Thai Tofu Pizza on Spelt Crust

Blogging Marathon# 66: Week 2/ Day 3

Theme: Pizza

Dish: Thai Tofu Pizza on Spelt Crust

For the last day of this week's marathon, I have an interesting pizza recipe. The base is a No-rise spelt flour crust and the topping is spicy peanut sauce with crumbled tofu. I was in an experimenting mode and found these recipes -- crust recipe from Vegan Richa and Thai tofu topping recipe from Nasoya -- and wanted to give them a try.

No rise instant pizza crusts seem to be the common theme for all three days this week (check out the instant-pizza crust and chickpea flour crust). This spelt flour pizza base doesn't need any rising time and is ready to roll once you have the topping done. Richa's original recipe has BBQ tofu topping, but I used the Thai style peanut-Tofu instead.

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Apple Galette

Blogging Marathon# 37: Week 2/ Day 3
Theme: Kid's Delight -- Oven Baked Snacks
Dish: Apple Galette 

For the 3rd day of blogging marathon# 37, I have this simple and easy to make apple galette that I actually made couple of months ago. My son has been asking me to make apple pie for quite some time now. I didn't want to bake a full fledged apple pie as I wasn't totally convinced if he'd really like it or not. So I took the easy route and made this galette with the spelt crust scraps leftover after making this quiche recipe.

Galette is a free form pie and can be made with pie crust or even puff pastry. The crust I used for the quiche had some dried herbs in it. If I had thought of making this apple galette earlier, I probably would have skipped the herbs to make this dessert. But the herbs in the crust didn't really bother us. Galette tasted great with some vanilla ice cream.

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Caramelized Onion & Zucchini Quiche (with Spelt flour Crust)

To me making a pie crust has always been a daunting task. I've had couple of bad experiences both with homemade and store bought pie crusts in the past which made me avoid making a pie altogether. To be honest I'm not a big fan of pie. Given a chance I would rather enjoy the filling without the crust.

But quiche is a different story. I fell in love with quiche the first time I ate it about 10 years ago. One of my co-workers brought it over for potluck lunch and I probably ate almost the whole pie. I tried to recreate it at home a couple of time, but the pie crust failed me. I finally gave up on it. I never dared to make it even though it was always on the back of my mind.

Finally this weekend I decided it was time for me to try my hand at making the pie crust and quiche. I already had a bookmarked recipe for quiche with spelt flour crust from Culinate. It is not the recipe that made me bookmark the article, it is the way the author gives you confidence in making the pie crust. She makes you feel that anyone can make a pie crust and the detailed instructions really help. 

This pie crust is made of Spelt flour (equal quantity of whole wheat flour can be substituted here) and uses a stick of butter and half a stick of cream cheese. The dough is soft and really easy to handle. I had trouble fluting the edges and at one corner I trimmed too much of the excess which resulted in shrunken crust after baking. But that didn't really affect the final taste of the quiche, the crust turned was flaky & buttery.

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Paneer Stuffed Kulcha

Today's stuffed bread in a restaurant style "Paneer stuffed Kulcha". Kulchas are leavened with baking powder and baking soda. All purpose flour or maida is usually used to make these flatbreads, but I had half a bag of spelt flour in the fridge that is begging to be used, so I used a combination of spelt flour and all-purpose flour to make my kulchas.

Kulchas can be made either on the stove top or in the oven. Today I made them under the broiler. One thing I learnt when using the oven is that you cannot take your eye off of the oven even for a single minute. Kulchas go from perfect to burnt in matter of seconds.

 

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Baked Pita Bread

For the last day of BM# 15, I have a baked flat bread with yeast. Ever since I saw this recipe on Vardini’s blog, I wanted to make it. Recipe is from Fresh Loaf site and I used one of the variations suggested in the comments section – I used half all-purpose flour and half spelt flour to make it a little healthier. 

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Almond Butter & Chocolate Chip Waffles

I make pancakes or waffles almost every week. It is really convenient to have some homemade goodies stacked in the freezer for quick weekday breakfasts. Every time I ask my 3-year old what pancakes he wants his very prompt reply would be “chocolate”. I try to reason with him and say too much chocolate is not good, but sometimes I have to give in and add some chocolate chips into the batter just to please him.

So for Day 3 of our blogging marathon, I made these Almond butter & chocolate chip waffles. The recipe is from Whole Grains Baking by King Arthur Flour, this cookbook is like a bible with over 600 pages and tons of recipes using whole grains. Original recipe was for Peanut Butter & Chocolate chip Waffles, but I prefer other nut butters over peanut butter, so I used almond butter instead. Also the recipe uses Spelt flour which is a much healthy alternate to all-purpose flour. The waffles turned out just perfect, fluffy and delicious.

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Spelt Pancakes

We are still living in cold and have to endure this for another day as the heating repair guys are "scheduled" to come in tomorrow. We are crossing our fingers and hoping for the best.

For breakfast this morning, I made Spelt pancakes and served them with maple syrup. Recipe is from "Whole Grains Baking by King Arthur Flour". It is an egg-less recipe that is very easy to veganize. I use soy milk and earth balance butter instead of regular milk & butter. The batter needs to rest for 15 minutes which allows the grains to absorb liquid, making the batter fluffier and the baked pancakes smoother to eat. This time-out also lets the leavener a head start, giving a cakier pancake.

Recipe adapted from Whole Grain Baking by King Arthur Flour.

Ingredients:

Whole grain Spelt - 2 cups

Sugar - 2tbsp

Baking Powder - 1tbsp

Salt - ¾tsp

SoyMilk - 1¾ cups

Butter - 2tbsp, melted

Vanilla extract - 2tsp (optional)

Method:

• In a medium size bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
• In a another small bowl, mix all the wet ingredients.
• Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix until just incorporated.
• Cover and let rest for 15 minutes.
• Heat a griddle, brush lightly with oil and once the surface is hot enough, add ¼ cup full of batter onto the hot surface.
• Let the pancake cook on the first side until bubbles begin to form around the edges of the cakes, 2 to 3 minutes.
• Flip and cook for another 1 minute until they are golden brown on both sides.

Serve hot with maple syrup and/ or fruit of your choice.