This recipe is a guest recipe from my pal, Marisa. She makes me birthday cakes and cooks me really good vegetarian food even though she can cook real people food. This one is one of them…a vegetarian recipe, but real people like it too.

1 14 oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (or to taste)

1/4 - 1/3 c olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

Juice of one lemon 

Handful of tender herbs (basil, tarragon, chives, parsley), minced

Mix all ingredients together.

Let marinate at least 8 hours, overnight is best. 

Uses: add to cooked pasta with Parmesan and lemon. Fancy toast. Eat by the spoonful. Add to eggs.

A preface that these don’t have to be enjoyed in doughnut form. They work equally well as a cupcake, bundt, madeleine, loaf, spring form or anything else you have to put batter in and bake off.

It is true that there are three things to make to get these little dears, but I think it is worth it. Let’s get to it.

ROSE SUGAR

1/4 c. sugar

1/3 c. dried rose petals (make sure that no herbicides or pesticides were used on the roses if you source/dry yourself)

Pulse the sugar and rose petals in a food processor until the sugar begins to take on a rose tint. Or the rose petals begin to take on a sugary appearance. Store in a glass jar. It will make more than you need for this recipe. Pro tip: good in iced tea.

GLAZE

1 c. powdered sugar

1/8 c. milk (dairy or non)

Mix in a bowl that will be good for dunking yo’ doughnuts in.

DOUGHNUTS

1 c. oat or almond milk

1 t. apple cider vinegar

1 1/2 T. cornstarch

1/4 c. canola oil

3/4 c. sugar

1 1/2 c. all purpose flour

3/4 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

pinch of salt

1/2 t. ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine milk and cider vinegar in a bowl or mixing glass and let sit for a few to thicken. Blending all of this by hand rather than with an electric mixer is good because it does not make it too chewy. Plus, my mixer lives in the basement and I don’t want to go and get it. Pour in mixing bowl and add cornstarch. Mix until the cornstarch is not throwing any lumps into the mix. Add your oil and sugar and mix until relatively smooth. Add your remaining ingredients and mix until mostly combined. A few bumps here and there will be fine. Scoop into prepared tins, trays, molds etc. Bake for about 10-15 minutes if in small molds like doughnut or muffin forms and longer for cakes or loaves.

When cool enough to remove from molds do so because the glaze is best added so a sort of warm confection. After glazing the masterpiece, sprinkle on the rose sugar and behold the wondrous spectacle you are about to put in your face. Mmmm. Gluten.

Cakies. The best of a birthday cake in cookie form. They also are like birthday cake batter ice cream. They are a confused dessert.

YELLOW CAKE COOKIES

1/3 c. butter

1/2 c. sugar

1 egg

3/4 t. baking powder

1 T. cornstarch

1/4 t. turmeric

pinch of salt

1 1/3 c. all purpose flour

1 1/4 c. almond flour

2 T. milk

1/4-1/3 c. sprinkles

Turn on that oven to 350 degrees. That’s F to you and me, kids.

Cream together butter and sugar with paddle attachment until light yellow in color. Add egg and mix on low. Scrape sides and remix if needed.

Add dry ingredients and mix on low. If too dry, add milk. Once the mix is almost fully incorporated and looks like it will scoop into little cookie cake hybrids, add your sprinkles and briefly mix.

Scoop using an ice cream scoop onto parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes or so. They should puff up a little because they are not sure if they are a cookie or a cake.

It seems this time of year I always have too many strawberries to eat fresh but not enough to make anything with. Until I figured out the golden strawberry ratio for a quick and unfussy jam.

Cans and lids and sterilizing seem like an awful lot of stuff to faff about with. This jam is meant to be made and enjoyed maybe even in the same day. It will make as much as you need. Just keep in mind that you will need to freeze it or use the contents in the fridge within two weeks or so.

Strawberries are a naturally low pectin fruit, and if you are harvesting them at their peak ripeness, or even over-ripeness, they contain even less pectin. That means that you may need to add extra citrus or even a cubed apple during cooking. I don’t mind a runnier concoction, so I don’t really worry about pectin amounts.

The ideal ratio for this strawberry jam seems to be to use 3/4 of the sugar amount to the fruit. That does not make sense. Try again: If you use 8 oz. of strawberries, you would need 3/4 of that amount in sugar…so 6 oz of sugar. The great thing about ratios is that you can make as much or as little based on how much fruit you have.

STRAWBERRY FREEZER JAM

8 oz. strawberries

6 oz. granulated sugar

Juice of a lemon (or grapefruit or lime in a pinch)

Wash fruit and get rid of stems. You can cut strawberries into smaller pieces, or leave whole if they are smaller and homegrown. Combine fruit, sugar and citrus juice in nonreactive pot (like copper). Cook over medium heat, stirring, until the strawberries begin to break down. You can smoosh a few here and there.

Raise heat and cook, stirring and keeping an eye on mixture. Skim any foam off with a wooden spoon, of course. You can use a jam thermometer, or just use intuition since it is just going to be kept in the fridge. Jam always starts off bubbling like mad and then calms down later. It is during this calm that the mixture begins to thicken and darken. You’ve got jam. 220 degrees F if you are being scientific about things. Actually that should be in centigrade for true scientists.

Pop into a jar or smother some on a croissant.

These falafel are pretty great because of their versatility. You basically just need 2 cups of greens of your choosing, some beans and some nuts. There are things like spices and a bit of flour and baking powder in there, but the recipe is fairly interchangeable. When you change the beans, say from garbanzo to black beans, you change the palette and end use of the falafel. Spices to match the beans and you’ve got a base for many a meal.

Rocket Falafel

2 c. packed greens, stemmed (arugula or wild rocket is my favorite, but parsley, spinach, a combination of spices like dill, mint, oregano, chives also work well)

3.5 oz. shelled pistachios (walnuts would also work)

1 c. garbanzo beans (white, kidney and black beans would also work)

1/2 T. flour (all purpose or a gluten free sub)

1/2 t. baking powder

Splash of olive oil and or lemon juice

Spices (cumin, curry, salt, paprika…whatever flavor you are going for with your falafel)

Pulse greens for about 20 seconds in a food processor to break down. Add nuts and pulse until the greens have taken on a nutty appearance and/or the nuts have taken on a green appearance. Add rinsed beans, spices, baking powder, flour and blend until a ball forms. If the mixture is very dry, add your oil and/or lemon juice to get the mixture to something you can form small balls out of.

Form your falafel and put on prepared and lined cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes. Should make a dozen +/- falafel depending on the size you rolled.

Serve however you intended. Black bean base are great in tacos, garbanzo base falafel are good with yogurt dill sauce and naan, you get the idea.

Share your falafel endeavors and variations at #VHWWrecipes

Adapted from Green Kitchen Stories

No oven needed. These are swell little things to keep around in a big bowl in the fridge. Or well hidden from any chocolate inclined house dwellers.

PRO TIP: A sprinkle of pink or sea salt right on top of these before you chill them is also a delightful addition.

These can be made with any sort of nut butter you can get your hands on. PB is a classic and almond has a nice sweet and mellow twist. Roasted, salted, chunky…all these descriptors of said nut butter are totally invited to this party.

Nut Butter Cups

8 oz chocolate (chips or chunks or even broken up bar is fine…semi-sweet, dark, you pick your poison)

1/4-1/3 c. nut butter

3 +/- T powdered sugar

Set out about a dozen mini muffin liners in a mini muffin tin or just really close together on a baking sheet or surface that can be moved into freezer.

Melt chunked up chocolate in a double boiler over low/medium heat. Make sure to stir and don’t let that chocolate burn.

While the chocolate is melting, mix the nut butter and powdered sugar into a sort of pliable dough. You may need to add more nut butter if it is too dry or more sugar if it is too wet. You want a sweet filling, but not overly so. And you want the mixture to be able to form a ball in your hands easily.

Add about a 1/2 t of the melted chocolate to each liner. Then, with a small spatula or finger, swirl the chocolate so that it comes up the sides of the paper liner. This seems tedious and slightly unnecessary but if you skip this, you will end up with messy nut butter sandwiches that just ooze out of hardened chocolate. Not the worst thing, but we can do better.

Roll the nut butter mixture into medium sized marbles. Slightly squish each nutty marble and deposit one in each prepared liner. This is what the chocolate was meant to do.

Top each cup with more chocolate so that it covers the little nut coin.

Pop in the freezer for about 30 minutes or so. Store in the fridge or just eat the whole lot. No one is watching.

Besides bind weed and quack grass, it seems the only thing we can grow this year are radishes. So many that they are self-harvesting by popping out of the ground. And you don’t leave a radish behind. But I am running out of things I can put radish on. So we pickle it.

Note: this recipe is intended as a quick pickle, in other words not canning version or shelf stable.

Pickled Radish

5 oz radish, sliced or de-stemmed and whole

3/4 C. apple cider vinegar

1/2 t sugar

1/2 t salt

spices of your choice (mustard seed, pepper corn, rosemary, red pepper flake)

In the container you are picking to pickle in, combine all ingredients except radishes. Put the lid on and shake to combine. Par-blanch radish by pouring a kettle of boiling water over them in a colander. Add drained radish to the jar of vinegar mix. Put the lid on and put in fridge. Use within a week or so.

Good on tacos, stir fry, ramen.

Another favorite from one of the bakeries I worked at were cinnamon oat scones. Light and buttery and never over worked, these were great right out of the oven before I would hop in the old Volvo to run deliveries. These nuggets are easy to make and are a true baking recipe. The units of measurement are in weights because baking is all about ratios.

They are also very versatile. Think of the recipe as a base recipe that can be altered to suit your tastes. These have been a great platform to explore the age old lemon blueberry relationship, orange currant and apple rose.

3 oz unsalted butter

2.5 oz sugar

pinch salt

1 egg yolk

12 oz flour (all purpose works, but pastry flour is best)

3/4 oz baking powder

7 oz milk

sprinkle of oats and cinnamon/sugar to top

Cream the first three ingredients until light and lemon yellow. Add the yolk and mix in. Add your dry ingredients alternating with milk being careful not to overmix. Use an ice cream scoop to drop scones onto parchment lined baking sheet. Sprinkle each scone with oats and cinnamon/sugar. Place in oven set to 425 degrees F. 15-20 minutes should do it, they should be light golden darlings.

Cool or not…slice in half and smother with jam or not.

Share your scones! #VHWWrecipes

We made the best sourdough blueberry muffins at one of the bakeries I worked at. Not overpowering or too sour, a little toothsome in the texture and studded with berries. I have been trying to recreate this muffin ever since. This recipe is great because it helps to use up any surplus starter you may want to get rid of (thanks, quarantine). You can even use the discard. Cool.

I think the recipe is as close as I will get it and here it is:

Muffins:

1/4 c butter

1/2 c brown sugar

1 egg

1 c all purpose flour

1/4 c whole wheat flour

2 T cornmeal

1 t baking soda

1/4 t cinnamon

pinch of salt

2/3 c sourdough starter (fresh or discard)

3 oz yogurt

2 T milk

1 1/2 cup frozen blueberries

Streusel:

1/4 c flour

1/4 c brown sugar

2 T granulated sugar

1/4 t cinnamon

2 T butter

Streusel: Add all streusel ingredients to a bowl and cut in butter with pastry blender or fork until the butter becomes the size of small peas.

Muffins: Cream butter and sugar in a mixer with paddle attachment until it forms a creamy and almost fluffy layer on bottom of bowl that warrants a scrape down. Scrape down aforementioned sugar and fat mixture. Add the egg and blend for a few seconds.

Alternate dry and wet ingredients being careful not to overmix. Fold in berries at very end by hand with a wooden spoon, of course.

Scoop out into prepared tins with or without liners. Distribute the streusel on top of all the lovelies. Bake at around 400 degrees for 20ish minutes until the streusel has gone golden and the muffins are firm to touch.

Some notes I have taken:

• All ovens are different…so you may need to go above or below 400

• If you have a convection option, it is best used in the last 5 minutes or so of baking these to really goldenize the streusel.

• If you really want to, coating the berries in flour before folding into mix will help them stay afloat and evenly distributed in the muffins. This really matters to some people. I get it. I am not that patient though.

• Really watch the mixing once you add the starter and whole wheat flour. Something about the gluten in WW flour that makes it prone to overmixing. Someone on the internet probably has done the science and you can nerd out with them.

• Seems overkill to fold in berries by hand…but it is worth it. It won’t dye the batter and remember what I said about overmixing in the above bullet point? Were you even paying attention?

I am still tinkering with the recipe and would love to know how they go for you. I have a rye sourdough starter and would love to know how they get on with a traditional sourdough starter. I have also wondered if they would even be better if the yogurt was subbed with sour cream. Seems like it would work…If you make them, post it on IG and tag it with #VHWWrecipes so we can keep track of the progress and edits.

This will be a place for dispatches from the dust. Hoping for a space to combine some of my worlds. It might be things I have discovered in the sawdust ridden shop or flour covered kitchen. One of the reasons I started to carve was because I spent a lot of time in the kitchen baking. It seemed reasonable that being a baker, I could use my hands to make things from wood that I could use back in the kitchen.

The first one will be a sharing of a favorite recipe. Carrot cake truffles. Not really true truffles because they are vegan and don’t actually have any chocolate. But they are still good ones.

1 c chopped or grated carrots
1 c almond flour
7-8 large pitted medjool dates 
1/4 c shredded or desiccated coconut plus more 🥥 for enrobing 
1 t cinnamon
1 t ground ginger
1 healthy T honey
1 healthy T almond butter or peanut butter
Water to consistency
Handful of raisins 

Pulse all ingredients minus water and raisins in a food processor until a dough like consistency has been reached. Add water if dry. Toss in handful of raisins and blitz or stir by hand. Roll into balls and enrobe in coconut and or cinnamon sugar.

If you get around to making these, share them if you’d be so kind…both with people you like and online. Use #VHWWrecipes so we can keep track of all the good wood times.

cheers