Maine coast crackers, again

It’s been busy around here, including baking another batch of the Maine coast crisps (the fancy English/Canadian term for crackers). This time I used 3 small loaf forms, and the crackers came out just the right size. I hope I have enough for the party tomorrow.

Find the recipe here.

And a shout out to the U.S. swim team!

Fig Olive Raincoast Crisps

My reservoir of raincoast crisps (or in my case maine coast crisps) was getting low. These are just a perfect snack with a glass of wine – super crispy, savory, slightly sweet, nutty, fruity, salty….  So, I made a new batch tonight. This time I choose ingredients similar to those of the package I originally bought in Ellsworth, with figs and kalamata olives. With the briney-ness of the olives I like these ones even better than the cranberry walnut rosemary ones from last time (although they are excellent!). 

Due how I prepare the figs and olives, the ‘bread’ (result of the first baking phase) is slightly more soft and crumbly, so it has to cool to be better able to slice it thinly. 

Fig Olive Raincoast Crisps (makes about 48 crisps);

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/8 cup honey
• 1/8 cup maple syrup

• 1 cup dried mission figs, chopped
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 2 TB balsamic vinegar
• 1/3 cup brined kalamata olives, sliced (best from the olive bar!)
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup raw pepitas (Trader Joes!)
• 1/4 cup white sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup ground flax seeds
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh or dried rosemary

Preheat oven to 350F, and spray a 5X12 pan. Set aside.

In a pan, heat the red wine and the balsamic vinegar together with the chopped figs to reconstitute the figs and add more flavor to them. Slowly simmer the figs until all of the moisture is evaporated, and the figs are almost dry in the pan. Let cool. 



Sift together the dry ingredients, mix the wet ingredients, and add both together (a standmixer is fine). Now, add the warm figs, the kalamata olives, and all the nuts and seeds. Mix well. Fill into the prepared pan and bake for 45 –50 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool thoroughly. 



Slice very thinly with a serrated bread knife. Set oven to 300F and place slices on cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes. Turn over and bake for another 12-15 minutes until crisp. If you give them a whiff with an organic canola or olive oil spray, they bake extra crispy. Cool on a cookie rack, and store in airtight container.



Here are the originals --- it might be good to only quarter the figs and not slice the olives to get the same texture.

Maine Coast Crisps

It is a gray day and we’ve been told it would rain around 10am for the rest of the day, of the weekend, but it 2pm, John Mayer is singing “someone like Olivia”, and I made it both through the farmers market as well as my other grocery run without a drop of rain. At the farmers market I bought a creamy local goat cheese that would go perfectly with my baking adventures from last night: reinventing the delicious (but pricey) raincoast crisps from Canada. 

They are made similarly to biscotti: twice-baked. First, a loaf is baked, cooled, thinly sliced and the slices are baked again to crispy perfection. The combinations are endless (just as the originals), I added ingredients that I had at home: cranberries, pepitas, and walnuts and rosemary. It would work well with kalamata olives, dried figs, caramelized onions and pecans. I am pretty sure I won’t have to wait too long to make the next batch: perfect snack for friends coming over for a glass of wine. 

Home-made these crisps are inexpensive, delicious, and really easy to make. 



Maine Coast Crisps

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup honey

• 1 cup cranberries
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup raw pepitas (Trader Joes!)
• 1/4 cup ground flax seeds
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh or dried rosemary

Sift together the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients and stir (I mixed them by hand). Now, add the “flavorings”. Fill into a sprayed 5X12 pan and bake at 350F for 45 minutes. Let cool thoroughly. Slice very thinly with a serrated bread knife, set oven at 300F and place slices on silicone lined cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes. Turn over and bake for another 12-15 minutes until crisp. If you give them a whiff with an organic canola or olive oil spray, they bake extra crispy. Store in airtight container. 

The batch mades about 42 crisps; each crisp has about 60kcals.

Lemon olive oil bundt cake

How is your long weekend? After much socializing  and catching up yesterday, I took it easy today, and baked a fabulous bundt cake: with a fruity olive oil, lemon zest (and extract) and some quinoa flour and almond milk. If it would not be for the eggs, it would be vegan. It is wonderfully light and flavorful, perfect for a potluck or picnic at the beach.

  

Lemon olive oil bundt cake

Ingredients (small cake, 6 cup pan)

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup quinoa flour
• 1 ts baking powder
• 1 cup organic cane sugar
• pinch of sea salt
• 1/2 cup fruity extra virgin olive oil (like an Arbequina olive oil)
• 1/2 ts pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 ts lemon extract
• 3 free-range large eggs
• 1/2  cup almond milk
• Zest of 1 lemon

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray the pan(s). Combine the flours and baking powder. Set aside.

Using a standmixer with the paddle attachment, beat the olive oil, cane sugar, salt, vanilla, lemon extract, and lemon zest in a large bowl until well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, for ca 2 min for each egg. Add the almond milk.

Add half of the flour mixture and beat at low speed just until blended. Add the remaining flour, and mix in. Use a silicon spatula and scrape the batter into the pan(s).

Bake the tiny cake for ca 30min, and the small bundt cake for 1 hour, until cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan(s) on a rack for about 15 minutes. Then turn the cake right side up on a rack to cool completely.  

 

Glutenfree marbled cake

Over at Bea’s, she left us with a small marbled cake recipe before she travelled to Fance. Love her style of taking silicone molds with her on vacation to bake cakes. This time, she used it to make a small marbled cake, similar to my hazelnut cake a few weeks ago, but small, for the small family or the small occasion. Instead of a whole stick of butter, I only used a half stick and added instead a 1/2 cup of pre-cooked cannellini beans. You would never taste the difference. There was enough dough to make the small cake and 2 tiny individual cakes.

Small GF marbled cake with cannellinis:

• 1/2 stick (55 g) unsalted butter, soft 
• 1/2 cup cooked cannellini beans  (best home-cooked from dry w/o salt)
• 3/4 cup (100 g) millet flour
• 1/2 cup (60 g) quinoa flour
• 2 TB flax meal
• 1/2 cup (60 g) almond meal
• 1/2 TB  baking powder
• Pinch of sea salt
• 1/2 cup (100 g) blond cane sugar
• 3 large organic free-range eggs at room temperature
• 1/2 TB vanilla extract
• 1 TB strohrum
• 1/3 cup (80 ml) buttermilk
• 1.5 tablespoons sifted unsweetened cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a small cake or cake mold or muffin pan. I use a small silicone mold (needs no spraying).

In a food processor, chop the butter and the beans to a soft mousse. Add to the bowl of a standmixer with a paddle attachment. Add the sugar, and whisk until both are well combined. Add 1 egg at a time, and mix in. Add the vanilla extract and the rum and buttermilk, and whisk well.

In a separate bowl, combine the flours, flax meal, almond meal, baking powder and salt, and mix through. Slowly add to the wet ingredients until well combined. Remove about 1/3 of the dough and mix with the cocoa powder. Fill 1/3 of the ‘white’ dough in the mold, add the chocolate dough and top with the remaining “white” dough. Bake for ca. 40min. Cool for 15 min and remove from mold. Eat!

White Bean Hazelnut Cake

The weather is rather abysmal, endless rain and cold, and so I did what I often do in bad weather: I baked a cake. Ever since I saw Joy’s luxurious white bean bundt cake I was intrigued. Cannellini beans in a cake? Sounds healthy and … interesting. I had chocolate fudge dessert in Korea that was made mostly with kidney beans, very little sugar, cacao and little much else, and it tasted just like chocolate fudge (without the sugar high). A cannellini bean cake must be like the blonde equivalent of it.

I added my own tweaks to the recipe, adding hazelnut flour and Justin maple almond butter.
I am not sure about the glaze yet. White would be good, but something not too sweet.
Here we go. 



Cannellini Bean Hazelnut Cake

• 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup hazelnut meal
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup cannellini beans, cooked or from a can, drained and rinsed
• 2 TB unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract (optional)
• 2 TB Justin’s maple almond butter
• 1/2 cup organic cane sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg white
• 1/2 cup buttermilk

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Spray a bundt pan with baking spray and set aside.



In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and hazelnut flour.  Set aside.

Add beans and butter to a food processor.  Puree until beans and butter are a smooth puree.  In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add the bean/butter mix, the cane and brown sugar and beat on medium speed until all ingredients are well incorporated, about 3-5 minutes.  Add the egg and eggwhite and the almond butter.  Beat in vanilla and almond extract (if using).

Stop the mixer and add half of the dry ingredients; mix in with a spoon then restart stand mixer again.  Beat until incorporated.  Add the buttermilk and mix until incorporated.  Again stop the stand mixer, add the remaining dry ingredients, mix in with a spoon and then mix them until incorporated.  

Spoon batter into prepared pan. 



Bake for 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake come out clean.   Remove the cake from the oven.  Allow to rest in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.



Think about a glaze while cake cools. 

This post needs a pretty cat photo. Unfortunately, my cats do not sit in bowls but Chanelle still will sit on anything that makes him look good.

Raincoast crisps

The heavens are gray and heavy, no rain yet but soon. A good day to stay inside, take care of things, and think about cakes to bake. Yesterday, I picked up a box of Lesley Stowe’s raincoast fig and olive crackers --- delightful. Now, I just have to figure out how to make them myself. Great with goat cheese and a glass of wine.

This one could be a good start.