BOOK COMPETITION RECIPES AND CONVERSIONS

WHOLEFOOD BAKING BOOK GIVE A WAYS

THE RECIPES AND CONVERSIONS

Kodis' Classic Banana Cake

An introduction before we start...not many of you have met Jean Martinez, so everybody - please meet Jeanie. This is the Jeanie of book dedications, and whose name appears in recipes in my books. I've know Jeanie for many years, she is a dear friend, colleague and a huge part of Wholefood Cooking. But the very talented Jean is about to set out in her own right - her Facebook page Artisan Wholefoods is up an running, and she will be putting out her teaching schedule soon, with the website on it's way - she is based in Northern New South Wales. Jeanie has been doing the conversions and writing for the Book Give Away, so I'll leave you here with her notes for you......

As many of you will be aware, we ran a giveaway on facebook last week for Jude’s gorgeous new book Wholefood Baking. We asked people to send in their favourite classic baking recipe that was dreaming of a wholefood makeover. Four recipes would be selected to have one or more of their key ingredients converted to a more wholesome equivalent ie. bleached and refined plain flour could be replaced with a less refined and more easily digested spelt flour, to produce an end result of a more wholesome, but still just as delicious baked good.

An interesting aside from the range of recipes that came in was just what people perceive as ‘unhealthy’. Most of you that are reading this will be familiar with discussions around how dreadful some ‘ingredients’ are (margarine!!), but there continues to be a vilification of other traditionally used ingredients that on their own are certainly not so bad, and certainly when consumed in moderation and in a lovingly prepared baked good do not need to be perceived as harmful. (We are talking about moderation here though). Unless you have a serious medical condition or gut health issue to attend to, the occasional indulgence in a home-made baked good should not be combined with feelings of guilt or shame.

In Wholefood Baking, you will find the tools that you need to do your own conversions of your favourite recipes, should you wish to. Or just learn some new classics. Either way, please remember to do so with the love and grace that you and your family deserve as you make, bake and eat them. 

 I hope you have enjoy my tales of conversions, and feel inspired to have a go at it too. I stand by any of the recipes above, they are all quite simple and very delicious.

Happy Baking.

Jean Martinez, Artisan Wholefoods. 

KODIS' BANANA BREAD

(Before )CLASSIC BANANA BREAD

100 grams sultanas

75 ml dark rum (or bourbon)

175 grams plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

½ teaspoon salt

125 grams unsalted butter (melted)

150 grams caster sugar

2 large eggs

4 small very ripe banana(s) (mashed)

60 grams chopped walnut(s)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

(Converted) CLASSIC BANANA BREAD

100 grams sultanas

75 ml dark rum (or bourbon) (I used Brandy)

175 grams unbleached plain spelt flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

½ teaspoon Celtic sea salt

125 grams unsalted butter (melted)

150 grams rapadura sugar

350 grams very ripe banana, mashed with some big lumps remaining

2 large free range and organic eggs

60 grams chopped walnut(s) (I used local in season Pecans)

1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract ( I like the Heilala brand)

This recipe was hands down my favourite of the lot. There was something really fragrant and caramel-ly about the melted butter/rapadura/banana/vanilla combination.. It smelt amazing before it went into the oven, and didn’t disappoint when it came out either.

I opted to focus on changing the flour to spelt and the sugar to unrefined rapadura in the pursuit of a more wholesome baked good – the exciting result was beautiful fragrant, moist and delicious banana bread. You may also notice that I changed the banana to a weight measurement. One person’s version of a small banana can be very different from another, especially if you live in a banana growing region as I do. Using a weight measurement for an ingredient as changeable as bananas should ensure more consistency the next time you make it. As an aside – I gave half of the loaf to my lovely neighbour – who was unfamiliar with banana bread (‘do I make a sandwich from it’?) and he ended up enjoying it with lashings of butter. Serving suggestion?? Definitely.

·      Place the sultanas and rum or bourbon (or brandy) in a smallish saucepan and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat, cover and leave for an hour if you can, or until the sultanas have absorbed most of the liquid, and cooled down.

·      Preheat the oven to 170ºc or 150c if fan forced.  Grease/line a 23 x 13 x 7cm loaf tin and set aside.

·      Place the spelt flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a medium-sized bowl and, using your hands or a wooden spoon, combine well.

·      In a small pan, gently melt the butter and the rapadura sugar together. Then pour into a large bowl, and mix with banana (which will bring the temp of the butter/sugar down) then the beaten eggs, nuts, sultanas (with soaking liquid) and vanilla.. Mix mix...

·      Pour over the flour mixture, folding in to combine. Scrape into your loaf tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 1-1¼ hours.

·      When it's ready, an inserted toothpick or fine skewer should come out free of batter. Leave in the tin on a rack to cool, and eat thickly or thinly sliced, as you prefer.

ANGELAS' TORTA CAPRESE

Ok, I know, this was a bit of a cheat’s conversion – but how could I resist a grain free cake? The Torta Caprese has lasted this long (over many, many decades) because it is delicious in its simplicity and I wanted to honour this, giving it just a few tweaks. My two changes were the sugar (to rapadura) and the addition of salt – which is certainly not about raising the nutritional value, more because I can’t bake without it, and it does a lot to bring up the flavours in baked goods. I also used a high quality chocolate - I prefer the Rapunzel brand - available in Australia, but ethical, bio dynamic and sweetened with a rapadura sugar. Oh, and I left out the almond essence. It gives me the willies, but I know others love it – so feel free to include!

(Before) TORTA CAPRESE

200 grams dark chocolate

200 grams butter

200 grams almond meal

200 grams sugar

5 eggs (separated)

almond essence

(Converted) TORTA CAPRESE

200 grams dark chocolate - I like Rapunzel 

200 grams unsalted butter

¼ tsp celtic salt

5 eggs (separated)

200 grams almond meal

180 grams rapadura sugar

Pre heat oven to 200c or 180 if using a fan forced oven.

Melt the chocolate on the stove with the butter. Let slightly cool down.

In a bowl mix together the egg yolks, almond meal, sugar, the melted chocolate and butter.

Whisk the eggs whites till firm and then gently fold it in.

Transfer to a 8-10 inch tin lined with baking paper, cook at 200c degrees for 10 minutes and at 170c degrees for around 30 minutes.

It's even nicer one or two days after.

MARILENAS' LIME, OLIVE OIL  AND YOGHURT CAKE

Hello cake using seasonal ingredients!! I have a confession. The day this recipe was emailed through I had been dealing with a broken branch on my lime tree – which fell off as it had too many limes on it!! It was a sign. This cake is gorgeous, and uses some fabulous ingredients local to my area – olive oil, limes, and yoghurt. Yum.

Once again, I did a straight forward conversion focussing on the flour and sugar. This time though, I was concerned about ‘muddying’ the crisp flavours of the lime, yogurt and olive oil. I didn’t want to use the deep caramel-ly flavoured rapadura sugar here, as I felt it would compete too much with what was already going on. I opted for a semi refined, crystallised sugar - the Billingtons large crystal demerara sugar. 

One more adjustment I made was the addition of lime syrup over the cake. Syrups are a delicious way to top a cake (although you will need to add a little more sugar too) and they have the added bonus of helping to prolong the shelf life of a cake by adding moisture. You might note that the cake is not as high as it should be, I think my baking powder was a little old that day. Don't be deterred - this is a gorgeous tasting cake. 

                                                                                               

Before (LIME, OLIVE OIL AND YOGHURT CAKE

Wet ingredients

1 cup whole full fat Greek yoghurt

1/3 cup of olive oil

1 cup caster sugar

zest of one lime

1/4 cup lime juice

2 eggs

Dry ingredients

1 3/4 cups of sifted plain flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

(Converted) LIME, OLIVE OIL AND YOGHURT CAKE

                                                                                               

 

Wet ingredients

1 cup whole full fat Greek yoghurt, or home made (to make your own, see here)

1/3 cup of olive oil

¾ cup Billingtons demerara sugar

zest of one lime

1/4 cup lime juice

2 eggs

Dry ingredients

1 3/4 cups of sifted unbleached plain spelt flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

(Syrup ingredients – zest and juice from a lime, ½ cup water and a handful of Demerara sugar - brown rice syrup is a great choice here also - with a preference for the Spiral brand. )

·     Pre-heat your oven to 180ºc or 165c if fan forced.

·   Grease and line a 22cm spring-form baking tin

·      In one large bowl mix all the wet ingredients until well combined.

·      In another separate bowl combine the spelt flour, baking powder and salt.

·      Pour the wet ingredients into the flour and using a wooden spoon mix until just combined. Do not overwork the batter!

·      Pour into the baking tin and cook for approx 35-45 mins. The cake is ready when it has browned on top and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

·      Leave it to cool in the cake tin for five minutes and then invert it onto a cake cooler.

·      While the cake is in the oven simmer the sugar ingredients, tasting and adjusting as you go. It is fine to keep it a bit sour as it will soak into the cake. Reduce to a syrup consistency, and pour over the warm cake about 10 minutes after it has come out of the oven.

TANYAS' THUMBPRINT COOKIES

I had a total fail on this the first time around! There was so much butter that in combination with the liquid sweeteners the whole lot turned into very tasty drop scones in the oven. Some tweaking here and there, and they turned into a VERY delicious recipe, now jazzed up with plain spelt flour, almonds, maple syrup and brown rice syrup.You probably wouldn’t guess that these are so wholesome, as they are so moreish. They are delicious to share with you neighbours.

(Before)THUMBPRINT COOKIES

1.5 cups (7.5 ounces) All purpose Flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (6ounces) unsalted butter , at room temperature

1/2 cup (4 ounces) sugar

2 teaspoons Vanilla extract

1/4 almond extract (opt)

1 large egg

About 1/2 cup (6 ounces) seedless fruit jam

(After) JAM DOT COOKIES

 

200g unbleached plain spelt Flour

60g ground whole almonds

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

150g unsalted butter, room temperature

80 ml maple syrup

2 Tablespoons brown rice syrup

1 teaspoons Vanilla extract

2 egg yolks

About 1/4 cup raspberry jam

·      Sift together flour, ground almonds, baking powder, and salt into a small bowl (include in any chunky bits of almond left in the sifter).

·      In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat together the butter, maple syrup, brown rice syrup and vanilla on medium speed until pale and fluffy - about 5 mins. Stop the mixer and scrap down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the egg yolks and beat on medium speed until just combined.

·      Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture on low speed until just combined. Form the dough into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least one hour or up to a day to firm the dough

·      Preheat the oven to 180ºc or 165c if fan forced. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

·      Use a spoon (or a small ice-cream scoop) to scoop up rounds of dough and shape them into balls about the size of a walnut in its shell. It's better for the balls to be taller rather than wider.

·      Place them 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until lightly browned 8-10 minutes.

·      Remove from the oven and immediately use the round end of a wooden spoon or other implement to make an indentation in the centre of each warm cookie. Immediately fill each hole with about 1/4 teaspoon jam. You can heat the jam slightly to make this process easier. Either spoon it in or put the jam in a small pastry bag and quickly pipe it into the depressions.

·      Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool. Leave the cookies at room temperature to allow the jam to set, about 30 minutes. Mine never make it this far but you can store them in airtight containers for up to 1 week.