Soaked Spelt Doughnuts!

Doughnuts are notorious for being the ultimate “junk food”. With Hanukkah fast approaching, I was wondering if I could actually make a nourishing version of this holiday treat. Yes, it is possible! Made with freshly ground spelt, soaked to reduce phytates, fried in coconut oil, and very lightly sweetened (only 1 tsp. of honey per doughnut!) these are something I actually feel good about serving my family. Not to mention how delicious they are!

In a stand mixer, cream together first 6 ingredients. Dough should be pretty sticky. Cover with a towel and let sit at room temperature for 7-12 hours.
When ready to fry, start heating up your coconut oil in a dutch oven. It should reach about 350-375 degrees.
Add the egg to the soaked dough, along with baking powder and salt. Turn on the mixer, and add unbleached flour a couple tablespoons at a time, until the dough is only slightly sticky. Turn onto a floured surface and roll out to 1/4 in. thickness. Cut with a small glass, and work a hole in the middle with your fingers. Drop one doughnut into the hot oil, to make sure it doesn’t brown too quickly (lower heat if it is too hot). Working in 2 or 3 batches, cook doughnuts for about 3 minutes, flipping halfway through, then remove to a paper-towel lined pan. Sprinkle with powdered sugar or organic sprinkles, if desired.

Holiday Spice Maple Panna Cotta

The flavors for this Panna Cotta remind me of the holiday season.

Infuse: In a small saucepan, heat 1/2 cup cream with the maple syrup and stir to dissolve. Add cinnamon sticks, vanilla bean, and nutmeg. Turn off heat and leave spices to infuse for at least 30 minutes. Strain, and return the cream to a saucepan.
Soften the gelatin: In a small, wide bowl, sprinkle the gelatin evenly over 1/4 cup cold milk and let stand about 5 minutes, until softened.
Dissolve the gelatin: Reheat the strained cream and whisk in the softened gelatin and milk until completely dissolved. Turn off heat and let mixture rest until room temperature.
Combine base ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk together creme fraiche with the remaining 1/2 cup cream and 3/4 cup milk until smooth.
Add the melted gelatin: Whisk the cooled gelatin-milk mixture into the base mixture.
Strain: Pour the panna cotta mixture through a triple-mesh, sieve into a large glass measuring cup with a pour spout. Then divide into ramekins, dessert glasses, or molds.
Set the gelatin: Refrigerate until set, at least 4 hours.
Serve: To serve, unmold onto dessert plates or present in ramekins or dessert glasses. Serve with drizzle of maple syrup on top.

Berry Custard Clafoutis

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s … Super Custard? I was a bit skeptical before making my first clafoutis (“claw-foo-tee”). Ignoring the strange name, we decided to give it a try. This dessert has now launched itself into our family’s recipe book Hall of Fame. The custard base, combined with delicious fruit — and the easiest assembly ever! — prove that this isn’t any ordinary recipe. Warning: I recommend making a double batch.

Heat oven to 325*F. While oven warms, place butter in 8×8 dish to melt. (Double bonus - it greases your pan!)
In a medium bowl, beat eggs, honey, milk, vanilla, flour, and salt together.
Remove 8×8 dish from oven. Stir in melted butter to batter.
Dump (yes, dump!) fruit into 8×8 dish, spreading evenly.
Pour batter over fruit. Note: Fruit will gradually fruit to the top as it cooks.
Bake for 45 minutes until set and golden.
Serve warm or chilled.
HINT: Makes for a great breakfast the next morning!
HINT: Experiment with fruit combinations. You can’t go wrong! Add as much (or as little) fruit as you like.

Healthy Soaked Whole Wheat Cherry Clafoutis

This subtly sweet cherry clafoutis is a perfect breakfast dish with hints of maple syrup and buttermilk laced throughout the batter and beautiful sweet black cherries adding a burst of sweetness and beautiful coloring along the top of the clafoutis. This dish will please even the littlest members of your family.

Mix the flour and buttermilk in a small bowl. Cover the bowl and set in a warm place over night.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Mix the eggs, maple syrup, milk, applesauce, vanilla and sea salt in a small bowl.
Slowly incorporate the egg mixture into the flour mixture. Do not over mix.
Pour the batter into a greased pie pan or medium cast iron skillet.
Arrange and place the cherries in the batter. Press down gently to make sure the cherries are fully incorporated into the clafoutis.
Bake the clafoutis for 20-22 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and separating from the edge of the pan and a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the clafoutis.

Sourdough Poppy Seed Cake with Kefir Honey Topping

Poppy seeds are rich in B vitamins and minerals including iron. Soaking them in a sourdough batter helps deactivate anti-nutrients. This lovely little cake, low in sugar, and served with lightly sweetened milk kefir soft cheese is perfect for an outdoor summer tea party!

In a glass bowl, combine the flour, sourdough starter, poppy seeds and milk. Stir well and cover. Let rest at room temperature for at least 8 hours or up to 12.
Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan. Pre-heat oven to 350.
In another bowl, combine the honey and softened butter. Beat together well.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.
Add the lemon juice or vanilla, lemon zest, nutmeg, salt, soda and baking powder and beat well.
Stir in raisins.
Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly.
Bake until the center springs back when touched lightly with your finger, about 25 - 30 minutes.
Remove from oven. Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes and then turn the cake out onto a metal cooling rack.

Sauce:
Stir together the milk kefir soft cheese and the honey thoroughly.
Place the cake on a plate and cut into wedges. Serve each wedge with a spoonful of the topping.
The cake, if carefully wrapped, freezes well, but the topping will need to be made fresh.

Sprouted or Sourdough Bread Pudding

If you make whole grain bread, you know how it is. The heels of the bread are marvelous when the bread is very fresh, but after that, no one wants to eat them. So, they sit in the bread bag until the bread ends up in the refrigerator so it won’t get moldy. Of course, the stale bread makes marvelous toast at that point, but only the most intrepid will willingly choose the stale heels of bread. So, they sit there, making one feel guilty. To compost or what? Here is my solution. I’ve been making “Bread Pudding” since our children were all young and still living at home. It is delicious, warm with milk or cream, or even after it’s been chilled, it is still good. It can be re-heated, of course.

Butter an 8 inch square glass baking dish.
Break the bread into little pieces into the dish.
Sprinkle the raisins over the bread and stir down into the bread pieces with your fingers.
In a blender, combine the milk, vanilla, sucanat, cinnamon, nutmeg and eggs. Blend together thoroughly.
Pour the milk mixture over the bread and raisins.
Start preheating the oven to 325 degrees F. after the pudding is all in the dish.
When the oven is pre-heated, place the dish of pudding into a larger dish and pour enough water into the outer dish to come up halfway on the inner dish. (See pictures on my blog.)
Place in the oven, and bake until when you insert a sharp knife in the middle, it comes out clean.
Start checking after 30 minutes.
Serve warm with cold milk or cream, or serve cold!

Raw Apricot Cobbler

If you have never tried preparing a raw dish, this is a very delicious starter recipe. It’s simple and only takes about 15 minutes to prepare.

Put 10 apricots, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 3 tbs. coconut oil, maple syrup, and salt in a blender (a high-speed like a Vita-Mix works best). Blend on high until smooth and pour into a pie pan. Chop up 4 remaining apricots in little bits and sprinkle them onto the apricot purée.
In a food processor, make the crumb topping by processing nuts, dates, 2 tbs. coconut oil, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and vanilla until it resembles coarse crumbs (before it turns into a butter). Sprinkle on top of apricots. Now you can either serve it right away or stick it in the dehydrator at 105º for 30 minutes to 3 hours if you’d like it warmed and your house to smell divine. Scoop onto plates or bowls and serve immediately. Store leftovers in the fridge. It stays good for 3 more days.

Breakfast Rice Custard

This is a dreamy, smooth, pudding-like custard that is delicious for breakfast, yet decadent enough for dessert! It tastes wonderful when served warm topped with raw milk and raisins, or cold with strawberries!

Grease a 9×13 pan, and place inside an 11×15 pan. Fill up the bigger pan halfway with water, and set the whole thing aside.
Whisk all ingredients except rice and pecans together in a large glass bowl, and place over a pan of simmering water. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Place rice and pecans in the greased 9×13 pan and pour custard mixture over. Place the whole thing in the oven and bake at 325 for about 45 minutes, until set. Enjoy warm or cold!
This is also a wonderful way to use up raw milk that has gone sour, as you can’t even taste it in the recipe!

Date Sweetened Chocolate Mousse

One word: YUM. I made this recipe up on a whim the other day. I like to take my kids to the park each Friday and we always bring a snack. On this day, I decided to be a really cool mom and make them a treat for the park. It is usually hardboiled eggs and carrot sticks. They loved this and so did I. The texture is perfectly creamy and you can never go wrong with chocolate!

In a blender, combine ingredients and puree until smooth. If your dates are hard, you may want to soak them in water for about 30 minutes to soften them. Chill for 30 minutes to an hour and then serve up in glasses, sprinkle with a dash of salt (if desired), and enjoy! This can also be served immediately but I like it most when well chilled.
*Feel free to substitute with another natural sweetener, such as raw honey or maple syrup, if needed.

Apple Cinnamon Chia Pudding (GAPS Legal)

I made this recipe up on a whim the other day when looking for a fun, different snack I could feed my kids. All of us loved it but my soon-to-be four year old who didn’t love the texture. It has a texture similar to tapioca pudding, if you’re wondering. Chia seeds are packed with nutrition - they are high in protein, calcium, omega-3 fatty acids, and antioxidants. They are a superfood! Enjoy this pudding, it makes a great snack. Feel free to add more sweetener to your liking. This is not very sweet as written since we do not sweeten things nearly as much as we used to.

Combine coconut milk, chia seeds, apples, and a generous amount of cinnamon (I use a lot). Let sit for 20-30 minutes until the mixture thickens. Serve topped with additional cinnamon and enjoy!
*Make this sweeter, if desired, by adding some honey or other sweetener to the coconut milk mixture.

Healthy Breakfast Ice Cream

Ice cream for breakfast? Why not! This recipe features raw cream and milk, pastured eggs, soaked nuts, delicious fruits, and natural sweeteners.

In a medium saucepan, heat the milk and cream until just warm enough to keep the honey melted upon mixing. (Editor’s Note: Be careful not to overheat or you will lose the raw properties of the milk.)
While the dairy is warming up, whisk the egg yolks, honey, and salt together until well-aerated, paler in color, and somewhat fluffy.
Take one ladle full of the warm milk/cream mixture, whisking continuously to incorporate. Add a second label full in the same manner.
Add the egg mixture back into the saucepan and whisk well. Add in spices to taste (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, clove.)
At this point, I do not heat further, as I’m using my own eggs and milk from our herd share; however, if you have concerns about food safety, cook the mixture over low heat, stirring often and not letting it come to a boil. Optionally, leave the vanilla bean in during cooking for extra vanilla flavor, or reserve it for use in vanilla extract or sweeteners. Cook until the mixture is thick enough to coat a spoon.
Cool the ice cream mix in the refrigerator until chilled through before placing into your ice cream maker. We’ll add the mix-ins when the ice cream is about 5 minutes away from being ready in the machine.
After the mix has cooled completely, follow your machine’s instructions to begin freezing.
When your ice cream is about 5 minutes away from completion, add your mix-ins. I have used the following with great success:
* Dried cherries (chopped)
* Dried blueberries (whole or chopped)
* Your own pureed or chopped jarred fruit
* Chopped raisins, figs, or dates (organic preferred)
* Soaked & dehydrated raw almonds (chopped well)
* Soaked & dehydrated raw pecans (chopped well)
* Soaked & dehydrated raw pumpkin seeds (coarsely chopped)
* Mashed, ripe bananas
* Shredded coconut
* Soaked & dehydrated rolled oats
* Soaked grains (rice, tapioca, buckwheat groats, et cetera)
Top with:
* Sliced fresh fruit
* Cultured sour cream
* Clabbered cheese
* Yogurt
* Chopped seeds & nuts (soaked & dehydrated)
* Carob powder
* Kefir or yogurt cheese
* Honey, molasses, maple syrup, or agave syrup
* Shredded coconut