Maple Pecan and Pear Spelt Scones with Maple Pear Butter

This lady whom I'm doing rehabilitation work with, Shobie, has been putting herself on a diet. She's also religiously following the liver detox menu I gave her - it's no joke walking around carrying 96kg of weight. Being a vegetarian, she's not contented with just vegetables (something to think about). She loves everything starchy and processed especially white rice and mashed potatoes. She claims she can eat just rice and broccoli, whole day.

However she's determined. She got rid of the bag of candies that her nurse carried around with her, and she shunned social events just so she doesn't "have to" eat them (peer pressure, I guess). If you knew her, you'd know how big of a sacrifice that is for her. In order to keep her motivation high, I decided to make a deal with her: she shall eat no sweets and refined carbohydrates unless it's from me; I will bring her one treat every week.

It was very daring of me to do so given what a foodie she is. But she approved of my bagels "I need you to open a bakery", "you should sell your bagels to au bon Pain". That gave me plenty of confidence.

I decided to start with scones - her favorite -. Despite her distaste for whole wheat products, I used spelt flour in this recipe. It's nuttier and sweeter than usual whole wheat flour - an answer to people who want good, tasty whole grain products. Spelt has high water solubility, so the nutrients are easily absorbed by the body. It is also higher in fiber, B Vitamins and proteins than the common varieties of commercial wheat. People who are allergic to wheat may be able to tolerate spelt because its proteins are easier to digest. Nevertheless, it is NOT gluten-free.

It doesn't have an exciting flavor as the Strawberry and Goat Cheese Scones or the Wholewheat Blueberry and Raisin Sour Cream Scones. However, the scones have just the right amount of softness that they feel like "home". I loved watching how the maple pear butter just melt over the warm scones. Not only did Shobie approved, she also raved about them to her sister, San, whom together with her husband, I'm teaching Yoga to. I brought some to San the next day: you can't please one sister and not the other while both of them are your paying clients.

Ingredients:

(makes 16 small scones or 10 large scones)

For the maple pear butter:

• 1 large ripe sweet pear, peeled, cored and cubed
  
• 1/4 Cup butter
  
• 1 1/2 Tablespoon pure maple syrup

1. Simmer pears in a pot of water over medium heat until pears are soft and water evaporated.
2. Let cool slightly. Stir in butter and maple syrup. Let stand at room temperature to thicken before storing in refrigerator.

For the scones:

• 3 Cups Organic Spelt flour
• 1/3 Cup natural cane sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 Cup butter, cut
  
• 3/4 Cup buttermilk (lemon juice + milk)
  
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  
• 2 medium size sweet pears, peeled and diced
  
• 1/2 Cup chopped pecans
• sugar
  

1. preheat oven to 180C.
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry blender until butter is the size of peas. Stir in buttermilk, vanilla extract, pears and pecans. Turn mixture onto a lightly floured board and knead several times until dough is smooth.
3. Separate dough into 4 portions. Press each portion into a 5" circle and cut into 4 wedges with a sharp knife. Or, roll dough out into a 10" circle and cut into 10 wedges.
   
4. Place wedges 1-inch apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle lightly with sugar. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top.
5. Serve warm with Maple Pear Butter.
   

Homemade Bagels with Maple Walnut Cranberry Cream Cheese and Smoked Salmon Spread

I used to make bagels before I started this blog. I remembered how impressed Adrian was. He was telling everyone that I made bagels - "handmade, not machine. I didn't even know that's humanly possible!?!" The lady whom I'm doing rehabilitation work with even suggested I should start selling; seeing the lack of quality bagels in Thailand. Although I'm flattered, but apparently there are tonnes of others in the world who make bagels, with hand, at home.

I'm doing it again after so many months because Adrian is craving for good bagels. He even asked Sandra to buy bagels back from The State after her Thanksgiving trip in San Diego. Let's say we established that's not possible. Eventually he decided to ask me to bake them. As all good wives do, I obliged.

This time I'm using the recipe from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice. This intimidating looking book is the only food book that I bought (or I made Adrian bought for me). It is a shame but I have to admit I haven't been making good use of the book since I got it through Amazon months ago. However, from what little I have gone through, I know it is THE book for amateur bread baker. It's full of recipes and instructions to experiment with artisan breads, also, basic concepts of bread baking, the science of bread, and information about equipment and ingredients. It also includes an extremely useful section on the twelve stages in the life of bread. What I like the most about this book is it helps me to understand why the recipe does what it does.

I made a mistake by making too many bagels at once: I forgot we have a small kitchen and refrigerator with limited space. Besides, 12 bagels is a lot of kneading to do with bare hand. Next time, I'm leaving the arm works to the American who craves for good bagels.

I made the bagels with two different toppings: poppy seeds and white sesame seeds to go with sweet filling such as Maple Walnut Cranberry Cream Cheese, and minced onions and garlic to go with savory filling like Smoked Salmon Spread.

I'm too lazy to type out the recipe but you can go to The Fresh Loaf for it. Nevertheless I'm happy to share our favorite bagel fillings:

Maple Walnut Cranberry Cream Cheese

Most recipes use a mix of sugar and maple syrup but why would you do that? I certainly don't.

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened at room temperature
• 1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
  
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries, chopped
  
• 1/4 Cup pure maple syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  

Whip cream cheese until smooth. While continuing to whip, slowly add all of the remaining ingredients. Cover and chill until firm (at least an hour or two).

Smoked Salmon Spread

• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• 4 oz smoked salmon, chopped
• 1 Cup sour cream (lemon juice + cream)
  
• 2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
• 1 tablespoons capers, drained and chopped
• Salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon lemon and zest
  

In large bowl, stir cream cheese until light and fluffy. Fold in salmon, sour cream, dill, capers, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. Stir in lemon juice and zest. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to overnight.

Beet and Feta Salad

Ever since the success of introducing beet root into Adrian's diet, I have been wanting to cook with more beet roots. As Dan said, beet root is a very versatile ingredients. He was generous enough to share with me some of his killer beet recipes back in his Bed Supper Club-day. They are really tempting, and equally intimidating. I'm going to stick to baby-step and experiment the home-style before I venture to the pro-style.

It's such a pain to cook beet - it takes such a long time to get it cooked! In my case, 40 minutes. What did I do as I wait? I whipped up an Apple Crisp.

The maple syrup-candied walnut was a good touch; it added some crunch to the salad. Its sweetness is a good compliment to the saltiness of feta. The orange zest, too, added a not overly whelming citrusy taste. On last thought, I threw in some sprouts (broccoli, alfalfa and pea) for variety.

Ingredients:

• beets, washed, trimmed and cut in half
• 1/3 cup of walnuts, chopped
  
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup
• salad greens of your choice
• 1/2 cup of orange juice, or one orange
• orange zest, grated
  
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• feta cheese, crumbled

1. Cover cut beets with water and boil until tender. About 40 minutes.
   
2. At the mean time, mix orange juice, balsamic vinegar and olive oil in a medium bowl.
   
3. Lightly toast walnuts in a frying pan for a few minutes. Add maple syrup and stir to coat.
   
4. When beets are done, let cool under running water. The skin will slide off easily at this point. Chop into bite-sized chunks.
5. Place salad greens to individual plate. Toss all ingredients together, spoon on salad green to serve.
   

Maple Sour Cream Walnut Muffin: Revisited

I hardly ever repeat the same recipe - I like to attribute it to my fondness for varieties. So many good recipes, so little time! There were exceptions:

1. Adrian requests for it.
2. My lack of motivation for net surfing.

And now this: Pee Wee. She's been a huge fan to my cooking and so it's impossible to say no to her. Besides, she's revisiting Bangkok as the newly crowned Little Mrs B. Congratulation =)

I basically followed the recipe as before. Except I used buttermilk plus sour cream, and mixture of maple syrup and agave nectar. Purely because I was short of each. Also, I dropped the topping randomly onto each batter instead of trying to smoothing it into one even layer. I like how the batter folded and molded around the crumbly topping as it baked; it makes the muffins look more textured.

I maintain this is a good muffin recipe. It shares the throne with Chocolate Zucchini Muffin with Peanut Butter Topping.

Muffins: Take Two

During my two-month teaching stint on Cocoa Island, I was persistently hogging the baker every morning during his romantic breakfast with his wife. He told me many things, out of which these two stay:

1. Bake with love.
2. If you are angry, your bread will get angry with you.

How can I argue with that?

Anyway, I really liked the muffins there. Especially the ones with walnuts, and the one with chocolate chips, also that with buttermilk and bran flakes..... I guess I liked them all.... The baker was kind enough to give me his recipe, which I conveniently left behind.... So now I'm determined to explore the BEST muffin recipe. Or at least the one that works for me.

Blueberry Yogurt Muffin
When I told my Irish student I "resort to frozen blueberry" because I can't afford the fresh imported ones, she comforted me and told me her baker cousin strongly advocated frozen blueberry for baking. Frozen, NOT thawed, is the key. They will plum up nicely after baking. Well, I can tell that much is true from what little baking I've done.

Ingredients:
(makes 12 standard-sized muffins)
2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup of yogurt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries (not thawed)

1. Preheat oven to 175C.
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture.
3. In a separate bowl, combine orange juice, oil, vanilla, yogurt and egg; add to dry ingredients, stirring until just moist. Gently fold in blueberries.
4. Spoon batter into a muffin tray lined with paper muffin liners.
5. Bake until tester inserted in center comes out clean (about 15-20 min.). Remove muffins from the pan and place on wire rack to cool.

Maple Sour Cream Walnut Muffins

How can you resist a recipe that uses 3/4 cup of maple syrup? Plus, it has a crumb topping, AND sour cream, AND walnuts. I had so much faith and expectation for this recipe, I actually bought a muffin tray. Yes, I did. It was on 20% discount. And I'm so glad I bought the tray. Be it the tray or the recipe. This recipe gets 4 thumbs up from this family. I was going to give away 4 of them; they are so good I decided to keep 2 more after the 2 at breakfast.....

(makes 6 large muffins)

For the batter:

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup maple syrup
2 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup walnuts, roughly chopped

For the topping:

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3 Tbs butter, chopped
Scant 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped small
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Whip butter in an electric mixer. Slowly add maple syrup to combine. Add eggs, one at a time. Add sour cream. Add vanilla extract. Combine dry ingredients (except nuts). Add to butter mixture. Stir to combine. Stir in walnuts. Fill muffin cups approximately half full with batter.
2. Combine ingredients for the topping. Use your fingers to pinch butter and break into pea-sized pieces well-combined into rest of ingredients. Generously spoon topping over muffin batter.
3. Bake in 350 degree oven for 20 - 30 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool on wire racks.

Maple-Grilled Salmon

It's been two months since I had any fish. Although I don't crave for it but I thought I would cook fish as my "return to kitchen" signature.

The method calls for grilling, which I don't have. If you do, good for you. Otherwise, do as I did:

1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Lightly oil baking sheet and place fillet skin side down. Put baking sheet to second top rack and let broil until the fish flake easily.
   
3. Remove from the oven and place on a hot skillet. Brush the fish with marinade and cook until it becomes a syrupy glaze.
   

I was going to garnish the salmon with orange slices but I can't find fresh oranges in the store and had to resort to fresh orange juice instead. What a bummer. It would have been pretty.

Ingredients:
(yields 2 servings)

• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
  
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
• 2 (6-ounce) salmon fillets, skinned
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1. Pour the first three ingredients into a large zip-lock bag. Add fish. Seal and marinate in the refrigerator for 3 hours.

2. Preheat oven to 200C.

3. Remove fish from bag, reserving the marinade. Pour marinade into a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Cook until reduced to 2 tablespoons (about 5 minutes).

4. Lightly oil the surface of a grill and place fish on top with the skin side down. Grill until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork, basting occasionally with marinade. Remove fish from the grill; sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Spinach Salad with Stone Fruits and Maple-spiced Walnuts

What is stone fruit? Its family includes cherries, plums, peaches, nectarines and prunes. They are also called drupes or summer fruits for they all arrive in the summer. Although being in SEA it only means paying high price for imports regardless of the seasons.

I wasn't sure if spinach was ok to be eaten raw and so I did a quick research on it: cooked or raw, they each have their advantages. While cooking reduces Vitamin C and folate level, at the same time it boosts beta-carotein and lutein bioavailability. I guess it's best to have it both way: raw in the lunch salad and cooked for evening dinner, for example.

There's also a very interesting fact about spinach: it has an undeserved reputation for being high in iron. Apparently in 1870, Dr E. Von Wolf mistakenly placed the decimal point for iron content in spinach. Hence the iron content was overstated for 10 fold. The mistake was uncovered 67 years later by a German chemist. However, to date, the myth of spinach being high in iron is still being wrongfully, and yet widely, circulated. Makes me wonder if Popeye was really eating spinach.

Anyway, if you don't have stone fruits on hand, I suspect papaya and mangoes would go well in the salad too. The maple syrup-roasted walnuts are great complement with the tartness of dressing and fruits. Feel free to substitute with chopped pecans.

Ingredients:

(yields 2 servings)

• 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
  
• 1/3 cup plus 1/3 tablespoon maple syrup
• Pinches of salt and ground red pepper to taste
  
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
  
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon grated peeled fresh ginger
• 1/6 cup thinly sliced red onion
• 1 ripe peeled, sliced peaches
• 1 ripe peeled, sliced plums
• 2 cups baby spinach leaves

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.

2. Combine walnuts, 1/3 tablespoon maple syrup, pinch of salt and pepper in a medium bowl, tossing well to coat. Spread pecan mixture evenly onto a baking sheet coated with oil. Bake at 180° for 15 minutes, stirring after 5 minutes. Cool completely and break nuts into small pieces.

3. Combine remaining 1/3 cup maple syrup, pinches of salt and pepper, vinegar, mustard, and ginger in a small bowl. Stir with a whisk.

4. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add vinegar mixture to pan; cook until hot. Add onion, peaches, and plums to pan; cook until warm.

5. Arrange 1 cup spinach on each plate; top each serving with fruit mixture and 1 tablespoon nut mixture. Serve immediately.

Homemade Nutella

I assume no one needs introduction to Nutella. If you haven't heard of this hazelnut chocolate spread, I feel very sorry for you; you must have been deprived. The only thing you should do now is make one NOW! Seriously.

Nutella is one of those unhealthy "foods" that I shouldn't have but can't resist. I am obsessed with label reading but I tried to avoid Nutella's. But the truth remains. How unhealthy you ask? Well, let's take a look at it's ingredient list:

"sugar, modified palm oil, hazelnuts, cocoa, skim milk, reduced mineral whey (from milk), soy lecithin: a emulsifier, vanilin: an artificial flavor"

Food label reading 101: ingredient with the highest percentage comes top of the list. Everytime I get just a little too greedy for just that much little more of Nutella, I get a buzz (literally) up in my head - Too much sugar. Not to mention the use of "reduced",
"modified", and "artificial".

I make my own tahini, fruit jam and yogurt, why not Nutella? And so I did. It's so easy and involves so little ingredients and steps that it would seem silly not to give it a try. Besides, I tried it on a toast this morning and compared it with the commercial Nutella: I think I have successfully killed my desire for Nutella; it taste artificial in comparison.



Ingredients:
1/2 cup hazelnuts
2 tablespoon coca powder
3 tablespoon maple syrup
2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Roast hazelnuts at 200C for 10 minutes. Let cool and rub the skins off the nuts.
2. Grind hazelnuts in food processor to a butter consistency. Add the rest of the ingredient and continue to process till smooth.
3. Store in a jar and ENJOY!
   

That's all it takes for your very own healthy homemade Nutella. Depending on the capacity of your food processor, you may have to separate and grind in a few batches, as I did.

Banana Pancake with Coconut Syrup Peanut Butter

I came across a Peanut Butter Boy who has this obsession with, surprise! PEANUT BUTTER. I took his Banana Pancake and Maple Peanut Butter Recipe with a few adaptations and didn't skip any of the optional steps. The result: it's obscene but REAL GOOD!! It was such a winner that it "kind of" removed my disgust for the Banana Peanut Butter Omelet on its website...... Plus, I found out "someone's" childhood addiction of runny egg (boiled for exactly 3.5 minutes!) scrambled with jam and peanut butter for breakfast......hmmm......
The recipe makes an awful lots of pancakes. I went ahead with the volume and kept the remaining batter in refrigerator. It should keep good for 7 days. I can't wait to experiment with different toppings for our next servings.

Ingredients:
*Makes 12-15 (3″) pancakes.

Pancakes:
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup cottage cheese with pinch of salt (I used ricotta)
3 eggs
2 bananas, divided

Optional:

Blueberries (I used raspberries)
1/4 cup mini dark-chocolate chips
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
Mix the chips and walnuts together in a small bowl

Coconut Syrup Peanut Butter:
1 cup creamy natural peanut butter (I prefer chunky)
1T Coconut syrup (PB Boy uses Maple syrup + 1Tablespoon of sugar)

1. To make pancake batter blend oats, cottage cheese, eggs and 1 banana in a blender until smooth and creamy. Slice remaining banana into thin slices and set aside.

2. To make peanut butter spread, pour coconut syrup and peanut butter into a jar and stir until well mixed.

3. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat with a splash of butter. Place about 1/4 cup of batter in each spot and flatten with the back of a spoon. Place 3 slices of banana in each pancake along with raspberries and optional ingredients. Cook for about 1-2 minutes. Once the top starts to set, flip and cook for an additional minute.

4. Spread peanut butter spread on top. I finished it with a very generous dash of maple syrup. YUM!!

*Storing: The batter will keep in the fridge for about 7 days. When you remove it from the fridge, it will be much thicker due the temperature and oat absorption. Add milk, 2T at a time, to achieve desired batter consistency.