These healthy, honey banana spelt pancakes are simply delicious because spelt flour is nutty and flavorful. While it is an alternative flour, and has fragile gluten, which may be okay for people with gluten sensitivity, but it does have gluten.

Another Retro Rose Moment:

Retro Rose: I’m eating gluten free now.
Me: Great, but didn’t you just eat toast.
Retro Rose: Yes, but I’m having gluten free crackers for lunch. Look see the box.
Me: Okay, but the toast had gluten.
Retro Rose: Just a little bit.
Me: No wonder the chiropractor asked me if I was dropped on my head.

My chiropractor saw this post and laughed out loud.  It’s true that she did ask me if I was dropped on my head or in a car accident, which is a whole different topic. But, I can see how the gluten-free craze could make a person bang their head into the closest wall. There is confusion about who truly needs to eat 100% gluten free, (over two million Americans) what contains gluten, and what food products are to be avoided because they are made in a factory that also makes gluten products, (like oatmeal), etc.

People with celiac disease cannot tolerate wheat, barley or rye. These same people tend to educate themselves thoroughly on what they can and can’t eat, because a product as simple as ketchup can contain gluten.

However, many people today put themselves on gluten free diets when gluten is not their enemy. This is where spelt flour comes in. It has fragile gluten and often times folks who cannot tolerate wheat, can tolerate spelt.

This is individual, and it’s important to note that folks with celiac disease still cannot eat spelt, but many folks with an intolerance to wheat can. Are you ready to bang your head? It is confusing, frustrating, complicated because we live in a wheat dominant food culture, where the wheat has been engineered to be softer, contain more gluten, and often pesticides, and not all that conducive to the human digestive system. Much of it is not nutritionally sound.

Spelt is an ancient grain.

This brings me back to spelt. Spelt is an ancient grain, with a hard husk that protects it from bugs and the need for pesticides. Even if a person isn’t wheat sensitive, spelt is a healthy choice to consider, as it is higher in protein, easier to digest, higher in fiber and has many other benefits that make it a better choice than wheat.

Unlike wheat, in which the gluten gets stronger as you mix it, the gluten in spelt gets weaker. It takes a little practice to cook and bake with, because typically our frame of reference comes from working with wheat. It’s naturally darker (unlike bleached white wheat) and naturally nuttier.

These were made on a whim. These were actually the inspiration for my recent strawberry pancakes, but these have a completely different texture pulled together by the banana and honey. They are the perfect foundation for an addition of walnuts or pecans if you want to play around.

If you want to see the cutest chihuahua in the world (and my new kitties) and lots of pics that don’t make it here, please connect with me on instagram.   I often post video “stories” of the cooking process. That way I get to meet you too!

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Healthy Honey Banana Spelt Pancakes

Honey banana spelt pancakes, a healthy non-fat aalternative for a luxurious breakfast.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup spelt flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• dash cinnamon
• dash nutmeg
• 1 cup milk
• 3 tablespoons melted butter or cooking oil see notes
• 2 eggs
• 1 banana mashed
• 1-2 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

• Mix together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg. Set aside.
• Mix together mashed banana, butter, eggs honey, vanilla in another bowl.
• Add in milk or butter milk and mix with flour mixture.
• Heat a cast iron griddle to low. The lower the better. Just rub your pan with some oil. You might be tempted to turn the griddle higher, but the pancakes will burn. Using a paper towel rub oil on griddle. Using too much oil will cause uneven cooking. When pancakes begin to bubble, turn over, using your thinnest spatula. I use my cookie spatula.
• Apply oil with paper towel between each batch.

Notes

This recipe was recently changed, adding in two eggs and three tablespoons melted butter, taking out applesauce.
If you want a low-fat pancake, sub 1/4 cup applesauce for butter.

The post Healthy Honey Banana Spelt Pancakes appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Converting from all purpose flour pie crust to baking with spelt flour for a spelt crust is a paradigm shift. How should pie crust taste and and what are we used to?  In truth, I love either type of pie crust, as long as it’s good, flaky and baked from scratch. Spelt pie crust has a nutty taste and is denser. The good news is that it will fill you up quicker, aside from the nutritional benefits. I made this recent pie

I use a whole grain organic spelt because I’m choosing spelt flour for it’s nutritional value and low glycemic level. You may be noticing a trend around here of going healthier in the dessert category. The savory food already falls into the healthy hearty category, but I tend to make desserts with white flour and sugar.  I’ve written about this before at my spelt oatmeal cookie post.

Spelt is an ancient grain, with a hard husk that protects it from bugs and the need for pesticides. Even if a person isn’t wheat sensitive, spelt is a healthy choice to consider, as it is higher in protein, easier to digest, higher in fiber and has many other benefits that make it a better choice than wheat.

Unlike wheat, in which the gluten gets stronger as you mix it, the gluten in spelt gets weaker. It takes a little practice to cook and bake with, because typically our frame of reference comes from working with wheat. It’s naturally darker (unlike bleached white wheat) and naturally nuttier. The flavor and texture has grown on me.

Watch the video.

There is a great tip for making decorative crust. Spelt pie crust is great with apple pie, pumpkin pie or this most recent apple sweet potato pie, but one of my favorites is blueberry, like these hand pies.

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Spelt Pie Crust

Recipe for Spelt Pie Crust with video.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 40 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups cold organic spelt flour
• 10 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons cream cheese can use only butter, which would be 14 tablespoons butter
• 6 to 8 tablespoons ice cold water start with 6
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar can use coconut sugar

Instructions

• Cut butter and cream cheese into small cubes. Freeze for 15 minutes. If you freeze for a longer period of time, you may need to mix it more in the food processor.
• Mix flour, salt and sugar together in food processor.
• Add butter and cream cheese.
• Mix in food processor and count to 10. Shut machine off. If butter is still in large chunks, pulse to get to very tiny pieces.
• Mix in water. Pulse machine just until dough forms. You should be able to form the dough between your two fingers and it sticks together.
• Wrap in plastic. Refrigerate.
• Bake your pie crust according to directions. Usually 40-60 mins for a pie.
• Will make a full double crusted pie with 8 servings.

The post Spelt Pie Crust with Video appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Apples and sweet potatoes are two of my all time favorite foods and did you know they make a good marriage too?

I discovered that cooked apples and roasted sweet potato blend together to make a pie that’s way better than pumpkin and so much easier to make if you want everything from scratch. This pie has body, natural sweetness and when baked in a whole grain spelt pie crust, it’s amazingly good. Spelt is an ancient grain that’s got a lower glycemic count than regular wheat, is easier to digest and edible for many people who are gluten sensitive. I like it because it tastes good. It’s nutty.

I love pie and so do the people in my life, but we are all very mindful of our health and what we are eating. If I’m not eating paleo (no grain at all), I like to find ways to cut sugar and eat as minimally processed as possible.

You could make this pie with my regular pie dough recipe, but if you’re here looking for some new ways to make old desserts, give the spelt flour a try.

I’ve been baking with spelt flour for some time, so I’m used to it and how it performs. It absorbs more liquid than all purpose flour and I wanted to make sure the crust didn’t get too tough. I replaced 1/4 of the butter with cream cheese, and the result is perfect. I throw that word perfect around a lot when it comes to pie crust, because it’s something I can make blindfolded. The good news here is that spelt dough is just as easy to work with and while it has a darker color which might be off putting, that color is what wheat should look like, so just know you’re eating food with more nutritional benefits.

See Video for spelt flour pie crust here.

The following picture is made with all purpose flour, accounting for the difference in color.

The Process

I always stick with gala apples because they remain sweet and don’t require as much sugar, but you can mix it up, as long as you adapt your recipe to the sweetness for your taste. The easiest way to get the sweet potato is to roast it at 400 degrees until it’s so done, it’s nearly breaking the skin. This way you don’t have to worry about peeling or waste. The potato just slips right out of the skin. I used coconut sugar with cinnamon and nutmeg. You can use regular sugar or brown sugar is you want. You can even use maple syrup.

To further reduce sugar and make this pie diabetic friendly, you can use Stevia in the raw. I made one version of that and it tasted just as good as the pie made with the coconut sugar.

Once cooked everything goes in the blender or Vitamix along with a liquid. You can use evaporated milk, half and half or buttermilk. They all work fine, and you can decide.

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Sweet Potato Apple Pie with Spelt Crust, Diabetic Friendly Dessert Recipe

A great Autumn pie of apples, sweet potatoes with whole grain spelt crust, a nuttier pastry.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours 45 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

Spelt Pie Crust Ingredients

• 2 cups organic spelt flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon coconut sugar see notes for options
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter cut into cubes
• 4 tablespoons cream cheese
• 6-8 tablespoons cold water

Apple Sweet Potato Pie

• 1 pie crust you can use the spelt pie crust or regular pie crust
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 apples peeled, sliced
• 2 large sweet potatoes
• 3/4 cups half & half see note on options
• 4 tablespoons coconut sugar divided (see note on options)
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon ground fresh nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

Spelt Pie Crust Instructions

• Put cut up butter and cream cheese in freezer.
• Combine flour, sugar, salt in food processor.
• Add butter and mix for ten seconds.
• Add water until dough comes together.
• Put in plastic bag and refrigerate for a minimum of 30 minutes.

Apple Sweet Potato Pie Instructions

• Roast sweet potatoes at 400 for 30-40 minutes or until soft. Skins will slip off once cooled.

Peel apples, cut into slices. Toss apples with a mixture of 2 tablespoons coconut sugar and i tablespoon cinnamon. Saute in butter until soft.

• Put half and half, eggs, tablespoon cinnamon, ground cloves and nutmeg in blender. Add sweet potatoes and cooked apples. Be sure to include all the juices.
• Take pie crust out of refrigerator at least 10 minutes in advance to warm it up so it will roll easily.
• Roll out for bottom crust. Reserve the remaining crust for cookie cutter decorations.

Notes

As far as the sweetener, you can replace with stevia in the raw, measure for measure. Do taste to adjust the sweetness.
As far as the liquid, you can use evaporated milk, which has a higher carb count or you can use buttermilk.

The post Sweet Potato Apple Pie with Spelt Crust, Sugar Free Option appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Food can help you discover things about yourself. I married a Southern guy. He married an Italian girl. He’s been a lot more willing to come over to myself of the table than I have been to his.

Take cornbread dressing for example. If  I’m going to stuff myself, I want it on my terms, bread stuffing, the stuff I grew up on. But for fifteen years I would see his eyes light up at the thought of cornbread dressing, a dish I was completely unfamiliar with until I moved to Nashville. For the first few ten years I wouldn’t even taste it. I’m not sure what I was holding onto. Maybe it was my own family memories. I remember my first Thanksgiving in Nashville as the saddest Thanksgiving of my life. It rained and we had to drive the hour and half to his family’s house. The day was marred by a dark family matter and a discussion of a wedding to take place in a funeral home (it never happened).

Thanksgiving dinner is a bit sacred, and can hurt when spent with people that feel like strangers. I missed my brother and I remember crying all the way home. I wanted to leave Nashville, leave the family I married in to, because I didn’t feel like I belonged. I wanted to take my husband with me and run back to California, because even though my family wasn’t there, I left my friends who loved me.

Refusing to get involved with cornbread dressing was my way of holding onto what I missed about my life.

This year I decided to make cornbread dressing for my husband and for you. It now means I’m all the way in. After all, I wrote the Nashville bucket list for the Nashville Arts & Entertainment Magazine.

The Process for Healthier Cornbread Dressing

In order to make a good cornbread dressing, first make good old fashioned corn bread. I used a recipe from a cookbook. It makes a huge amount of cornbread in a 10 inch cast iron pan. This cornbread is heavy and dense, not the light cake stuff you buy in the box.

I’m making a dish I’m referring to as  diabetic friendly. I’ve recently had friends diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and when I looked at the statistics, I was blown away. I’m already not a big sugar eater, and I adhere to the Paleo, no grain plan much of the time. However, there are times I want to have my holiday food and I now know that there are sixty million American either diagnosed diabetic or pre-diabetic in America over age 20. This tells me that almost 60 million Americans have to change the way they eat, and the rest of us need to be pro-active in not getting into that statistic.

Eating a lower-glycemic indexed diet is one way to prevent sugar spikes. (You know I’m not a doctor, and I need to say this. Talk to your doctor, etc. for medical advice). Now that I’ve said this, I’ll tell you something else. When you try to find diabetic friendly food on the internet, it’s not easy. In fact, it’s quite confusing and in the New Year, I’ll talk about this a bit more, as I create more Paleo and lower-glycemic, whole food, real food, healthy food recipes. I realize most people cannot eat grain free every day, and there needs to be alternatives that are easy enough to understand.

In this recipe, I lowered the glycemic index by using slower digesting grains coupled with fat and protein. The average person is like me. We don’t have time for strict calculations, but I did the math on this and it wasn’t easy. Regular people are not going to go to all this trouble.

Using grains (courser cornmeal and spelt flour) that have a 50 or lower glycemic index, would be lowered even further by adding in the meat and fat. . It may not be completely accurate, as I don’t have that kind of test kitchen, but it’s in the ball park.   I didn’t add any sugar to the cornbread and I put in fat by way of butter, sausage and nuts, which helps to aid in lowering the glycemic load. This recipe makes about 20 servings. Each serving is about 20 carbs, aided with enough fat and protein to lower the glycemic load.

As far as being diabetic friendly, this is a better choice over the potato dishes.

This recipe makes a good amount of cornbread. But you’ll want this amount. You should make it 48 hours in advance, because it needs to sit out on the counter and dry out. If by any chance you don’t have that kind of time, fear not. Spread it out on two cookie sheets, crumble, and toast it in a 400 degree oven, turning at 10 minutes.

There is a balancing act with cornbread dressing. It has to be moist, yet for me crispy on the bottom. I found out that you can make this in advance. Put it in a pie pan (not glass), freeze it and then stick it in the lower third of the oven (if you like that crispy bottom.

Making cornbread dressing might seem natural to you or ordinary but for me it was statement that says I’m all in. I’m in the family. I’m all in this city, Nashville. And, while I still love bread stuffing, I’m in with cornbread dressing too.

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Make Ahead and Freeze Cornbread Dressing Recipe with Homemade Cornbread

Southern Corn Bread Dressing with homemade recipe adapted from Cookbook Back Home with the Neely's

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 2 hours hours

Servings 20

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

Cornbread Recipe Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cup corn meal medium grind
• 1 3/4 cups spelt flour or all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• pinch baking soda
• 2 tablespoons sugar optional
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 5 tablespoons butter diviided 3,2
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 2 eggs

Cornbread Dressing Ingredients

• 3 cups diced celery
• 2 cups diced onion
• 6 tablespoons butter can use olive oil
• 8 cups cornbread you have option of mixing in white bread half and half with corn bread
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 16 sage leaves or 2 teaspoons dried sage
• 2 tablespoons of freshly chopped parsley
• 2 extra large eggs or 3 small beaten
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 2/3 pound sage sausage or country sausage cooked and crumbled into bite size pieces.

Instructions

Cornbread

• Mix dry ingredients (corn meal, flour, baking powder, salt, sugar)
• Add dash of baking soda to buttermilk. Mix with eggs and 3 tablespoons melted butter.
• Gently mix wet ingredients into dry.
• Heat 10 inch cast iron pan with 2 tablespoon butter in oven.
• Carefully pour mixture into pan.
• Bake for 30 minutes. Cool.

Cornbread Dressing

• Crumble or break into pieces the cornbread. Allow to sit out and dry for two days. Or, place on two shallow cookie sheets and bake for 10 minutes, turning once.
• Melt butter in large dutch oven.
• Add onion and celery and cook until softened.
• Add in nuts and chopped herbs.
• Cook a few minutes. Add in 3 cups of chicken broth, reserving fourth cup.
• Put corn bread in large bowl.
• Add crumbled sausage.
• Pour broth mixture over the cornbread. Allow to sit and absorb. You will know if you need to add more broth, especially if you like a more moist dressing.
• Place into baking dish and bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes.

The post Healthier Cornbread Dressing with Homemade Cornbread, Low Glycemic Recipe appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

This healthy zucchini bread recipe takes us right from summer to the Fall baking season, as smell of cinnamon and nutmeg take over. Pies go bye bye (for a while) and the oven gets ready for cake and those good smells wafting through the house.

Quick breads are always tricky for me, because they can get a bit dense. It took me a while to find this amazing banana nut bread recipe and a few tries to get this healthier version of zucchini bread where I wanted it.

In my last post, I talked about taking kitchen risks and being willing to fail. Let me tell you, I failed the first few times I attempted to develop this, and I’m a good baker. The problem I faced was getting it sweet enough to taste like that sweet, moist zucchini bread you can get at the Farmer’s market. I’m convinced those quick breads have way more sugar than I want to know about.

I ended up using spelt flour, which I believe bakes up beautifully, adding carrots in for sweetness, adding much more zucchini than most recipes and limiting the pure cane sugar. While there are lots of sweetening alternatives out there, I haven’t found one I’m in love with. I think the better solution is training the taste buds to desire a less sweet taste, more like the European cakes. I’m not into splenda or those types of alternatives, and agave is no better than regular sugar. I did add in some honey, which I’ll always be a fan of.

So tell me, are you looking for healthy ways to bake? If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them.

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Healthy Zucchini Bread Recipe

Healthy version of zucchini bread with honey, carrots, zucchini, whole wheat flour

Course Quick Bread

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 10

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 spelt flour
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon tumeric
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup pure cane sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cups olive oil
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon real vanilla
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 zucchini between 12-16 ounces, grated
• 2 small carrots grated

Instructions

• Mix dry ingredients together well with a whisk. Flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices.
• Beat eggs.
• Add sugar to eggs.
• Add oil to sugar egg mixture.
• Add vanilla to same mixture.
• Mix dry and wet ingredients together, gently.
• Add in zucchini and carrots.
• Chop and toast walnuts either in oven for 3 minutes or on top of stove.
• Mix in walnuts. As an option, mix walnuts with a little brown sugar and add to the top of the bread before baking.
• Grease the baking pan and sprinkle sugar or flour. Another option is to put parchment paper on bottom of the dish.
• Bake at 350 for 45 -55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

The post Healthy Zucchini Bread Recipe appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

The Secret Recipe Club assigns us a blog each month. We choose one of their recipes and do a link up all at the same time. I chose delicious baked Naan from  My Hobbie Lobbie.   Who knew something we love so much was this easy.

Trisha is very happily married to a man who is her rock. She shines when she talks about him. She’s also started another blog called Claire’s Party Supplies. Crafting is one of her loves. She grew up under great cooks and has a passion for recipes. I had a lot of fun going from one to the next trying to find food that was different for me, something to challenge me. My husband loves Naan and this is going to be a happy morning for him.

A few cooking notes:  At first I tried to pan fry in my cast iron griddle (no oil) and they didn’t rise. I then followed the directions and put them under the broil on the low setting. Worked like a charm. Depending on how thick you roll them out, it’s 1-2 minutes each side. At first I was rolling them out a little too thickly and it was 2 minutes. Eventually, I started rolling a little thinner and they charred at 2 minutes, so watch your broiler carefully. I also cut the oil in half.

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Baked Naan with Spelt Flour

Baked Naan using spelt flour.

Course Bread

Cuisine Indian

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time 4 minutes minutes

Total Time 29 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 500 grams all purpose flour I used spelt flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons oil original recipe has 4 tablespoons oil

Instructions

• Mix dry ingredients together set aside.
• Mix together milk and oil.
• Bring together, knead for 8 to 10 minutes or use a Kitchen Aid and knead for a few minutes.
• Put dough in warm bowl, over with towel for 15 minutes.
• Divide in 12 pieces.
• Roll out and broil on baking sheet for approximately 1-2 minutes per side. They will puff up. They will not all fit into oven at same time.

The post Baked Naan with Spelt Flour appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

I named these cookies Goldilocks’ Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies because after many tries these are just right. I wanted an oatmeal cookie made with whole grain spelt flour because it’s a lot healthier. The trick, however, is that spelt flour doesn’t necessarily bake cup for cup with white flour.

When making the first batch, I adapted this recipe from Thomas Keller and the cookies were too wet. Goldilocks said, “this cookie is too wet, too buttery, too sweet.” They flattened out and she likes her cookies puffy, and chewy. I did some nerdy baking research and discovered that spelt flour doesn’t absorb liquid in the same way white does and, thus, the flat cookie, which tasted good, but wasn’t what I was looking for. On the second batch, I thought I would be clever and add in more spelt flour. I added too much and Goldilocks said, “this cookie is too dry.” Even the kids wouldn’t eat them. On the third batch, I simply added in one more tablespoons of spelt flour, decreased the sugar and Goldilocks said, “these are just right.” She ate them all, leaving Mama Bear and Papa Bear with no oatmeal cookies, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

Baking with Spelt Flour

Spelt is an ancient grain, with a hard husk that protects it from bugs and the need for pesticides. Even if a person isn’t wheat sensitive, spelt is a healthy choice to consider, as it is higher in protein, easier to digest, higher in fiber and has many other benefits that make it a better choice than wheat.

Unlike wheat, in which the gluten gets stronger as you mix it, the gluten in spelt gets weaker. It takes a little practice to cook and bake with, because typically our frame of reference comes from working with wheat. It’s naturally darker (unlike bleached white wheat) and naturally nuttier.

If you substitute it cup for cup, don’t expect the same results. Although spelt flour is higher in protein than wheat flour, it tends to spread out more as it doesn’t absorb liquid the way white flour does. To correct this, I added a little more flour to the mixture, which worked out well. In other baking products (cakes, muffins) I would decrease the liquid a bit.

I like baking and cooking with spelt. Recently I perfected my spelt pancake recipe here.

So how do they taste? What I love about these cookies is that before you actually bite into the chewy oatmeal cookie, you smell it. They are full of cinnamon and once it has baked with the butter, it smells heavenly.

I especially love the texture. These are more oats than flour which along with brown sugar adds to the chewiness, but they are not dry. If you want the original recipe which I adapted from Thomas Keller, using white flour and more sugar and dried cherries, go here. For another healthy twist on oatmeal cookies you might like these made with dried plums and rosemary, go here. 

Tell me, what’s your favorite way to eat oatmeal cookies?

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Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies Made with Spelt Flour

Oatmeal cookies made with Spelt Flour, Golden Raisins, the best oatmeal cookie I've ever eaten.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 18 minutes minutes

Total Time 33 minutes minutes

Servings 16

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1 cup + 1 tablespoon whole grain spelt flour
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1-1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ cup lightly packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 11 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature (154 grams) (see notes)
• 1 egg /
• 1-1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups old-fashioned oats (do not use instant
• 1 cup golden raisins

Instructions

• Mix flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt together in a bowl set aside.
• Cream butter at medium speed.
• Cream the sugar with the butter until well incorporated.
• Add the egg.
• Add the vanilla.
• Add in the oats, mix well. Normally, one would add the flour mixture first, but spelt flour should not be over mixed, as the cookies will get tough. After adding the oat, add the flour mixture.
• Add in raisins.
• Bake at 350 for 18 minutes, (depending on what size cookies are). Check cookies at 15 minutes.

Notes

One of the readers here added 1.5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil and loved them.

The post Goldilocks’s Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies Made with Spelt Flour appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

My inspiration for healthy spelt and flax pancakes with cinnamon and orange zest comes from my favorite french dessert, Crepes Suzette, only this is a little healthier.

Orange zest is powerful and pleasurable and a little goes a long way in waking up a recipe, especially when paired with vanilla or cinnamon. Sometimes just to have a nice smell in the kitchen, I’ll boil water and add in orange slices, vanilla and a cinnamon stick and then let it simmer on the stove.

Spelt and Flax Pancakes are so healthy and fluffy.

This is a little different than the banana honey spelt pancake  and or the strawberry spelt pancake.  Those pancakes used apple sauce instead of fat and cook differently. These spelt and flax pancakes  makes a fluffier pancake, but not dense or heavy.

I used milled flax seeds (which are ground up flax seeds) which is a fiber and nutrition booster. Everyone knows by now flax seeds are high in omega 3 fatty acids, but there are many benefits.  I use them in smoothies, and yogurt.

The batter is thick and may seem odd for pancakes, and it almost seems like they aren’t going to cook. Cooking pancakes is always tricky for most people.  I used a cast iron griddle with hardly any fat. I used a paper towel to glisten oil in the seasoned pan and that’s it. I was patient. These pancakes don’t bubble up the way thinner battered pancakes do, but take a look at the edges to see when they are ready to turn. I started with a medium high heat, but quickly turned to a low heat because cast iron retains heat so well.

The flavors are amazing, as you smell  and taste the orange and cinnamon gathered in a fluffy textured pancake. We used plain maple syrup and an added dash of orange zest. I made two batches right in a row and every single pancake disappeared before lunch.  I have a feeling that these are going to be my most requested pancake in the future.

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Healthy Spelt and Flax Pancakes with Cinnamon, Vanilla and Orange Zest

Spelt and Flax come together with awesome orange cinnamon flavor for a healthy pancake. Adapted from the recipe from brand, Flax USA.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup organic milled flax seed
• 1 cup spelt flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons sugar I used sucanat
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup coconut oil or avocado oil

Instructions

• Mix the dry ingredients together in one bowl. Mix in orange zest.
• Mix egg, buttermilk, oil, vanilla in another bowl.
• Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients. Mix. Batter will be thick.
• Heat a griddle or seasoned cast iron pan on medium heat. Use a paper towel to wipe on some oil. There should be no oil puddling.
• Cook pancakes, turning the heat down. Turn when edges appear cooked. You might have to do a practice pancake to see how your stove and pan work with this batter.
• Serve with additional orange zest and maple syrup.

The post Spelt Flax Pancakes with Cinnamon, Vanilla Orange Zest appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Maple Buttermilk Scones with Lavender Sea Salt is an evolutionary, maybe revolutionary scone. The inspiration and most of the maple scone recipe came from a post on the  Lives and Loves of Grumpy’s Honeybunch. You know it’s a funny blog when Grumpy is the name she gave to her husband.

This exchange is part of what we do every month on the Secret Recipe Club. We are assigned a blog at random and then it’s up to us to find a recipe we most want to make. I chose maple scones because Mr. ST used to always love them at Starbucks, a coffee place we rarely frequent now that we have so many good coffee houses in town.

So far, this is our favorite secret recipe post, and maybe even a five star winner that makes it into our top ten favorites. These are that good. I made two batches with different flour, and I’ll post the recipe that came out the best. I used White Lily soft wheat flour for the first batch and they were a little too crumbly. I used 2 cups all purpose flour and 1 cup spelt flour for the second batch and the crumb was perfect, tender, yet not falling apart. Instead of heavy cream as in the original recipe, I used buttermilk, because I always use buttermilk in recipes like these.

My personal touch was a last minute decision. I sprinkled lavender sea salt on top of the maple glaze. The last time I was this excited about lavender sea salt was when I used it with this grilled watermelon. I can’t tell you why this works, but it more than works. Salt always helps a sweet along, but I didn’t expect the lavender to do what it does, because normally, I’m not much of  a lavender fan, but I’ve learned to never say never when it comes to ingredients, because all it takes it change my mind about an ingredient is to taste the right combination.  The maple scone without the salt is very good, but the lavender sea salt with the maple glaze reminds me of a refined and elevated salty caramel.

Of course, I always have my helpers, and if truth be told the boys did all the mixing and stirring. Ryder is making the glaze by mixing 3 tablespoons of confectioner’s sugar with 2 tablespoons of maple syrup.

These are HUGE! I might suggest making two smaller rounds and cutting them much smaller than I did. I cut the recipe into 8 diagonals and I’m thinking you can easily get  a dozen normal sized scones, so I’ll write the recipe to reflect that. They won’t be as big what you see pictured, but they’ll taste just as good.

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Maple Buttermilk Scones with Lavender Sea Salt

A delicious maple buttermilk scone with maple glaze and a smattering of lavender sea salt.

Course Breakfast Bread

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 18 minutes minutes

Total Time 33 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup spelt flour you can sub with all purpose or whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 1 1/2 sticks butter 12 tablespoons
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup maple syrup plus 2 tablespoons for glaze
• 3 tablespoons confectioner's sugar
• 2 tablespoons lavender sea salt might not use all

Instructions

• Mix in one bowl, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, brown sugar together. Mix cold pieces butter together in flour. You can use a food processor for this part, no longer than 10 seconds or use a pastry cutter. I just mix with my hands. Add in buttermilk and 1/2 cup maple syrup and mix with a wooden spoon. Knead about 8 times into a mound of dough. Roll out into two small circle. Cut 6 wedges from each circle.
• Bake at 400 for 16-20 minutes, depending on size of each wedge.
• Make glaze by mixing maple syrup and confectioner's sugar to make glaze.
• While warm, drizzle maple glaze . Sprinkle with sea salt.

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This is one of those posts that I’m exploding all over to tell you about.

Often baked goods that look good don’t taste good, ,  or just arent’ healthy. Often the “healthy” baked goods look anything but happy and often dry.

This is happy pineapple flower breakfast cake made healthier with spelt flour, sucanat sweetener, yogurt and olive oil.  There is a tiny bit of pineapple glaze between the cake and the pineapple flowers.

I saw these adorable pineapple flowers on  Pinterest, with four pictures showing how it’s done. I pinned them, without checking to see where the picture led.  Usually, I vet every photo I pin, because all too often the photo is lifted and doesn’t go back to the original source. I know it’s tempting to repin a pin, but if you think that it’s a recipe you will want, you should check to see if the pin will take you there.

Eventually I googled pineapple flowers, and I found the recipe and those pinned pictures at  Annie’s Eats.  Annie got them perfect, but as I read through the instructions and most of the comments, I took notice that there were quite a few failures  along with successes with what looked like a fairly easy recipe. Now I not only wanted to make them, it became a challenge. I wondered why did some people fail?

Do you get like this about cooking? I get on a roll with an idea or a food and I beat it to death. I’m not quite Alton Brown of Good Eats, but I so “get him.” I’m a food geek. I have to get it right. I can’t share food with you and have you fail. I’ll make something three times before I post it so that you can get it right. I carefully record the recipe,  which in pre-blogging days, I had no idea how I made most things.  But, thanks to you out there, who google and find me, I am a better cook, and a much better baker and much more precise.

How to Make a Pineapple Flower

I bought my beautiful pineapple. I braced myself for a night of practice.

The best tip I read was to use a bread knife and instead of slicing, use a sawing motion. Once a slice is cut, it may be uneven. Lay in down flat and move the knife parallel with the board to get even slices, using the same sawing motion. That works.

I use this bread knife that I have had for years. It’s worth the investment to have a good bread knife.

The next step in making the pineapple flower is to remove the moisture. This was not mentioned in the recipe, and I thought of it because many comments complained of soggy pineapple that was not baking. It was probably steaming.

This step is important. I used a lot of paper towels to get the pineapple as dry as possible and at room temperature.  Bake them on something that will aid in crisping them a bit. I baked them inside a stone muffin pan, but you could bake them flat.

Watch your timing. Some were done in under an hour. Most took about an hour, but I recommend checking at 50 minutes just to be sure.

Be okay with imperfection.  Some get a little browned, and this has to do with not being able to slice them perfectly evenly. This was okay by me. They still taste delicious, almost like a dried fruit. Some got a little crispy on the ends and I liked that even more.  I will not waste any food. I would not throw out perfectly good pineapple flowers because they are  little browned, and neither should you.

I put a pineapple glaze on the cake while it was still hot. You can decide if you want to do this part, and how much you want to do. A very small amount of glaze works fine, just enough to keep the flowers on. You can also skip the glaze and the pineapple flowers and just have plain breakfast cake. It’s all good.

I ended up with a healthy, breakfast cake. I used spelt flour and all purpose flour, and a sweetener I’ve never used before, which is supposed to be healthier.

Sucanat is dried cane sugar, retaining all the vitamins and minerals that are processed out of white refined sugar. It’s brown, the color of molasses and the spelt flour is dark, so the cake will be a molasses color.  I used the sucanat  cup for cup, same as I do for spelt flour.

The result of the breakfast cake was much to my personal liking. This cake is moist, full of flavor, and not very sweet, just as a breakfast cake should be.  I tested it out on my foodie neighbor who appreciated a big hunk after a tough Saturday morning workout.  The best test of all is the  five year old twins loved it and they are the pickiest dessert eaters. If they love it, it’s good!

The pineapple flowers are perfect for a whole cake, a cupcake, or a muffin, but don’t let that stop you. I think the pineapple flowers would  would look sweet with some vanilla ice cream, atop banana bread, or even at dinner on a  pork chop. However, the next time, I’m thinking Caribbean burger. I like to think outside the pineapple.

The pineapple flowers coincided with a pineapple craving that is rare for me. I am just coming out of an illness (walking pneumonia and pluerisy with a relapse)  that took me down for six weeks, which has led to all kinds of odd food cravings, including pineapple. During this pineapple fest, I also made gorgeous, tropical pineapple coconut cupcakes which will be coming soon, pineapple smoothies and I’m still perfecting pineapple cobbler.

If you have any idea for fresh pineapple, do send them my way in the comments section, pretty please.

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Pineapple Flowers for a Pineapple Breakfast Cake Made with Spelt Flour

A recipe for a healthy spelt flour breakfast pineapple cake and a how to make pineapple flowers.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 2 hours hours

Total Time 3 hours hours 20 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• ngredients
• 1 3/4 cups flour I mixed 1 cup spelt flour with 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup chopped fresh pineapple
• 1 cup sucanat sugar can use regular sugar
• 2 large eggs
• ½ cup plain yogurt
• ½ cup extra virgin olive oil can use canola oil
• GLAZE INGREDIENTS
• 1 tablespoon pureed pineapple
• ½ cup of confectioner’s sugar (more if it is too runny)

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Peel pineapple and remove any brown spots.
• Slice very thin with a serrated bread knife. Lay each slice down and take knife parallel across pineapple slice to make even. Use paper towels to remove as much moisture as possible.
• Reduce oven to 275. Put pineapple into a stone muffin pan or lay flat on a stone or silpat baking sheet, preferably. You can use a regular baking sheet.
• Bake at 275 for one hour. Check the pineapple at 30 minutes, turn over. Check again at 50 minutes, to make sure pineapple is not burning. Browned edges are okay.
• Sift baking soda, baking powder, flour, salt together. Set aside.
• Add together, sugar, pineapple, vanilla, yogurt, eggs,
• Mix dry mixture into the sugar mixture. Add in olive oil, and mix.
• Pour into a 9 inch cake pan.
• Bake for 27-33 minutes at 350.
• INSTRUCTIONS FOR GLAZE
• Mix together until glaze forms. If it’s too runny, add more confectioner’s sugar. If it’s too thick, add more liquid. Pour over the cake while it’s still warm.
• Apply pineapple flowers to the cake.

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