Amazing Vegan Whipped “Cream”

1 cup canned, full-fat coconut milk
3/4 cup raw, unsalted cashews
1-3 tablespoons maple syrup, to taste
1 teaspoon vanilla
Small squeeze lemon juice
1/3 cup melted coconut oil

In a high-speed blender or Vitamix, blend all ingredients except the oil. Cashews need to be completely broken down for proper thickening. With blender running, drizzle in the oil until incorporated. Chill for 12 hours or, for a quick chill, pour into a shallow dish and freeze for 1 hour, then transfer to the refrigerator where it can be stored for up to one week.

Thanks to Gigi Christianson for this recipe.

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Posted on January 15, 2016

Kate’s Old-Fashioned Apple Pie

If you love pie, come see Kate give a talk on her pie-making secrets here at the farm store community barn!

For one 9″ deep-dish apple pie.

Crust
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup butter, shortening, or leaf lard (or a mix)
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 to 15 tablespoons ice water

Crust tip: All ingredients should be cold. Use a light touch and don’t overwork.

Cut fat into dry ingredients until fat pieces are the size of cracker crumbs or small walnuts. Add enough water to hold together. Form into a round ball and then cut in half. Form the two hemispheres of dough into chubby discs; wrap and chill in refrigerator for at least one hour. Roll out on floured board.

Apple Filling
10 cups heritage apples, skin on, quartered and cored
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 gratings nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon butter, chopped into little pieces

Egg Wash
1 egg white mixed with 2 tablespoons water
1 to 2 tablespoons sugar

Slice apples into 1/2-inch slices. A yard sale Vegematic works great!

Put all ingredients except butter into a large mixing bowl and mix lightly until most of the surfaces are covered. Pour into an unbaked pie crust, mounding high. Dot with butter.

Roll out second crust and place on top; crimp edges with a fork. Cut vent holes. Paint with egg white wash. Sprinkle sugar on top.

Pre-heat oven to 425F and bake for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 375F and bake 40 minutes longer. Cool for at least 1 hour.

Apple tip: Use a mix of organic heritage apples, unpeeled for flavor and color. Lemon juice can be substituted for apple cider vinegar.

Cooking tips: About 2/3 of the way baking, the house will smell like pie! Put your ear down close to the pie when you take it out of the oven and listen for a sizzle and a deep and subtle bubbling. Look for steam to come out of the vents.

We thank Kate McDermott and her Art of the Pie for this recipe.

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Posted on January 15, 2016

Coconut Chocolate Cookies

It’s the holidays and you’ll probably find yourself in the kitchen a lot. We hope that this recipe adds a little more sweetness to the season.

We think our soft white wheat flour works best in this yummy recipe, but feel free to try our hard red wheat flour or triticale flour too, for a slightly different consistency.

2/3 cup shaved unsweetened coconut
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups Nash’s soft white wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt, plus extra for sprinkling
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350° F. Spread coconut in a thin, even layer on a baking sheet. Place it in the oven and bake until light brown, toasty, and aromatic, about 5-8 minutes.

Melt butter in a heavy bottom saucepan over low heat. Allow to cool pan for a few minutes. Stir together flour, salt, and baking soda in a medium-sized bowl.

Beat brown sugar and melted butter together in a large bowl until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until the mixture lightens in color, about 5 minutes. Add flour mixture to brown sugar mixture, a third at a time, until it forms a dark brown, homogeneous mass. Add the chocolate chips and toasted coconut and stir until just combined.

Place dough in the fridge for 20 minutes. You can skip this step if you are in a hurry, but resting the dough in the fridge will help your cookies bake more evenly.

Lightly butter a baking sheet and scoop heaping tablespoons of dough onto it, leaving large spaces between each cookie so they have room to spread out. Just before putting into the oven, sprinkle with salt. Bake until golden brown, about 8-10 minutes. After you take them out of the oven, leave them on the baking sheet to set for 2 minutes, then move them to a wire rack to cool. The cookies are very soft when they first come out, but they will firm up quickly. Do not stack cookies until fully cooled. You can store the dough in an airtight container for up to a week, if you want to cook in batches.

Recipe adapted from Good and Cheap by Leanne Brown.

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Posted on December 31, 2015

Red Velvet Cake

The secret ingredient in this sweet dessert is — you guessed it — beets!

3 medium beets
3/4 cup butter, plus more for greasing pan
3/4 cup buttermilk
Juice of 1 large lemon
2 teaspoon white vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups Nash’s soft white flour*
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Wash beets and wrap in aluminum foil. Bake until the tip of a knife slides easily into the largest beet, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Cool until beets can be handled, then peel. (This may be done up to a day ahead.)

Butter two 9-inch cake pans. Line the bottoms of the pans with parchment and then butter again.

In a food processor, chop beets to pieces about the size of finely diced onions. Measure 1 cup and set aside (remaining beets can be reserved for another purpose). Return cup of beets to the food processor. Purée with buttermilk, lemon juice, vinegar and vanilla until smooth.

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter until soft. Slowly add sugar and beat until creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.

Alternate adding flour mixture and beet mixture to butter mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, and beating for 10 seconds after each addition. Scrape down the bowl after each addition of the wet ingredients.

Divide batter between prepared cake pans, smoothing the tops. Bake until a cake tester inserted in the cake comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Remove pans from oven and cool completely on a wire rack. Frost with cream cheese frosting or other white icing.

*Nash’s soft white wheat flour has been milled fine, but if you want your Red Velvet Cake to be really silky, sift it before measuring it. We usually don’t, so we can get all the health benefits from the germ and bran.

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Posted on July 29, 2015

Kia’s Skillet Brownies

You can’t go wrong with cocoa powder and chocolate.

I’m not gonna pretend these are low fat or low sugar, or some kind of “healthy” brownie. But if you’re wanting the ultimate chocolate brownie fix, make ‘em and bake ‘em in a cast-iron skillet, and you won’t be disappointed!

1 1/2 cup turbinado or raw sugar
4 large eggs
2 cups Nash’s white wheat or triticale flour
1 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter
1/.2 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips or coarsely chopped chocolate
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar and eggs. In another bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa and salt.

In a 10″ or 12” cast-iron skillet, bring butter and cream to a simmer over medium heat. Add chocolate and reduce to medium-low. Cook, stirring constantly, until chocolate has melted, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and let cool 5 minutes.

Add chocolate mixture to sugar mixture, whisking until blended (set skillet aside). Fold in flour mixture, but don’t overmix. Pour batter into skillet.

Bake for about 20 minutes. Don’t overcook, and consider that your skillet will hold a lot of heat for a while after you pull it out of the oven.

Serve warm brownies with ice cream, fresh berries and/or whipped cream! YUM!

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Posted on June 29, 2015

Kia’s Shortcake Drop Biscuits

Better take care of that strawberry shortcake craving while the season is here!

These biscuits are easily prepped in 10 minutes, and take less than 15 to bake, so they’re a go-to for last minute desserts. Feeding a crowd? Double the batch, by simply doubling all the ingredients.

1 1/2 cups Nash’s soft white wheat flour
1 1/2 cups Nash’s red wheat or triticale flour
1/2 cup Nash’s wheat bran (optional)
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons raw sugar
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) cold/frozen butter, grated
1 1/4 cup buttermilk or raw milk (use 1 1/2 cup milk if you use optional bran)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all dry ingredients, and then thoroughly work in grated butter. Add milk and mix into thick batter using wide strokes. Don’t over-mix. Drop biscuits onto ungreased baking sheet, and bake for about 12-15 minutes, until just showing some golden color. Makes about 15-18 biscuits.

Tip: Omit the sugar for savoy breakfast biscuits.

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Posted on June 16, 2015

Kia’s Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

What’s your favorite flour to use for these amazing cookies?

I’m not gonna lie, I’ve eaten these nutritious cookies before for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack! Sweetened with honey and loaded with nutrient-rich grains, dried fruits and nuts, Kia’s Cookies are as easy to make and share!

1 cup butter (or 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup applesauce or pureed squash, etc.)
1 large glob peanut butter or almond butter (approx 1/4 cup)
1 cup honey
2 eggs
1 splash vanilla
1 1/2 cup Nash’s wheat flour (white, triticale, or red)
1 cup Nash’s wheat bran
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 cups rolled oats
Extra goodies: approximately 1/4 cup each dried cranberries, raisins, nuts, flax seeds, crystallized ginger, chocolate chips—you get the idea.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Let butter soften on the counter, then add peanut butter, honey, vanilla, and eggs, and mix well. (Honey measuring tip: quickly coat measuring cup or spoon with olive oil, and then portion honey. It will slide off tools easily, with no mess.)

Combine dry ingredients, except for extra goodies. Add to wet bowl and mix thoroughly. Then mix in extra goodies.

Eat some cookie dough, while also spooning some onto baking sheet. These cookies don’t spread too much when cooked, so shape accordingly. Bake for 15-18 minutes, and don’t overcook! Makes about 24 cookies.

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Posted on June 16, 2015

Strawberry Gelato

Aww yeah, strawberries are back! Sounds like this summer will be a hot one, so be prepared to cool down with strawberry gelato.

3 cups cut-up strawberries
6 cups milk
1 1/3 cups sugar
12 egg yolks, beaten

Place berries in a blender container or food processor bowl. Cover and blend or process until nearly smooth.

Combine 3 cups of the milk, sugar, and egg yolks in a large saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture coats a spoon. (To test, dip a spoon into the custard and draw a line with your finger through the coating. The custard is done when the edges along the line keep their shape.) Remove from heat. Stir in the remaining milk and pureed berries.

Cover surface of gelato mixture with plastic wrap. Refrigerate 8 hours or overnight until chilled. (Or, place saucepan in a sink of ice water to cool quickly; then cover and chill for 2 hours.) Freeze mixture in a 4- or 5-quart ice cream freezer according to manufacturer’s directions. Ripen for 4 hours.

We thank Better Homes and Gardens for this recipe.

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Posted on June 11, 2015

Yam Custard

2 large yams
1 14-ounce can coconut milk (solids reserved)
4 farm-fresh Nash’s eggs
1/4 cup maple syrup
Pinch of sea salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Scrub and slice yams into 1-inch cubes and steam for about 20 minutes or until a fork easily pierces the yam. Let cool.

Mix the coconut milk, eggs, maple syrup, salt, vanilla and cinnamon together. Then add yams and beat until smooth. A stick blender works really well.

Pour into a buttered pie dish and bake in a 350F preheated oven for about 1 hour or until a knife inserted into the middle of the custard comes out clean.

Whip the reserved coconut cream solids with a little maple syrup and vanilla extract and serve on top.

This recipe is offered to us by Nash’s own Myla. She assures us that it is sure to please the children in your life — including the adult ones!

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Posted on April 30, 2015

Nettle Cake with Lemon Frosting

These nettles are too sweet to sting.

For the Cake
2 cups, packed, raw young nettle leaves (use gloves!)
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Zest & juice of 1/2 lemon
2 cups Nash’s white wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

For the Frosting
2/3 cup butter, softened
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Zest & juice of 1/2 a lemon
Frozen berries, any kind
Lemon zest

Preheat oven to 325F. Grease and line two 7” round cake tins. Using rubber gloves, wash stinging nettles and remove stems. Place in boiling water for 3-4 minutes to remove sting. Refresh under cold water, drain and puree in a blender.

In large bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs, then nettles, vanilla, zest and lemon juice. Sift in flour, baking powder and salt and stir to combine. Spoon into prepared tins, push to edges and level, then bake for 25 minutes until inserted skewer comes out clean. Cool completely.

To make the frosting, in large bowl, cream butter until fluffy. Add sugar and beat. Beat in zest and lemon juice to make a frosting consistency and beat again. Spread some between cake layers and sandwich together. Cover with remaining frosting and decorate with berries and lemon zest.

The batter…

…the cake before frosting…

…and the cake after frosting (and tasting!).

Have you tried this recipe? Tell us how it turned out!

Posted on March 31, 2015