Sweet Potato Biscuits

These are heavenly! They are both crisp on the outside and they melt in your mouth as you bit into the biscuit. They can be made to be vegan (see variation below), but if you can eat dairy using high quality butter and a splash of milk give the most delicate result.

yield: about 16-20 biscuits  |  prep time: 25 minutes  |  cooking time: 25 minutes

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ingredients

• 1 cup sifted unbleached white flour

• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

• 4 teaspoons non-aluminum baking powder

• 1 tablespoon maple sugar (optional)

• 1 teaspoon salt

• ½ cup cold unsalted butter

• 1¾ cup pureed cooked garnet yam

• 2-3 tablespoons milk

directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400° F. In a medium mixing bowl combine the flour with the baking powder, maple sugar and salt. Stir to mix thoroughly.

2. Cut the butter into small pieces and drop it into the flour mixture. Toss to coat evenly with flour. Using your fingertips, gently work the butter into the flour until it is approximately the size of small peas. Stir in the sweet potato and add enough milk to form a soft dough.

3. Turn the dough out on a lightly floured work surface. Dust with flour then roll the dough out into a rectangle that is about 1-inch in thickness. Fold in half widthwise, rotate 90 degrees to the right, then roll out again into a rectangle. Repeat this step 4 times, dusting surface and dough with flour as needed. This will smooth out the dough, but at the same time do not knead or overwork the dough as it will become tough.

4. Finally roll the dough to about 3/4 -inch thickness. Cut into 2½ inch rounds. You may carefully re-shape the trimmings into a rectangle and cut it into additional rounds. Gently squeeze the sides of each biscuit with your forefinger and thumb to give each biscuit some height. Place the biscuits about 1/8 inch apart in an ungreased 9 x 9-inch baking pan.

5. Bake about 20-25 minutes in the preheated oven until puffed and lightly browned on the top surface. Serve piping hot.

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note

For a vegan variation, substitute 1/3 cup frozen coconut butter for the dairy butter and use soy or goat milk in place of dairy milk.

Old Fashioned Banana Bread

We’ve been experimenting with both gluten and gluten-free recipes, given the increased sensitivity to gluten and wheat that seem to be springing up these days. (Lots of thoughts on why and what to do about it!) But there are still those among us who are fine eating wheat. So we’ll post a gluten-free banana bread another time. In the mean time, this recipe is a great way to use up those couple of bananas that are about to get away from you from the bunch that ripened too quickly. You may use all honey, all maple syrup or a mixture. You may also use agave nectar, brown rice syrup etc. for all or part of the sweetener. I find that a mixture of liquid sweeteners is best.

yield: 1 loaf  |  prep time: 30 minutes  |  cooking time: 1 hour

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ingredients

• ¼ cup butter

• 1 cup whole wheat flour

• 1 cup unbleached white flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• ¼ teaspoon salt

• 2 eggs

• ½ cup honey

• ¼ cup maple syrup

• 1/3 cup milk

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 1 cup mashed banana (about 2)

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

• 1 cup nuts (walnuts and pecans mixed), chopped

directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Place the butter in an 8x5 bread pan and place it in the oven until it is fully melted.

2. Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir well.

3. In another mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, sweetener, milk and vanilla.

4. Mash the bananas and squeeze the lemon juice over them to prevent oxidation. Add the bananas and melted butter into the egg mixture.

5. Gently stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly, but do not over mix or the bread will have holes in it and will puff up in the middle.

6. Pour the batter into the bread pan (make sure the butter has coated the bottom and sides of the bread pan before adding batter. Use a little extra butter if needed).

7. Place the banana bread in the middle of the preheated oven and cook for about an hour. A skewer inserted into the center of the bread will come out clean when the bread is fully cooked.

8. Remove the pan from the oven and cool on a baking rack for about 5 minutes. Loosen the bread from the sides of the bread mold and turn out to cool completely on the baking rack. Store in an airtight container. Freezes well.

Vegan Carrot Prune Tea Cake (Wheat Free)

Sounds too “healthy” to taste good — carrots and prunes are bad enough, but vegan and wheat free? Might as well eat cardboard, right? Not so fast. Actually these are really great! They’re moist, balanced in flavor, and pretty easy to make. (And check out my other recipe post with dehydrating instructions and photos of the prunes we made from Mansing’s generous gift of plums!)

yield: 8 small cakes  |  prep time: 30 minutes  |  baking time: about 30 minutes

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ingredients

• ¾ cup diced pitted prunes

• 1 cup almond milk, warmed

• ¼ cup agave nectar

• ¼ cup maple syrup

• 3 tablespoons coconut oil, softened

• 1 cup brown rice flour

• 3 tablespoons tapioca flour

• ½ cup potato flour

• ¼ cup almond meal

• ¼ cup oatmeal

• 2½ teaspoons baking powder

• ½ teaspoon salt

• ½ teaspoon baking soda

• 2 teaspoons grated orange zest

• ½ cup orange juice

• 1 cup grated carrots

• ¾ cup chopped walnuts

directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Lightly oil 2 small loaf pans, or 8 10-ounce soufflé dishes.

2. Place the diced prunes in a small bowl and cover with almond milk to soak and soften for 20 minutes.

3. In a separate small bowl, combine the agave, maple syrup and coconut oil. Set aside

4. In a larger mixing bowl, combine the rice flour, tapioca flour, potato flour almond meal and oatmeal. Stir in the baking powder, salt, baking soda and grated orange zest.

5. Drain the almond mild from the prunes into the bowl containing the agave mixture. Add the orange juice and stir well. Gradually stir this wet mixture into the dry ingredients, and mix thoroughly.

6. Stir in the carrots and prunes and mix well. Turn out into prepared pans and bake until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. For the smaller cakes, this will take about 25 minutes, for the larger loaves it will take about 45 minutes. Watch carefully and when the breads are lightly browned on top and around the edges and are pulling away from the edge of the baking pan, test for doneness.

7. Remove from oven and place baking pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Invert onto the cooling rack and cool completely.