Berry Breakfast

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday.  This breakfast just has 3 ingredients, all natural!

At the farmer’s market on July 4th, I purchased black raspberries and heavy cream.  Put them together and you have a wonderful breakfast!  It is also quite suitable for dessert.

It really couldn’t be more simple.  Take the organic, in season black raspberries, or any berry variety (raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries), pick through them and discard any ones that have gone bad, and put them in a bowl.  Pour heavy cream over the top and serve.  No sugar needed.  I rounded out the breakfast with 2 pieces of humanely raised, pastured pig bacon.  No nitrates.  (I also do variations with 2 pastured eggs instead of bacon, but that is a topic for another day!)

What makes this breakfast so good?  Let’s break it down.

No Sugar. Refined or even minimally refined sugar is one of the worst things you can eat.  I won’t tell you to never eat it because I’d be a hypocrite.  But sugar is not good for you, no matter what form you take it.  It leads to obesity and various metabolic disorders including diabetes as well as tooth decay.  I do try to limit how much sugar I eat, and I try to make sure it is a more natural kind of sugar, like honey, maple syrup, molasses, evaporated cane juice, etc so at least I can get a little bit of minerals or something with it.  Eating the berries and bacon for breakfast gets you started without the sugar.  A much better choice than a cereal with sugar.  Yes, even so-called “healthy” cereals frequently list a kind of sugar as the 2nd or 3rd ingredient.

Antioxidants – I don’t eat berries because they are good for me.  I eat them because they are delicious; that they are so healthy is a bonus!  One of the things they have is antioxidants and lots of them.  Blueberries and black raspberries are particularly good in this area.  Antioxidants help prevent the signs of aging and can help prevent against cancer and heart disease.

Vitamins – Vitamin K, vitamin E and vitamin C are all found in black raspberries in good amounts.  More vitamins and minerals are in them as well, but these three are particularly plentiful.   Cream has a lot of vitamin A and Calcium, and since cream is fat and those particular vitamins and minerals require fat to in order be metabolized by the body, you know that your body is processing that full amount of vitamins and minerals.

Protein – It is good to start out your day with some protein.  The protein in the cream and bacon combined is almost the same as a cup of skim milk.  Protein is needed for your body to help rebuild itself and it also helps fill you up better than carbs alone do.

Fat – We’ve all been trained fat is bad for you.  That isn’t really true.  Fat from traditional sources is very good for you and is necessary.  Natural sources include dairy and animals (such as cream and bacon) as well as coconut and olive oil.  Vegetable oils made from corn, canola, cottonseed, and soy, to name a few, are not traditional and should not be consumed.  Why is dairy fat so good for you?  Cream from grass fed cows contains CLA and Butyric Acid which help prevent cancer.  Grass fed cow milk also has a better ratio of omego 3s.  Our bodies run on fat as it is a preferred fuel source.  Did you know that our brain is about two-thirds fat?  The nervous system depends on fat.  Besides, it just tastes good!  This is why people love bacon and cream.  Fat is also great because it really fills you up.  It sends a message to your brain to stop being hungry.  Have you ever eaten breakfast of skim milk and cereal only to find yourself starving an hour later?  It has happened to me.  But not when you eat bacon or cream!  You don’t need a lot.  Just 2 slices of bacon and less than 1/2 of a cup of cream was enough to keep me well satiated for hours.

Now, here is where you forget all of that stuff – when I make breakfast, I don’t think about all of these things.  I don’t think about the RDA for vitamin D or how much calcium I’m getting.  I don’t think about antioxidants or other cancer fighting micronutrients.  I just think about a few simple things – Is the food from a traditional source and prepared in a traditional way?  Berries have been foraged for hundreds of thousands of years, I’d bet.  Cream has been around for about 10,000 years.  A short period of time in the grand scheme of thing, but enough time for my ancestors to develop the mutation to be able to drink milk into adulthood (lactose tolerance).  Pigs were also domesticated around 10,000 years ago, but I bet wild boars and related animals were hunted for tens of thousands of years before that.  Since those are the only 3 ingredients in this breakfast, I think that is pretty good.  I also think about taste.  Do these things taste good?  You betcha!  And finally, I think about will this fill me up and keep me full until my next meal or snack?  Fat and protein help keep me full, where carbs, especially refined carbs do the opposite.  I also think about my meals for the past 24 hours or so.  I try and make sure I eat plenty of vegetables and fruit, protein including animal protein found in meat and dairy, and fat from traditional sources.   I don’t count calories, carbs or RDA amounts, and yet, by following this basic outline, I’ve lost weight and maintained myself at my ideal weight.  I’ve been sick less and had improved energy.   I’ve also eaten the most delicious food.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

I love making crisps; if I were to have a “signature dessert” it would be crisps.  I make them so much because they taste great with the fruit and brown sugar combination, crispy topping, and fruity bottom and they are so easy.  I’ve never really exactly followed a crisp recipe, but if I did, it would be the one in Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison.  By the way, I highly recommend that cookbook.  It is filled with lots of great information, tons of inspiration, and everything uses real foods.  I’m not a vegetarian, but her cookbook can be used for side dishes, meatless main dishes (for those of you, who like me frequently have “Meatless Meals” or days), and everything tastes great.

Crisps are great all year round.  Any kind of fruit can be put inside to make them suitable for spring (rhubarb and strawberries, tada!) to fall and winter (apple crisp, anyone?).  This recipe will work for all seasons and all fruits with a little bit of know how – really juicy fruits will benefit from the addition of some sort of a starch such as flour or tapioca in the filling to help hold it together a little bit, and the sweeter the fruit, the less sugar you need.

Strawberry season is in full force here in the northeast.  Almost every stand at the farmer’s market has pints lined up, and more to replace the ones that are purchased.  Rhubarbs are still hanging on, as they will until the weather gets too hot for them in another month or so.  I never grew up eating strawberry and rhubarb in combination, but it seems it is a classic, so I made it into a crisp.

This post is submitted to Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday and Real Food Wednesday.

Here is how I make a Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp.  Here are the ingredients for a 7×11 in baking dish:

• Rhubarb (about 4-5 stalks)
• Strawberries (about half a pint)
• ~1/2 cup Unrefined sugar such as sucanat, rapadura, or evaporated cane juice
• 6 tablespoons Unsalted butter (grass fed)
• 3/4 cup Unrefined sugar (see above)
• 1 tablespoon Molasses
• 2/3 cup Sprouted flour
• 1/2 cup Rolled oats
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Strawberries and rhubarb in the pan

Now this is what I do.  I chop up enough strawberries and rhubarb to fill my baking pan (about half strawberries, half rhubarb.  If you use more strawberries, you will need to add a little starch to the strawberry rhubarb mix to prevent it from getting too soupy and less sugar since strawberries will provide more sweetness).  Right now I’m using a pyrex baking sheet about 7 in x 11 in.  That was about 1/2 a pint of (whole) strawberries and about 5 stalks of rhubarb.  I put them in the baking dish and sprinkled half a cup of sugar over the top and mixed it in well.  Then set it aside.  Remember, feel free to use less sugar if the fruit is sweet enough on its own, or if you like the tartness of the rhubarb.  I wouldn’t want to add more sugar unless you were using a bigger pan.  Trust me, a crisp is not as good when it is overly sweet.  Plus, sugar is something you should only eat in moderation.

Now for the crisp topping.  I like a LOT of topping.  You might like less.  Play with the amount you put on your crisp until you find something you like.  This makes enough to cover my 7×11 baking dish.

In a separate small bowl, combine the 3/4 cup of sugar and 1 tablespoon of molasses.  You can use a fork to cut them together really well.  Now, put that in a big bowl along with the oats, sprouted flour, butter (cut into smaller chunks), salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon.   Now – don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty!  Stir it up, mush it up using your hands.  Mix it until it is a crumbly texture.

Put that over the top of the strawberries and rhubarb, then bake in a preheated oven at 375 for about 45-60 minutes.

The crisp right before baking

Strawberry Shortcake

Today at the farmer’s market, I saw strawberries for the first time.  Not really having  plan, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them if I were to get them.  I just knew I had to have them.  When I got home, I browsed my cookbooks for inspiration.  When I saw strawberry shortcake, I knew that is what I had to have.  But none of the recipes seemed to be what I wanted.  They had too much sugar, used refined white flour, or even used vegetable shortening!  No thank you!  So I went about creating my own recipe.

I also whipped the cream by hand – no kitchen aid here, sadly.  Though I must say, I felt a tremendous sense of accomplishment when I beat that whipped cream to stiff peaks.

This is a great dessert – one you can serve to your kids or guests and they will feel as though they are getting a decadent dessert, but you can feel good that you are giving them something that has some good nutrients for them with its coconut oil and sprouted whole wheat flour.

Coconut oil is preferable to vegetable shortening by the simple fact that coconut oil is a food, while vegetable shortening is a highly processed industrial product that was originally designed for candles.  Coconut oil has lots of amazing properties that make it a healthy choice, such as boosting metabolism and providing anti viral and antibacterial properties.  Sprouted wheat flour is preferable to white flour because sprouting changes the wheat in important ways – it gets rid of the phytates, allowing our bodies to absorb the minerals, and makes the flour easier to digest.  It also has a higher percentage of the B-complex vitamins.

Recipe, instructions and resources to purchase sprouted flour, coconut oil, and sucanat, rapadura, and evaporated cane juice below.

Strawberries

• About a handful of strawberries per serving – more or less, depending on your tastes
• About 1/2 to 1 tablespoon sucanant, rapadura, or evaporated cane juice, more or less depending on the sweetness of the berries, and your individual tastes  (some people may find that extra sugar is completely unnecessary.  Start with the smallest amount of sugar and work your way up if it isn’t sweet enough).

Shortcake (makes 6 shortcakes)

• 2 cups sprouted whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons of evaporated cane juice, sucanant, or rapadura
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 3/4 cup milk

Whipped Cream

2 cups of whipped cream is probably enough for 6 servings, but since I don’t serve all 6 at once, I make the whipped cream in batches.  For each cup of whipped cream:

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon evaporated cane juice or fine rapadura or sucanat

Instructions:

Make the strawberries first.  Wash and dry the strawberries, then slice.  Mix with the sugar and let stand out in room temperature for about an hour.

When the strawberries are nearly ready, preheat the oven to 450 degrees, and stick an empty high sided bowl in the freezer (you will see why soon).  Combine the sprouted flour, salt, baking powder and evaporated cane juice.  Then add the coconut oil and cut with a pastry cutter or slice with 2 butter knives until the mixture is crumbly.  Then add the milk and stir.  This forms a dough which you should then knead on a lightly floured surface.  Knead for about 5 minutes or so.  Then roll it out to half an inch thick and cut into 3 inch circles.  I used the ring of a quart size mason jar lid.  Place them on an ungreased baking sheet and bake about 10 minutes or until they are done.

When the shortcakes are cooling, take that bowl out of the freezer so it is nice and cold.  Pour the heavy cream and tablespoon of evaporated cane juice into the bowl and whisk your heart out.  I thought my arm would fall off, but I managed to keep at it until it formed stiff peaks.  I figure if they did it a hundred years ago without a kitchen aid, so can I.  Of course, if you happen to have some sort of electric appliance that can do this for you, by all means!  If I had one, I’d probably use it too.

While the shortcakes are still warm, slice them horizontally (like an english muffin).  Very lightly butter the two inside facing surfaces (with unsalted organic butter from grass fed cows), then add a layer of strawberries sandwiched between them.  Top with more strawberries and finish off with the whipped cream.  Make sure to drizzle some of the strawberry juice on the shortcake too.  Then you can enjoy. 

Resources

I purchased my sprouted flour from Building Health and coconut oil from Wilderness Family Naturals.  They both offered great service and fast shipping.  Sucanat and/or rapadura can frequently be found in health food stores including national chains like Whole Foods.  I can usually find packages in my locally owned and operated health food stores as well, and sometimes in the organic section of my conventional supermarket.  Evaporated cane juice is a little easier to find and may be in any health food store, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, or even the sugar section of your conventional grocery store.  These sugars can also probably be found online, though I have not purchased from anywhere online yet.  Organic grass fed butter can be found at most grocery stores.  The Organic pastures brand is pretty good.  There is also Kerrygold that I’m quite fond of.  I also purchase butter directly from farmers sometimes.

A piece of rhubarb buckle

At the farmer’s market I bought a few pounds of rhubarb.  Normally, I would make a crisp, but since I had so much rhubarb, I thought I’d try something else first.  Enter the buckle.

A buckle is a dessert from the colonial times.  It is related to the crisps, cobblers, and brown bettys.    A cake-like batter is made with fresh fruit folded into it, and then a lovely crumble topping it added to the top of the batter just before baking.  It is essentially the marriage of a cake and a crisp.

The buckle turned out very well: a delicious large crumbed cake filled with bits of tart rhubarb and topped with a buttery crumble.  For my recipe I used sucanat for the crumble topping and as half of the sugar in the cake.  Sucanat retains more of the nutrition found in sugar cane, so it isn’t all empty calories like refined white sugar.  It also has a richer flavor, similar to molasses.  It works really well for this type of recipe.  Don’t be fooled though, sugar is still sugar and this is just a treat!

Here is my recipe, inspired by The Washington Post.

Crumble Topping
1/3 cup sucanat or rapadura
¼ cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Cake
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
scant 1/2  cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup sucanat or rapadura
2 eggs
¾ cup soured milk, at room temperature (can substitute kefir, yogurt, buttermilk, or fresh milk + lemon juice or vinegar if you do not have raw sour milk)
1 pound rhubarb, trimmed and thinly sliced (about 2 ½ cups, or 5 stalks)

Make the topping first.  Mix all the ingredients together, then put it in the freezer so it won’t melt into the batter when you bake it.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  To make the cake, sift the flour, baking powder, ginger, baking soda and salt together in a large mixing bowl.  In a separate bowl, cream the sugars and butter together.  I did this by hand, but a mixer will obviously make it easier.  Add the egg and mix each one in before adding the other.  Then add the soured milk.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mix and then fold in the rhubarb in.  Pour into a greased 9×9 baking dish, sprinkle the frozen crumb topping over the top, and bake for 45-50 minutes.