During my 51 mile ride for the French Creek Iron Tour (a cycling event) there were rest stops with delicate treats. I don't remember the name of the bakery, nor do I remember the exact location of the rest stop, but next to the orange slices, bananas, gatorade, and water there were small coconut raw bars. Yummy. Later this week the Raw-mazing folks posted a recipe for Raw Halvah, which looked quite yummy as well and if you're a raw foodist, their recipe is just for you. Their recipe inspired me to play a bit in the kitchen with sesame seeds and coconut but you'll see my recipe below is quite different from RawMazing's recipe. Halvah is quick, doesn't require baking, and could be eaten soft, but it's delicious served slightly cool. 

Halvah (spelled in different ways) is a middle eastern confection, usually made with a nut butter or seed base.

Cocoa Halvah
Makes 1 9x9 pan, cut into 1" squares or smaller

2 cups unhulled raw organic sesame seeds
2/3 cup ground raw almonds (roughly whirled/chopped in food processor)
1/2 cup bittersweet cocoa powder
1 cup organic dried unsulphured coconut flakes
2/3 cup wildflower honey (dry measure)
4 T almond oil (I prefer toasted almond oil, if you can find it)

Line a 9x9 pan with unbleached parchment paper. Blend all ingredients in a food processor and using your fingers press firmly into the prepared 9x9 pan. Refrigerate. Cut into small squares.  

If your garden looks anything like mine this year you probably have dill plants coming up in random spots throughout your beds. My small garden is replete with dill plants that are about knee high. Note to self: they call it "Dill Weed" for a reason.  Expect it to come back. Regardless of how odd it looks underneath the stairs or next to my perennials, I'm certainly happy to have plants in my garden that reseed themselves and come up next year. Look for more recipes this summer and fall that utilize this bountiful herb.  

Here's a quick recipe for lemon dill hummus you can throw together in less than 15 minutes in your food processor.

Spread on flatbreads or use as a dip for crudites. I quickly whipped this together for an afternoon snack.

Lemon Dill Hummus
Serves 3-4
Note: Double this recipe if you're using it for a small party.

1 can of Eden organic chickpeas, rinsed and lightly drained
juice of one organic lemon
2 whole cloves of garlic (use less if you don't like garlic)
1 T sesame tahini
1/4-1/2 tsp wasabi powder (if you don't have it available substitute a little grated horseradish or skip it entirely)
one quite large handful of dill from your garden, rinsed and patted dry

Combine all ingredients in your food processor and blend until you have a nice consistency for spreading onto flatbreads or dipping vegetables. You'll noticed I skipped adding any oil. The moisture from this hummus comes strictly from the lemon juice and any water clinging to the chickpeas after I rinsed them.

Tip: Roll the lemon on the countertop or table with your palm's gentle force before cutting it in half to juice. It loosens the juice and makes it much easier. I use my hands to juice the lemon. I cup one hand and it catches the seeds as my other hand squeezes it from above. The juice runs between my fingers into the bowl. 




 

Try to find a granola recipe for that doesn't use oil or added refined sugars and you may not find one. If you do come across one, please share it with me. Some brands, such as Galaxy use applesauce in place of oil which cuts down the fat but many use honey, maple syrup, brown sugar, and granulated sugar to add sweetness. In my version of granola I've swapped out all the refine sugars and used a date puree to bind the grains together. Granola should be a toasted well, as toasting the grains and seeds gives granola the flavor it deserves. I love dried fruit and seeds. Both are plentiful in this recipe. You can also bake this granola in small steps if you don't have enough time to bake it three times in one setting. The amount is sufficient to keep for yourself for the week and give a few servings away to friends.

I'm bringing copies of this recipe with samples to a healthy living party I'm attending at a friend's home this coming weekend. Each of the attendees are to bring a recipe using unrefined sugars, organic ingredients, and recipes. If you like it, let me know!

Granola with Date Puree
Special equipment: blender

3 3/4 cup organic, six grain rolled flakes
1 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon

17 organic dried pitted dates
water to cover dates in saucepan
1 1/2 tsp organic vanilla extract

1/4 cup organic raisins, chopped (or use currants)
4 dried plums, finely chopped
1/2 generous cup roughly chopped unsulphured organic dried black mission figs

Toast the rolled flakes in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes. Stir every 5 minutes for even baking. Remove the flakes from the oven to cool. Reduce temperature to 325 degrees.

While the flakes are baking, place the dates in a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a simmer and soak for about 10 minutes or longer until the dates are softened. If the water evaporates that's ok, but don't let the pan become dry. Place the dates and water together in a blender to make a puree. Add more water if necessary to make a consistency like applesauce/applebutter. It needs to be thick. You may need to add a 1/4 cup of water, if necessary. Add vanilla extract to the date mixture and blend to combine. Set to the side.

In a medium to large bowl, toss warm flakes with cinnamon, salt, and seeds. Spread the mixture back into the baking sheet and bake for approximately 30 minutes. Stir every 10 to ensure even baking. With 15 minutes of baking time remaining, fold in the date puree, and chopped raisins, plums, and figs. Clumps of granola will form as you fold in the date puree. Finish baking. Stir frequently for even baking.

Set aside to cool completely before placing granola into an air tight container.

The combination of lemon and poppyseed reminds me of my mother's lemon poppyseed bread that she would make every winter. Her small loaves were soft and moist. My Lemon and Poppyseed Flax cookies are certainly not my mother's bread in bite-size form, but the flavors of lemon, almond, and poppyseed always conjure up good memories of enjoying her bread at family gatherings.

By no means am I suggesting that these lemon poppyseed cookies will become a family favorite. These are easy and quick to make, vegan, and make a great bite size snack to enjoy with coffee or tea. They have the added benefits of omega 3 from freshly ground flaxseed, and do not contain butter or oil. Cookies are best enjoyed the day after making them.

Lemon Poppyseed Flax Cookies
Makes 20 small cookies

Special equipment: blender

3 1/2 T whole flaxseed
1/4 cup room temperature water
Freshly squeezed juice of 1 lemon
4-5 drops of almond oil
1/4 cup sucanat
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
3 T Poppy seeds (use less if you don't like the texture of so many seeds)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup all purpose flour

optional glaze: powdered sugar, lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare one baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a blender, finely grind the whole flaxseed. Slowly add the water and lemon juice to the ground flaxseed and blend together to make a smooth thin paste. Use a spatula to push the meal down to the bottom for even mixing. Add 4 drops of almond oil to the paste. Set to the side.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the sucanat, confectioner's sugar, poppyseeds, baking powder and all purpose flour. Make a small well in the center. Add the ground flaxseed mixture to the dry mixture and fold together with spatula to make a dough. Finish mixing the dough by gently kneading the dough together to form a large mass.

On the prepared baking sheet, place balls of dough onto the parchment. Space each ball 1" apart in four rows of five. Use a spoon to create even rounds. With a flat bottom jar or spatula push down on each ball to make an even shape. Cookies will puff up slightly during baking.  Bake 12-15 mins. Rotate cookie sheet halfway through baking until the bottoms are evenly light golden brown. 

Remove and place cookies on a cooling rack. If glazing, wait till apply the glaze until completely cool. Cookies are best enjoyed the next day.

Sunday was Mother's Day. The day before I baked two batches of cookies for my three moms: my mom, my stepmom, and Matt's mom and packaged them in small boxes and bags. These shortbread cookies are easy to make and at this time of  year as the garden starts to flourish this recipe is a great way to use the new shoots of rosemary. 

My mom liked the rosemary shortbread and I decided to share the recipe with you here. It's shortbread, so it's very easy to make, and it's rich and buttery. Be forewarned: it's not for the lighthearted and a type of recipe you won't find here often.

Rosemary Lavender Shortbread
Adapted from Saveur
Makes one 9"x9" pan

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3-4 5" inch pieces of young, fresh rosemary (picked from my garden) minced
1/4 tsp dried Herbes de Provence
1/4 tsp dried Lavender flowers (dried from my garden)
2 sticks Organic unsalted butter, cold, diced
confectioner's sugar for dusting

Preheat oven 375 degrees. Line a 9x9 pan with parchment paper.

Place flour, sugar, rosemary, Herbes de Provence, and Lavender flowers in a bowl. Using your fingers or a pastry cutter, cut in the butter until evenly sized crumbs form. Press the crumbs down evenly and densely into the 9x9 pan. It should come to about 1/2" deep. Bake for 25 minutes or until the shortbread turns light gold. Remove from pan, gently cut into small squares and cool. (It's easier to cut shortbread while it's hot.) Once cool, dust confectioner's sugar on top.

I packaged the shortbread in boxes lined with parchment paper and gave them to our moms on Mother's Day. Enjoy!

 




 

In 2008 Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid published Flatbreads and Flavors, a delightful cookbook featuring flatbread recipes from diverse cultures, and stories about the people that made them. I have been using the recipes in Flatbreads and Flavors at least a year before I launched Chronicles of Thyme. Many pages have pencil markings and thumbprints made from flour. It's an amazing journey through bread and culture. The authors pair each flatbread recipe with an another recipe for a salad, stew, or soup and provide suggestions to other sides. Flatbreads are the highlight in the trip around the world.

Alford and Duguid have traveled throughout the world and you can view recipes, anecdotes, and cultural observations on their website, Hot Sour Salty Sweet.

It could have been the culinary shows I've been watching airing on the create channel in the middle of the night, or the recent purchase I made of Lidia Bastianich's Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy that inspired my desire to work from an Italian recipe from Flatbreads and Flavors.  Sardinian Parchment Breads, wafer thin flatbreads are warm, crisp, slightly salty, and are rich with the taste of semolina. They can be served warm or at room temperature. They barely had enough time to cool before Matt and I gobbled them up. I've halved the recipe, added a few spices, and adapted the process for my kitchen.

While these can be eaten alone, and are perfect without accompaniment, they could be topped with freshly shaved Parmesan cheese, or olives, or a sundried tomato tapenade. 

Sardinian Parchment Bread
Modified from Page 328, Flatbreads and Flavors
Makes about 8 thin rounds, 8 inches in diameter

1/2 cup coarse durum wheat semolina*
1/2 cup all purpose unbleached flour
1 1/2 tsp dried rosemary*
two pinches of dried oregano*
3 oz hot water, from tap
1/2 tsp sea salt
olive oil

equipment: rolling pin, pizza stone, pastry brush, medium size mixing bowl

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place a pizza stone on the bottom rack.

In the mixing bowl combine flours, water, spices, and sea salt. Stir with a spoon to combine to form a rough dough, but do not knead.

On a prepared floured surface, with both semolina and all purpose flour, roll out a large spoonful of dough as thin as possibly without tearing. Keep the surface and rolling pin generously coated in flour. An ideal flatbread would be 8-10 inches round. Brush each lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Place directly on the hot pizza stone. Bake for 2-3 minutes then flip over and bake for another 1-2 minutes until golden spots appear. The color of the surface will look closely like parchment paper- uneven, but golden.  Areas of the flatbread will look wet in some spots but they will dry upon removal from the oven. Remove flatbread, place on cooling rack to dry further and cool, and repeat the process.

You can roll and prepare another flatbread in the time it takes to bake one, so you'll be constantly active in the kitchen. 

Enjoy the flatbreads warm or cool. They can be stored in an airtight container and will keep for a few weeks.

*I've added a few spices to complement the semolina in the dough. I've also used durum wheat semolina flour, the same flour used to make pasta. My revision of the recipe is not authentic as the authors specify to use course semolina and not semolina flour, but I was quite pleased with the result of #1 durum wheat semolina.

Springerle cookies are, as readers know, some of my favorite holiday cookies to make and to give away as gifts. They are a pleasure to eat too. Traditionally they are a German Christmas cookie, flavored with anise, but I wanted to make them for Easter. Citrus peel can be used to complement the anise seed and extract in the traditional recipe, but I decided to use strictly lemon extract and lemon peel in the cookie dough, to provide the cookies with a flavor perfect for the Easter holiday.

Lemon Springerle Cookies
Follow the basic Springerle dough recipe from House on the Hill
In place of anise extract in the recipe, use 4 teaspoons of pure lemon extract. Add the peel and rind from one lemon. I did not use any additional flavors.

Baking time will vary depending on humidity, temperature, and cookie size. The ammonia scent from the hartshorn/bakers ammonia will disappear in baking. Use additional powdered sugar to add to the dough to give it enough density to roll and mold properly.  Make Springerle dough and stamp the cookies the night before you plan to bake them as they'll need to dry out overnight. For more helpful tips, you can review my previous posts on Springerle. Molds can be found at House on the Hill or the Springerle House in Strasburg PA.

Painting Springerle: Use pure lemon extract and various colors of luster dust. Luster dust can be found at a cake supplier or in the baking section of Michaels or ACMoore. Mix colors in a glass dish or metal pan. Use only a small amount of colored dust and a very small amount of lemon extract to mix them together. Use a paint brush typically used for watercolor with soft bristles. I often use two different sizes depending on the intricacy of the mold. The extract and dust mixture will evaporate quickly. Paint cookies only once they have completely cooled.

Explore Asian's Organic Black Bean Spaghetti is certified organic, vegan, gluten free, and come packed with 20% of your RDA of protein per serving.  They are made with simply black beans and water. I tossed them with sliced shiitake mushrooms, leeks, garlic and a little bit of olive oil. For an added nutritional benefit, I added a squirt of hemp oil to the warm pasta, and topped the spaghetti with toasted sliced almonds. It's a quick meal for a busy evening.

I've been cooking with hemp and flax oils to benefit from their omega 3s content. These oils should be stored in the refrigerator to retain their freshness. These oils cannot be brought to a higher temperature like olive oils or other nut and plant oils. 

If you are interested in purchasing the black bean spaghetti, I found it at Kimberton Whole Foods in Douglassville, PA.

Black Bean Spaghetti with Leeks, Shiitake Mushrooms, Garlic, and Almonds
Serves 2-4

1/3 package of Explore Asian's Organic Black Bean Spaghetti
1 T extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced (or one clove if you prefer)
1 small to medium leek, washed, white and tender light green parts, chopped
 5 large shiitake mushrooms, rubbed clean and sliced
1 1/2 tsp Hemp oil
2 T of sliced raw almonds, slivered

Prepare a small saucepan with water and cook black bean spaghetti per instructions. Rinse and set pasta to the side.

As the water comes to a boil, chop garlic and leeks. Over medium heat, heat a medium size pan. Add the olive oil and swirl it thinly around the pan. You may add more olive oil if you prefer. Add the garlic and saute. Add the leeks and mushrooms and toss to ensure even coating of the olive oil. Cook over medium heat until mushrooms and leeks are tender.

While the mushrooms and leeks are cooking, in a small saucepan toast the almonds over dry heat. Remove from heat and reserve to the side.

In a large bowl or serving dish, toss the rinsed spaghetti and leek and mushroom mixture. Add a little bit of hemp oil or additional olive oil to coat. Top with the toasted almonds. Serve.