No Knead Rosemary Garlic Peasant Bread

This bread is incredibly easy to make and has the ability to be very versatile depending on what herbs you have.  I could easily see using wild onion, perilla, ground ivy or horseweed as an herb.

No Knead Rosemary Garlic Peasant Bread

Ingredients:

3 1/4 cups flour
2 t sugar
1 1/2 t salt
1 t dried rosemary
1 t minced garlic (from jar)
1/2 t dried oregano
1 t yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water

Directions:

Mix dry ingredients together in large bowl.  Add garlic and water and mix.  Dough should be sticky. Cover and let sit over night. Time is flexible.

The next day, add a lot of flour to your surface.  Coat your hands with flour.  Pour your dough onto the floured surface.  Mold into a ball.  Cover with plastic wrap and let sit.

Turn your oven on to 450 degrees.  Add your covered pot.  I use a cast iron dutch oven.  Any sturdy baking pot with a lid will do.  Let heat up for 30 minutes.

Carefully remove pot and put dough in the center.  Return lid to pot and put into oven.  Bake 30 minutes.  Remove lid and continue baking 7 - 10 minutes until golden.

Time to Pick Dock Seeds!

If you want to be able to use dock seeds for flour this year, now is the time to go out and pick them!  Many have turned red and are perfect for collecting.  If you find some that are almost red, go ahead and pick them as well.  They will finish turning red after you pick them.

To process, rinse the still stemmed seeds off when you get them home.  Place on pizza pans and heat in a 170 degree oven until dry.  Get your rubber gloves because de-seeding is abrasive on the fingers! 

Remove seeds from stems and put into a bowl.  Pick out any leaves (edible as well).  Leave bowl on your table for several days, occasionally mixing.  That way you have perfectly dried dock seeds.  Don't feel guilty if you leave them there for a week! Store in an airtight container until you are ready to grind for flour.  I use a small coffee grinder which works really well.

That way, you can make Black Russian Bread this fall!

Wild Garlic Chives and Ground Ivy Drop Biscuits

These two wild herbs go really well together.  Wild garlic chives taste like the onion chives that you get at the store only a bit stronger.  Ground ivy (a.k.a. Creeping Charlie), which is in the mint family, tastes like a cross between sage and rosemary.  Currently you will find them blooming with pretty purple/blue flowers. You can eat the flowers, too.  My husband actually prefers this herb over rosemary.  The biscuits are really easy to make and have a gourmet appeal with the attractive greens interspersed.  They are tender on the inside and crusty on the outside.  They are great with soups and stews!

Wild Garlic Chives and Ground Ivy Drop Biscuits

Ingredients:

1/4 cup chopped garlic chives
3 T chopped ground ivy leaves and flowers
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease baking sheet. Cut greens.

Mix greens and dry ingredients together in a bowl.  In a separate bowl, mix wet ingredients together.

Add wet to dry ingredients.  Mix until just combined.  Do not over mix.

Run a spring release ice cream scoop under hot water for half a minute.  Shake off extra water.  Scoop dough into the ice cream scoop and release on baking sheet.  Repeat until all the dough is used.  It should make 8 - 9 large biscuits.

Bake 14 minutes until golden brown.

Serve with soup or stew.

Banana Clover Bread

This is a great, moist banana bread!  The clover flour gives it a touch more bran-like flavor but it is pleasant and not harsh like I would consider a bran muffin.  It adds more vitamins and reduces the amount of regular flour used.  This is a wonderful recipe to bake when your grocery store sells their over ripe bananas on the sale rack!


Banana Clover Bread

Ingredients:

6 over ripe bananas
1/2 cup melted butter
2 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 cup clover flour
1 1/2 t salt
2 t baking soda
sugar for topping (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Grease two loaf pans.

Mash bananas and add wet ingredients.  Mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients, except sugar for topping. Add dry mixture to wet and mix until blended.

Pour equally into two loaf pans.  Sprinkle the top with sugar to make a sweet crunchy crust if you prefer.

Bake for one hour or until it is done when tested with a fork.

The loaves can be frozen for future use.

White Clover Bread

I have found that when you begin your foraging journey that you also begin accumulating ingredients for which you have no recipes and are not sure what to do with. However, as the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention.  You begin experimenting and find things you and your family like. Strangely, by the end of winter you stare at an empty jar that was once clover flower flour and can't wait for the plants to reemerge so you can collect more! What was once strange is now desirable.

Recently I watched a BBC documentary about WWII. By the end of the war there was a young

generation that had never seen a banana and did not even know how to eat one. It had been an import that stopped due to the war. When they finally got them back, the children thought them strange and did not like them.  It goes to show that food is what you are accustomed to having and that can be changed.  Bananas weren't bad just different.

This is a great recipe to use clover flour (dehydrated and ground clover flowers). I served it at a recent foraging meet-up and it was a success! It is a great way to stretch your more traditional flour if ever circumstances put you in that position, and if you are more concerned with health, it's a great method to add nutrition and enjoy it.

White Clover Bread

Ingredients:

3/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 eggs
3 T of butter
1 3/4 t of salt
3 cups of flour
1 1/4 cups clover flour
2 3/4 t of yeast

1 egg white (to paint loaf before baking)

Directions:

Place all ingredients, except egg white, in bread machine, liquids first, dry ingredients, then yeast. Set to dough cycle.

When dough cycle is complete, turn oven on briefly to just warm (not hot). You are creating a warm environment for your bread to rise.

Remove dough from machine and shape into desired loaf. I prefer to make two braids. To do this, cut dough into half. Cut each half into three. Some people prefer to roll their dough on a floured surface. I prefer to use oil on the work space and my hands to prevent sticking. Use what ever method works best for you. Roll out dough to long strands. Take three strands and press ends together. Braid and tuck ends under. Repeat with the other three strands. For an alternative braiding method and a more even braid, start braiding in the middle and then finish each end.

Place loaves on stoneware pizza pan (regular pan works fine too). Loosely cover with Syrian wrap. Put in warmed oven for 25-30 minutes to rise.

After rise is complete, paint the loaf with egg white. Put back in the oven and bake at 340 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes.

Chocolate Pumpkin Bread!

Here is another great recipe to use your shredded carving pumpkins! It is amazing and moist!

Chocolate Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:

2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate (OR 2 tbsp of cocoa & 2 tbsp of butter)
3 eggs
2 cups white sugar

1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups grated pumpkin (if frozen, bring to room temp)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup semisweet mini chocolate chips (about half an average bag)

1-2 teaspoons white sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans. In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave chocolate until melted OR melt butter and stir in powdered chocolate. Stir until chocolate is smooth.

In a large bowl, combine eggs, sugar, oil, grated pumpkin, vanilla and chocolate; beat well. Stir in the

flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Fold in the chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared loaf pans.

Sprinkle sugar and chocolate chips on the top before baking (optional).

Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean.

Red Bud Vanilla Quick Bread

Over the last few days the Eastern Red Buds, Cercis canadenses, have gone into major bloom.  They are generally one of the first trees to bloom in Middle Tennessee.  You can not drive anywhere in Franklin, Tennessee without seeing at least a dozen beautiful purple bloomed trees.  They are in abundance in this area. That being said, it is a great idea to learn to use what you have available!

It is easy to recognize this tree.  The flower buds stay close to the limbs and the leaves will not appear until the flowers fade.  This tree is a member of the pea family (Fabaceae) and has flowers shaped like the typical pea family flower.  The flowers have five rounded petals and ten stamen.  The five petals are arranged like two sails, two wings and a keel.  If you have foraged the Honey Locust tree for its delectable flowers, you will notice a distinct similarity as they are cousins in the same family.  As a matter of fact, the flowers have a similar taste. The Red Bud flowers taste slightly sweet and crisp, like a fresh raw pea.  Different trees have different levels of sweetness.  So if you do not care for one tree's flowers, try another.

The flowers can be used raw in salads, pickled or cooked in recipes.  They add a beautiful color to any dish and has the added benefit of being high in vitamin C and antioxidants.  The tree will eventually produce seed pods that look similar to snow peas and actually taste just like them.  These are high in protein.  You can pick and cook them the same as you would snow peas.  You must pick them within the first few weeks of them appearing before they get tough.  The young leaves of the Red Bud can also be eaten.  While the tree is blooming, it is a good idea to map out its location to go to collect some pods later.

This recipe is lovely both in flavor and appearance.  It's a nice spring addition to my kid's afternoon snacks!

Red Bud Vanilla Quick Bread

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup red bud blossoms, stems removed (most time consuming part)
sugar for sprinkling

Directions:

Combine sugar and eggs, beating until well blended.  Add remaining wet ingredients and mix well.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix well.  Fold in red bud blossoms.

Pour into greased loaf pan.  Lightly sprinkle top of batter with sugar.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Kudzu Bread!

Kudzu Bread

Often I lament that many of the frequently talked about wild edibles do not grow in Middle Tennessee or grow in puny amounts.  One example is when foragers wax on poetically about cattails and their many uses. We have a few in our area but even if I just harvest a couple it would deplete the sporadic population too much.  Imagine my surprise when we traveled to Michigan last summer and we passed fields of cattails.  I finally understood the fascination with this particular wild edible!  One of the wild edibles I am happy to enjoy here in the South that is not common in the North is the Kudzu plant.  As any southerner knows it is a wildly prolific plant.  It has become one of my favorites.

When it was blooming last summer I used the flower (that smells like grape cool-aid) to make Kudzu Jelly.  It won an award at our county fair.  At that time I also picked many of the leaves and dehydrated them for future use. The leaves are particularly good for dehydrating. They crumble well and stay a bright green.  Because Kudzu is in the legume family the flavor reminds you of green beans.  It is actually very mild, even more so than spinach.  I often add a handful of dried Kudzu to spaghetti sauce, soup or beans.  It is a great way to give a little color and nutrients to your dishes with out changing the flavor.  You can even add it to your bread!  Here is one of my favorite recipes.  It tastes like an artisan whole wheat bread.  Contrary to what you might imagine, it does not turn out green.  This recipe also uses dried ground Curly Dock seeds. It is a common plant in this area and at the end of summer you can easily forage pounds of it!

Kudzu Bread

Ingredients:

3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon warm water
1 large egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/3 c sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 3/4 c white flour
1/4 c dehydrated and finely crushed Kudzu
1/4 c ground dried Curly Dock seeds
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast

1 additional egg white for coating dough


Directions:

In a medium bowl, mix the Kudzu, Dock seeds and flour.  Premixing these ingredients before adding to the bread machine insures an even distribution.

Ground Dock Seed and Kudzu

In your bread maker, add all ingredients (except final egg white for coating) starting with the wet and finishing with the dry.  Set to dough cycle.

When the cycle is complete, briefly turn your oven on just to warm and then turn off. Remove dough from machine and divide into three sections.  Roll out each section into a long strand.  Braid the three strands tucking the ends under. Put plastic wrap loosely over loaf and place in slightly warmed oven.  Allow to rise for 25-30 minutes.

Kudzu loaf before final rising

Remove from warmed oven.  Preheat oven to 340 degrees.  Paint loaf with egg white.  Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes.  If the top gets to desired color before the 30 minutes is finished, place aluminum foil lightly over loaf and continue to bake.

Finished Kudzu Bread with Elderberry Jelly

 
Note: If you are in need of a grinder for grinding small amounts, this is the grinder I use.  It is cheap and grinds to a fine state. I purchased mine at Tuesday Morning for $15.