Soaked and Dried (Chocolate) Cereal

My pantry shelf with the jars of both plain healthy cereal and chocolate cereal

Some of this post is an older post, but I need to add the chocolate addition (since I was just eating some in my chia seed dairy kefir (did I do a post on that too? Hmmm . . .). I know I've mentioned somewhere about tweaking a chocolate cereal recipe. Monte requested it after having some chocolate granola from the store. My first try was with coco powder. It worked, but I wanted to experiment more. So, I've added some more pictures, and below I'll add what I now do . . .

Healthy 7 Grain soaked and dried Cereal

I've been making this cereal now for months. Everyone loves it - not only as a breakfast cold cereal, but it also makes a great snack. I'm now making it more often cuz I give it to both my sons. I mention it in an earlier post with source links to the health benefits of soaking grains. I'll be talking about these health reasons as well in a future post. That same earlier post also has recipes from my cookbook - how I made "cold" cereal before the knowledge of soaking grains.



You can use any flour. Since I've been grinding grains into flour for over 30 years, whenever I can get more grain varieties into our diet beyond basic wheat I go for it. So I make this cereal with a 7 grain mix I get in 25/50# bags.

When I had a lot of excess raw dairy milk by-products: whether plain soured milk, yogurt, or dairy kefir, that's what I made this with. Now I've narrowed our raw milk usage down to what we really like, and worth the extra cost and benefits of the raw dairy (I'll do a post about this). If I don't have enough dairy kefir, I buy a cultured buttermilk for making this cereal.

HEALTHY COLD CEREAL

1 quart cultured dairy (kefir, buttermilk, yogurt, or soured milk)
2 pounds flour
I weigh the flour now (for lots of things, especially sourdough) since amounts by cup vary depending on whether fresh ground or compacted over time. So cup-wise? Maybe around 8 cups.

Mix this together in a bowl to sit and soak for 24 hours.

The next day, after the 24 hour soak, mix in  -
1 C coconut oil (unrefined- organic virgin best)
1 C maple syrup (grade B is best)
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
3 tsps baking soda
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tb cinnamon




After mixing all together well spread in 2 baking pans. 9x13 would probably work; my 2 pans are 11x17. Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes, till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. You don't want to over bake.

One pan of chocolate soaked cereal

When you want some chocolate cereal too, use the same recipe above. Put half in one pan, then mix into the other half one melted 4oz bar of 65-75% chocolate. Then spread that mixture into the second pan. Bake, crumble, and dry as stated.
 

Divide and crumble 'coffee cakes' for 9 dehydrator trays

Let these "coffee cakes" cool before crumbling into small pieces. You could dry this in a low temp oven at 200F, but you'll need lots of baking sheets to effectively dry. I dry mine in my dehydrator for about 12 hours.

I have ours in a glass canister for easy access and beauty! Try it, you'll like it!



Shared with: Granny's Vitals, My Cultured Palate, Simple Lives Thursday, Chicken Chick, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, A Better Mom, Hearth and Soul Hop, The Gathering Spot, Homestead Barn Hop, Nourishing Treasures, Traditional Tuesday

Sourdough Cheese Crackers

Sourdough Cheese Crackers ( my cracker tin, and then homemade mustard off to right)

We needed crackers again, so I pulled out my refrigerated Parisian Sourdough starter and started feeding it to activate it. I made the sausage cheese pie I posted about. I made crepes again since it was out, and I made some bread, then it'll go back into the fridge untill I want something else again. Like pulling it out in the evening and feeding it makes it usable the next day.

I have posted about crackers before. My cookbook has several cracker (as too, my "flake cereal") recipes - all prior to these days of soaking my ground flours with the wet ingredients for at least 8-12 hours before making the recipe - for better body assimilation.

Sourdough Cheese Crackers

1 cup sourdough
1/3 cup melted butter (or coconut oil)
1 1/2 cup whole grain flour

Mix this together till a not too sticky dough. Like start with 1 cup of flour and keep adding more till a pretty stiff dough and not too wet. It will absorb more of the flour as it sits, but I don't like it to be too sticky for my final mixing up and making.

Let this sit for at least 8 hours. I either do this in the morning to make in the afternoon, or mix it up at night to make the next morning. I think about oven usage. I like to turn the oven off once the baking time is done and leave the crackers in the oven overnight to let them dry out more.

Soaked dough flattened out and rest of ingredients sprinkle on

Flatten out dough on a silicone mat and sprinkle on -
1/4 tsp each: salt, onion and garlic powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup of grated cheese

Kneed this mixture together till seems well mixed. Divide the dough in half and roll out thin on two baking sheets. Score for cracker shapes. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Then as I said, I turn the oven off and leave them in to cool and dry more.

Cracker dough rolled thin and scored

You could add any seasonings you desire. You don't need to add the cheese. I've used all varieties of cheese and like them all. This time I used Kerry Gold Irish Cheddar. I like gouda too. Blue cheeses are good, but can't eat so many of them - like it gets overpowering - maybe depends on what you want to serve them with.

Use as you do any cracker. I took some yesterday to a wine tasting we did with neighbors - they loved them! Homemade mustard is great on them. Use them for mini 'sandwiches'. I like making kefir cheese - straining off the whey - mixing it with salt, onion and garlic powder and balling it up and pouring good tasting olive oil over. It keeps well in cold storage for a LONG time. My balls don't stay together, but that doesn't matter - but the mixture spread on these crackers is awesome! Add a thin cucumber or any veggie slice and it's even better!

Home Sweet Home

I was gone for two weeks - my daughter had her second baby - this time a girl - Bridget. What did I do the day I got home? I pulled out my Water Kefir grains and Sourdough starter from the fridge. Soaked nuts to dehydrate. Started the soaking process for Cold Cereal and Sourdough Crackers. And then got a batch begun for sourdough bread (which I'm going to have to post about). Those are now staples I always have on hand.

Bridget Lynn

Sourdough Cheese or Plain Crackers

Rye Sourdough Cheese Crackers

I've been making homemade crackers for years. In fact I've got four recipes in my Hearth and Home cookbook I wrote seventeen years ago. Plain wheat thins and adding grated cheese have always been my favorite. I've often brought them places along with homemade mustard and/or a good cheese. The only thing I'd change now-adays would be soaking the flour in the liquid overnight, as the more I read the more I think that's the healthiest way to make anything with flour, unless you use sprouted grain flour. And as I wrote in my book ... think beyond wheat flour. We consume enough wheat in breads - everything else can be made from other grain flours. Our favorite crackers now are -

SOURDOUGH CHEESE CRACKERS

1C sourdough (click here for recipe)

1/3C melted butter or olive oil

1 1/4-1/2 flour

Mix this till a stiff dough, not too sticky, but tacky. Cover the bowl and let it soak for at least 8 hours.



When ready to make the crackers, preheat the oven to 350. I usually grease the counter with olive oil and my hands, then flatten the dough onto the counter. The hope, is to not be too sticky. If it is then you'll have to mix in some more flour till not too sticky. My sourdough is made with rye flour. When adding the flour I use a 7-grain flour. Once the dough is flattened on your counter, add -



1/4 tsp each salt, garlic, and onion powder (any seasoning you desire)

1/4 tsp baking soda



Knead to incorporate, then knead in

1/2C grated cheese



Divide in half and roll out thin to cookie sheet edges. Score, cutting into small squares - I have a fluted rolling tool, or you could use a pizza cutter. Bake 15 minutes. I often just turn the oven off at this point and leave them in the cooling oven. You want them to be crispy-done.

Any cheese can be used. We love flavored goudas - like smoked, or chipotle. Another favorite is with a garlic cotswold. I've even used a fancy cheese that had strips of stilton blue cheese - that was great too!



I have some old cracker tins I store them in. My other tin has crackers made from sprouted wheat flour, or was it flour soaked in yogurt ... I don't remember. Homemade crackers are so easy to make, why buy them!!!!



In case you don't have sourdough started and are dying to make crackers, here's my Wheat Thins recipe from my book -



3C whole wheat flour (any grain actually)

1/3C olive oil

1C water

1/2 tsp salt



Mix all the ingredients together. You could add other spices or herbs. Knead as little as possible till it makes a smooth ball. At this point I'd roll thin on ungreased baking sheets, cut into squares and bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until crisp. But now I'd let it sit covered for at least 8 hours before rolling out and baking. Sometimes, depending on your oven, if outer edges are getting too brown, remove them and return to baking.

Soaked and Dried Nuts and Breakfast Porridge

I've started soaking nuts this year. I've had Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions book for years and am just now getting around to reading all the great information - lots of it! - and doing more and more of it's recipes, believing it's philosophy.

BREAKFAST PORRIDGE

For any recipe utilizing grains, it's suggested to soak them for at least 8 hours. I've had a hand grain rolling machine for years and now have it set up in the pantry. The night before, if we're wanting to cook up a cereal for breakfast, we grind it and soak it. Monte's having fun picking different grains I have in jars in the pantry. His proportions are 1/3 C of rolled/cracked grain to 1 C water. You can add a pinch of salt if you like. Nuts could be added to this soaking mixture. Then in the morning gently bring it to simmering. Differing grains take differing times to soak up the liquid. Then we'll add fruit, unsweetened coconut, whey, and sprouted flax meal to it. And of coarse my homemade yogurt.

Soaking

Why soak nuts? They contain enzyme inhibitors that can put a strain on the digestive system. Let them soak at least 7 hours or overnight (I prefer 12 hours - especially for the almonds). Drain. Spread to dry in either a warm oven (no more than 150 degrees) for 12-24 hours till dry and crisp; or dry in a dehydrator. My oven doesn't go that low, so the dehydrator is back in use.  Other than walnuts, that are susceptible to rancidity so should be stored in the refrigerator, all nuts can be stored in airtight container for months. They make great snacks!



SOAKED NUTS

4 C nuts
2 tsp sea salt
water to cover

Like I said, soak at least 7 hours or overnight, and then dry.

Crispy Pepitas (4 C raw soaked pumpkin seeds with 2 Tb sea salt, tsp of cayenne)

__________________________
Update - summer of 2012. I got an Excaliber dehydrator and am loving it.

Veggies and Dips

Tea Party veggies and dips and tiered foods

I'm always wanting veggies in a format that will encourage the eating of them. Tea parties consist moreso of sandwiches and scones and desserts, so I wanted the nutritional addition of veggies. Having dips is the main way I find I'll eat more veggies.

We were crafting all day at my Valentine Tea Party, so I wanted everything to be finger food. Probably every time I passed by, I'd grab some veggies to eat, so that accomplished what I was hoping for.

First off, my dip recipe book, suggests par-boiling some veggies, for ease in digestion, then chilling them. Monte asked me to do this years ago, recognizing his body's needs (Monte is a great "body listener"!) Baby potatoes (or small sized potatoes cut later in wedges) boiled and then chilled are EVERYONE'S favorite veggie to dip! So I put the potatoes in a large pot to boil and put my steamer basket on top. Once the water comes to a boil I'll dump in the baby carrots (I know, I know, baby carrots are not truly baby carrots - did you know that?!). Steam veggies  3 minutes, dump them in a strainer basket and run cold water over them, drain, and bag up and chill. I do this with broccoli and sometimes the cauliflower too. So I had these, and green onions, celery sticks, red pepper slices, and radishes all ready the day before my party to keep refilling my large serving platter.

Since I have a three bowl serving dish, I made three dips the day before.

FRESH HERB RANCH DIP

2 C sour cream (sometimes I'll do this with 1/2 Hellmanns Mayo)
1/2 C buttermilk (sometimes I'll just use buttermilk powder - 3Tb)
3 Tb fresh parsley
2 Tb fresh chopped chives
1 Tb fresh oregano
1 1/2 tsp fresh tarragon
2 minced cloves garlic
2 Tb grated lemon zest
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Mix this all up well. Most of the herbs I have fresh in my greenhouse. If you're using dry, you use a lot less - like 1/2 - 1 tsp. Sometimes when I make this dip I like to slow cook thin sliced/chopped onions till caramelized and add.

ROASTED GARLIC, ARTICHOKE, AND PEPPER RICOTTA DIP

This was SO GOOD I'm going to be making it a lot!

The recipe calls for 4 artichokes to peel and roast their hearts. Since it's not artichoke season yet, I just opened a 15 oz can of plain artichoke hearts (not marinated), drained, and dumped on the foil-lined baking sheet to roast.

2 whole garlic heads - cut off tops, pour on some olive oil, salt and pepper, and put the tops back on to roast.

1 red pepper - cut off both ends, slit down side and open out flat on the foil with the skin side up, along with both ends.

Roast in a 400 degree oven about 40 minutes. Don't let anything burn, but 'yes' to darkening. Remove the hearts and garlic to cool, and close up the foil around the pepper to sit and cool, so you can peel in a bit.

In a food processor squeeze out all the garlic cloves, add the hearts, and skinned pepper and puree along with

2 C ricotta
1/2 C grated parmesan
2 Tb fresh basil
Salt and pepper to taste

BLUE CHEESE DIP

2 C sour cream
1/2 C Hellmanns Mayo
2 scallions, including greens
1 1/2 C blue cheese
1/2 tsp pepper
4 shakes of Tabasco
1 Tb Worcestershire Sauce

I didn't have any Worcestershire. I need to look for a recipe substitute since I'm no longer keeping it stocked, as it's got high fructose corn syrup in it. I know it's main ingredients are vinegar and fish sauce (which is made from anchovies - an umami [the fifth taste] you want - it's what makes most salad dressings, etc, yummy). So I put a dollop each of vinegar and fish sauce. You want to puree this mixture as well.

At the end of the day I pulled some turkey broth I froze after Thanksgiving from the freezer, put it in a soup pot with the leftover dip veggies, chopped. Added the rest of the sliced chicken not used in the tea sandwiches. And added a chopped chipotle chili in adobo. Serve with some cut up avacado and a dollop of homemade yogurt. An easy end of the day supper.

Roasted Squash Seeds

I'm baking one of our volunteer winter squashes right now just to see what it's like. All season we've watched them grow, not knowing what they are. This month they turned orange ... so are they pumpkin? They're not large, so could they be the smaller sugar pumpkins for pie? I actually make 'pumpkin' pie from all winter squash. I've got some recipes in my cookbook, including "Impossible Pumpkin Pie" which was the first pumpkin pie my kids liked.



Since winter squash season has just begun I thought I'd tell you about roasting their seeds. I can't throw away the seeds! I think my method of making crispy seasoned winter squash seeds is unusual. Most recipes have you toss the seeds with oil or melted butter and season and bake on a cookie sheet, stirring occasionally. Rather than mess with a lot of loose seasonings, I prefer to simmer the flavor into the seeds. I'll even do the seeds of a squash I bake whole.

ROASTED SQUASH SEEDS

Measure the amount of seed from any winter squash, then in a saucepan, barely cover them with water.

Per cup of seeds use about

1 tsp of a seasoning salt

(like a premixed kind, or mix salt with granulated garlic and onion)

(Add some olive oil or butter to the pan)

Bring to a boil and let simmer, stirring occasionally till almost simmered dry.



Spread on a cookie sheet. Since the oven is/was probably on for baking the squash, put the tray in the oven. If the oven is on, occasionally stir them and check for crispiness. If the oven's been turned off, I'll often just leave the tray of seeds in the oven till the next morning.

Baked Kale Chips

WOW!!! Another recipe from AllRecipes.com. My first words after first tasting, and eating more and more while waiting for my Artisan bread to finish baking and we'd sit down to eat supper - "Addicting"! What a good thing to be addicting: kale!! Kale is probably the most nutritious green you can be eating. All year round we add kale to our salad making. I blanch and freeze my garden kale for adding to stews, soups, lasanga ... or just sauteing.

BAKED KALE CHIPS

1 bunch kale

That's all they say. Most store bunches seem about the same size year round. I should weigh a bunch to see how much kale it actually is. You should wash and spin dry store-bought kale. They cut out the thick stems and rip up; I just ripped the leaves up and away from the stem, putting them in a large bowl for tossing with -

1 Tb olive oil

1 tsp salt

Bake the spread kale on parchment lined baking sheets at 350 for 10-15 minutes, till edges brown but not burn.

I sprinkled them with granulated garlic too. Next time we don't want to use the salt, just the garlic, or our Chef Prudhomme's spunky Italian Seasoning. We froze some and it remained crispy! So guess what? ... I've still got tons of kale in the garden! and I'm going to make tons of these kale chips, bag in sandwich bags, and freeze in a box or one of my freezer baskets - so they don't get squashed.

I'm munching on a bag I test-froze right now as I'm writing this post. Yummmm .....

Pumpkin Stuff

Tomorrow we head through the woods, on freeways and byways, over rivers and train-tracks and more roadways to Travis and Sarah's home for Thanksgiving. It's been a long time since I've not hostessed Thanksgiving, cooking the turkey stuffed with my grandma's and mom's sage dressing. I'm making the pies and rolls and a fresh cranberry side dish to bring.

I've got pie pumpkins in the oven roasting for pumpkin pies. I simmered dry the pumpkin seeds and they're spread on a cookie sheet drying in the oven now too. I posted last year about cooking up squash seeds - I do it for most winter squash, not just pumpkin seeds. I know too I must have gotten my idea from somewhere, so I just looked at books I knew I had when we were early married that might have it in, and found it. I looked mainly to find proportions to share with you since I wing it each time and sometimes they're too salty.

The Salted Roasted Pumpkin or Squash Seed recipe wasn't in one of my grandma's cookbooks but Carla Emery's Old Fashioned Recipe Book - The Encyclopedia of Country Living, and I see it's still in print. I've got her original book she wrote decades ago, printing sections from a mimeograph machine on varying colored pages and bound in a 3-ring binder, having heard her on TV. I've not read her newer version word-for-word as I did the first edition, but I do know things are missing ... like her Christian testimony and married to a Mormon man, were in the Chicken chapter.

After washing the squash seeds she boils them 15 minutes: 2-3 TB salt per quart of water, drains, and spreads to dry on a cookie sheet in a moderate oven till brown and crisp. I think that's too much salt and I add other stuff. I like to barely cover the seeds in a saucepan with water and put in a TB of butter or olive oil. For one pumpkin's seeds today I put in 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp garlic powder and 1/2 tsp onion powder. I like to simmer till the liquid evaporates cuz then the flavorings penetrate the seeds. Most recipes have you adding butter or oil to the cookie sheet and salting and stirring - how would the salt really stick? and 'twould be messy. Usually I just put them in an oven that had been on, but now turned off and leave them to dry - sometimes leaving them in till the next day (just don't turn the oven on for something else, forgetting the seeds are in there! And you should peek in the oven when you're turning it on anyway - I've left cast iron pans in to dry. Monte's cousin's kid likes to hide stuffed animals in the oven!)

My sister sent the pumpkin picture last week and I deliberated posting it. I told her it was SO funny yet gross too. She had several comments to her post and the one I thought funniest was "I think I'll reach for the apple pie this Thanksgiving ..."

Well, off to make the pie crusts and refrigerate - chilled dough makes flakier crusts, as well as not manhandling it too much. I'm making two pumpkin and two mystery pecan pies.