Cherry Almond Meal Muffins

Ahh, it feels so good to finally be home from our little trip to San Francisco. In the coarse of five days our car racked up more miles than we've probably driven this whole year, so it feels good to be back home, sleeping in our own bed, and getting back into the swing of things.

Thank you to everyone who sent along their favorite places to eat and areas we should see. I'm sad to say that apart from the Fisherman's Wharf area, where we were for two very long days and the room we slept in every night, we didn't manage to get out as much as we had hoped. Next time we plan to schedule in more free days.

Whenever I travel, even if it's not far from home, I always take back something about the trip that seems to get lost in my day to day life. I don't mean souvenirs and such so much as feelings and moments or ideas about how to simplify my life even more.

What I took away from this trip was something unexpected. Even though my husband and I were very busy the whole weekend, we pretty much ate every meal together. I don't mean together as, in the same room, but really together without distractions. It was a subtle thing and made me realize that when we're at home this doesn't happen as often as it should because we both get so busy with our work for the day.

I dislike eating breakfast while answering morning emails, but I'm guilty of this act more often then I care to admit. I always feel I have so much to do in the day and multitasking is the only way it will get done. The truth, I realized, is that most people do not need their emails answered right that second and over all I work more efficiently if I've had a moment to sit quietly in the morning with my food and take in the day before rushing to my computer.

We have a giant beautiful re-claimed wood table my dad and husband built together and although it's most often used as a second office area, since we've been home, I've made a point to pull up a chair and use it as it was meant to be used. And these cherry almond meal muffins make slow paced mornings that much more pleasurable.

If you've read this blog for some time or looked through my archives you're probably well aware that I'm not gluten intolerant. However, I've found almond flour is really great to work with and makes gluten free baking an easy place start without needing a long list of other ingredients. It has such a great flavor and distinguishably different taste from wheat flour. It's loaded with protein and healthy fats and makes for one filling little muffin. This recipe is pretty straight forward. When I was looking into almond flour recipes I found this ratio seemed to be pretty universal across the web so I went with it, using a light olive oil in place of other oils or butter and adding in some fresh cherries from the market.

Cherry Almond Meal Muffins
makes 6 large muffins

2 cups almond flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup fresh sweet cherries, pitted and halved

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners.

Whisk together the almond flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs. Add in the honey and oil and beat until well combined.

Add the dry mixture to the wet, stirring just until combined. Carefully fold in the cherries.

Pour batter into the muffin tin, filling to the top if you want a nice muffin dome. Bake for 25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the muffins cool on a wire rack at least 5 minutes and serve warm.

Store tightly covered at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Pumpkin Hazelnut Bread

It's already a week into November and the little orange pie pumpkins I bought just before Halloween needed to be taken care of. Because I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do with the puree, I decided to cut them in half, place them in a 9x13 baking dish with a small amount of water and bake them until their flesh became soft enough to scoop out. No salt, no oil, just a little water to get things steaming and soft.

I'm one of those people who is probably a little on the extreme side when it comes to wastefulness. I can't stand it when I have to toss something when it's gone bad. I insist to my husband that there is still at least a whole spoonful left in the peanut butter jar if you just scrape the sides. I reuse and re-purpose things the best that I can. So when it came time to scrape out these pumpkins, I was in there and getting every last bit. I saved the seeds and roasted them too. The only thing that went off to compost was the skin, but I was fine with that.

Have you ever roasted your own pie pumpkins? They have the most beautiful brightly colored orange flesh, nothing like what you get from a can. I'd recommend giving it a long go in a food processor to get all the strands fully chopped up and smooth. Nobody likes stringy things in their baked goods or soup.

I probably was able to get about 5-6 cups worth of pumpkin puree from just one pumpkin. I decided on making a batch of pumpkin ginger cookies first. They turned out alright. I remembered I'm not really a cakey type cookie person and whenever you use something like pumpkin puree, applesauce, or banana puree in any kind of cookie, they always end up on the cakey side. Then I saw a jar of hazelnuts and decided to try out a pumpkin bread with roasted hazelnuts. The resulting taste is strongly hazelnut with hints of spice, in a bread that's slightly sweet with a nice crumb. The only change I latter thought to make was adding a handful of shaved chocolate to the batter. I simply cannot resist hazelnuts and chocolate together.

You can definitely use 1 cup of canned pumpkin puree if you would like. *If you want to roast your own, cut the pumpkin in half, scoop out the center, seeds and all. Place the two halves, cut side down, into a baking dish large enough to hold them. Pour in enough water to come up about 1/4-inch. Place in a preheated 350˚F oven and bake for about 35-45 minutes or until you can pierce the flesh easily with a knife. Time will vary depending on how large your pumpkins are. Cool, scoop out flesh and run through a food processor until completely smooth.

Pumpkin Hazelnut Bread
Adapted from Simply Recipes
makes 1 loaf

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons toasted hazelnuts, divided
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon all spice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup pumpkin puree *see above notes for making your own
1/2 cup olive oil
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Grease or line with parchment a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

Place 1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts in a food processor and process until ground into a flour. Don't blend too far or you will get hazelnut butter.

In a large bowl sift together the hazelnut flour, pastry flour, salt, baking soda, and spices.

In a large bowl combine the pumpkin puree, oil, and sugar. Add in the eggs and water, mixing well. Add the dry mixture to the wet, mixing until everything is just combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons roughly chopped hazelnuts and pop in the oven for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes in pan, then remove and cool on wire rack before cutting.

Lemon Thyme Strawberry Shortcakes

I can feel Summer coming, it's really close. The days are long and every morning I gently wake to the sound of birds chirping. In the NW, many say Summer is never truly here until after the 4th of July. After that, it's one of the most pleasant and beautiful places to be.

In the mean time I've been eating strawberries by the fist full to compensate for the lack of sun. After picking up my first little blue basket a couple weeks ago, I went back and bought an entire flat. I couldn't help myself. And I wouldn't mind going back to get more from a farm nearby to pick my own. They were perfectly ripe red jewels. I set aside a few baskets to eat as is, baked with them, placed them in salads, pureed some and put them into pancakes and the rest were cleaned up and placed into the freezer for a little December strawberry delight.

But I couldn't think of a better way to start July than with strawberry shortcakes. I don't think there was ever a childhood Summer where I didn't enjoy one of these tasty cakes. I always preferred mine loaded with fresh strawberries and not as much whipped cream, the same is true today.

These aren't your traditional shortcakes though. And definitely not the spongy little cakes that come wrapped in plastic, that for some reason I remember were always slightly sticky. What was that?

The inspiration for these shortcakes actually comes from a favorite cornbread recipe that I've been making for years (although I've yet to share it here, I'd better get on that). A subtle taste of lemon and a grassy earthiness from the thyme makes these something different. The cakes themselves are actually vegan, but you wouldn't know it.

They bake with a perfectly thin and crisp crust on the outside and a soft, delicate crumb interior. I could eat them on their own, like a scone with a cup of tea, but when topped with strawberries and a dollop of fresh whipped cream well, lets just say I went in for seconds.

I also wanted to share something sweet with you as a sort of bribe for info from all of you. In about a week we'll be headed down to San Francisco for the Renegade Craft Show. We've only spent a brief amount of time in this incredible city, and even though this trip is more work related, I'd love to get inside tips on places to go, see, and of course good places to eat. & nbsp;

Budget friendly places are always most helpful, but really anything you've got I'd love for you to share. And if you happen to be in the bay area on July 9th and 10th you should come and stop by.

This recipe make 6 single serving shortcakes, but can easily be doubled if you'd like more. If you're unsure about the lemon or thyme, leave them out, you'll still have a perfectly delicious vegan shortcake, sans the whipped cream of coarse. I used white whole wheat flour to keep them from straying too far from their original light color, but feel free to use whole wheat pastry flour or all purpose flour if that's what you have.

Lemon Thyme Strawberry Shortcakes

makes 6

shortcake

2 cups white whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons cane sugar

zest of one lemon

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme or 3/4 tablespoon fresh

6 tablespoons coconut oil, not melted

3/4 cup almond milk

juice of half a small lemon

whipped cream

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoons cane sugar

a pint of strawberries, sliced for serving

Preheat oven to 425˚F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silpat baking mat.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, lemon zest, and thyme. Using your fingers, rub in the coconut oil until little pebbly pieces begin to form and mixture is crumbly. & nbsp; & nbsp;

Pour the almond milk and lemon juice into the bowl. Gently stir until a soft dough starts to form. It will be a pretty wet and sticky dough, but make sure that you incorporate all the flour at the bottom of the bowl. You just don't want to over work it.

Divide the batter into 6 equal portions, about a half cup each. I like a more rustic look and just plop the onto the baking sheet, but you can try patting them into a more uniform shape.

Place them in the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes. They should be puffed up, slightly golden, and have a slight give with lightly pushed with your finger. Transfer them to a wire cooling rack.

To make the whipped cream, pour the cream into a mixing bowl along with the sugar. Whip at a high speed until soft peaks begin to form, do not over-beat. Keep covered and chilled until ready to serve.

When ready to assemble, carefully slice the cakes in half with a serrated knife. Place strawberries and whipped cream on the bottom half, then cover with the top half and serve.

I think the cakes are best eaten on the first day, but stored in a tightly covered container they will keep for a couple days.

Spelt Biscuits

There is nothing better than a hearty, soul warming soup in the fall and through the winter, but as excited as I am about tasting each new batch or being reminded of familiar favorites, sometimes I get just as excited about the bread that will be accompanying it.

I made a big batch of stew for dinner the other night soon after finishing our chickpea noodle soup. Normally I enjoy soups and stews with a nice loaf of crusty bread; sopping up all the last remaining bits with a shaggy torn piece at the end. This time however, I was craving biscuits. Warm from the oven, flaky, buttery, homey biscuits.

Now, these are not your traditional biscuits in any sense, they are made entirely from spelt flour, but they still have that buttery, slightly flaky characteristic I was craving. So they suited me just fine.

This batch made plenty more than we could eat that night and biscuits are always a welcome sight in the morning. I rewarmed them slightly in the oven the next day just to give them that warm from the oven feel again. Then I drizzled mine with some local raw blackberry honey alongside a hot cup of tea, but jam or even just a nob of butter perks them up too. I also may have eaten more then one, but who's counting?

Now that I'm on the topic of breakfast, I'm envisioning serving these alongside scrambled eggs or tofu or maybe making a fried egg sandwich from them as well. Biscuits have so many great uses! Never be afraid to make a double batch, they will always get eaten.

Other than the change from white flour to spelt (you can use light spelt if you prefer too), there is plenty of cold butter mixed in to give the biscuits their flakiness. I used my favorite buttermilk substitute of almond milk and vinegar, but if you have a splash of buttermilk needing to be used up you can use that here too.

Spelt Biscuits
8-10 biscuits

3/4 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon vinegar
2 1/2 Cups spelt flour
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

Preheat the oven to 350˚F.

In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, combine the milk and vinegar (alternatively you can use buttermilk), set aside.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Using your hands, rub in the butter into the flour mixture until you have roughly little pea size bits.

Stir in the milk mixture with a wooden spoon. You should have a shaggy doughy mess, don't worry if it seems dry at this point. Dump everything out onto a clean surface and knead the dough 10-15 times just until all the flour is worked in.

Flatten the dough out into a 1" thick circle and use a biscuit cutter to make neat rounds of dough. Gather together any remaining dough scraps and repeat until you have 8-10 biscuits cut out. Place them on a baking pan and bake for 18-20 minutes. Serve warm.

Banana Bread with Chocolate & Walnuts + A Giveaway!

I realized the other day that the end of this month marks exactly three years since my husband and I have been working solely for ourselves. It makes me think back to the day we left our comfortable paychecks and looked to our future with open hearts and minds. Although we had lots of support, I can't say for sure how comfortable our family and friends felt with our decision, but it was one we knew to be right for ourselves and one that we knew could be accomplished if we put our everything into it.
 Early on there were definitely days we wanted to end our business venture, but luckily we had each other and those feelings we both had never crossed paths. If it was me who was worrying, Scott would reassure me that everything would be fine and to wait and see what the end of the week or month would bring. If it were him, I did the same. I can't believe its been three years already, it really only feels like yesterday. We have worked our butts off, spending most, if not all our time on our business and we look forward to its future.

 Along this journey, we've had to sacrifice many things, mostly material, but our lives are by far simpler and richer then they've ever been. We've made incredible friendships I know would not have happened had we been inside a cubicle everyday.
 We've learned many things about running a business, but time management always seemed the most difficult. Working for yourself means you don't have to get up at a certain time to be somewhere on time. You can work in your pajamas if you want and you can head out to meet whomever, whenever. But you can also end up working too much, not giving yourself a break because if you do guilt sets in because you are not working. We have both been more of the latter.
 I'm finally letting in the fact that there has to be balance. I can and should have moments of free time that do not include thinking about our business. I've learned to keep a pretty steady work flow through the week and reserve weekends for a little time off. Truthfully, I do still work on weekends, but its more laid back and includes other activities. This weekend I actually worked a lot, catching up on things for the craft show season, but because we actually had really nice sunny days I spent some time getting things planted in my garden, going to a local print show and baking banana bread just for you.

 This banana bread has a delicate light crumb texture. It's studded with the perfect amount of chocolate and toasted walnuts, to be sure there's a bit in every bit. It has the signature deep cracks along the top and a golden brown crust that gives into a moist interior. The ripeness of your bananas can dramatically change the taste of your bread. Most use heavily spotted to black bananas but that always yields an entirely too banana flavor for my liking. I like my to be yellow, but covered with little brown spots. Just enough banana flavor to know it's banana bread, but not overwhelmingly overpowered. This recipe will work however you like your bananas.

 Now for the giveaway! We're so excited about our three years in business we wanted to share some of our excitement with all of you and offer one reader one a chance to receive one 8"x 10" Let The Sun Shine In poster! This has been our most popular poster and mentioned on many design blogs, you can also purchase one right here. To enter, leave a comment below telling me your favorite memory in the sunshine. You can enter a second time if you twitter @slidesideways and come back here letting me know. And because I hate leaving people out, this one's up for anyone inside or outside of the US. Please leave an email so I can reach you if you've won. Contest ends this Friday at noon, PST. One winner will be chosen at random. Banana Bread with Chocolate & Walnuts 1 loaf 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour 1/2 cup cane sugar 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon ginger 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 2 cups mashed ripe banana 3/4 cup almond milk 1/4 cup olive oil 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 cup chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate 1/2 cup toasted walnuts, roughly chopped Preheat oven to 350˚F. Oil or line with baking parchment a 9"x 5" loaf pan. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. In a medium bowl combine the mashed bananas, almond milk, olive oil and vanilla. You want to make sure this mixture is very smooth, if you need to run it through a blender that would work as well. Pour the wet mixture over the dry and combine just until everything is wet. You don't want to over mix. Using a spatula, fold in the chocolate and walnuts. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared loaf pan and give it a couple drops on the counter top to even everything out. Bake in the oven for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool completely on a wire rack before cutting and serving

Socca

You know those times when you read, hear, or see something that intrigues you enough to have it on your mind constantly. You start seeing what ever that thing is everywhere, like its been right in front of you this whole time and you wonder why you never noticed it before. This happens to me all the time. Most recently it happened in the form of socca.
 Socca, if you are unfamiliar, is a sort of flat bread made from chickpea flour that comes from France, more specifically Nice, where it's served as street food. Traditionally it's cooked in a large cast iron skillet over a super hot wood-fire to achieve a crispy, blistered crust. Although you can make it in your home oven at a very high heat, it will be hard to get the same effect, but that might also be one of the effects traveling has on you. If I ever find myself in Nice this will be one of the first foods on my list to try.

 It's important to let the chickpea flour and water mixture soak for at least 2 hours, preferably more. A couple glugs of olive oil, some salt, and a big pinch of cumin and you have socca in it's most basic form. You can get fancy with extras like herbs and onions, either way it's not hard to make and will ultimately give back more then the effort it took to make.
 I've made this several times and have a few of my own tips. The first time I set my oven at 450˚F, but made only two pancakes and each was a bit thicker. If you want to serve these with heavier toppings, more like a pizza, I would suggest doing it this way. The second time, I heated my broiler. I'm not sure if my cast iron skillet was to hot or what because the socca stuck to it like mad. Still tasted great, but was a bit of a visual mess. Now when I make it, I keep the oven set to 475˚F, make sure my cast iron gets heated up inside the preheating oven and depending on if I want thinner or thicker socca I divide the batter accordingly.

Another trick for those of you who are hesitant to buy a bag of chickpea flour that you may only use once or if it's not available in your area, you can buy 2 cups of dried chickpeas (garbanzo beans) and blend them in a high speed blender. The chickpeas will start breaking up and become flour-like. Once it's blended down quite a bit, sift it through a fine or medium-fine sieve to remove any large bits. You can either re-blend what's sifted out or discard. Now you have a fresh batch of chickpea flour costing you only pennies. I also wanted to say how much I loved reading everyone's sunshine memories. I'm thinking that its what helped to keep the sun out around here this whole week! And a big congrats to Rachel of Taming the Heart who is the winner of our Sunshine poster! Thank you everyone and have a wonderful Easter weekend! Socca adapted from David Lebovitz via The Sweet Life In Paris makes 3 9-inch pancakes 1 cup chickpea flour 1 1/4 cup water 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin 2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided In a medium bowl mix together the chickpea flour, water, salt, cumin and 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil. I used a 4 cup liquid measuring bowl for easy pouring. Let this mixture sit, covered at room temperature, for at least 2 hours, but preferably 4 or more. When you're ready to cook, place a well seasoned cast iron skillet in the oven and preheat to 475˚F. When the oven is ready and your pan is super hot, drizzle a bit of olive oil if needed then pour a 1/3 of the batter into the pan, starting from the center. Swirl it around quickly to cover the bottom and put it back in the oven. Bake until the socca is firm and just beginning to burn around the edges. Mine took about 12-14 minutes, but it could vary depending on your oven, so I recommend watching it closer after the 10 minute mark. Slide the socca out of the pan, onto a cutting board. You can either slice into pieces or serve whole with your choice of toppings, pizza style. Repeat with the remaining batter, adding additional oil to the pan if needed