pancakes with roasted apples

I am a picky pancake person.  We have friends who make fabulous apple pancakes with apple syrup.  It is one of those family recipe type meals that you feel absolutely honored being invited over for because it is so stupendous!  But when they are not there to do it, I have to figure out something that works for me.  This is what I came up with and I have to say it is pretty fabulous.

Roasted Apples

2 apples

2 tablespoons oil

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 - 1 teaspoon cinnamon - to your taste

Heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Cut the apples in quarters, core, and peel.  Put the oil in an oven proof pan.  Slice the apple quarters into little bits into the pan.  Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon.  Place in the oven.  Give a stir at the ten minute mark and the twenty minute mark.  They should be soft and created their own syrup after about thirty minutes.   Remove from the oven and serve hot.

After some discussions with Adam, I serve this on top of the pancakes below.  But you could serve it on other things.  It is also very good stirred into the pancake batter that I have listed here.  Or mix it into bread dough. Grilled cheese sandwiches with roasted apple bread are pretty superior. 

Sourdough Pancakes

sourdough starter

3/4 cup water

1 cup flour

2 eggs

1 cup hempmilk

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 to 1 cup flour.

The night before you wish pancakes, mix the sourdough starter, 3/4 cup water, and 1 cup flour in a ceramic bowl and cover with a cloth.  Let it sit on the counter and become a bubbly growing smelly mass.  It is at its best then.  Take out two to four tablespoons and put in a jar.  Store in the refrigerator.

 Put a griddle on the oven to heat over medium heat.

To the starter mixture, add the eggs, hempmilk, sugar, oil, salt, and flour.  Stir well.

Heat some oil on the griddle.  Dip out a scant quarter cup of batter and pour onto the griddle.  Wait until the bubbles pop and the top is a bit dry.  Turn.  Cook another couple minutes.  Remove to a plate and keep warm in a very low oven.  Make sure your plate is oven proof!

Pour the roasted apples over the pancakes.  Just watch how fast they disappear.  The picture above is a good point.  I could not even get a picture before they became devoured.  

It is a good thing and makes me smile.

temporary workspace

It has been interesting working in a workspace that is not my normal. 

Today is the first day that it has been truly sunny and I have been at the campsite.  It is really not warm enough to work outside unless I am close to the fire so it makes it difficult to sew.  

So I have been crocheting a lot.  It does not help that I found a yarn shop in the area that I really like.

Russell forgot to bring my sourdough starter and I do not bake with store boughten yeast anymore.  I am working on creating a new starter

Sourdough Starter

1 cup flour

3/4 cup water

Let sit out for a week until it bubbles and smells sours.  Use in place of yeast, keeping back 2 tablespoons starter.  You will refresh it with 1 cup flour and 3/4 cup of water the next time you chose to bake.  Always keep back at least 2 tablespoons and put in a glass jar.  Refrigerate.

Now if you have to rush the process like I am doing add:

add 1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast.

Go through the feeding and using process for the whole week.  You should have a fairly strong starter by the end of the week that will be find in the refrigerator or freezer until your next use.

Sourdough starter is really that simple.  The big thing is patience.  Give the yeastie beasties time to work.  They are slow and strong.  Just like the turtle <wink>.  And then you can have pancakes, bread, pizza, cake....

salted caramel frozen treat

I had this idea in my head and had to try it.  Russell never objects because the failures are actually few.  The real issue sometimes is that if I follow a recipe I know I can make it better if it is just mediocre.  This was just an idea I had and I knew I still had some of my Dad's handmade caramels.

Salted Caramel Frozen Treat

1 cup soaked cashews plus the soaking water to fill the holes in the cup 

1 cup hempmilk

1/4 cup caramels

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

Take the cashews and their water and put them in a blender.  Blend until they are smooth.

Measure out the caramels.

Put the hempmilk, sugar, salt, and caramels in a pan on the stove over medium heat.  Heat gently and whisk until everything is dissolved and/or melted.

Slowly pour into the cashew cream while still blending.  Freeze as you would for ice cream.

Enjoy!  This is so incredibly yummy!

bread pudding

We like french toast but I do not like all the work that has to go with french toast.  And I actually like to eat at the same time as Russell so we can talk.  We like to talk.  We like each other even though we have been married almost ten years.  It is a good thing.

So we can eat together, we have bread pudding instead of french toast.  This is my throw down recipe:

Bread pudding

4 slices of bread, cubed

2 eggs

1/4 cup maple syrup

3/4 cup original hempmilk

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

(or you can do 1-2 teaspoons of vanilla)

2 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Put the butter in a medium size casserole dish (or cast iron skillet like I do).  Put in the oven and let the butter melt.

Put the cubed bread, eggs, maple syrup, hempmilk, cinnamon, and ginger in a bowl.  Mix well.

It takes some mixing.  I even step away for a minute so the bread will soften up a bit.  

Pull the casserole dish out of the oven and pour this mixture in.

Bake for 30 minutes or until there are golden edges.   Eat straight out of the oven with your beloved with big mugs of tea.  That will make me smile.

flour tortillas

I have a tendency of making my own flour tortillas.  We buy them but when we run out I just pull out the supplies.  I also buy flour in twenty five pound bags and the ladies at the grocery store always ask if I am making tortillas.  Sometimes they are right!

Flour Tortillas

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons olive oil

2/3 cup water

(by the way, if you wish pie crust, switch the water and oil measurements - 2/3 cup olive oil and 6 tablespoons water.  It is how I remember the recipe)

Preheat a griddle over medium low heat.

In a bowl, mix the flour and salt together.  Add the olive oil and mix in.  Add the water and mix.  You will have a sticky messy dough.

Turn the dough out on a floured surface.  Scrape all the bits out of the bowl as well.  You are going to knead this a few times, like twelve.  So I pulled a random number but I am trying to say not much kneading is needed.

 

It should look like this when you are done kneading.

Divide the dough into eight balls.

Roll it out.  It will be about five to six inches across.  Mine are never round.

Place on the griddle and bake until brown spots appear.  Turn over and do the same to the other side.

Serve the yumminess with roasted sweet potato and three bean soup.  Or what ever you normally eat flour tortillas with.  They make fabulous wraps too!  Snacks, breakfast.... Okay, okay.  So I like homemade tortillas!  They make my tummy happy and me smile.  Life is good.