Apple Tart

Crust:
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3 Tbls. powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup yogurt

Filling:
1 cup (8 oz) cream cheese, room temperature
2 Tbls. honey
1 large egg

Topping:
2-4 apples, cored and cut into 1/4" slices
cardamom
allspice
honey

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F and place rack in center of oven. Grease 9 inch pie pan. For nicer presentation and serving, a springform pan is good, but a regular pie tin or cake pan is fine.

Crust: Stir together flour and sugar. Cut in butter and yogurt until the dough forms. Press the dough onto the bottom and one inch up the sides of the pan.

Filling: Beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the honey and mix well. Blend in the egg. Pour the filling into the crust.

Toss the apple slices, a small amount of honey, and a sprinkle each of cardamom and allspice together, to coast the apple slices. Place apple slices in a decorative fashion on the top of the tart. You want it to be about double layered with apple slices.

Bake at 450 degrees F for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 400 degrees F and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown (apples are soft when pierced with a fork), and filling is almost set. Remove from oven and let cool before serving.

Wheat Flour

A note on the different flours I have in the recipes.

The goal is to use all whole grain flours. But there are different options for texture, color, and flavor.

Whole wheat flour: This is the basic whole wheat flour that we are all familiar with. It can be used in the yeast bread recipes, and other baked goods except for those requiring a lighter texture, like cake. Milled from red wheat berries, it can be ground to different textures, but it is the densest and heartiest flour.

White wheat flour: This is a whole wheat flour that has been milled from white wheat berries, ground to a finer texture and lighter flavor and color. This can basically be used to replace whole wheat flour in any instance, according to your desires. It's a softer coffee than red wheat for pastries. Sometimes I will specify white wheat flour in the recipe, if the book description specifies that the bread is white, but you can use it basically whenever you want.

Whole wheat pastry flour: Similar to the white wheat flour, it has a lighter texture and flavor. This has less gluten than regular whole wheat flour, so should not be used for yeast bread. This is used mostly in cake and pastry recipes to obtain a texture and flavor similar to using all-purpose white flour.

Other flours: In non-bread, non-pastry recipes that call for flour for the sake of making gravy or thickening soup or anything like that, it doesn't really matter what kind of flour you use. For simplicity I put whole wheat flour in the recipe, but you can use the other kinds, or even non-wheat flours like corn meal.

White Baton Bread with Glazed Crusts

4 cups white wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp yeast
2 cups warm water

Stir all dry ingredients inside a large container. Add the water and continue stirring until it forms a sticky lump. Seal the container. Leave to rise at least 4 hours. (or you can refrigerate the dough at this point to use later.) It should appear very bubbly when it's ready. If you leave it to rise longer than 10 hrs the dough will turn slightly sour. Not true sourdough, but a similar flavor.

Preheat oven to 400. Put a container filled with water in the bottom of the oven. Dust a baking sheet with flour and set aside.

Drop the dough onto a surface covered in flour. Coat the outside of the dough with flour, making sure the outer layer is not wet and sticky, trying to handle it as little as possible.

Shape the dough into a long, narrow loaf. Brush a glaze over the top of the loaf. Cut several diagonal slashes in the top.

Bake in the oven for 45 min-1 hour or until golden brown. You should check on it after 30 minutes, because the baking time can vary a lot depending on your oven and on the size and shape of the loaf.


Glazes:

Egg Wash: Beat together 1 egg and 1 tablespoon of water or milk, and a pinch of salt. This gives a shiny, golden look to the crust. For an extra golden sheen, allow the first egg wash coating to dry, then apply a second layer of glaze immediately before baking. Egg wash can also be used as an adhesive to be applied before a topping.

Milk: For a golden crust, brush the dough with milk before baking. For a slightly sweeter glaze, dissolve a little sugar in warm milk.

Salted Water: For a light shine and a crisp baked crust, brush the dough with lightly salted water immediately before baking.

Honey: For a shiny crust, glaze the dough with honey before baking. For a soft, sweet, sticky crust, brush a baked, still-warm bread with honey. Alternatively, try molasses or corn syrup.

Olive Oil: For added flavor and shine, brush the dough with olive oil immediately before and after baking. Optionally, add salt, pepper, and/or herbs to the oil before baking.

Cornstarch: For a chewy crust, brush the dough with a mixture of cornstarch and water that has been cooked until translucent and then cooled.

Blueberry Cake

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup applesauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/3 cup milk
1 Tbls. honey
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1 Tbls. flour

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour an 8" square pan.

Cream butter and brown sugar. Beat in vanilla, salt, and applesauce.

Separate eggs. Reserve the white in the fridge. Beat the yolks into the sugar mixture, until creamy.

Combine 1 1/2 cups flour and baking powder. Beat into the sugar mixture, alternating in 3 portions with the milk.

Coat berries with 1 Tbls. flour and stir into the batter.

Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Slowly drizzle the honey into the egg whites while still beating. Beat until stiff peaks form. Fold egg whites into batter, and pour into the prepared pan.

Bake for 50 minutes, or until it tests done.

Laverbread

This is somewhat different from the traditional Welsh laverbread/lava bread recipes you'll find out on the net. I'm okay with that because it's not supposed to be a traditional Welsh recipe. It's a Redwall recipe.

1 cup prepared laver, or nori sheets torn up and soaked in water until soft (drain off excess water)
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup corn meal, corn flour, or oat flour
vegetable oil
salt
pepper
malt vinegar

Stir together the laver/nori, oats, and corn flour. It should make a "dough" that holds together, and is not runny or extremely sticky.

Warm the oil in a pan for frying. Form the dough into thin patties about 2" across. Fry them for a few minutes on each side, until golden and crisp. Place on a wire rack over paper towels to drain off excess oil.

Serve sprinkled with salt, pepper, and vinegar.

Makes about 9 patties.


Where I live, it's a lot easier to find nori, seaweed that has been toasted and rolled flat in a sheet. I think I've seen nori that still resembles its natural seaweed form at Asian markets, but it was a long time ago so I don't remember exactly. It is the same species of the seaweed used in Wales, but it's been prepared differently. As stated in the recipe, you can just soak it in water to soften (only takes a minute or so) for good results.

In Triss, this laverbread is served with seastew. And I can imagine it would go very well with fish. After eating it (and I snarfed it down like a madman) I really want some fish now.