Gratitude Monday -- Honey Brioche Edition

I've been experimenting by eating spelt flour now and again. It's going well and for it I am grateful, but I am especially grateful that the honey brioche buns I've been playing with are turning out so well and so tasty.

What I've done is adapt a brioche thin crust pizza dough. I've made these a few times, some even with gluten free flour, but the last two spelt flour batches have had honey in the place of sugar.

Not only do they turn out well (so far) they are easy to make because they are a simple pizza crust in a different shape. The sweetness in them cries for the missing love of a good, sharp cheddar or other cheese. That day will come because we only eat a few per batch and freeze the rest. They will be dedicated to hiking lunches as soon as we can get out for mountain picnic season.

I am grateful they are easy to make, that I like them, that I am tolerating the gluten fairly well, and that mountain picnic season is all but here.

Gratitude Monday - Pizza Edition

I like pizza.
I am not alone.
I am gluten intolerant.
I'm not alone in that either.
It's not a difficult thing to manage as gluten free pizza crusts are reasonably easy to make and fairly tasty.
But sometimes they just don't do the trick.
I am grateful that I can handle a bit of gluten now and again.
To that end I raided our spelt flour stores the other day and made pizza dough.
It had to be sifted as it has more than its fair share of bran in it. It'll work that way, but I was in the mood for a soft, easy to manage dough.
While it was based on a recipe I made my own variations including playing fast and loose with the measurements of flour and olive oil.
I like what I did:

I really missed fluffy dough.

It was topped with emmentaler, a three year old cheddar ostensibly made from unpasteurized milk, and goat mozzarella, along with a pepperoni that had cheddar in it, elk smokies, mushroom, onion, green pepper, and tomato sauce.
Also, I threw chipotle pepper flakes in the dough.

It worked out and it was reasonably tasty.
For that I am grateful.

A Pie Month Check-In

Beef Pot Pie

Pleasantly Juicy

I've devoted this month's baking adventures to pie. This includes pot pies, dessert pies, and pizza. Yesterday I took leftover roast and the veggies it got cooked with and put them between two crusts for a beef pot pie.
It turned out well.
Wheat gluten isn't so good for me. I am not celiac, merely intolerant, so I've learned to make bread products with other flours. I am lucky in that I can use spelt, Polish wheat, rye, barley, and oats.
It takes trial, error, and plenty of eating to sort out what flours need what smooth-talking to get them to do what I want.
The above is some Polish wheat (kamut) mixed with spelt. The former is ground by my husband's father and is a pleasure to work with while the latter was purchased from an Alberta company.
It was listed as whole grain and we believed this was meant in the same vein as one would buy whole wheat flour for baking. I grew up on a farm. The stuff they sent us looks like the stuff my dad made into chop for the hogs, only not as fine.
I run it through my blender for a few minutes and it chops it enough to incorporate the bran and make it easier to use. It is not great, but I can work with it.
The more I play with the flours, the more I understand them, and the easier it becomes to bake.
Pie Month.
I do it for the research.

Gratitude Monday – Baking Day

We had our first snowfall yesterday. It didn’t amount to much, but it reminded me that I have a roof over my head. Not everyone does. Edmonton has a significant homeless population and shelters are filled to capacity.

My husband shoveled the snow. Much of it melted, but this prevents ice buildup in the driveway and behind the garage. This is very thoughtful.

The weather meant it was a good baking day. It gave me a chance to make my first pecan pie. I’d looked up a simple cookie recipe so I could use it as a stepping point for making peanut butter-chocolate chip-Irish Whiskey cookies, and found the pecan tart recipe a few pages later.
I substituted maple syrup for corn syrup and a coconut lard-Tahini hybrid for butter in the pie. Inventing is fun and the pie turned out okay.

I’m grateful that I can reason out substitutes for dairy products and I’m even more grateful that they commonly work out.

I used Polish Wheat flour (a.k.a. Kamut) in the cookies and I had the sense to sift it first. It’s smoother this way.
I had to sift the Spelt flour for the piecrust. Some might find that annoying. Spelt is in the wheat family and I’m grateful that I can use this flour. Sifting takes only a few minutes.

So here it is Monday again. I’m in a warm home and I live a life where if I feel like taking a baking day I do so.