Wing-it Bicuits May 4, 2010

Why yes, I would like some biscuit with my butter!

OK, so I was VERY hungry and late on my lunch this afternoon, having flowered and delivered a cake for the Teachers Appreciation lunch at my kindergartner’s school.  (My carrot cake really “rose” to the occasion—see photos.)  But biscuits never fail me—butter and starch, spread with more butter and maybe even some honey?  Bring it on, honey!

Richardson Farms locally grown whole wheat flour (available at their Barton Creek location) shines its fresh and sweetly wheaty glow onto every recipe it touches.  These super easy, quick as a flash, homey drop-style biscuits are no exception.  With a light and fluffy texture (not at all heavy, despite their whole grain content), these fast little breads fill you up like royalty when spread with great butter and local honey or your favorite fruit preserves.  Let ’em cool down and you can even shortcake ’em!  Plenty of local strawberries teasing at our farmers markets lately.  And dewberries!  We’ve been keeping an eye on our patch in the woods and so far have collected two—berries that is.  But our pint from Naegelin Farms (SFC market at Sunset Valley) this past Saturday helped put the color in our kids faces, literally!

WING-IT BISCUITS makes 8 biscuits

• 140 grams organic all-purpose flour
• 100 grams organic or local (Richardson Farms) whole wheat flour
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder, sieved.  I prefer Rumford, aluminum-free and non-GMO.
  
• ½ Tablespoon organic sugar.  Widely available in bulk departments around town.
  
• generous ½ teaspoon baking soda, sieved.
  
• scant teaspoon salt.  I use Real Salt.
  
• 1 cup yogurt.  I make my own from local goat milk.  Check out how.  The folks at Swede Farm Dairy just had a baby and Wateroak Farms will be taking a two-month break.  I’ll let you know how our options are faring.
  
• 1 stick organic butter, cut into bits and well-chilled.  Organic Valley is my favorite.  Natural Grocers has OV butter on special for only $3.99 a pound through May 15.  Closer to my hood, Sprouts counters with a price of $4.49, through May 5.
  

Preheat your toaster oven to 425°.  You can use your full-size oven, of course, but it’s May and warm here already.  I use the toaster oven whenever I can in hot weather as it heats up the kitchen less.  Plus it uses less energy than the big oven.  Have a 9″ round cake pan handy and get out your ¼-cup scoop.

Combine the dry ingredients (flours through the salt) in the bowl of a food processor.  Run the machine to thoroughly mix them.  Add the butter and process for a few seconds to cut it in.  Turn the flour mixture out into a bowl and pour on the yogurt.  Stir together quickly to moisten all the flour.

Using your scoop, preferably spring-loaded, scoop out 8 rounds and place them in a 9″ pan.  You’ll have seven mounds around the perimeter and one scoop in the middle.  Bake at 425° for about 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 400° and bake for 5 to 10 minutes more, until biscuits are browned and cooked through.

Place pan on a cooling rack for a few minutes before carefully loosening biscuits from pan.

Fill your belly!

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Food Pantry Manifest—Provisions To Live By April 24, 2010

Here’s the list of groceries participating bloggers received of items typifying a share of food provided recently by a local food pantry.  This allotment represents a family’s one month allowance:

2 cans spaghetti sauce
4 cans veggies (choice of green beans and/or corn)
4 fruit cans (choice of sliced pears and/or mixed fruit)
1 meat selection: Anything and everything HEB has. Most of what was available was whole chickens, fryers and pork chops. But we really get everything from pig trotters to ham.
3 drink items: choice of large bottle of cranberry apple juice and/or powdered milk (shelf stable milk) boxes and/or apple juice boxes
1 bag spaghetti or bag of egg noodles
1 bag of pinto beans or white navy beans
1 bag of white rice
1 package of jalapeno slices
1 ready-made dinner (hamburger helper)
1 bag/container of rolled oats
1 bag of cheerios
5 lb bag of potatoes

I see potential here!

spoonful o' oats

We already eat oatmeal almost every morning.  I’ve come up with a method for cooking rolled oats that conveniently yields a less-sticky texture, with the individual oat groats nearly separate.  For my two children and myself (my husband’s not on board for this breakfast), I measure a rounded cupful of oatmeal into my pan and turn the burner on to HIGH.  I swirl in ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon and let the oats toast a bit.  Then I pour in just over ¾ cup water and swirl the pan to distribute the liquid (do NOT stir to achieve this texture).  As soon as I can hear the water steaming, I turn the heat off and let the pan sit there for a couple minutes (my stove is electric).  For the fluffiest texture, you can soak and steam the oats over boiling water, but I find my method a texturally-satisfactory compromise.

Lactating moms appreciate medium-chain fatty acids so in my normal life of luxury I dollop some coconut oil on top.  The kindergartner enjoys honey on his share.  A qualifying food pantry recipient’s food stamp benefits, which max out at $50 per week for one adult, may not leave room in the budget for such gilt, but the canned fruit off the list would complement the morning’s porridge.

I had stocked up on organic bulk rolled oats, quick oats and steel-cut oats when Newflower Market last had a great sale on those items.  We had already eaten our way through the rolled and quick oats (the quick oats I buy for baking but I’ll cook them for breakfast when necessary), and now are working on the steel-cut.  In the spirit of the challenge, and frankly, keeping within my  own budget, I am trying to hold out on purchasing more oatmeal until another sale comes along.  So, steel-cut it is!

Crummy Top—Strictly Streusel April 2, 2010

slice o' streusel

I’ve been putting our locally-grown, freshly ground Richardson Farms whole wheat flour through its paces lately.  Here’s a quick cake composed of a slightly dense and chewy spongecake layer blanketed with an unreasonable heap of sweet, cinnamon-y crumbles.  More streusel than substrate, crumb bums will appreciate this easy, tweedy whole grain goodie.  For streusel fans only!

TEXAS MUFFIN TOP CAKE makes one 9″ round

Streusel:

• 1 stick organic butter, melted.  I love Organic Valley.  Click for a coupon.
  
• 4 3/8 ounces organic light brown sugar.  Central Market’s brand usually costs less.
  
• 5¼ ounces Richardson Farms whole wheat flour.  Sifting out the bran is optional.
  
• ¼ teaspoon salt.  I use Real Salt.
  
• ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract.  I used my homemade Christmas gift from SouthAustinFoodie Adventures.  Check out her foodie fun this week on the Anthony Bourdain trail.
  
• ¼ teaspoon almond extract
  
• zest of one Texas orange, optional

Cake:

• 2 local eggs
• 200 grams turbinado sugar.  I buy this in bulk at Central Market.  Bring your own container and a staff member can tare the weight for you.  We go through a lot of this—we always have homemade lemonade on hand—so I buy about three pounds at a time.
  
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 121 grams Richardson Farms whole wheat flour, most of the bran sifted out.
• 1 teaspoon baking powder.  I use Rumford, aluminun-free and non-GMO.
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup boiling water

Preheat your oven to 350°.  You can melt the butter in the oven while it’s heating up.  Combine the remaining streusel ingredients and stir them into the melted butter.  Line a 9″ X 2″ round pan with a piece of waxed paper or parchment (I use If You Care brand) and butter the bottom, but not the sides.

Combine the eggs, turdinado sugar and salt in a mixer bowl and begin whipping (with the whip attachment if using your stand mixer, which I recommend) at low speed.  Gradually increase the speed to medium-high.  You’re starting the eggs and sugar out slowly to give the sugar a chance to dissolve.  It won’t liquefy completely, however.  Meanwhile, whisk together the flour and baking powder.  Get your water heating up.  I use the microwave.  It’s fast and energy efficient.

When the eggs look very light and fluffy and fall back into the bowl in ribbons that take a moment to dissolve when the beater is lifted, gently add the flour and quickly whisk it in.  Pour in the boiling water and quickly and gently whisk it in to achieve a smooth batter.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan right away.  Working quickly, squeeze handfuls of streusel into clumps and distribute them in chunks over the batter, moving from the outside to the center.  You don’t want the middle of the cake to be too heavily laden with topping so be more generous around the perimeter.

Bake for about 35 minutes, until the cake portion tests done in the center.  The lava-like batter will erupt magmaticaly, creating a sweetly fissured surface.  Never mind the cratered face, she’s tastes like a beauty!

Texas Velvet Biscuit Cake March 28, 2010

honey me this

Back to baking!  With the reintroduction of beans into our diet after last week’s brush with death (well that’s what it felt like, anyways), and it being Sunday and coolish, I decided that biscuits were in order.  And honey.

This super easy recipe combines local Richardson Farms fresh ground whole wheat flour with a softer flour from King Arthur for a fluffy and super-light texture that soaks up a hive of honey.  So comb your cupboards and nectar nooks for the bee sap to enjoy this mound melligenously.  Yeah, that’s right.  I made up an adverb.

TEXAS VELVET BISCUIT CAKE makes a 9″ round of 6 (sort of) large biscuits

• 1 stick of organic butter, softened.  Organic Valley of course.  Click for a coupon.
• 2 ounces (¼ cup) best quality local lard, such as Dai Due, softened

• 6½ ounces Richardson Farms whole wheat flour, most of the bran sifted out
• 7 ounces King Arthur unbleached cake flour blend.  Central Market sells the 2-pound box for $3.49.
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder, sieved.  I use Rumford, non-GMO and aluminum-free.
• ½ teaspoon baking soda, sieved
• 1 teaspoon salt.  I like Real Salt.
• 1¼ cups yogurt.  I make my own from local goat milk (Swede Farm Dairy or Wateroak Farm).  Click for instructions.

Combine the dry ingredients in your food processor and whirl until mixed.  Add the butter and lard and process until the mixture looks mealy.  You’re not going for flaky here so do blend the fat in well.  Turn the flour out into a bowl and stir in the yogurt with a fork until well blended.  Using a greased ½-cup measure or spring-loaded scoop (best), scoop out six heaping ½-cup portions and place them in a buttered 9″ round pan (1½” to 2″ high).  You’ll get five biscuits around the perimeter and one in the middle.

Bake at 425° for 20 to 25 minutes, until the biscuits are golden brown and well-risen.  Let the biscuits cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes before turning them out.  Use a fork to pull the biscuits apart (they’ll have coalesced) and split them for honeyin’.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Fluffata January 18, 2010

brunch on this!

A while back we used up the rest of the spinach queso from game night.  Refrigerated previously boiled local potatoes–ready to be called into action, braved friendly fire to yield quick homefries.  I smash ’em with the heel of my hand for rough chunks, season them with plenty of salt and pepper and give ’em a hot fat bath for crispy crusts.

Wipe out the pan and get to work on the protein:

FLUFFATA serves several brunchers

• 7 local eggs, room temperature
• generous ¼  cup organic heavy cream, chilled.  Organic Valley is great. Click for a coupon.
• generous ¼ teaspoon seasoned salt, such as organic Herbamare
• 2 ½ Tablespoons organic butter.  I love Organic Valley.
  
• plenty of fresh cracked black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400º.  Whoop up your eggs til foamy and at least tripled in volume.  A stand mixer is best for this.  Meanwhile, whip your cream to soft peaks.  I use a cold balloon whisk.  Cold bowl, cold cream and cold whisk equals minimal whoopin’ time so don’t worry about throwing your arm out.  And meanwhile meanwhile, heat up the butter and black pepper in a 12″ nonstick or well-seasoned skillet (with an ovenproof handle) on medium-low heat, swirling the pan to spread the butter around.  You want the butter to bubble and brown a bit for a toasty, tasty crust on your omelet.

When your eggs have achieved their loftiest volume, quickly fold in the cream using the whisk.  Pour the mixture into your hot pan and cook for three minutes, until the edges of the omelet have begun to set.  Place the pan in the hot oven and bake for six or seven minutes, until set in the middle.

Slide the omelet onto a cooling rack and slice and serve right away.  Actually cold leftovers are still delicious.  We enjoyed our most recent fluffata on a bed of those homefried local potatoes, topped with the spinach queso (Cora Lamar’s triple-washed savoy greens from Poteet) and salsa.

The incredible local egg.  Can’t be beat!      (sorry!)

Broccoli Brings It! January 8, 2010

muffins askew

The kindergartner’s show-n-tell/snack day at school done snuck up on us.  On game day to boot!  Local broccoli stems saved me again, investing mini-muffins with the good nutrition necessary for all that learnin’ the kids are up to.  Although I had none left over to enrich the (orange!) carrot cake (see Broccoli Bonus) I made for Longhorn viewing, a cake full of local carrots tastes just as sweet.

These muffins might not fool the herbiphobic adult or teenager, but kids won’t notice the jolly green goodness in these tasty treats.  The students wolfed ’em down!

(SWEET) BROCCOLI BITES makes about 3 dozen mini muffins

• 227 grams (2 cups packed) finely shredded well-peeled local broccoli stems.  You can substitute half or more shredded local carrots for especially finicky palates.
  
• zest of one local an/or organic lemon.  Ask your neighbors!
  
• 2 local eggs
• ¼ teaspoon salt.  I like Real Salt.
• 163 grams (¾ cup, firmly packed) organic light brown sugar.  Central Market’s organic brand sells for $2.99 for a 1½ pound bag.
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 170 grams (about a scant 1½ cups) organic all purpose flour or King Arthur cake flour blend (unbleached!)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda, sieved
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• 2/3 cup chopped toasted Texas pecans, optional.  I omit these for the classroom.
• 107 grams (½ cup) organic coconut oil or other oil suitable for baking sweets.  Whole Foods 365 brand virgin coconut oil is a good value.  Coconut oil will solidify when it’s chilly, so warm it up if necessary.
  

Get your oven going to 350º and grease up 3 one dozen cavity mini muffin tins, or whatever configuration you have.  I find Spectrum baking spray to be the easiest greasing  option, but I’ll leave that choice up to you.

Whisk together the shredded broccoli and the next five ingredients.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and the next four ingredients.  Whisk the oil into the broccoli mixture, blending it in very well, then top with the flour and the pecans, if using.  Stir it all up quickly to blend completely.https://savortheearth.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=3782&message=1

Fill the prepared tins (I like to use a spring-loaded scoop) and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the muffins test done.  Let cool in the pans on a rack for a couple minutes before gently releasing the muffins from their wells (I use a bamboo skewer, the same one I test them with) and letting the muffins cool obliquely in their cups.

Frost with organic cream cheese frosting if desired.  Whip together ½ stick organic butter, ½ block organic cream cheese (CM organics brand is the best buy at only $1.99 per ½ pound), 100 grams (1 cup) organic powdered sugar (CM organics again), 1 teaspoon local honey (I like Good Flow—we have many honeys to choose from around here) and ½ teaspoon vanilla extract.

Take these Waffles and Stuff ’em! (in your stuffing hole) November 29, 2009

two small waffles for mankind

We eat stuffing all year round.  It’s a delicious and thrifty way to use up stale bread, which we accumulate in the freezer. When the “old bread for stuffing” bag is full, I bake up a batch.  No tellin’ what’ll end up in the pan:  assorted vegetables, nuts, cooked grains and meats (bacon!).  Mix ‘n’ match bread types for hybrid vigor.

What are you gonna do with that leftover Thanksgiving stuffing?  Today’s Sunday, so make waffles!

STUFFING WAFFLES yield varies

• 1 stick (4 ounces) organic butter, melted and cooled a bit.  You know I love Organic Valley.  Use a Whole Foods Whole Deal coupon for $1 OFF or click for a coupon to use at another store.
• 2 cups yogurt (homemade is great), buttermilk or a 50/50 combo of yogurt and milk (stir it up and let it sit while the butter melts).  I buy local goat milk from either Swede Farm Dairy or Wateroak Farm.
  
• 2 local eggs
• about ½ teaspoon salt, to taste.  I use Real Salt.  I get this in bulk at Whole Foods.  You can bring in your own jar.
  
• sweetener to taste.  For a cornbread dressing version (baked with unsweetened cornbread) I use 2 Tablespoons local honey (Good Flow).  For a (regular) bread stuffing version, I’ll use maybe 2 teaspoons turbinado sugar.
• 41 grams (1/3 cup) organic all-purpose flour.  WF 365 brand in the 5# bag is usually the best buy.
• 41  grams (about 1/3 cup) whole wheat flour.  I use either organic or Richardson Farms locally-grown.
• 40 grams (about 1/3 cup plus 1½ Tablespoons) organic whole wheat pastry flour.
  
• 2 teaspoon baking powder, sieved.  I like Rumford, aluminum-free and non-GMO.
• 1 teaspoon baking soda, sieved.
• freshly ground black pepper, optional
• 2 cup leftover stuffing, chopped.

Whisk together the yogurt, eggs, salt and sweetener, then whisk in the melted butter.  In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients, through the black pepper, and whisk until mixed.  Whisk the stuffing into the yogurt mixture, then whisk in the flour.  Let the batter rest, covered,  in the refrigerator for about an hour.  Bake in a greased, preheated waffle iron.  Timing and batter amounts will vary depending on the size and design of your iron.  I prefer a deep-pocketed Belgian-style waffle iron for most of my waffle recipes and I recommend that style for this one as well.

Organic maple syrup tastes great on these savory waffles.  Or, pour gravy on em!  We already ran out.  Leftovers only stretch so long.

Happy Waffle Day! Texas Sweet Potato Waffles November 22, 2009

Texas Wafflin'

We eat homemade waffles almost once a week around here, usually on Sundays (Waffle Day!).  If you’ve stocked up on Texas sweet potatoes (on sale through Tuesday at HEB for 19¢ a pound), and roasted three or so in your toaster oven—they’ll keep for a good week in the fridge—you can whip up a delicious seasonal treat to get your morning off to a great start.

TEXAS SWEET POTATO WAFFLES yield varies

• 1 cup local milk.  I use Swede Farm Dairy or Wateroak Farm goat milk.
• 1 cup local or organic yogurt.  I use homemade.
• 4 ounces (1 stick) organic butter.  I love Organic Valley.  At Whole Foods you can use their Whole Deal coupon for $1 OFF.  Or click for a coupon.
  
• 3 ounces (about ¾ cup plus 2 Tablespoons plus ½ teaspoon) organic whole wheat pastry flour
  
• 2 ounces(½ cup) local (Richardson Farms) or organic whole wheat flour
• 3 ounces (about ¾ cup minus 2 teaspoons) organic all-purpose flour.  WF 365 brand in the 5# bag is usually the best price.
  
• 2 1/8 teaspoons baking powder, sieved.  I recommend Rumford, aluminum-free and non-GMO.
• 1 teaspoon baking soda, sieved
• 3/8 teaspoon apple pie spice
• 3/8 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• about 2/3 cup baked Texas sweet potato, skin included
  
• 1/2 cup toasted Texas pecans.  Get yourself some of the new crop.
  
• 2 local eggs
  
• 2 Tablespoons organic dark brown sugar.  I think Whole Foods is packaging their own brand now.  Should be the best buy.  I’m still working on my bag of Wholesome Sweeteners.
  
• heaping ½ teaspoon salt.  I use Real Salt.
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract.  I like Nielsen-Massey.  They make several varieties and forms including organic.
• zest of 1 Texas orange.  Use a rasp or box grater.

Combine the milk and yogurt and let sit while you prepare the rest of the recipe.  Get the butter melting on low heat.  Combine the dry ingredients (pastry flour through spices) in a bowl and whisk together.  Put the milk/yogurt in a blender with the sweet potato and pecans and blend until smooth.  Pour into a large bowl and whisk in the remaining ingredients (eggs through zest, plus melted butter).  Dump the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and whisk together just to blend well.  Don’t overmix.  Let batter rest in the fridge, covered, for about an hour.

Bake on a preheated (hot!) waffle iron until done.  The size of your waffles and the cooking time will vary depending on the waffle iron design.  Enjoy with organic maple syrup—Shady Maple Farms is still on sale at Newflower Market for only $17.99 a quart (grade A dark amber and grade B).

Quinoa is the New Black November 19, 2009

I recently brought home a box of Alter Eco‘s organic black quinoa to play around with (work perk!).  The folks at AE work with small scale farmers and producers to maintain artisanal methods and ecological balance.  Alter Eco’s Mission Statement proclaims:

We believe that Fair Trade is a viable and successful alternative to conventional commerce. This business model will gradually close the gap between rich and poor, so-called developing countries and industrialized countries.

Sounds good and green.

My family eats quinoa regularly and I usually keep a cooked pot of this “super grain” in the fridge for quick nourishment (see Queen Quinoa).  Reheated with cheese (or not), and plenty of fresh cracked black pepper (or not—as for the minors), quinoa makes a fast, tasty and nutritious light meal.  The black variety, with its exotic color, piqued my palate so I gave it a whirl.  Plus the Quechuas of Bolivia believe black quinoa supports kidney health.

I found that this quinoa cooked up more quickly—a fast 15 minutes—and absorbed less water (less than 2 cups as opposed to a little more than 2 cups) than my usual brands of regular quinoa.  The family wasn’t pleased with the texture, however.  The black bran seems much thicker and heartier than the pale seed coat of standard quinoa.  Too chewy!  Fanciers of substantial grains, however, might like a simple breakfast pilaf of black quinoa with quality butter, good maple syrup and perhaps a splash of cream.

At my house, the black quinoa was relegated to more of a supporting role in which it could show off its striking color against contrasting backgrounds, lighter in taste as well as color.  We enjoyed this quinoa’s black speckles in both an easy, light bread machine bread and an otherwise standard pot o’ jasmine rice.

P B J & Q

Dalmatian Bread (Black Quinoa Bread)

• ½ cup local milk plus enough water to equal 1 generous cup.  I use either Swede Farm Dairy or Wateroak Farm goat milk.
• 1 local  egg
• 130 grams (1 cup) cooked organic black quinoa
• ¾ teaspoon salt.  I use Real Salt
• 1 teaspoon local honey.  I buy Good Flow in bulk at Central Market.  Bring your own container and ask an employee to tare the weight for you.
  
• 1 Tablespoon organic butter.  Organic Valley‘s my choice here.  Look for the $1 OFF coupon in Whole Foods Whole Deal newsletter, available at their stores.  Or click here.
  
• 200 grams organic all-purpose flour.  WF’s 365 brand 5# bag is usually the best buy.
  
• 163 grams organic white whole wheat flour.  WF generally has the lowest price per pound on King Arthur’s 5# bag.
  
• 1 teaspoon bread machine yeast (rapid rise or instant)

Place the ingredients into your bread machine in the order indicated by your instruction manual.  In my machine, that would be the order listed.  Program the machine on the regular cycle (not whole wheat).  If you’re not heading out to work on bread day, you can use just your machine’s dough cycle, then form a loaf (use a 9″ X 5″ pan), give it a second rise and bake it off at 350º in your oven.  The weather’s perfect for crankin’ it up!

Speckled!

Appaloosa Rice (Black Quinoa Rice)

• 1 cup minus 1 Tablespoon Lowell Farms organic jasmine rice
• 1 Tablespoon organic black quinoa, well rinsed
• 1 2/3 cups water
• ¼ teaspoon salt–Real Salt.  See above.
  
• dab of butter. Organic Valley, see above.
  
• 1 fresh bay leaf if you’re growin’ or knowin’ somebody who is.

Place all ingredients in a saucepan, place a lid on it and bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce the heat to LOW and continue to cook for 20 minutes.  Remove from heat and let rest 10 minutes before serving.

Wafflin’ August 30, 2009

Recently Gourmet magazine published, by request, an incredible waffle recipe from Brown Sugar Kitchen in West Oakland, California.  Wow!  Light and crispy as a cicada’s wing, these butterful squares (rounds at the restaurant), are frankly irresistible.  Gourmet has not posted their adapted version of Brown Sugar Kitchen’s recipe online.  In lieu of a link, then, I offer to you my own rendition of cornmeal waffles.  Yeasty and yummy, a Sunday second breakfast worth sharing.

You’ll need to start this batter the night before your breakfasty ecstacy.

RAISED CORNMEAL WAFFLES

• 1 1/2 sticks butter, melted and cooled.  I prefer Organic Valley.  Check out their $1 OFF coupons.
  

• 1 Tablespoon regular yeast (not rapid rise,instant, or “bread machine”)
• 3/4 cup warm water–not hot

• 1 cup yogurt, preferably local, whole milk is best.
• 2 cups whole milk.  I use goat milk from Swede Farm Dairy
• 1 1/2 teaspoons turbinado sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt.  I like Real Salt.
  
• 3 eggs, local of course.  Easy to find at our farmers markets, except in hottest and coldest weather.
• 1 cup cornmeal, organic, please.  I use Arrowhead Mills yellow.
• 182 grams (1 1/2 cups) organic all-purpose flour.  I’m using Whole Foods organic in the 5# bag.  Only $4.69!
• 60 grams (scant 1/2 cup) organic white whole wheat flour.  I buy King Arthur brand from WF in the 5# bag.
  
• 3/8 teaspoon baking soda

Pour the water into a small bowl and sprinkle with the yeast.  I never proof my yeast, as I keep it stored in the freezer and use it up regularly.  If that’s not the case in your kitchen, check your yeast/water bowl for foaming after about 15 minutes.  If you detect no foamy signs of life, begin again with fresh yeast.

In a large bowl, whisk together yogurt and the next four ingredients.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the cornmeal and flours.  Whisk the yeast mixture into the wet ingredients, then whisk in the dry ingredients until smooth.  Finally, whisk in the butter.  Cover the bowl and refrigerate the batter overnight, at least 8 hours.  In the morning, the mixture will sport an expanded mantle of bubbled-up batter. Before cooking the waffles, sprinkle the baking soda through a fine-meshed sieve onto the batter and whisk it in thoroughly.

Heat up your waffle iron.  I spray mine first with Spectrum organic high heat sunflower oil cooking spray.  Whole Foods sells this product.  Your iron may accept anywhere from 2/3 cup to 1 cup batter, depending on its size.  Read your instructions if you have them.  Or wing it until you get your waffler figured out.  My current iron uses 1 cup of batter (divided between two waffle squares) and bakes up toasty brown waffles in 4 minutes.  You’ll have to experiment and calculate the perfect time for your idea of “toasty brown”.

If there’s no army of sleepyheads occupying your kitchen to greedily gobble each waffle as it’s baked, you can keep your batch warm on a baking sheet (layer of one, please) in a preheated 250º oven.  We don’t need to go through all that around here.  I’m still lactating so I keep that stream of cooked waffles in check.  We lay them out on a cooling rack just long enough to get the plates and syrup.

Speaking of syrup, Newflower Market is still selling Shady Maple Farms organic maple syrup, grade A dark amber and grade B, 1 quart, for only $17.99.  That’s a steal!  I like local honey mixed with my syrup.  …MMMMMaple!

If you have waffles leftover (this recipe makes a generous batch), you can wrap ’em and freeze ’em.  Reheat them in the toaster oven under a watchful eye.

By the way, I haven’t bought a new (as in NIB) waffle iron in probably 20 years, since I purchased my Bugs Bunny waffle iron (the one that started all this waffle madness).  I always find waffle irons at the thrift store, sometimes vintage specimens, other times contemporary equipment.  For this recipe, and most of the other waffles I cook, I prefer the deep-divot Belgian-style waffle irons.  You may come across square irons that bake either one large or two medium-sized waffles, or the round style, which seems to be made in a fairly standard size. For probably no more than $5 to $7, you can ascend to breakfast heaven, and save yourself a trip to the west coast.