proud of myself for sticking with it. I can't even begin to explain how great it makes me feel to feed this to my children instead of a loaf choc-full of preservatives and goodness knows what other junk. This bread has changed my life in a way. I'm excited in the morning waiting for the oven to reach 500 degrees. I'm excited to plop the dough out of the bowl and into the hot cast iron pan. I'm excited to see it rise and to watch it's crust turn it's beautiful burnished brown. Most of all, I'm excited to take it from the the heat of the oven and quietly listen as it cools and sings it's crackly song.  How did I not know that bread could add this much magic to my life? 

Alpenglow Muffins.....

Yesterday I baked ten dozen muffins! Thats a lot of muffins. Not for me I might add. I was fulfilling my volunteer commitment to Isobel's school and that meant baking, lots of baking! It was actually quite nice to have a couple of hours of baking without the usual "helping hands" I have at home :) Although I must admit it was tough to bake without eating a single muffin or licking a single spoon! Anyway back to the muffins....these are the muffins that are served to the kids along with their shared fruit and veggies at snack time at the school. They are made with buckwheat flour and are vegan, gluten free, wheat free and contain no sugar, only the natural sweetness of ripe bananas and unsweetened apple sauce. The magical combination of baking soda and apple cider vinegar gives them a lovely lightness.  In other words they are about as good for you as a muffin can get and still taste lovely! This morning I baked a batch for home and thought I would share the recipe here for any of you looking for good, wholesome kid-friendly baking without all the nasties.  I've kept the recipe plain but of course you could add some yummy nuts or fruits or serve them with a drizzle of honey if you have a really sweet tooth. 

Banana, Buckwheat Muffins:

Ingredients

1 cup buckwheat flour

1 tablespoon ground flax seed combined with 3 tablespoons of hot water

1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1 1/2 tablespoons of coconut oil, melted

3 large ripe bananas, mashed

1/4 cup of unsweetened apple sauce

1/4 cup of water

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1tablespoon of apple cider vinegar

Instructions

1.Preheat oven to 350F and grease a mini muffin tin with coconut oil.

2. Combine the ground flax seed with 3 tablespoons of warm water and set aside for 5 - 10 minutes to form a gel.

3. In a mixing bowl combine the buckwheat flour, cinnamon, salt, melted coconut oil, bananas, apple sauce and water.

4. Add the flax seed gel and mix well to form a smooth batter. 

5 . Once the batter is well mixed add the baking soda and apple cider vinegar and quickly fold in the fizzing bubbles! 

6. Spoon the batter into the muffin tin filling each cup 3/4 way. 

7. Bake for approximately 15 minutes until the centres are firm and the tops of the muffins are just starting to crack. I baked my mini muffins for 15 minutes and my full sized muffins for 20-25 minutes. Allow 5 minutes to cool in the muffin tray before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

The muffins can be stored in an airtight container for a couple of days but for better shelf life in a sealed container in the fridge. 

Enjoy!

Wheat Free Banana Bread with Cashew Cream

I've been looking for ideas for things I can bake to go in Seb's Lunch box. I want to make sure he gets a nice filling, sweet treat every now and again but don't always want to send him off with conventional baked goods full of processed sugar and flour. Here's a recipe I came up with last week for a modified Banana bread that I can officially call a resounding success! I used brown rice flour and spelt flour instead of processed white flour. Coconut Oil instead of butter and coconut palm sugar instead of processed white sugar. I baked it last Thursday and it stayed moist and yummy in a sealed container for almost a week with a slice a day going off to school with Seb.  Result! 

I would have added walnuts or pecans but at the time I wasn't sure if there were any nut allergies in Seb's class so I left them out. I've since found out there are no allergies to worry about so I will definitely add them in next time. 

I made some cashew cream to top it off and enjoyed the odd slice myself with a bit of chopped banana and a wee sprinkle off bee pollen. Lovely with a cup of tea in the afternoon!

Banana Bread Ingredients

• 1 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup dates (chopped)
• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups bananas (mashed, very ripe, about 4)
• 3/4 cup Coconut palm sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 11/2 cups brown rice flour
• 1/2 cup Spelt flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/3 cup Coconut oil (melted)
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. 
   
2. 1. Preheat oven to 350°. Pour 1 cup boiling water over dates in a small bowl. Let stand 10 minutes. Drain and pat dry.
3. 2. Lightly beat eggs with a whisk in a large bowl. Whisk in bananas and next 3 ingredients until blended.
4. 3. Stir together brown rice flour and next 4 ingredients in a small bowl. Gently stir flour mixture into egg mixture, stirring just until blended. Gently stir in melted coconut oil, walnuts, and dates. Spoon mixture into a lightly greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.
5. 4. Bake at 350° for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack, and cool completely (about 1 hour).

Cashew Cream Ingredients

1 cup of raw cashews 

1/2 – 3/4 cup of filtered water (add more water according to consistency desired)

2-4 Tbsp. honey or pure maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1.  Soak the cashews in filtered water for 3 hrs or more then strain.

2.   Add the cashews and fresh filtered water to the blender or food processor and blend until smooth.

3.   Add remaining ingredients then blend until smooth.

Life lately....

I feel like life is a bit of a whirlwind at the moment, there's just so much going on at once I can't quite keep up! We've got a couple of major things in the works and most of it is so far out of our control it's a bit overwhelming. Happily I have two little faces to greet me every morning and constantly remind me to just take a deep breath and focus on whats right in front of me. The rest will sort itself out in time and worrying certainly won't help it along. 

Last week Seb started school, proper-all-day-long-school, and in my current state I added that to my list of things to stress about. How would he cope without me? Would he have any familiar faces in his class? Would his teacher be a dragon? How would I pack enough lunch and snacks for the whole day? We haven't practised his french...how would he cope with it all day? Who would stop him from running away during recess? I was stressing all week before his first day and on that morning I was a nervous wreck. I really hope this doesn't happen every year! I don't think I can cope! Anyway as soon as we arrived at school everything felt good. We met familiar faces walking up to the gates and giggled about our nerves and disorientation as we searched the lists posted on the wall to find out our classes. As it turned out Seb is in a class with at least five kids from his old kindergarten class and the moment we walked into the room they were all giggling and catching up. To top it off his teacher seems lovely! She even greeted each child with a hug and a kiss on the head! I left feeling relived and with Seb looking happy. Phew! 

The day after tomorrow Bel starts preschool but I get to stay with her for the first few sessions so at this point I'm more excited than anything. 

By the way, I take absolutely no responsibility for the sock and sandal combo! That was all Seb and when he has his mind set on something like that there's nothing anyone can do to change it. Socks and sandals it was. 

It's been almost a week now since he started and things are going well. There have been a couple of mornings where he's looked pretty sad to see me go but once he's in the door he seems to be fine. It's a long day for him and he's a bit of a grouch after school but I'm trying to be extra patient and just let him take his time and adjust.

In other photo worthy news, we came across two dear munching on our front yard the other day. They were right outside the front door and gave us quite a surprise as we walked down the path! It turned into a dramatic event...I ran to get my camera and both kids ran down the driveway to get a better look, Seb had no shoes on and tripped over a rock stubbing his toe pretty badly. In typical Seb style he screamed at the top of his lungs and fell to floor with dramatic flourish! This made the littler of the two dear FREAK OUT and high tail it out of our front bushes with big springy leaps! The other dear barely flinched and just kept munching. I took a few more photos but had to stop and check on Seb before his wailing and flailing disrupted the whole neighbourhood.

Friday was Neil's birthday which we are not supposed to make a fuss about hence it's not allowed it's own blog post. He hates birthdays (weirdo!) and tells me every year not to buy him a card or a present or even mention the dreaded "B word". Of course I do buy a card, a present, sing Happy Birthday, bake a cake, make some jelly and put up a big old banner complete with his age in giant colourful lettering...oh and then I post a photo of that banner on this blog for all to see :)  Happy 34th Birthday Neil! Love you!

Bel and I handled the cake baking while the boys were busy at school/work. She was so desperate to apply the sprinkles and held them in her hand from the moment we picked them up at Safeway until the cake was all baked and cooled (about two hours later)! She may have dropped them momentarily to lick every spoon or bowl she could get her hands on. And when I say dropped I mean dropped. Sprinkles everywhere. Of course this just gave her another reason to lick stuff. 

The cake turned out beautifully even if I do say so myself (smug face). I do love a good carrot cake. this one was a Jaimie Oliver recipe and was a bit more spiced than your average carrot cake. The absolute best thing about it was the icing.....it was made with mascarpone and fresh lime and oh it was divine! It was the perfect mix of sweet, zingy, tart and creamy-deliciousness! SOOO good!

We ate the cake as soon as Neil got in the door from work. It was as low key as he was going to get.

After slaving in the kitchen all morning Isobel scrubbed up pretty well in her party dress (thanks again Grandma!) She does love an excuse to dress up girly and do a few twirls, I think she must get that from Grandma too because Mummy certainly isn't very glam. 

We even moved out to the back deck to achieve maximum twirl potential! 

On the subject of the back deck...the little Basil I grew from seed is still doing well and he's been joined by some tomatoes, cabbages and a few wee greens that seem to be going strong! Hooray for slow progress! I could become a farmer yet!

Errrr what else......well we had our friends the Headley's down from Edmonton for a few days visit. It was really nice apart from a few minor injuries. Apparently I wasn't very good at taking photos that week and have nothing to show for our trip to the Cave and Basin in Banff, the boat trip on Lake Minnewanka or our picnic at Two Jack. Just one measly photo of the three kiddo's in the bath and even in that you can only see Seb's face :) We were obviously having too good of a time! If you want to see what we did you'll have to check their blog. :)

That's all folks! 

oats + banana = yum

I promised Bel banana muffins today but someone stole the second to last banana. With one banana and little enthusiasm I turned to google and came upon a brilliant idea! Cookies made with one cup of dry oats and one banana. That's it. Two ingredients. Hurrah!

Mix them up, scoop the mix onto a cookie sheet and bake at 350F for about 15 minutes. 

No sugar, no mess. Just healthy yummy-ness! It could not be any easier! 

I was sceptical that the mix would not stay together, I used an icecream scoop and packed it quite tight before dumping it onto the cookie sheet. They came out perfectly! The oats on the outside were crisp and the centre of the cookies were just perfectly chewy. They were just sweet enough as is but of course you could fancy them up by adding berries or chocolate chips. They are the perfect emergency snack!

I'm so impressed and so were the kiddies, check out Isobel's face......

She's taken one bite and she's already eyeing up the rest of the plate! They were gone in a flash! 

Mmmmmmmmmmm!

Best Brownies.......

Seb had a friend over today, I pulled out all the stops to make myself appear to be Martha-esque super Mummy. I tidied up (I really did!), rented a movie and baked brownies....... the proper butter, chocolate and sugar kind.....naughty, naughty :) I used a recipe from my new favorite food blog Smitten Kitchen. I've tried a few of Deb's recipes now and each time I've found them to be simple to put together but impressively tasty! I'm also a sucker for her beautiful photography. The brownies were perfect and I ended up having to hide them from the kids to stop them sneeking another one from the tin (and of course to make sure there were enough left for me to snaffle later that evening!) Anyway I highly recommend checking out Smitten Kitchen next time you're looking for some Nosh inspiration and if anyone is still wondering what to get the food lover in your life for Christmas.......Deb has bought out a book that looks so lovely! (ahem....*hint*hint*)

Adventures in bread making....

Neil's been making our bread  pretty regularly now for quite some time, it's definately an art and at first the loaves would be hit and miss but these days they are consistently good and usually only last about five minutes after coming out the oven before being gobbled up. His fancy twisty loaf pictured above was just about as perfect a loaf as he's ever made and it was so pretty too :)
I haven't really mastered the bread making yet although I do whip up a mean soda bread, a very handy skill to have when hungry kids need bread in a hurry. For Neil's bread he uses store bought fresh yeast and in my new homesteading spirit I decided that we could do better than than and culture our own wild yeast in the form of a sourdough starter. With that, Cuthbert was born......

It's much more simple than I thought to begin your own Sourdough starter.  It's a simple mix of flour and water left in a warmish spot to magically ferment. Cuthbert needs care and attention. In addition to  being kept in a consistently warm spot, every day I need to feed Cuthbert by emptying out about 80 percent and feeding in half a cup of warm water and half a cup of flour. After a week or so you can use your starter to bake a loaf of bread. I was doing well feeding little Cuthbert, in fact he was being fed before every other member of the household, I've discovered that you're better off using a nice organic flour so that you avoid any chemical residues that might be present in a non organic flour from killing off the wild yeast. The same goes for water and that's one thing that presented dear little cuthbert with a problem. I used tap water and being the picky eater that he is, Cuthbert didn't seem to like it. I haven't tested our water but it's quite likely that it has a chlorine content or fluoride content that is too high for Cuthbert and quite frankly not too great for us humans either! I've since discovered that rain water or distilled water are better for cultivating a sourdough starter. Unfortunately it doesn't really matter for poor Cuthbert......Neil killed him.
Yes, Cuthbert, my little bubbly lump of wild yeast, is dead. It is partly my fault, it was a bit chilly in the house the other day and I was worried he might be too cold so I popped him in the oven with the light on just to keep him nice and snug. I forgot to tell Neil he was in there and the next thing I know, Neil's pulling a piping hot pizza out the oven and I'm thinking  "Oooo Yummy!" when it suddenly dawns on me that Cuthbert WAS IN THERE!!! He didn't make it. How could he, it was 550F in there!
 Let's just take a moment for Cuthbert. RIP friend.

It's probably for the best, I was having visions of having Cuthbert tucked into my sleeping bag while we camped. We'll just have to have another go with Cuthbert II upon our return. I'll keep you posted.