My Tuesday Twister posts are my weekly round-up of what’s going on in my kitchen and our lives, as it pertains to real food. So here we go – I’ll catch you up on what’s twisting in my kitchen this week!
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- Muffins – I tried two muffin recipes this week. The first are those flat-top muffins up there. They taste awesome (perhaps a little sweet) and have a great texture. The base of them was whole wheat pastry flour and rolled oats, soaked overnight. Only trouble is, they are flat. Which is funny, because they went in the oven a whole inch higher. Talk about deflation. The second recipe I tried came from Millie’s master muffin recipe. In following her recipe, I used sprouted flour instead of soaking the flour. Those puffed up perfectly and tasted really, really good (I added Gogi berries for my add-in). I will try her recipe again, but make them a little sweeter and add more coconut oil. Mine ended up a little dry, but perhaps that is because of the sprouted flour. I don’t know, but the results were so good that I want to keep trying. I love Millie’s idea to have a master recipe, and that’s what I’m after for our household. UPDATE: Here’s the Basic Soaked Muffin recipe that resulted from all these trials!
- Soaked Pancakes – Not only muffins, but pancakes are on my mind. The kids declared these pancakes the best ever. They are from a Sue Gregg soaked pancake recipe, using whole wheat pastry flour. I really don’t know how to improve them. We had just gotten organic Grade B maple syrup through our food co-op, and that made them even better.
- Sprouted Pinto Bean Chili – We’re eating alot of sprouted beans lately. Here’s the sprouted pinto bean chili I made, which I mentioned in Five (5) Yummy Ways to Use Sprouted Beans. We’ve also been having sprouted lentils and sprouted mung beans on our salads, to make up for leaving the glory days of summer produce.
So, that’s it for me – what’s twisting in your kitchen? To participate in the Tuesday Twister Blog Carnival, visit this post. See you there!
Your muffin post is timely because I’d been meaning to ask you a question about soaked quick breads/muffins. Whenever I’ve soaked, the resulting bread is very wet. I can’t figure out if its due to my convection oven, the soaking, or maybe a need to increase the baking time. What do you think?
Do you remember last year when I was trying to buy an old Vitamix on Craig’s List and didn’t get it? Well, I finally found one on CL last week and picked it up on Friday! I’m so excited.
Christie – I do remember! I’m so happy that your patience paid off! Is it one with the older non-plastic container?
About the muffins/quick breads, are just the quick breads wet or both the breads and muffins? If the muffins are wet too, then overall I would suggest: decreasing the amount of liquid or increasing baking time – I’d try both of those, perhaps not at the same time.
It is hard to tell without seeing a recipe – do you want to email me one and I’ll compare it to the two muffin recipes I have? I have not done a quick bread soaked.
I’m glad the muffin formula is working for you. It is still a work in progress for me but I’m happy with the results so far. I’ll admit though that sometimes mine end up looking like the ones in your flat picture. Funny thing, the ones that look the worst usually taste the best. I’ve never used sprouted flour. Are you making your own?
Are those meatballs in your chili?
Millie´s last blog post… Menu Week of November 2
Millie – I am using my own sprouted flour. These were sprouted spelt. Rather than meatball, those are meat chunks, in the chili. We like chunks rather than tiny bits of ground beef.
your pancakes do look perfect! what’s your secret?
emily´s last blog post… Real Eggs, Bread and Jam!
Emily – I don’t know – these turned out the best ever! Cast iron skillet, lots of coconut oil, medium heat, pour away from the edge so the pancake circle doesn’t get shaped by the edge, that’s it! Do you have the Sue Gregg “An Introduction to Whole Grain Baking”? These are the pancakes on page 96 – but I had to add tons more liquid (milk).
Wardeh,could you please post a recipe for the Sprouted Pinto Bean Chili? Thank you.
Yes, I got the old stainless-steel container! It was in brand-new condition. No instruction booklet or tamper though. I can order a tamper on ebay pretty inexpensively. The best part is that I only paid $50!!!
I used a Sue Gregg soaked blender recipe. I think it was banana bread? It was one of her free recipes. I baked, and baked, and baked that bread and it seemed to remain heavy and wet no matter what.
I also make oven pancake (aka Dutch baby pancake or German pancake) in muffin tins, which came out very wet the last time I made them. I had ground the wheat in my new vitamix, but didn’t measure out how much flour it was. Maybe a cup of berries doesn’t make a cup of flour.
So many variables! I think I’ll try reducing liquid next time.
Ahh, I just read through the comments and saw my same question was asked. Would love to see the Sprouted Pinto Bean Chili recipe posted.
Pamela @ Seeds of Nutrition´s last blog post… Minnesota Trip: Part II – Betty’s Pies
Pamela & Elena – I’ll recreate that chili recipe soon.
[...] I’ve got a good, basic muffin recipe now! I wrote yesterday in the Tuesday Twister about my first two attempts. I took what didn’t work from those batches and tweaked to get to where I am now – and [...]
Elana & Pamela – The recipe for the sprouted chili is here:
http://gnowfglins.com/2009/11/06/sprouted-bean-chili/
Christie – You got such a great deal! A cup of berries makes more than a cup of flour. Grinding 2 cups of berries yields *about* 2-1/2 cups of flour. I’ll take a look at that banana bread recipe – but I haven’t made it so I might not have anything to suggest.
Wardeh—I made your basic soaked muffins today, and they puffed up perfectly and tasted marvelous! I also made a gluten-free version (I’ll share it in the Twister next Tuesday) that was yummy, too. Thank you so much for posting this!
Love,
Sonya
Sonya, yay! I can’t wait to see your gluten-free version.