by Sue Van Slooten
Milling your own flour is a delicious way to add nutrition and flavor to your recipes. Want maximum taste? Mill your own.
Cover Photo Copyrighted by iStockphoto.com/MonaMakela. Courtesy of Robert Rose Inc.
Many of you already know I recently invested in a grain mill, the hand crank variety. Now I have a cookbook to go along with it. If you buy only one book on the subject, this is it: “The Essential Home-Ground Flour Book,” by Sue Becker [1]. Sue is incredible; as she covers just about any aspect you can think of on milling, flours, grains, with one hundred delicious recipes to boot. Everything is very well researched, and extremely well written. The amount of information is incredible, but I found it a fabulous read. Yes, I read cookbooks, and I really like this one. Maybe you have noticed that by now.
Buckwheat Corn MuffinsPhoto by Sue Van Slooten
It was a tough choice deciding which one to do first, but I settled on the Buckwheat Corn Muffins, the Fruit variation; I used blueberries. (It wasn’t easy hanging on to the berries until baking time—the blueberry vultures were about.) I am also doing Dark Molasses Oatmeal Bread, and you will hear about that in the next blog. Most of you know Oatmeal is one of my favourites, but this one is with a twist. Stay tuned. Right now let’s make some of these absolutely delicious muffins, you won’t regret having these for breakfast!
Buckwheat Corn Muffins
Ingredients:
1 cup freshly milled buckwheat flour
½ cup freshly milled corn flour
2 ½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
¼ cup oil
2 tbsp. liquid honey
1 ripe banana, mashed
2 eggs
1 ¼ milk or nondairy alternative*
And for the variation: ½ cup light evaporated cane sugar, and ½ cup blueberries.**
You will need a greased 12-cup muffin tin, a 24-cup mini muffin pan. I used unbleached paper liners by If You Care [2].
Preheat your oven to 375 F.
1. In a large bowl, whisk together buckwheat flour, corn flour, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center. Set aside.
2. In another bowl, whisk together oil, honey, banana, and eggs. Add all at once to flour mixture. Mix just until incorporated.
3. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups, filling three-quarters full. Bake in a preheated oven for fifteen minutes (12 minutes for mini-muffins), until golden brown and tops spring back when lightly touched.
*Sue suggests almond, rice, soy or coconut in this recipe.
** Variation:
Buckwheat Corn Fruit Muffins: In Step 1, add ½ cup light evaporated cane sugar (I confess, I didn’t add the extra sugar, apologies Sue!). After mixing batter in Step 2, gently fold in ½ cup blueberries, diced peaches or sliced strawberries.
Important Notes:
1. Becker, Sue. “The Essential Home-Ground Flour Book.” Toronto, ON: Robert Rose Inc., 2016.
2. Try Unbleached, Totally Chlorine-Free (TCF) baking cups by If You Care. They’re as good or better than parchment, no greasing required. www.ifyoucare.com Imported from Sweden.
You can follow my further adventures and check out my Real Food blog on MOTHER EARTH NEWS at wwwMotherEarthNews.com. If you wish, you can email me at suevanslooten@icloud.com. I’d be thrilled to hear from you!