Raspberry Balsamic Kefir Muffins

One of the advantages of having a mother with a large raspberry patch is free, fresh berries -- unless you live across a border over which they cannot be transported. :( We've gotten around this restriction by canning large amounts of raspberry puree that can be taken across the border without issue and I then happily incorporated into smoothies, pancake toppings, yogurt breakfast, and other baked goods. I recently found this recipe for a strawberry-balsamic vinegar-goat cheese muffin and immediately thought of switching it up with a raspberry-basalmic-kefir cheese muffin. I have never had such rave reviews about muffins from the wife before! Clearly a keeper recipe. What I like about this recipe is the subtle tendency towards savory with the balsamic/black pepper addition. Definitely a muffin for the grown-up palate.

Muffin Batter (makes 10-11 muffins)

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose, unbleached flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup kefir cheese* with ~1-3 Tbs warm water (or greek yogurt)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup Raspberry-balsamic sauce (See below)

Raspberry Balsamic Sauce

• 3/4 c. raspberry puree
• 1/4 c. balsamic vinegar
• 1/8 - 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease muffin tins (or use muffin liners).
2. Melt butter and let cool for 2-3 minutes.
3. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.
4. Combine kefir cheese, egg, and melted butter in separate bowl. Add to dry ingredients and stir just until moistened.
5. Lightly fold in raspberry-balsamic sauce.
6. Scoop batter evenly into muffin pan and bake for 20 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes before removing from pan to cooling rack.

Kefir Bread

I baked a second loaf of the kefir bread this weekend. I love the golden brown crispy crust that emerges and the moist dense yet sourdough like interior. Plus, I love that I finally have something to use all the leftover whey for!  Usually when I'm making kefir, I let it ferment all the way to curds and strain the cheese out. I have used the whey in a couple of baked goods, but never found a recipe where I could use so much at once. I particularly love that this is a no-fuss no knead bread as well! You simply need to stir flour and kefir whey together and let it ferment/rise for 24-36 hours. Then bake! Voila! You can find the original recipe here.

Dough rising way high up...

Kefir Bread

• 3 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 c. bread flour
• 2 1/2 c. kefir whey (or kefir milk)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar

1. Stir flour, salt and sugar together. Stir whey in. Dough should be wet and sticky.
2. Cover with a towel and let rise for 24-36 hours. (It will form a slight crusty layer on top).
3. Coat a dutch oven (cast iron pot) with a light layer of canola oil. Place it in the oven. Turn the oven on to 350 degrees F. Let the dutch oven heat for 20 minutes.
4. Scoop the dough into the dutch oven. Cover and bake for 50-60 minutes.

Just out of the oven

First slice

As we know, I have a tendency to substitute flours in where they don't belong, much to the dismay of my wife and sometimes to my own penitential regret. However, for once I decided to pick a recipe that intentionally used spelt flour instead of haphazardly sneaking it in. I found this beautiful loaf recipe on Heidi's 101cookbooks site and adapted it just a bit to the seeds that I had on hand. The one change I would make next time is not to include the fennel seed (or to only use fennel seed). The fennel can be disturbingly surprising amidst all the other grains and seeds included. Once again, I experienced the chemical phenomenon of my sunflower seeds (raw/unsalted) turning bright green inside the bread when baked!!!!  Apparently (according to internet research) this is a pH effect due to the presence of lots of baking soda. I suppose that's entirely reasonable in an irish soda bread recipe!

Six-Seed Soda Bread

• 3 tablespoons EACH sunflower seeds, toasted pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, crushed walnuts
• 2 Tbs chia seeds
• 1 3/4 cup spelt flour
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp fine grain sea salt
• 1 3/4 cup buttermilk (kefir milk with a bit of vinegar tossed in)
  a bit of extra buttermilk/milk
• optional: 1 tsp fennel seeds

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Combine all the seeds/nuts and set aside.
3. Sift the flours, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Stir in all but 1 Tbs of the seed mixture.
4. Add the buttermilk and stir until the dough just comes together.
5. Knead the dough gently for about a minute on a lightly floured surface and pat into a round shape.
6. Place the dough on a baking sheet and cut a deep cross in the loaf, about 2/3 of the way deep. Brush with buttermilk and sprinkle with the remaining seeds.
7. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes, or until the bread is golden crusted on top and bottom. Cool on a wire rack.

Another quick bread

I came across this recipe when I was looking for an easy bread to cook in a limited amount of time (i.e. when you don't have the time to let things rise with yeast). Most quick breads I'm familiar with are either tea breads (pumpkin bread, banana bread, etc.), brown breads (think molasses and Boston), or cornbread - but rarely something I would happily use for a sandwich loaf - until now! Not only that, I also found that I could use up kefir yogurt in place of the buttermilk! Two birds, one stone. It was a good day.

Quick Wheat Bread
2 c. bread flour
2 c. whole wheat flour (I have also tried using 1 c. whole wheat & 1 c. spelt)
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
1 egg
1 3/4 c. buttermilk (I used 1 1/2 c. kefir yogurt + milk and 2 Tbs vinegar up to the total amount - you can use any combo of yogurt+ milk or just buttermilk)
2 Tbs melted butter, slightly cooled
Optional: Sesame seeds and/or sunflower seeds (herbs might be nice too)

1. Sift dry ingredients together
2. Beat egg in a small bowl, then beat in buttermilk and butter.
3. Fold wet into dry ingredients, adding seeds in.
4. Butter and flour an 8 x 4" pan (this is essential to getting a tall loaf!) and pour batter into pan.
5. Bake at 400 degrees F for ~50 minutes. Bread should sound hollow when tapped on the top.
6. Cool on a rack and then store in a ziplock bag for freshness.

Crazy Dip

This post may not be of any use to those of you who rely on carefully measured quantities of ingredients (just to clarify: I normally fall into this category as well, so this is not a finger-pointing of any kind). The week has been exhausting to say the least - as a passholder to the queer film festival, I am completely serious about seeing as many films as I possibly can (that I am interested in). This leads to a 10 day period where I usually see 2-3 films after work every single night and don't get home before midnight. Despite this hectic schedule, in my ever- frugal nature, I am still attempting to pack a lunch rather than buy something. Of course since I'm not home between the hours of 4:30pm-11:30pm, there has been no cooking. I haven't even squeezed cooking into my before work time, which this week has looked like roll out of bed, shower, blearily make two cups of coffee, gulp them down along with a bowl of yogurt and nectarines, and cycle off to work, where I am operating anywhere between 50-80% full capacity.

So at 11:45 pm on Wednesday night I stared into the depths of my refridgerator trying to come up with some kind of protein item that would make a meal with crackers. This is a difficult task. Especially when you see some about to be dried-out shelling peas, some leftover kale that had been sauteed 4 days before, and kefir cheese. This is how crazy dip came about - when in doubt chuck things in the food processor and whirl and come out with some combo between an artichoke cheese dip and a spinach dip that's even more amazing (and I believe quite a bit healthier!) So if you're feeling crazy (and more than a bit brave), here you go:

Crazy Dip
1-2 cloves garlic
1/2 - 1 c. walnuts
Shelling peas (not the shells) -- maybe 1/4 c. but you could do more!
Sauteed kale (1 cup ? 2 cups? who knows?)
Kefir cheese (in the thickened yogurt state - you could probably also use yogurt, or sour cream, etc.)
Parmesan cheese (no idea but I'm going to guess 1/4 cup, add to taste)
Juice of 1/2 or whole lemon
Thyme
Salt/pepper 

1. Pulse garlic and walnuts until finely ground in food processor.
2. Add in everything else and whirl some more.
3. Taste, adjust.
4. Serve with sourdough bread, crackers, veggies, you name it!

Photo, photo, always there needs to be a photo...

Kefir - The Experiment, Part 2

Okay, so correction to the last kefir post. I don't think you can actually make cheese just out of kefir the liquid. (Although I haven't tried heating it and pouring an acid in, which may have the same effect). It's actually about letting the batch ferment long enough. This time, with a new batch of kefir, I used about 1 c. of whole, organic milk poured in with the grains and I let it ferment on the counter for 48 hours.

And what did I get? Curds and whey!!!

Admittedly once I fished the grains out of the curds, I had about half as much curds as I thought I did, but after straining, a respectable sized ball of kefir cheese remained. I found the cheese smooth, soft, and refreshingly tangy. You could add some salt or other herbs, but I enjoyed it as it was, paired with a bit of blackberry jam on toast.

Kefir - The Experiment, Part 1

In addition to canned peaches and a homemade lavender facial scrub (yes I am indeed blessed with the most thoughtful and generous of friends!), I also came home with my very own kefir grains!!! (And no, I did not confess to the border guards about the kefir grains. I thought they would be flummoxed enough by the 125 lbs of trail mix chocolate clay in my trunk, but they didn't bat an eye.)

So far I have attempted to read many websites and follow my friend's note card of instructions on care and use of kefir, but already I am at a bit of a loss, so I think I will document my learning experience with the grains.

(1) kefir grains: when growing, they look like tiny little cauliflowers, kind of squishy. Photo to come...
(2) kefir: my understanding is that this is the liquid/whey/curd portion that forms when you pour milk in with the grains and allow it to ferment. It is a slightly sour (think yogurt), fizzy beverage, that supposedly can also be allowed to ferment further and thicken? Though this is the part I'm less certain of. I have yet to see any curds form...

So far, I've poured in 2 cups of milk (1%, straight from the fridge) with the grains into a glass jar and left it on the counter to ferment for 24 hours. The lid is put on loosely, and I give it a little shake once in a while. Then I will strain out the grains (again controversial - some websites say absolutely no metal can touch the grains, while others say a stainless steel strainer is okay), put them into a fresh jar and add new milk. The strained out liquid will go in the fridge where I am trying to stockpile a quart of it to make kefir cheese, which is also called "the champagne of cheeses". How fabulous does that sound??