Whole Grain Spice Bars

Last week, I decided to head into Geula, one of Jerusalem's Hassidic neighborhoods. I had never before really appreciated it, as the culture it so different from mine, but these days I just find it fascinating. So off I went, to find some clothes, and just wander around and explore a bit. I did end up finding a dress and a blouse! and picking up some music, for some reason Im obsessed with Hassidic music... it's beautiful... Go figure. Anyway, while I was wandering around, my eye caught a Croc store. After going in without buying anything, I noticed a health food store. Now, there are some stores, like book stores, that I just can not resist going into. Health food stores are under that category because you just never know what you're going to find. And besides, lots of our conventional baking ingredients in Israel fall under the category of health food. Like maple syrup. Dont ask-I suppose it's just not so common here. And you can tell by its hefty price tag. So in to the store I went. I browsed around a bit and then noticed an entire back section of the store where they stocked all of their flours. Let me just say, was I surprised. They stocked every flour that I have ever wanted to lay my hands on but didnt think they had in this country. I came home with oat flour and... BARLEY FLOUR!!! and spelt flour as well. But they had everything! This store in Geula is a well kept secret and let me say, I will be going there ALOT. So naturally, what was one to do with all this flour? Get to whole grain baking, that's what! And so I went home and pulled KAF's Whole Grain Baking off the shelf and got to researching. Flours in hand, I bookmarked many recipes. I should say here that I decided to boil down the remaining apples to applesauce and I used most of it in a recipe that I had my eye on. Only I should tell you that it is very adapted and doesnt really resemble the original recipe. The original recipe is for Cinnamon Apple Bars with a PB Glaze but I didnt have cinnamon chips, I omitted the glaze and my girls told me they couldnt taste the applesauce but loved the spiciness. And so I dub these, Whole Grain Spice Bars. One of my girls called these bites of deliciousness and my roommate kept remarking on its moist texture. I was nervous about these because they were so crumbly. Perhaps they need to be held overnight before cutting. Turns out, my nerves were unwarranted. So there you have it. Bars that wont win any prizes for their humble looks, but delicious (and whole grain!) nonetheless.

Whole Wheat Dried Cherry Bread

This past week we began observing the holiday of Sukkot. The defining characteristics of Sukkot are building a hut like structure, in Hebrew a sukkah, where we eat and sleep and the four species, but that's for another time. In any case, the first day of the holiday I spent by my sister in Neve Daniel. Of course, I looked at that as an opportunity to bake and so I did. I offered to make a bread and a dessert. The tart is for later, but the bread I settled on was a whole wheat loaf from Hamelman's Bread. The original recipe calls for hazelnuts and currants, but I just used dried sour cherries. I think nuts would be a nice complement also, and so next time I would add some with the cherries as well. The bread, which I made by hand, is made with a preferment, and is easy to put together. The cherries were a tad bit stubborn when it came time to knead them in, but I knew that the rising would take care of that and it did. The bread itself had an even crumb and had a delicious crust and nice chew. It was not sweet at all and that is where the brilliance of the cherries come in. The cherries added the perfect sweetness. It was quite lovely. I made only half a recipe, and even that was too much. Once again, my slashing needs work. It wasnt terrible, but just not deep enough. Anyway, this bread is off to Yeastspotting, once again!

Macrina Bakery's Challah

This Shabbat the High Holy Days culminated in the observance of Yom Kippur. Not only is it a commandment for Jews to fast on this day of atonement and teshuva, but it is a commandment to eat the day before as well. And so, before the fast comes in, Jewish families everywhere sit down to a proper meal. As we were once again going to be in SFM and eating our meal there, I decided to make a single challah to enjoy. I figured that even if we were going to be fasting on Shabbat itself, I might as well make one anyway and of course try a new recipe in the process. :) This week's recipe comes from the Macrina Bakery and Cake Cookbook and isnt it a stunner? The dough was easy to put together and handled beautifully. I let the dough ferment overnight in the fridge and shaped and baked the next morning. The recipe calls for only 2 1/4 cups flour (plus more as needed to make a firm dough, as per my tastes) and so two eggs indeed makes it a bit rich. With three tablespoons of sweetener, it was sweet but not too sweet and it was nice, soft and doughy in the center, just like I like it. The final bread also has the most beautiful color and varnish that I've seen on a bread in recent memory. Overall this challah was YUMMY. As for the shape? It's deceptively simple. You make a three strand braid, elongate it slightly and knot it. Done. Sending this over to Yeastspotting!

KAF's Gluten Free Sandwich Bread

This year, one of my girl's presented me with a serious food challenge. She is the first girl I have met in my time here who has a gluten allergy due to a disease called colitis. I flipped out when I heard that! How on earth do they manage to stay away from all things bread?! I may only allow myself bread on weekends and holidays, but to have to go without bread forever??? To me, it's inconceivable but if it improves someone's health and quality of life.... I also felt bad that while everyone else can eat my baked goods, she can't. And so, I decided that I would make her some gluten-free goodies. Not all the time, but as a special treat, now and again. And so I conducted a ton of research and found out a lot of fascinating things about celiacs and gluten free baking. I became possessed by the research, scouring blogs and various web sites for promising recipes, finding many promising leads. So I went to the health food store in search of xantham gum, the one ingredient without which all of this gluten-free baking couldnt be done. Lo and behold, there in the Israeli health food store my eyes spotted the words (in Hebrew) "ksantam gam" and below it in English, xanthan gum. Bingo! I then proceeded to stock up on some gluten-free flours. The first thing I made her were brownies, as they are simple and chocolate- a good gluten-free choice. They were not only simple but well-received, if a bit fudgy and gooey. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever heard anyone complain about that.... My next challenge was bread. I remembered seeing a blog on the KAF Baker's Banter and went back to theirs. It looked really good and so I set out to make it having all of the ingredients on hand. Let me just say- gluten-free is a whole other ball game! It was refreshing not to worry about over beating the flours but it was also oddly goopy but didnt really stick to much. It was a really cool experiment. I gave A, the girl I'm baking for the loaf with the warning that gluten-free is not my niche and it's not my fault if it's bad. She took a piece off while it was hot and said that it was pretty good for gluten free. Afraid to taste it, I declined but then thought better of it later. I had her bring me a piece and I thought, that was it really good. I wouldn't even say good for gluten-free. I liked it! It was kind of nutty and a bit sweet... I was a fan. I would definitely make it again. The only changes I made were to use a bit of white rice flour instead of all brown, margarine instead of butter, and soy milk instead of regular and I used a hand mixer. This is impossible to make without some sort of electric mixer. Consider yourself warned. This bread is off to Yeastspotting!

Whole Wheat Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

Lots to catch up on the blog and now that Yom Kippur is behind us, (more on that later) I'm going to get started. In the spirit of having to use leftover fruit.... One of my girls generously gifted me with two browning bananas. I thought, that's so sweet... but what the heck am I going to do with them?! And so they sat on my counter for a few days, getting nice and brown, until I found this  recipe in KAF Whole Grain Baking, a book that I had been revisiting and scanning for some gluten-free inspiration (more on that later, too!!) This recipe for simple banana bread is tucked away at the back of the book, why I'm not sure, but it spoke to me anyway. Firstly, it calls for all whole wheat flour, I used regular and not white whole wheat. Also, in addition to some brown sugar, the recipe calls for honey. I must say that this is the EASIEST banana bread I can recall making. It came together in less than five minutes. I added chocolate chips instead of walnuts because the whole wheat was too virtuous. And because E likes it that way. Anyway, my eager tasters pronounced this amazing and delicious. I'm guessing the whole wheat didnt interfere at all :) My only caveat is to bake this baby through! Mine was a bit underdone in the center. You might get thrown off by the dark coloring, but if you're nervous, tent the top of the loaf with foil.