Ingredients

• 4 cups organic whole wheat pastry or all purpose flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• 3/4 cup cold butter
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 4 tablespoons black strap molasses
• 6 tablespoons half-and-half
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup cranberries
• 1 cup walnuts

Directions

Preheat oven to 425°F and line a baking pan with parchment and sprinkle it with flour. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Add the butter and with fingertips, pastry knife, or food processor gently cut the butter in until it is well combined and resembles course crumbs, some lumps are fine.  In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, cream, pumpkin and molasses.  Add to the dry mixture and gently combine.  Gently fold in walnuts and cranberries until just mixed.

Shape the dough into 2 equal balls and flatten to 3/4″ thick on the floured parchment or pan.  Using a knife slice each circle into 6 wedges and  carefully pull the wedges away from the center to separate them to 1/2″ space around the outer edges.  Optional: brush each scone with milk and sprinkle with  sugar for a sweet and crunchy top.   Bake until golden about 16  minutes, or until a tester comes out clean when inserted in the middle.

Makes 12 extra large scones

Ducks & Canadian Geese in the Winter

Back to the sourdough.  I’ve been surprised to find no fuzzy sweater, or even t-shirts, growing on the bread after long stints in the cupboard.  The loaves stay soft a whole lot longer than the store bought ones; I doubt I’ve ever had a fresh bakery loaf last more than a day or two.  So when I pulled out the loaf I made 10-days ago I expected it to be revolting.  It wasn’t.  It was firm on the outside but after filleting it like a fish and a very close eyeball and nose inspection I decided all it needed was some re-hydrating.  French toast!  I soaked that bad boy in a mixture of 2 organic eggs and a 1/4 cup of cream while I heated up a pan with a small knob of butter.  The end result made me feel for a few moments that I was back in France.  The whole grains in the bread produced a denser texture and nuttier flavour; the staleness of the bread re-hydrating with the eggs and cream making an almost custard / bread pudding-like decadent French toast.  Topped with a bit of my Fallen Applesauce and some Vermont maple syrup, I gobbled up my breakfast before even leaving the kitchen and found myself with the overwhelming urge to lick the plate.  Who knew I would be left with such a satisfied belly, sugar high, and the French CBC on the radio?  All this from a 10-day old sourdough remnant.  I suppose I will have to continue on with my weekly bread making adventure for a while longer.  Winter is coming and stale bread in my house is no longer only for the birds.

This little sourdough starter is much like a pet that you keep in the fridge.  You feed it and it grows. You have to discard some waste.  If you are neglectful it will die.  If you are nurturing it will thrive.  Just like any new pet my sourdough starter was a lot of work in the beginning.  Once I started the process of feeding it I had to keep dividing and feeding at intervals, one of which I didn’t time right so I had to wake up at 2AM to make sure I did it on time.  Seriously, my sourdough starter needed a 2AM feeding. 

Three days later (that’s right, three) I had finally produced my first loaves (twins!) and put the starter in the fridge for week of rest.  Since then I have experimented with a number of different recipes including rustic sourdough, tangy sourdough, whole grain caraway, and olive loaves.  I’ve been slowly increasing the amount of whole grain and alternative flours with no reduction in texture and lots of improvement in taste (I’m not really a fan of plain, gluey, white flour).  The yummy whole-grain spelt waffles and a braided dinner loaf made out of ground 7-grain cereal were proof of that. 

I’m proud to say that baking with my sourdough starter has been an overall success.  And my new little pet has matured into a typical family member: requiring occasional feedings and a bit of cleaning up afterwards but all the while giving back lots of entertainment and some company…to a nice soup or sandwich that is.

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup butter (very soft or melted)
• 1 cup pumpkin (canned or fresh pureed & drained pumpkin are both fine)
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 3 free-range organic eggs
• 6 tbsp black strap molasses
• 2 tsp real vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cup whole spelt flour
• 1/2 cup whole kamut flour (kamut flour adds extra nutrients to the muffins, but can be substituted by increasing the spelt)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp each of ground ginger, cloves, and nutmeg
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup dried or fresh cranberries (dried adds a sweet flavour, fresh adds a tart flavour)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 4oo°F.  In a medium sized bowl, mix together the first 6 (wet) ingredients and beat until smooth.  I use my immersion blender and that makes quick work of the blending.  In a large mixing bowl, add the flours, sugar, powder and spices and mix well.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until combined.  Add the walnuts and cranberries and fold in careful to not over mix.  Spoon batter into a greased muffin tin until the cups are heaping; this gets nice big fluffy muffins.  Bake 20-25 minutes until a skewer inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.  Yields 18 large muffins or 24 medium muffins.

• 2 cups whole grain spelt flour (or whole wheat)
• 1 cups unbleached flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup cold butter
•  2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup half and half
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup FROZEN blackberries      (or other berries that are frozen fresh and can be separated frozen)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425°F and line a baking pan with parchment and sprinkle it with flour. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Add the butter and with fingertips, gently cut the butter in until it is well combined and resembles course crumbs, some lumps are fine.  In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, cream, and vanilla.  Add to the dry mixture and gently combine.  The very last thing you’ll add is the frozen blackberries.  The more frozen the better and make sure you work the shaping step (listed next) quickly as to not have them begin to melt into the dough.  

Shape the dough into 2 equal balls and flatten to 3/4″ thick on the floured parchment or pan.  Using a knife slice each circle into 6 wedges and  carefully pull the wedges away from the center to separate them to 1/2″ space around the outer edges.  Optional: brush each scone with milk and sprinkle with  sugar for a sweet and crunchy top.   Bake until golden about 20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean when inserted in the middle. 

Makes 12 medium-sized scones    

Ingredients: 

• 3/4 c sugar
• 1/2 c unsalted butter
• 1 c flour, sifted
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Pinch salt, optional
• 2 eggs
• 12 Italian prune plums
• Sugar and lemon juice for topping
• 1 tsp cinnamon, or to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar in a bowl.  Add flour, baking powder, salt and eggs and beat well.  Spoon the batter into an 8”, 9”, or 10” spring form pan.  Split and pit the plums and place the halves, skin side up, on top of the batter.  Sprinkle lightly with sugar and lemon, depending o the sweetness of the fruit.  Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake about an hour.  Remove and cool; refrigerate or freeze if desired.  Or cool to lukewarm and then serve plain or with whipped cream.  Yield: 8 servings.  Note: to freeze, double wrap torte in aluminum foil place in plastic bag, and seal.  To serve, defrost and reheat briefly at 300 degrees.

For variation: try Strawberry Coconut Torte