Cinnamon Molasses Spelt Cookies

This morning I dropped off my cockatiel, Riley, at the vet’s office to have surgery on her wing.  As of right now, I am still waiting to hear how she is doing but I have high hopes she will be all right. While I am sitting here waiting to hear from the vet, I thought I would take my mind off the worry and do a gratitude post.

Today I am grateful:

1.   I have an excellent vet that surrounds himself with an excellent support staff.
2.   For all the people on the bus who were cool with Riley being there.  They aren’t always when people bring animals on the bus.
3.   For my friend, Steph, and her want to hang out today text. I wasn’t sure what I was  going to do with myself until I can pick up Riley except for worry.  I am beyond grateful for her friendship.

I will be very glad to have Riley home and this wing problem put behind us.  You can tell I have been stressed because the last three recipes I have posted here are for desserts.  I bake when I am stressed.  I hope you are all have a great week and bake just because the day ends in y.

 

• Difficulty: Easy
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Adapted From I don’t remember where

7 1/2 TBS butter, room temperature

4 TBS granulated sugar

2 TBS molasses

3 TBS lightly beaten egg

3/4 cup spelt flour

1 TBS baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon, divided

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a medium bowl,  cream butter and sugar, until light and fluffy.  Add molasses and egg, mix well.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, 3 tablespoons of sugar.and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Slowly add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and mix well.  Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray.  Mix remaining sugar and cinnamon in a dish.  Roll a tablespoonful of dough into a ball.   Roll the ball in the cinnamon and sugar mixture.  Place on the cookie sheet and bake for 10 – 12 minutes.  Cool a few minutes on the pan and then remove the cookies to a rack to cool. 

Triticale, Rye and Spelt #2 Muesli

A few years ago, Mark Bittman come out with his book and cookbook, VB6, where he championed eating vegetarian before 6 pm and after 6 pm eating whatever you want within reason.  It was an intriguing idea but, ultimately, it didn’t work for me.  While I didn’t adopt the VB6 lifestyle I did adopt many VB6 recipes into my recipe rotation.

My favorite VB6 recipe is for Mark Bittman’s Homemade Cold Cereal.  It is basically a combination of dried flaked grains, seeds, spices, and dried fruit that you soak in milk, juice or yogurt before you eat it.  Bittman’s ideas isn’t new.  You might be more familiar with this idea as the overnight oatmeal that was all over the internet a few years ago.

Mark Bittman’s recipe is actually a form of Muesli.  Muesli is a breakfast that was created in the 1890s. The great thing about muesli is that it is incredibly flexible.  You can use whatever bits and pieces of stuff you have in the pantry. I used the triticale, rye and spelt flakes I had in my pantry because of my flake experiments but you can use any flakes you have  or just use old fashioned rolled oats.  I love eating muesli in the spring and summer when it is too hot to cook.

Mark Bittman's Homemade Cold Cereal

• Difficulty: Easy
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3 ½ cups rolled oats

½ cup mixed chopped nut and seeds

½ cup raisins or other dried fruit

¼ cup unsweetened grated coconut

½ tsp cinnamon or other spices, to taste

Pinch salt

Milk to serve with

Combine the oats, nuts and seeds, raisins, coconut and spices in a large bowl. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 months.   To serve, put about ½ cup of oat mixture in a bowl and top with ½ cup milk. If you have time, let the bowl sit for 5 – 10 minutes to let the oats absorb some of the milk so they’ll soften and sweeten.

Homemade Cold Muesli

• Difficulty: Easy
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Ingredients

1 cup rolled Triticale flakes

1 cup rolled rye flakes

1 cup rolled spelt flakes

1/2 cup rolled oats

½ cup mixed chopped nut and seeds

½ cup raisins or other dried fruit

½ tsp cinnamon or other spices, to taste

Pinch salt

Milk to serve with

Combine the oats, nuts and seeds, dried fruit, coconut and spices in a large bowl. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 months.   To serve, put about ½ cup of the flake  mixture in a bowl and top with ½ cup milk. If you have time, let the bowl sit for 5 – 10 minutes to let the oats absorb some of the milk so they’ll soften and sweeten.

Both these recipes make more than one serving.  I make a batch and store it in a gallon size plastic bag.  I have kept this on my pantry shelf for months and never had a batch go bad.

Triticale, Spelt and Rye Flakes #1 The Basics

One of the things I love to do when I am on vacation is to get in the kitchen and try new ingredients.  So when I was at Natural Grocers last week, I decided to grab some triticale flakes, some spelt flakes and some rye flakes.  At first I was just going to I was just going to try cooking the flakes as a substitute for my morning oatmeal.  The more I thought about it the more I realized that triticale and spelt are just different types of wheat so could I bake with them?  If so, what changes would need to be made to accomodate the differing amounts of gluten in these flakes?  Could the flakes be used in savory dishes like pilafs or veggie burgers?  What would these things taste like?  (I realized a long time ago, I don’t look at food the way most other people do.)

To begin my experiments, I decided to just cook a plain batch of each grain to discover how they taste and if the cooking directions on the packages are accurate.  I generally find the directions on the package use way too much water producing a mushy grain or rice.  Although,  I did find the water ratio in these directions where acceptable.

Today’s recipes are just the basic recipes to cook an oatmeal type porridge.  As I discover or create more recipes I will post them.

Basic Spelt Flakes

• Difficulty: Easy
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1 cup spelt flakes

2 1/2 cups water

In a small saucepan, bring water to a boil.  Add the spelt flakes and reduce the heat to medium – medium low.  Simmer for 15 – 20 minutes. 

Basic Triticale Flakes

• Difficulty: Easy
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1 cup triticale flakes

2 cups water

In a small saucepan, bring water to a boil.  Add the triticale flakes and reduce the heat to medium – medium low.   Cover and cook 15 minutes.

Basic Rye Flakes

• Difficulty: Easy
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1 cup  rye flak
3 cups water

In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil.  Add the rye flakes and reduce the heat to medium – medium low.  Cover and cook 25 – 30 minutes.