Crusty Seeded French Bread Recipe

This is a really nice bread, studded with lots of seeds for flavour and nutrition! This recipe will yield fairly dense loaves, but feel free to play with the fife wheat to white flour ratio. If you are new to baking with whole grain flour, I would suggest doing half/half fife wheat and white flour.

A note on white flour! I like my bread on the denser side, just like the way it used to be. Many people are not used to this though, so it might be best to slowly transition yourself into using less and less white flour until you become used to heavier bread. That being said, my favorite option for white flour is something called Soft White Wheat. It is a type of grain that when ground produces a white flour. The beautiful thing is that it is ground from the whole grain, so it has all the nutritional benefits of whole grain flour but is a very light flour. Actually, you know that all-purpose flour you buy at the grocery store? Back in the day it actually literally used to be a blend of soft white and hard red  flour (for example, the Red Fife is a hard red wheat). If you can't get soft white flour, try to get organic, unbleached all-purpose flour. Unfortunately, even though this kind of flour will be organic and great in that sense, it will most likely not be heritage. As you know, our Red Fife grain is heritage, meaning its more easily digestible because the genes have not been altered unlike modern wheat's. So, if you are eating Red Fife for health reasons, you might just need to stay away from most other wheat flours.

Crusty Seeded French Bread. The 2 on the left were baked free-form, the one on the right in a bread pan

Crusty Seeded French Bread
(originally from Simply in Season cookbook- altered by Anna Chappell)

5 cups Red Fife
1 cup organic soft white or all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp active dry yeast
2 Tbsp organic cane sugar, or honey 
1 tsp sea salt
4 Tbsp of any combination of fennel, pumpkin, sunflour, ground flax, poppy seeds
Mix together in a large bowl, or in kitchen aid-mixer if you have one

2 1/2 cups hot water 
1 Tbsp organic olive oil
Gradually add. Mix well. If needed add more flour to make a soft dough...knead at least 10 minutes. I leave mine in the kitchen aid bowl and let it knead for up to 20 minutes. You want the dough to have a soft texture and stretch nicely (take a piece and pull on either side of it with your fingers. If it just breaks, it needs more kneading. If it slowly pulls/stretches apart its ready!)

Place a greased bowl and cover with a damp cloth, let rise an hour or until doubled in size. (Draft-free, warm location is ideal). Punch down and let rest for 20 minutes. Divide into 3 equal parts and shape or place in a greased bread pan. Make 4-5 diagonal slices on top of each loaf with a serrated blade.

1 egg
1-2 Tbsp of any combination of seeds
 Beat egg and brush on loaves. Sprinkle seeds on each loaf. Let rise until double. Beake in pre-heated oven at 400F/200C for 20 minutes. (To check done-ness knock on bottom of loaf. A hollow sound means its done!)

Take a picture and share with us via email or our facebook page! And Enjoy!

It's ugly but tasty! What to do with that horseradish root...

Fresh horseradish root may be unfamiliar to some people. If you ended up with some of this gnarly, white, slightly beige coloured root, and are not sure what to do with it, here are some ideas.

For those of you who love that white, spicy paste that you get at the grocery store called horseradish, you are in luck. It's made out of this root and its twice as spicy if you make it yourself! here's how:

1. Clean root if necessary, peel it
2. Grate root or put it on a food processor and blend till smooth (can use a couple spoonfuls of water to get it going)
** please note that horseradish while processing has a stronger effect on your eyes than
chopping onions!! Work in a well ventilated kitchen or even outside if possible**
3. If you like things hot, wait up to 3 minutes then blend in some white vinegar until you have a desirable consistency. If you prefer things mild, add in vinegar just after pureeing ( or if you simply grated the root, pour vinegar over it in a jar)
4. Put in clean jar, close lid tightly and store in fridge. Should keep 3-4 weeks like this. If you want to be extra awesome, tape some not see through paper around the jar because this will prevent light from degrading the heat.

Some other great ways to use horseradish:
1. Grate raw and eat on sandwiches
2. Scramble grated root in eggs for an extra kick in the pants in the morning
3. Add zip to stews and soups
4. Add to Bloody Mary's
5. Grate and add to roasted vegetables

Don't grate or chop root until you plan to use it because cutting or damaging the root diminishes the flavour

Enjoy! Id love for you to share your own ideas of how you used your horseradish in the comments section of the blog!

Don't forget, we'll have our all naturally grown horseradish available at our farmers market booth for much of the summer.

Tasty Cracker and Yummy lentil dip recipes

I realize its been a while since I have shared a recipe. I recently made this cracker and some lentil and roasted onion dip for a potluck. Everyone seemed to really like it, so I will share :)

I really like this cracker bread recipe- it's actually a type of pizza dough that I just rolled really thinly, and then pressed seeds/nuts into the top. You get a more crisp cracker if you roll it thin and more of a bready cracker if you don't roll it as thin. Whatever your preference is!

The recipes are as follows:

Tasty Crackers

2 1/4 tsp yeast
1 1/3 c warm water

Add:

31/2 to 3 3/4 c all-purpose flour (I did a mixture of our homegrown hard red wheat and soft white which is sort of like all-purpose, and I bet all whole wheat would be pretty tasty too- also I imagine you could leave the flour to soak overnight, WAPF style and then continue with the recipe)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp sea salt

Mix by hand, or on low speed for until ingredients are mixed. The knead for for 10 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic. Transfer bowl to lightly oiled bowl and cover with damp towel.  Let rise in warm, draft free place until doubled in volume (not such a big deal if making crackers)

Preheat oven to 450F. Roll out dough on counter (sprinkle with flour to prevent sticking) until the dough is 1/8" thick. Transfer onto oiled baking sheet.

At this point you can sprinkle toppings like sesame, poppy, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, etc. I pressed them into the top of the dough with my fingers after I drizzled a bit of olive oil onto the dough. (this should help the seeds adhere to the dough). The recipe also says you can brush melted butter or beaten egg onto the tops of the crackers instead of olive oil. Score lines into the rolled dough using a pizza cutter to any size you like. I did about 1 x 2' squares roughly.   Bake 6-9 minutes until golden brown.

Lentil and Roasted Onion Dip

2 c  red lentils
2 medium onion
1 bulb garlic (as in, several cloves)

Soak the lentils in 3 cups water for a few hours. Meanwhile, cut the onions in half, add the garlic drizzle with oil in a baking dish, and broil at 425 for 45 minutes.  Next, rinse the lentils, add fresh water. Bring to a boil, turn down the simmer gently for 20 or so minutes until lentils are soft. Drain and let cool.

Put onions and lentils in food processor.

Add about:

 (I didn't measure these ingredients, you could just roughly add what I suggest and then keep taste testing so that the dip suits your preference)

 2 tsp apple cider vinegar

 2 tsp garlic powder (if you didn't have fresh garlic)

cumin

coriander

paprika

cayenne

Blend all ingredients until smooth. 

Variations: Add roasted eggplant instead of onions, skip the cumin, coriander and  use fresh basil in combination with the rest of the seasonings, use roasted peppers instead of onions or eggplant...

Enjoy the dip spread on your delicious crackers!

Also, don't forget. We are a small farm in Bowden, Alberta. We grow heritage grains, (wheat, rye, barley). If you are interested in purchasing flour, or whole grains from us we do a share program where you can sign up to receive deliveries of grain that was stone-ground in small batches. For more info on our grain shares (as well as our pastured poultry shares, and naturally grown herbs) please visit our website!

Wholewheat shortcake/ scone recipe

It's wintertime, and I love to bake and cook. It's the perfect time to do it because you don't really want or need to be outside as much as in the summer.

The following is a recipe for scones, using 100% whole wheat flour. I used our own Red Fife flour. For those of you just getting to know us, we grow natural, heritage grains and we stone-grind them in small batches. For more info on the grains and how to get them you can visit our website at

http://www.countrythyme.ca/grain-csa.html

Back to the recipe! It's from a book called " Simply in Season" by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert. (available at http://www.tenthousandvillages.ca/cgi-bin/category.cgi?type=store&item=2208101)I have to highly recommend it, I just LOVE it. It's especially useful if you're just getting used to the idea of eating seasonally. So, here goes:

Shortcake or scone recipe:

2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c sugar ( I only added a sprinkling of ground stevia- also from our garden)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
In a large bowl, mix together

2 tbsp butter (chilled)
Cut in with pastry blender( or fork!) until crumbly

1 c yogourt (I used homemade apple sauce, you could also use pumpkin purée, or...)
1 egg
Combine, then add to dry ingredients. Mix briefly. Pour into a greased 8x8 inch pan. Bake in preheated oven at 350F/180C for 30 mins; or drop by spoonfuls onto greased baking sheet, and bake at 400F/200C for 12-15 minutes. Serve warm.

For variations, you can add 1 c chopped dried fruit or chopped nuts.

We had it with a tunesian pumpkin soup I made. Yummy!

Whole Wheat Bread Recipe

This is my Moms bread recipe- she's been using it for 30 years and its the one she taught me. My Mom is a very talented and dedicated homemaker, I respect her a lot! (She makes bread, keeps her own goats for milk, meat, cheese-but that's all another story for another time!)

You will find it is very different baking with whole wheat flour than with white flour, especially when it comes to bread. Whole wheat will naturally produce a very dense loaf, and there is nothing wrong with that. Many people are used to fluffier bread, and this can only be accomplished by adding things. A little bit of unbleached white flour helps the bread turn out fluffier.Some people also mention "dough enhancers" or "gluten flour" to help the bread rise. I don't know what to make of these products. I do strongly believe the less "weird things" you add to your dough the better it is for you. I get great results by simply making sure the dough is kneaded properly, making sure that the yeast is proofed (see tips) and by using a handful of unbleached white flour. And voila, nutritious, tasty, fresh, homemade bread!

* Start out with 1/2 cup warm water in a large bowl.
* Add 1TBS sugar or molasses along with 1/2 TBS yeast
* wait until yeast is dissolved and very foamy
* add 2 cups more water
* gradually add a cup or two of flour (you can replace a cup of whole wheat with a cup of white unbleached flour to make bread fluffier) and 2 TSP of sea salt
* stir
* gradually continue adding cupfuls of flour (up to 6-8 cups of flour total, no more than that) until the dough no longer feels sticky on your fingers (or, if you are using a kitchen aid, until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl, stickiness rule also applies)
* continue kneading the dough for no less than 10 minutes (I usually find it best to set a timer, because 10 minutes feels like a long time when you're doing it by hand!)
* put dough back into greased bowl, cover bowl with a wet towel
* put in a warm, draft free spot and let rise until it is doubled in size (about 1 hour, but it will depend on how warm the spot is)
* once the dough has risen, pre heat your oven to about 350C
* punch down the dough: from here you have some choices. You can form a loaf, put it in a loaf pan, or form little buns- it doesn't matter.
* If you form a loaf, let it rise for another 15 minutes, if you formed buns only let is rise about 5 minutes (basically you're just letting whatever you formed "rest" a little bit before putting it in the oven)
* bake for about 45-50 minutes, only 20 if you made buns...you will know when your bread is finished when the crust is golden and when you knock on the front and back of the loaf you hear a hollow sound

Options:
-add a little bit of fennel into the dough when kneading. It adds a wonderful flavour and is also good for your digestion. If you love fennel, use up to 1/4 cup seeds, if you're not used to the flavour use only a TBS or so.
-don't be afraid to experiment! You can also add ground flax, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds etc to the bread
-I use whole wheat flour in everything I bake-including non-yeast things like muffins, cookies, pancakes. I sometimes mix in just a handful of unbleached white flour when I am feeling a bit more conventional, but its not even necessary to produce tasty results!

Tips:

Proofing yeast:

Proofing yeast is a quick and easy way of making sure your yeast is still active. This way you don't have to go through all the trouble of getting your bread made, just to find out the yeast didn't rise your bread :(

All you do is measure out the yeast and mix it with the water called for in the recipe. The water should feel barely warm or lukewarm to the touch. Add just a pinch of sugar to give the yeast something to munch on.

Let the yeast and water sit for a few minutes. First, the water will dissolve the dry coating around the granules of yeast, releasing the active yeast inside. The active yeast will go to work on the sugar and a bubbly foam will start to form on the surface. This foam is proof that the yeast is active, and once you see it, you can add the yeast to your bread dough.

I hope to one day make a tutorial with photos and info for making whole wheat bread. Since I myself am not that experienced yet I felt like other more experienced people might have more to say on the subject! So for now, please peruse the following links- I found them quite enlightening.

Here is a website that answers some FAQ on whole wheat bread baking
This is a very helpful tutorial complete with a recipe, videos and photos on making whole wheat bread by hand

Good luck!