Super Natural Every Day (27 page)
Read Super Natural Every Day Online
Authors: Heidi Swanson
70 g raw sugar or demerara sugar
170 g dark chocolate (70 per cent cocoa solids)
230 g spelt flour or wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 ½ tablespoons ground ginger
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
115 g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
60 ml unsulphured blackstrap molasses
100 g golden caster sugar
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
1 large egg, well beaten
170 g plump dried apricots, finely chopped
Put the raw sugar in a small bowl and set aside. Chop the chocolate into 3 mm pieces, more like shavings, really, and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ground ginger, and salt.
Heat the butter in a saucepan until it is just barely melted. Stir in the molasses, caster sugar, and fresh ginger. The mixture should be warm, but not hot at this point. If it is hot to the touch let it cool a bit, then whisk in the egg. Pour this mixture over the flour mixture and add the apricots. Stir until barely combined. Stir in the chocolate. Chill for about 30 minutes, long enough to let the dough firm up a bit.
Preheat the oven to 180°C (Gas Mark 4) with racks in the top and bottom third of the oven. Line two baking trays with baking paper.
Scoop out the dough in exact, level tablespoons. Then tear those pieces of dough in two and roll each piece into a ball. Grab a small handful of the raw sugar and roll each ball between your palms to heavily coat the outside with sugar. Place the cookies, leaving plenty of room in between, on the prepared baking trays.
Bake the cookies, two trays at a time, for 7 to 10 minutes, until cookies puff up, darken a bit, are fragrant, and crack. If you’re not sure, peek at the base of one of them; the base should be deeply golden.
MAKES ABOUT 48 TINY COOKIES
 | The key to this fragrant tapioca pudding is a light touch with the honey and rosewater. Too much of either and the tapioca goes from being lovely, charming, and understated to vampy and garish. Choose a light, mild honey. I love a floral honey, and it marries well with the rosewater and lemon zest. |
Seek out small pearl tapioca for this recipe, not instant tapioca. And look for rosewater in the baking aisle or international section of your supermarket. The amount needed is to taste, really. If I’m serving this warm, I use a scant teaspoon of rosewater. But if there are going to be leftovers, or if the pudding is going to be refrigerated overnight, I scale the amount back to less than ½ teaspoon. Rosewater tends to gain strength over time and at cooler temperatures. |
710 ml milk
70 g small pearl tapioca
2 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
90 g mild honey
Grated zest of 1 small lemon
¼–1 teaspoon rosewater
Chopped toasted pistachio nuts (see
Wholegrain Breadcrumbs
) or sliced raspberries, to garnish
Pour 240 ml of the milk into a medium, heavy-based pot. Add the tapioca and soak for 30–60 minutes. Whisk in the egg yolks, salt, honey, and the remaining milk.
Over medium–low heat, slowly bring the mixture barely to a boil, stirring regularly. This should take about 15 minutes. Decrease the heat and let the mixture fall to a gentle simmer. Keep it there, stirring, until the tapioca is fully cooked, another 20 minutes or so. The time needed can be significantly longer (or shorter) depending on the size of the tapioca pearls you’re using. The tapioca will tell you when it is ready; if you watch carefully, the pearls will swell up and become almost entirely translucent. The custardy part of pudding will thicken dramatically as well. Continue tasting and assessing at this stage. It is even more critical to keep stirring at this point to avoid scorching.
Remove from the heat, stir in the lemon zest, then allow the pudding to cool a bit; it will thicken more as it cools. Stir in the rosewater and wait another few minutes. The tapioca tastes best served warm, topped with toasted pistachio nuts, but is delicious cold as well.
SERVES 4 TO 6
STRAWBERRIES, CHERRIES, CURRANTS,
RASPBERRIES, POPPY SEEDS, BEAUJOLAIS
| In addition to sounding fun, tutti-frutti means “all fruits” in Italian. |
I take a lot of liberties with the concept, and this crumble is a great example. I do a mix of cherries and berries, which are often found in neighbouring baskets at farmers’ markets in early summer. Experiment with whatever fruit and berries are in season where you live. The berries bubble along nicely in the hot oven with a splash of bright, juicy, fresh Beaujolais. | |
Alternatively, you can use brandy or crème de cassis, and you can certainly use nuts in place of (or in addition to) the poppy seeds. |
85 g spelt flour or wholemeal flour
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
45 g rolled oats
70 g natural (unrefined) cane sugar or soft brown sugar
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
70 g unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon all-natural cornflour
45 g muscovado sugar or soft brown sugar
170 g raspberries
170 g strawberries, hulled and quartered
170 g sweet cherries, pitted
30 g dried currants
60 ml Beaujolais or merlot wine
Preheat the oven to 190°C (Gas Mark 5) with a rack in the middle of the oven. Butter an 20 cm-square baking dish.
To make the crumble, mix together the flour, poppy seeds, oats, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Use a fork to stir in the melted butter. Divide the mixture into three portions and use your hands to form three patties. Place the patties in the bowl and freeze for at least 10 minutes, or until you’re ready to bake.
Make the filling by whisking together the cornflour and sugar in a large bowl. Add the raspberries, strawberries, cherries, and currants and toss until evenly coated. Wait 3 minutes, add the Beaujolais, and toss again.
Transfer the filling to the prepared baking dish. Remove the topping from the freezer and crumble it over the filling, making sure you have both big and small pieces.
Bake for 35–40 minutes, until the topping is deeply golden and the fruit juices are vigorously bubbling. Allow to cool a little before serving, 20–30 minutes.
SERVES 8–10
| Many coffee shops in San Francisco sell oatcakes. They tend to be shaped like hockey pucks, densely packed with oats, mouth-parchingly dry, and with the heft of paperweights. My version retains the portability of the coffee-shop variety, but with some of the less-favourable qualities worked out. These nutty, golden oatcakes are filling, slightly moist, and not too sweet. Best of all, they usually can stand up to an entire day tucked into my purse without falling apart. Be sure to seek out rolled oats, and not instant oats. |
300 g rolled oats
