Through the Cooking Glass

Here’s a good Saturday morning treat that my grandmother introduced me to. I have tweaked it to make it a bit more nutritious, but the basic concept is the same.

Make a batch of biscuit dough.

• 1 1/3c soft white wheat ground into flour (about 2c flour)
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2/3 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Blend the butter into the flour with a pastry blender or two knives until it resembles a course meal. Mix in the buttermilk just until it all sticks together. Let site 12-24 hours at room temperature.

Gently knead in the remaining ingredients, about 9 or 10 times.

Roll out the dough into a rectangle about 16-18 inches by about 12 inches. Gently spread with butter. Sprinkle cinnamon evenly over the top of the butter. Generously sprinkle sucanat over the top. Roll along the longest edge to form a log. Cut gently into half, then quarters. Cut each quarter into 3 pieces.

Butter a 9×13 pan (smaller will work as well) and place the rolls evenly. Bake for about 14 minutes in a 425F oven.

Instead of making frosting, spread unprocessed local honey on top.

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I’ve been using Sue Gregg‘s Breakfasts cookbook for a couple months now and I love it. Every recipe I’ve tried has been great.

I recently decided to try modifying one of her muffin recipes. My kids (and wife) will often eat things if they have even the remotest inkling that there might be chocolate in them. Chocolate chips are the method I used to get them to first try Sue’s whole grain pancakes. (I had made other whole grain pancakes before and they were less than thrilled. Sue’s are unbelievably yummy – even without the chocolate chips).

I’m pretty particular about the food I cook and serve, so I happened upon Enjoy Life chocolate chips. They are made with mostly Nourishing Traditions endorsed stuff (minus the cocoa). I also discovered Ah!laska cocoa powder.

I have obtained the kind permission of Sue Gregg Cookbooks to present my recipe for chocolate muffins here. It is a modified version of Sue’s Good Morning Blender Muffins.

Mix the following ingredients in your blender until smooth (takes 2-3 minutes in the Bosch). Leave at room temperature 7-24 hours:

• 1 cup buttermilk (I culture my own from fresh milk)
• 1½ cups whole soft white wheat (not flour)
• 1/3 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Add the following and blend for a minute or two:

• 2 eggs
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• ¼ cup Sucanat (evaporated cane juice)
• enough extra buttermilk to keep the vortex going

Blend in the following briefly but thoroughly:

• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt

Fold in:

• 2/3-1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Pour this mixture into greased muffin tins almost full (I use the kind with 12 holes and have enough left for a few extras).

I bake this for 16 minutes at 350°. The larger size tins will take longer. It depends on your oven, but the key is to bake them ONLY just until a toothpick comes out mostly clean (remember there are melted chocolate chips in there). If you bake them too long they get dry and crumbly. The shorter baking time keeps them moist.

The first time you make them you might want to pour one muffin with no chips just to check with the toothpick. Once you establish a good baking time for your oven you won’t need to worry about it anymore.

UPDATE (9/13/2007): I have found that 13-14 minutes is even better and makes a richer moister muffin. Your mileage may vary based on your oven and pans. The 6 cup tins definitely need to bake longer, more like 18-20 minutes. No matter what I try with the smaller muffins, the larger ones always come out better – moister and richer.

Also, I have since realized that while the Enjoy Life chocolate chips are far better than average, they are not really NT. While they claim to use “evaporated cane juice,” this does not mean it is whole evaporated cane juice. My guess is it is more refined than I had hoped. That’s one of the reasons I put less in these days.

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