Arrowroot animal cookies

Now, I have to state upfront that these cookies truly are a labour of love.  I have been trying for months to make the perfect homemade replacement for store-bought arrowroot cookies--you know the ones, full of white flour, vegetable shortening and modified palm oils (what the heck are those anyway??), glucose, soya lecithin, etc... We have all eaten them and fed them to our babies, under the premise that they are great first foods for baby.  But really, what makes them such great food??  I would argue nothing, other than effective marketing, thanks to a photo of a cute and apparently healthy baby on the box. 

So, after giving the store-bought cookies to my son on numerous occasions, mainly because of their convenience, I began to question my decision to do so, and decided to hunt for a more nutritious homemade version.  I was shocked to find that all the recipes I found online were not much different from the boxed version, minus some of the additives.  Thus began my multi-month experiment to come up with my own recipe.

What you will find below is nothing like the cookies from the box.  Rather, they are something completely different, except for the addition of arrowroot flour.  The arrowroot gives the cookies a melt-in-your-mouth texture while still being a slightly crispy cookie.  Also, did you know that arrowroot is easily digestible?  This is the reason, I discovered along the way, that arrowroot cookies are, in fact, marketed towards babies. 

In keeping with the theme of these being cookies for my toddler, I decided to purchase a few mini animal cookie cutters, thus, creating the hybrid arrowroot animal cookies.  Sure, the mini cookie cutters add to your prep time (it takes a lot longer to cut out dozens upon dozens of little polar bears and hippos than a bunch of 4cm circles!), but the cuteness factor they provide make it all worth it!

Give them a try and tell me how much your little one (and yourself, and your husband...) loves these little cookies:

Arrowroot animal cookies

¼ cup spelt flour

¼ cup whole wheat flour

¼ cup barley flour

¼ cup arrowroot flour

½ tsp baking powder
¼ cup ground walnuts or almonds or combination of both
¼ cup + 1 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
¼ cup white sugar

2 Tbsp brown sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla

All-purpose flour for kneading

Whisk the flours, ground nuts and baking powder. Set aside. In a separate medium bowl, beat the butter with the sugars and salt until it's smooth and looks a bit like a brown sugar frosting. Beat in the egg until everything is uniform in appearance.  Stir in vanilla. Add the flour mixture and stir just until incorporated.  Turn the dough out onto a well-floured counter-top and knead in enough extra flour to help form the dough into a ball--the dough will be very soft and sticky when you first put it onto the counter. Cut the dough in half, flatten each piece, wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350F degrees. On a floured work surface roll each circle of dough out thinly (maybe 5mm or so). Using small animal-shaped cookie cutters, cut out cookies.  Bake until the cookies are just beginning to color at the edges ~5 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool the cookies on racks.

Makes a lot of cookies, exact amount depends on the size of your cookie cutters.

Option: If you want to make these cookies a little more grown-up appropriate, do as I have done--stew a few dates and prunes until soft and broken down.  Let cool.  Prepare the recipe as above, but use a round cookie cutter instead (size to your liking), and put a small bit of the dried fruit filling in the centre of each and fold over, sealing the edges well.  Bake for a few minutes longer than the animal cookies.

Homemade multi-grain bread

When I decided to start this blog, I thought it fitting to start with a post on homemade bread, as what is more appropriate than breaking a loaf of bread to start things off?  This is my favourite bread recipe.  I'll admit that I haven't tried a whole lot of different recipes but when I first tried this one, I knew I wouldn't have to look any further.  This recipe comes from Kim Boyce's Good to the Grain cookbook.  My sister gave me this cookbook a number of months ago knowing my love for experimenting and baking with whole grains.  Little did she (or I, for that matter!) know just how much this cookbook would further engrain my passion for whole gains and open me up to experimenting with all kinds of new ones. 

So, this takes me back to my bread...  Well, actually it is Ms. Boyce's bread, but I have played around a bit with the flours and the methods to add my own touch.  Whereas the original recipe calls for whole wheat and white bread flours, I have expanded this to include spelt and barley, and use unbleached all-purpose in lieu of bread flour.  This makes a slightly darker loaf and a little bit heartier.  I have tried to eliminate the white flour completely but it didn't turn out.  The bread was way too crumbly and hence too difficult to cut and butter.

Also, I should add that my little family of three cannot eat a whole loaf as the original recipe makes.  I make two smaller ones, and pop one in the freezer right after baking.  This gives me homemade bread later in the week without double the time and effort!   If you try it, I think you'll be pleasently surprised how easy it is.  My only advice is to plan ahead, because although it isn't too labour intensive, it does take approximately 3 hours from start to finish (not including cooling period!)  This bread is so good, I find pairing it with anything more than a nice slab of butter takes away from the yumminess.  Here is my recipe:

Multi-grain bread

2 1/4 tsp yeast
3 Tbsp molasses
2 cup warm water
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup spelt flour
1 cup barley flour
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup oats
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 Tbsp kosher salt

1. Combine yeast, molasses, and water into the bowl of a standing mixer.  Stir together, scraping all the yummy molasses off the bottom of your bowl to incorporate.  Let stand 5 minutes until surface is nice and foamy.
2. Combine the flours, oats, and butter in a large bowl.  Add to yeast mixture and stir with a wooden spoon.  Cover and let stand for 30 minutes.
3. Add the salt to your dough and, using the dough hook on your mixer, mix on level 4 for 6 minutes.  The dough should not stick to the sides of the bowl.  If there is any sticking, simply add extra all-purpose flour, 1 tbsp at a time until it no longer sticks.
4. Dump the dough out onto a floured surface and knead with your hands a few times.  Put the dough into a greased bowl and roll around to cover the surface of the dough.  Cover and let stand for 1 hour.
5. Using a knife, cut the dough into two halves.  Take one half and press down on floured surface, working towards a rectangular shape, pressing out all the air bubbles.  Fold the dough down from the top to the middle, and fold the bottom up to meet the top fold.  Bring top and bottom together and pinch ends to seal.  Pinch the sides together and roll the dough back and forth to form evenly into the shape of your pan.  Place the dough seam-side down into a small greased loaf pan.  Repeat with other half of dough.
6. Cover loaves with towels and let rise for one hour.  While the dough is rising, turn the oven on to 400o. 
7. When dough has finished rising, bake for 35 minutes.  To test if bread is done, tap the top of the loaf.  If it sounds hollow, pull it out.  If not, put it back in for a few more minutes.
8. Remove bread immediately from the pans and let cool on cooling rack until completely cool.