Gluten Free Buttermilk Cornbread

The texture of this is a little grainier than say a cornbread made with wheat flour. The egg helps it stay together pretty well and it has a nice crumb texture. The amount of batter looked far too much for an 8" round cast iron skillet, so I used an 8" x 8" baking dish instead. I get my stone ground cornmeal from the Cedar Creek Grist Mill during their open house events; Bob's Red Mill or your grocery store's bulk yellow cornmeal will suffice as a substitute.

Ingredients

2 c stone ground yellow cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt

1 1/2 c buttermilk
1 large egg, beaten
4 tbsp raw honey
4 unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

0. Prepare an 8" x 8" baking pan by lining it with parchment paper. It is not necessary to butter the parchment.

1. Sift dry ingredients together. Set aside.

2. In a small saucepan, heat butter and honey together.  Let cool. Stir into dry ingredients.

3. In a 2-cup measure, whisk egg and then stir in buttermilk. Stir in butter and honey.

4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Stir until combined.

5. Bake for 20-30 minutes.

Kitchen Notes: Matcha Swiss Roll

This was my second time making a dessert in the "Swiss Roll" style; meaning it's a soft, sponge-like bread with a sweet cream-based filling. The pumpkin roll with candied ginger came out pretty good and well-liked by TDay2015 eaters.

There were several things that went terribly wrong but I didn't scrap the recipe and start over:

• The sponge batter came out extremely dense; thick like a gorilla glue heavy; it also didn't cook all the way through in the oven and perhaps I didn't spread it out thick enough on the baking sheet because...
• Before folding in the egg whites, the sponge batter wasn't liquid at all.
• When it came to the rolling the sponge up to cool down in a linen kitchen towel, it stuck to the towel - ugh. In fact, when I tried to unroll the sponge to put in the filling... the sponge broke in several pieces because it was sticking to the towel.
• And, not wanting to cut my losses, I produced an extremely unappetizing but edible dessert
• Definitely a #failed #kitchenexperiment

I subbed two ingredients: almond milk for regular cow's whole milk; and 3/4 c AP flour plus 1 tbsp cornstarch sifted together for cake flour.

Ginger Beer: an alcoholic batch

It would appear that I have made my first alcoholic batch of ginger beer, which when fermented correctly yields a carbonated soft drink. I was experimenting with ratios and added more of everything except the yeast (just a teaspoon). Effects-wise, I'd say that I might have reached between 4-5% alcohol and that was only after drinking 8 oz of it.

I'm still unsure of how to properly use a hydrometer; as I don't have enough liquid to test for the size of the hydrometer that I have, nor do I have a container with enough slender volume that I can measure the beer in.

Here are the tested ratios:

1/2 c grated ginger (vs 1/4 c)
1.25 c organic granulated sugar (vs 1 cup)
10 c water (vs 9 cups)

As for the fermenting time: 3.5 days instead of 2
Avg room temp for the ferment was 55-60 F

This batch yielded 2 liters plus 1 pint.

After thoughts:

Too much raw ginger flavor. It was potent and felt like a kick to the head.

The extra sugar did nothing to make the beer sweeter before decanting into flip-top bottles, in fact, the yeast ate it all.

Also, the Active Dry Yeast was very fresh (yes, that's bread yeast).

Crockpot Maple Baked Beans

I have always found that most commercial brands of these beans are too sweet for my taste; though, I wonder how sweet these are supposed to be. Recently I've been watching a food channel on YouTube about 18th Century cooking by Jas Townsend and Son. At least I don't have to build a fire pit or clay oven to bake these.

While it involves simple ingredients, it is fairly time consuming in preparing dry beans for eating. One day I'll have to research why the beans are called navy beans since they are neither navy in color nor boat-like in shape.

In a 5-quart bowl, rinse and soak in filtered water 2 cups of dry navy beans. I soaked these overnight (roughly 12-18 hours), tossed the soaking liquid and boiled the beans on a simmer for another hour.

Soon to be maple baked beans...

Then...

Into the crockpot (slow cooker) for 8-10 hours on low with the following ingredients:

3/4 c filtered water
3/4 c organic maple syrup
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp ground mustard
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger

Give that a few stirs with the beans before setting the time and putting the lid on.

Buttermilk Oven Fried Chicken

While enjoyable to eat, the food prep and wait times are not. The best part of this is that the chicken cooks in its own fat. Having made this twice now, I thought I should write it up. This recipe ratio is adapted from Epicurious.

Buttermilk Oven Fried Chicken

Marinade Ingredients

chicken body parts
1 c cultured buttermilk per pound of meat

Coating for chicken

1 c homemade bread crumbs
1 c corn flake cereal, pulverised into crumbs1/4 c Parmesan cheese, grated
smoked paprika
garlic powder
chili powder
sea salt, to taste
fresh ground black pepper, to taste
onion powder (optional)
parsley (optional)

Directions

In a shallow bowl or sealable container, add chicken parts. Pour buttermilk and lemon juice over the chicken. Refrigerate for up to 8 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 400 F. 

Take each piece of chicken and dip it into the coating mixture until it is completely covered. Repeat until all the chicken is coated.

Place chicken in a single layer on a Silpat-lined baking tray or in a lightly oiled glass or ceramic baking dish. Bake until golden brown and cooked through, about 40-45 minutes. Turn chicken over at the halfway timer mark.

A digital thermometer in the thickest part of the meat should read 165 F (for poultry) when done.