Peach Cobbler

I love fresh peaches. In season, locally-grown peaches. Bite into such a peach for sweet bliss.  Pair it up with cream--ice or whipped--for yet more bliss.

But top the peaches with biscuit dough and call it peach cobbler? I've never been a big fan. The biscuits are too pasty, too bland.

Then I ate peach cobbler that my daughter-in-law Tiffani made. Using the peaches from their Very Own Peach Tree. So you know the peach part was delicious. Happily, I liked the biscuit part, too! There was more texture and more taste. What was different? Whole wheat flour.

Today I made peach cobbler using Tiffani's recipe for the biscuit dough.When I compared her recipe to the one I've used in the past, I saw that hers uses more butter and more sugar. I'm sure that further enhances taste and texture.

I like the touch of cinnamon-sugar sprinkled on top.

I could have used more peaches, but it's difficult to keep peaches this good around!

This peach cobbler called for its equal in ice cream: Gannon's vanilla!

The recipe:

Peach Cobbler  (from Tiffani Downing, based on Joy of Cooking, 75th Anniversary Edition)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Blanch and peel about 8-12 peaches. Slice them into a baking dish, 9"x13".

Top with Cobbler Biscuit Dough:

Mix together:

1 3/4 C white whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 to 4 Tbsp. sugar, to taste [I used 3 Tbsp.]

Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut in 4 to 6 Tbsp. butter until the size of small peas. [I used 5 Tbsp.]

Make a well in the center. Add all at once:

3/4 C milk

Stir just until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.

After dropping this on top of the peaches, sprinkle it with cinnamon/sugar mixture.

Bake until golden brown and cooked through, 15 to 30 minutes.
Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream.

Wheat Berry Bread

Whole grains are good, right? Therefore, whole grain flour is good, right? Well, according to some sources, it depends.

First of all, in case you haven't met, let me introduce you to the Glycemic Index or GI. I won't go into a lot of detail, but, according to Wikipedia, "the glycemic index ... provides a measure of how quickly blood sugar levels ... rise after eating a particular food. ... A lower glycemic index suggests slower rates of digestion and absorption of the foods' carbohydrates ... . A lower glycemic response usually equates to a lower insulin demand."

The assertion some people make is that the less processed a grain is, the lower the glycemic index. That definitely makes sense if you are comparing, say, white flour to whole wheat flour. But what about whole wheat berries compared to whole wheat flour? One is the powdered version of the other, but, like a puzzle, all of the pieces are still there.

Here's what Andrew Weil, M.D. says:

"Grains in their natural form have a low glycemic index, while processed carbohydrates, including those made with flour or puffed grains, have a high GI. The reason is that it takes longer for digestive enzymes to reach the starch inside whole grains or grains cracked into large pieces, slowing down the conversion of starch to sugar.

"You can be pretty sure you're eating a natural grain with a low GI ranking if you have to chew it or can see grains or pieces of grains in food products. The more your jaw has to work, the better. But when grains are pulverized into flour, whether whole or not, their surface area expands dramatically, providing a huge, starchy surface area on which the enzymes can work. Consequently, the conversion to sugar happens very quickly."

I couldn't find any studies to confirm this. The one study I did find seems to refute it. Its conclusion: "The particle size of whole grain wheat flour did not substantially affect glycemic responses."

According to Livestrong, "Wheat berries have a GI value of approximately 46 [in the low range], according to the Glycemic Index Foundation's GI database."

I could not find a specific GI value for whole wheat flour.

What I did find over and over was more-generalized advice, such as this from Maria Collavo-Clavell, M.D., endocrinologist with the Mayo Clinic:

"Basic principles of the glycemic index diet may help you better manage and control your blood sugar:

• Choose high-fiber foods, such as whole grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables.
• Choose fresh or raw foods over canned or processed foods."

My real-life experience is that it is difficult to find whole grain products, period, and to be sure of what you are getting. Which is one reason why I bother buying grains and using them for cooking and baking, most often grinding the grain into flour first.

Having said all that, I decided to bake Wheat Berry Bread. It is my good old Whole Wheat Bread with wheat berries added.

I cooked the wheat berries in my rice cooker: 2 C wheat berries to 6 C water. I think if you just want to eat the wheat berries, as in a salad, you would use less water, about 1 C wheat berries to 2 1/2 C water. I wanted them to be quite soft, so I used the greater amount of water. I also soaked them over night first.

Here's a closer view of the cooked wheat berries:

I added 3 C of cooked wheat berries to my bread dough as I mixed it. The wheat berries add chewiness and a nutty kind of flavor. You can see them in the bread!

After it cooled, I tried a slice ... and another ... and another. Definitely a keeper! I used it to make the sandwich I ate for supper tonight. That's 1 clove of chopped garlic on a slice of bread, a thin layer of Jarlsberg cheese, a layer of cooked broccoli, to be followed by another thin layer of cheese, and topped with another slice of bread.

And then toasted.

Simple and delicious and nutritious.

I Work for Chocolate

This rosebush is in my back yard.

I think of “Sleeping Beauty” when I look at it. You can't tell from the angle of this photo, but I've actually spent a few sessions hacking away at it. It's massive, tangled, and intertwined. It has thorns and it uses them. So I clip away bit by bit, clipping longer branches into shorter lengths that fit into my recycling bin, working in such a way that I avoid the thorns. When it's full, I dump it into the “branches” part of my compost pile. Today I looked at the rose bush to see what I've accomplished. It's hard to tell any difference.

But I don't mind working on it. I get to be outdoors with birds and butterflies. I even enjoy the slugs and spiders. And the plants are so prolific! So much of gardening in Syracuse is deciding what you don't want and removing it to make room for what you do want.

And I do want the rose bush. I just want it to be a lot smaller.

Just like the rose bush, the inside of my house suffers from neglect. The mess, while largely compartmentalized, is a massive, tangled, and intertwined Rubik's cube. Its thorns incite anxiety.

I don't like working on it. I have to be indoors. I have to face fears and make decisions. Most of the decisions are whether or not to keep something, and, if I keep it, where to put it. That doesn't sound difficult, but it is for me.

I decided today that I will give myself permission to resort to chocolate as a reward for working on my house mess. So I baked some brownies. For a certain number of tasks or a certain amount of time spent on-task, I could eat a brownie. It's sad that a grown woman has to resort to such extrinsic rewards. But I did start. I clipped away at some edges today. I made a difference. I reclaimed my dining room table. Even better, I found a button that I feared was gone forever. This button goes on a dress that I love but have been unable to wear for three years … because the button was missing.

I'm encouraged to hack away some more tomorrow. But I will still need chocolate.

Breakfast Sandwich

I made a delicious sandwich for breakfast this morning.

Start with delicious, healthful, whole-grain bread. I just happened to have some!

This works best with large bread slices, which is why I baked extra-large loaves of bread a couple of days ago.

Cut out the center of the slice of bread.

Put a small amount of butter or oil (no more than 1 teaspoon) in a heated skillet.

Put the outside part of the bread in the skillet. Crack an egg in the hole. Add (salt) and freshly-ground pepper.

Place a slice of lean ham on the egg.

Top that with sliced cheese. I used Jarlsberg, a type of Swiss cheese, today.

Top that with the piece of bread from the middle.

Turn it over 2 or 3 times while it cooks for a few minutes. I covered it with the lid, too.

Finally, you have a delicious Breakfast Sandwich! I served mine with some zucchini left over from yesterday.

I think it would be easy to make a lot of these assembly-line style on my big griddle.

I'll make a note of that for our family gathering in Sylvan Beach next summer!

Back to Bread Baking

I'm back from my hiatus from regular bread baking.

I spent a couple of months as a longterm substitute teacher at The New School.

Then 14 members of our family made the Great Cross-Country Trip of 2013 together to a family reunion near Astoria, Oregon and to visit other family, friends, and sights along the way.

My Uncle Frosty, Aunt Betty, and cousin Thomasene. I got my roll recipe and cracked wheat bread recipe from Aunt Betty!

No sooner did we return from that, then 19 of us spent a fun week together at Sylvan Beach.

Pizza night! (Home-baked, of course.)

 A few days later, we spent a day at Water Safari in the Adirondacks.

 
These activities were fun, exciting, and challenging. But I'm happy to return to the fun, excitement, and challenge of baking bread.

On the right, three loaves of whole wheat bread hot out of the oven. On the left, two extra-large loaves baked yesterday. Not pictured, two loaves in the freezer, baked four days ago, and one loaf, um, gone!

Whole Grain Happiness Menu

Breads

*Whole-Wheat Bread

*White Whole-Wheat Bread

White Bread

*Whole-Wheat Cracked Wheat Bread

Cracked Wheat Bread

*Whole-Wheat Maple Oatmeal Bread

Maple Oatmeal Bread

Dinner Rolls

*Whole-Wheat Dinner Rolls

*White Whole-Wheat Dinner Rolls

White Dinner Rolls

Cracked Wheat Dinner Rolls

Sweet Breads & Rolls

Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon Rolls with Raisins

*Chocolate Rolls

Cinnamon-Raisin Bread

Monkey Bread

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Flours—freshly-ground

*hard red wheat

*hard white wheat

*soft white wheat

*Cracked Wheat—freshly-ground

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*100% whole-grain

If you would like to be included on my Baking Day email list, send me an email at 

ksimmonsd@gmail.com.

 

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Coconut Oil, Updated 7/7/13

I have used my mother's recipe for baking chocolate chip cookies my whole life. They were always famous among family, friends, and acquaintances. I don't know where she got the recipe from, but I do know that many of her children and grandchildren have continued to bake these cookies.

Here is her recipe:

Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies

1½ C white sugar

1½ C brown sugar

1½ C shortening

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

4½ C all-purpose flour

½ tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking soda

12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream together sugar, brown sugar, shortening, eggs, and vanilla. Sift (or just stir) together flour, salt, and baking soda; and then add to creamed mixture. Add chocolate chips. Bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes. Do not overbake.

In recent years, shortening has come under fire because of its trans-fats. While shortening manufacturers have modified it so it contains less trans-fat, it's hydrogenated, so it will always have some trans-fat. Also, it doesn't add anything to the flavor.

Lots of people bake their chocolate chip cookies with butter, so I tried that. Many times. It makes good-tasting cookie dough! But the cookies themselves are quite altered: flat, more chewy or even crispy, and a markedly stronger flavor. These weren't necessarily bad characteristics. In fact, some people prefer them. They just aren't my mom's cookies.

Today I decided to try using coconut oil. The ambient temperature has to be quite warm before it changes from solid to liquid. We were just verging on that today in my house, so it was still solid but not hard. I just substituted (still solid) coconut oil for the shortening in Mom's recipe.

Like butter, coconut oil is high in saturated fat. In fact, it's even higher than butter. Unlike shortening, however, it does not contain any trans-fats.

My (admittedly small but very experienced) taste-testing crew agreed that this was the best-tasting cookie dough. (Note: Members of my family have been known to make chocolate chip cookie dough and not turn on the oven, so this is an important factor.)

Although the cookies spread out flat like the ones baked with butter, they remained soft like the ones made with shortening. Flavor? Better than the butter ones; at least as good as the shortening ones.

Next time I will add a bit more flour to see if that will prevent the cookies from flattening out.

Regardless, these are keepers!

Update 7/7/13: When I made these cookies today, I used 1/2 C more flour. I also chilled the dough for an hour before baking. In fact, it's such a warm day today that I chilled the coconut oil before I mixed the dough. The cookies turned out a little plumper. With these changes, I think coconut oil substitutes well for shortening, and tastes better. Here's the adapted recipe:

Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies (with coconut oil)

1½ C white sugar

1½ C brown sugar

1½ C coconut oil (refrigerate before using if it is not solid)

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

5 C all-purpose flour

½ tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking soda

12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream together sugar, brown sugar, and coconut oil. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Sift (or just stir) together flour, salt, and baking soda; and then add to creamed mixture. Add chocolate chips. Chill for an hour or more. Bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes. Do not overbake.

Neglected Baguettes

I'm (mostly) taking a break from baking for a few weeks. Not that I've tired of baking--far from it! But because I'm teaching full time for a few weeks. I love the teaching, but it doesn't leave much time for much else.

My dream is to teach part time and bake part time. And spend lots of time with my grandchildren (and their parents).

Well, awhile back I started trying my hand at baking baguettes. When I hit pause on that project I had three baguettes that I needed to do something with. I decided to dry them out and crush them into bread crumbs. I successfully dried them out! I placed them on a pan under the broiler part of my oven:

Yes, that's the broiler door sitting under the pan the baguettes were on. Maybe someday I'll find someone who can fix it.

In fact, I left them there for weeks.

I wanted to use my broiler a couple of days ago, so I took the baguettes out, fearing that they would be covered with dust and need to be thrown away. They weren't (at least that I noticed!), so I broke one of the baguettes. it cracked beautifully! So I kept cracking. Then I tasted. Crunchy, slightly sourdough, slightly salty, and delicious!

As you can see, I stopped cracking. I haven't stopped tasting, though. They give the same satisfaction as potato chips or tortilla chips or pita bread chips. Only better-tasting. Unlike other chips, a small piece of this every once in a while makes a satisfying treat.

I will get around to crushing some of this into bread crumbs. Later.