Chewy Molasses Cookies with Einkorn and Teff

Your basic molasses cookie, but tweaked to include a blend of einkorn and teff flours for fewer allergens and far more nutrition. Healthy enough to be a post- or pre-workout snack! And DELICIOUS, too, with a perfect texture: tender and moist inside, delicately crispy outside. Not too sweet. See explanation below for more info about the ingredients.

Ingredients:

5 ounces einkorn flour
3 ounces teff flour
1/4 cup Stevia, the fluffy kind that is designed to measure 1:1 with sugar, or equivalent sweetener
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/3 tsp allspice
3/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
6 tbsp softened butter
1 egg
1/3 cup molasses

 Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and stir.

 Put the butter and the egg in a food processor and process until slightly fluffed. Add the molasses and process until combined.

 Add the dry ingredients to the food processor in three batches (one third of the dry mixture at a time). Each time, process until just smooth. Note that, due to the low gluten content of these cookies, you don't have to fear overmixing them. They will not get tough.

Scoop out into a bowl and refrigerate for 30 minutes or so.

 Preheat oven to 350.

 Divide the dough into four pieces. Roll each piece into a snake about as long as your hand. Cut each snake into 6 pieces. This will give you 24 cookies of equal size with no need to bother measuring them--neat, huh?

 Roll each piece into a ball. Now, you have a choice. You can place them on the cookie sheet as-is, OR, you can roll them in sugar first. Believe me when I say they are delicious even without the sugar. I am chowing down on a plate full of them right now. However, many people feel that the texture of the sugar is a vital part of this kind of cookie, and far be it from me to deny you this pleasure if you want it!

Whether you've rolled them in sugar or not, either way, you will now bake them for 11 minutes or until set. DO NOT OVERBAKE or they won't be chewy anymore!

 Enjoy :)

Ingredient explanations:

Einkorn: Einkorn is a primitive wheat. It is grown mainly in Italy, where it was used for some traditional foods, and thank God for that or we might have lost it!

 Einkorn has been selectively bred to increase its yield and so on, but it has never been hybridized (cross-bred with other species). As a result, it has a less complicated genetic structure and a different gluten protein. Many people who cannot tolerate modern gluten have no trouble with einkorn. Now, if you have a wheat allergy, I do not recommend you go overboard on einkorn, even if you think you can tolerate it! Reason being, allergies are flexible things and you could easily develop an intolerance to this gluten, too. Instead, I suggest you preserve it for special occasions, like pies, birthday cake, and Christmas baking.

 Einkorn flour also happens to have a delightful silky texture, lovely soft-gold color, and a richer, almost tangier flavor than modern wheat. The only tricky thing about using it is, it doesn't absorb as much water as modern flour, so you will need to reduce the amount of liquids you use. With cookies, however, this is not an issue as there is no added liquid.

 I use Jovial brand of einkorn flour, but that's because I haven't found any others, not because I specifically prefer that brand.

Teff: Teff means "lost" and refers to its tiny size. It is the world's smallest grain. This is significant because it means the ratio of starch to "good stuff" is better.

Teff has more protein and more minerals than any other grain, and a lot of fiber, too. It's especially important for its magnesium content. Considering more than half of Americans get way less magnesium in their diet than they need, and considering what a deleterious effect low magnesium can have on mood and mental functioning, it's pretty awesome that one serving of teff contains 45% of your entire day's magnesium requirement!

Teff also happens to be incredibly flavorful, with a lightly sweet and fruity aspect that reminds me of cider and makes it perfect for this kind of cookie. I also love to add it to pancakes.

I use Bob's Red Mill brand of teff flour, and that is important because milling teff is not easy. I have tried other brands and they are gritty, as though sand or dirt got in with the tiny teff grains. So, not all teff flours are created equal. Bob's is worth the slightly higher price.

Traditional Flan

This isn't your chef's creme caramel.

The apple pie, and indeed the pie in general, is American. It's a colonist's interpretation of an old world dish, namely a tart, but made with the available ingredients and techniques. Pie crust is the commoner's pate sucree. Similarly, this is the flan of the people, created with the ingredients available in tropical places like Mexico and the Philippines. It is not healthy.

Ingredients:
1 can evaporated milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
8* egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar (organic is ok)
2 tbsp water

Preheat the oven to 325. Grease a pie plate or similar ceramic or glass oven safe container. Prepare the filling by heating the canned milks in a small pot to almost boiling. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks and vanilla lightly.

When the milks are hot, pour into the eggs in a thin stream, whisking constantly. Set aside.

Make the caramel sauce by mixing together the sugar and water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook without stirring until the sugar turns golden-brown.

Immediately pour the caramelized sugar over the bottom of the greased pie plate. It will turn rock-hard as soon as it cools, so try to pour it all over the plate and not in a mound in the middle, although don't worry about getting it evenly spread. It will melt and spread out while cooking.

Pour the egg filling on top and bake gently for half an hour, or JUST until the center is set. If you see the edges begin to puff up, you're overcooking it and must take it out immediately. However, this flan is much more forgiving than regular custard, since the canned milk does not curdle.

Variation: Reduced sugar

To make a reduced sugar version, simply replace the can of condensed milk with an additional can of evaporated milk plus about 1 cup of Splenda or equivalent heat-safe sweetener. You must use real sugar for the caramel, though.

* About the egg yolks: This number of yolks is a guideline. Some families use a whole dozen!! It's possible to use as few as 5. Basically, 8 is just the compromise number, so use however many you like.

Brown Rice Pudding with Brandy

Out of the blue, I acquired a craving for rice pudding. I insisted on brown rice for health purposes.

I've read that it's better to pre-cook the brown rice in water and then add it to the milk; I haven't tried this yet, so here's the traditional recipe.

Ingredients:
2/3 cup brown rice, uncooked
Optional: 1/4 cup golden raisins
3 cups milk
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
3 tbsp butter or margarine
1 tbsp brandy
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup splenda or equivalent sweetness

Combine the rice, milk, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small pot. Bring to a low boil, then turn down the heat and simmer gently. Cook, stirring frequently, for 45-60 minutes or until the pudding thickens to your preferred texture.

Add the brandy. Whisk in the butter, a tablespoon at a time. Then continue to cook, stirring constantly since it will burn easily at this point, until the alcohol from the brandy has evaporated. You can tell because the steam will stop smelling like booze.

Stir in the splenda and vanilla.

If you don't serve it immediately, this will thicken as it cools. It will also acquire a skin. To prevent this, place a sheet of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the pudding.

Note on butter: The reason for the butter and the brandy is to cover up the bitter bite of the brown rice. I personally don't like the taste of brown rice on its own. The fat from the butter tempers bitterness, and whatever shines through anyway is swallowed up by the brandy. Spiced rum would also be tasty. I made this with 2% milk, so it's possible that using whole milk would not need butter.

Note on milk: You cannot substitute rice, almond, or soy milk effectively in this recipe. Soy milk will produce a runny pudding, though still edible; rice milk will not set at all but stay liquid like congee. I think, however, that the newly available coconut milk (not the kind in a can, the kind you buy in the milk department) might work well.

Next, I think I'll try this with wheat berries, or maybe farro!

Honey Roasted Root Vegetables

Copied almost verbatim from the Cooking Light recipes by the same name, this is quickly becoming "my" Thanksgiving dish. It is good all year though as long as the weather is cool enough for the oven.

Ingredients:
coarsely chopped peeled sweet potato (about 1 large) or winter squash or pumpkin
coarsely chopped peeled turnip (about 2 medium)
coarsely chopped parsnip (about 4 medium)
coarsely chopped carrot (about 6 medium)
1/4 cup honey (I like Orange Blossom but any full flavored honey will do)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 shallots, quartered

Preheat oven to 450°.
Combine all ingredients except the cooking spray in a large bowl; toss to coat. Place vegetable mixture on a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 450° for 35 minutes or until vegetables are tender and begin to brown, stirring every 10 minutes.

Festive Candied Yams

This is a guilty pleasure, a relic of childhood, and I'm pretty much the only one who eats it at this point (well, Ariel does, but he eats almost anything).

This year I tried a variation with the intention of making the yams a little more grown-up and their sweetness a little more approachable. Here's the result. It worked pretty well - people ate about half of it, though that was with a lot of help from my friend Elana's twin toddlers. Hooray for a new generation of kids + yams!

Ingredients:

1 large can cut yams in syrup
1/2 bag of regular-sized marshmallows (Nothing wrong with the minis if you prefer them. I just like the big ones' tenderness.)
1/2 cup sugar, either the evaporated cane juice kind or packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup cranberries
1/3 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
Dash cloves
2 tbsp butter

Pour about 2/3 cup of the yam liquid from the can into a small pot, and discard the rest. Spread the yams into a baking dish in one layer. Warm the yams in the microwave.

Add the sugar to the yam liquid and bring to a boil. Cook down into a syrup that stretches from the (heat safe!) spoon like corn syrup, stirring often. Then turn the heat down and add the cranberries, stirring until they pop and become soft. Stir in the spices ad the butter. Pour the sauce over the yams.

Spread a single layer of marshmallows over the yams and place under the broiler. Broil until the tops are darkened to the degree you prefer.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Ariel requested a cheesecake for Thanksgiving, and of course that meant I had to put pumpkin in it. This is a reduced-sugar version of this recipe by Cooking Light, and can be made wholly sugar-free by simply omitting the crust. It'd be good without the crust, I only add it for the benefit of guests who expect crusts.



Ingredients:

50 vanilla wafer cookies
2 tbsp butter or margarine
4 blocks 1/3 reduced fat cream cheese
1 can pumpkin
1 1/4 cup Splenda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2/3 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cloves
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1 tbsp molasses

Crush the wafers - a food processor is good for this, but you can also crush them with a rolling pin inside a plastic bag. Melt the butter and mix it into the crumbs, then spread the crumbs in the bottom of either a springform pan or a silicone cake pan at least 3 inches deep. Pat the crumbs down and bake at 400 for 8 minutes.

Combine the Splenda and the spices in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Put the cream cheeses into a large microwave-safe bowl and warm up in the microwave, 10 seconds at a time, until they are easy to stir. Stir in the pumpkin, the vanilla, and the eggs, followed by the Splenda mixture.

Important note about stirring: If you beat air into a cheesecake, it will puff up and curdle when you bake it and you won't be happy with the results. Stirring must be done with care to avoid this. I don't use a machine - a food processor is wildly inappropriate for this, and a mixer gives (heh heh) mixed results. Use a spoon and be careful, or use my special cheesecake secret: An immersion blender! You can stick the immersion blender into the batter, carefully to avoid trapping bubbles, and then stir the batter with the blending stick (while blending) and as long as you don't lift the stick up too high, it won't whip any air in and you'll have a perfectly smooth batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Then turn the oven down and bake at 300 for 50 minutes. The cheesecake is done when the outer inch or two is beginning to turn golden and puff slightly, but the inside is flat. Cracks are okay, they happen to everyone and no one will care because it tastes AMAZING.