Einkorn Flour!

Einkorn Bread!

We are falling in love with Einkorn here on the farm. It is such a lovely flour, light and fine after milling. pic.twitter.com/UiXYVqdQfC

— John Schneider (@GoldForestGrain) March 12, 2015

Parkallen Home Kitchen Double Chocolate Cookies

Another great recipe from Jacquie at Parkallen Home Kitchen

Whole Grain Double Chocolate Cookies

Photo courtesy Parkallen Home Kitchen

I see that Jacquie has chosen to use GFG Soft White Wheat flour. This is NOT white flour, a common question from our customers. Instead, it is an Entire Grain flour stone milled from Soft White Wheat as opposed to Hard Red Wheat.

http://parkallenhomekitchen.com/2015/01/25/whole-grain-double-chocolate-cookies/

Tip: An interesting thing that @gfgcindy does with our cookies at home is to add a little whole or ground flax to the batter. She insists on getting as much "health" into our food...and it actually tastes great!

A new store!

photo courtesy Amaranth Whole Foods

Cindy is putting the order together today and will be delivering to Amaranth Foods in St. Albert! This will be our second store in St. Albert so we're excited to have a really good foothold in one of our home towns (we have 2 home towns...Morinville and St. Albert). Grapevine Deli, located in historic downtown St. Albert has done very well for us in sales for 2 years now, but Amaranth Whole Foods Market located in the Enjoy Centre will help us cover all of the bases for customers in St. Albert.

As our retail locations expand, we are happy to be able to introduce new customers to our whole and healthful grain and flour products. I do know that Amaranth has ordered our Einkorn Flour as well as other popular products that we produce. Please help support these great local businesses as well as our own. And if you don't see something that you want in their stores, I know they appreciate hearing from you.

Enjoy!

Einkorn Fettucini

There are few things in the culinary world that are easier to make with flour than pasta. The ingredients are as simple as they come. Flour. Eggs. A pinch of salt...and then a little kneading.

If you cannot make fresh pasta with our flour then you just aren't trying. 

Here is a great recipe for fresh Fettucini made with our own organic Einkorn Flour.

2.5 cups of fresh GFG Einkorn Flour (you can also use Red Fife or Park)
4 eggs
Salt (pinch)

In a mixing bowl the flour and salt can be combined. Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the eggs. At this time an optional ingredient can be added - 1tbl of olive oil. I don't think this is necessary, but it doesn't seem to hurt and probably gives the pasta a little buttery texture when all is said and done.

Knead the ingredients together until a smooth consistency is reached with the dough. At this stage you can set your pot of water to boil. I always add a splash of olive oil to the water.

Come back to your dough and proceed to roll it out onto a floured surface. You need to roll it very thin so perhaps dividing the dough into two balls is better. You can use a rolling pin or the bottle of wine you happen to be sipping from while you cook to roll the dough.

Once the pasta is thin enough go ahead and cut strips that are fettucini sized...about 1cm. I used our pizza wheel to cut the pasta. It occurred to me after that you can simply fold the sheet of pasta over itself a couple times and then cut the strips! Duh. Once you have your pasta cut into strips, the water will be at a rolling boil and you can toss it all in. It will cook very quickly, perhaps 2 minutes, so be ready!

Served simply with a little butter, lemon, salt and pepper it is a remarkably simple lunch or dinner. Of course it also goes along beautifully with any pasta sauce you can dream up. Enjoy!

Nana Schneider's Pie Crust

Here is a great pie crust for you to try out. This recipe is used extensively in our home and works great. It is a more traditional, rolled pastry crust and is super easy.

Nana Schneider's pie crust. A rolled pastry that works every single time with most of our flours. I usually use Park for this recipe and I sift it before it goes in the mixer. Nana didn't make a lot of pies that I remember, but she sure made butter tarts at Christmas time. As I grew older, that was my annual Christmas present from her. A tin of homemade tarts. Even now I can still smell the aroma as I lifted the lid off the tin. As far as I know, this recipe is her never fail pastry.

Nana (Marguerite) Schneider's Pie Crust
 
2.5 Cups flour (I sift our Park flour for this recipe)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 lb lard (I always use butter)
2.5 tsp water
1 Tbsp white vinegar
1 egg

Dry ingredients go into the mixer bowl and are blended well. I use the kitchen aid.
Cut the lard into small cubes and incorporate into the dry ingredients with the mixer until it is coarse looking. Stop the mixer.
Add the egg and vinegar and start mixing once more.
Add enough water as you are mixing so that the dough just starts to come together. It may be less water and it may be more. Don't worry about it.

At this point, take the dough out of the mixer bowl and shape into 2 small flattened balls. These can now go into the fridge for about 15 minutes or you can go ahead and freeze one for later use. Depends on how much dough you need for your baking project.

On a floured surface, roll the dough as thin as practical. You will need to add small dustings of flour to keep the rolling pin free of dough. The thinner the pastry, the more tender and flaky it will be. Now you can go ahead and use in your favourite pie or tart recipe!

CBC Radio - Alberta At Noon

This week we were invited by Holly Preston, the host of Alberta @ Noon to come in to the studio to talk about Organic Farming. It was a terrific experience and we are grateful to have had the chance to be heard across the Province!

If you want to skip ahead and hear our portion of the interview and call-in segment it starts at about 27:38 and runs the duration of the show. Let it buffer a bit before you try to skip ahead...