Gluten-Free Buckwheat Bread

I adapted this recipe from Aran Goyoaga’s Spiced Chocolate Cranberry Yeast Bread. Aran has long been my favorite resource for gluten-free baking and this adaptation has become for me, the perfect basic brown bread. It is a breeze to make and the bread isn’t gummy like so many other gluten-free recipes I’ve tried. I like it best toasted and slathered with salted butter.

GLUTEN FREE BUCKWHEAT BREAD

2 1/3 cups (525 grams) full-fat milk, heated to 105°F

2 Tbsp molasses (about 40 grams)

1 Tbsp (12 grams) active dry yeast

3 Tbsp (30 grams) psyllium husk powder

1/4 cup (30 grams) fine flaxseed meal

2 cups (240 grams) buckwheat flour

1 cup (120 grams) tapioca starch

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Preheat oven to 425°F. Dust the inside of a one-pound loaf pan with some buckwheat flour.

In the bowl of a stand mixer whisk together the oat milk, molasses, and yeast and proof for about 10 minutes until bubbly. Whisk in the psyllium and flaxseed and let it gel for 5 minutes.

Add the remaining ingredients and using a dough hook, mix the bread on medium speed until it comes together and feels smooth. The dough will be sticky and moist. Add a touch more milk if it feels dry.

Dust your work surface with some buckwheat flour and shape your bread into a log that is about 8 inches long. Place the dough inside the prepared loaf pan, cover with a kitchen towel and proof for about 45 minutes or until nearly doubled. 

Dust the dough with a bit more flour and bake for 30 minutes. Then, carefully invert the bread out of the pan and place directly on the oven rack. Reduce the oven temperature to 375°F and bake for another 30 minutes.

Transfer the bread to a wire rack and let it cool for at least 1 hour before cutting. It is important to let the bread cool before slicing so the crumb sets and doesn’t become gummy. Store the bread wrapped in a kitchen towel or how I do, cut-side down on the cutting board.

Worth Sharing

Screenshot from video captured by Colin Hogg and James Crombie

• Watch this incredible murmuration! via Aminatou Sow’s excellent newsletter Crème de la Crème

• Subscribe to Crème de la Crème here.

• On the pandemic anniversary: “As we process this anniversary together, taking stock of our deep losses and perhaps surprising gains, it’s worth looking back at the rituals and routines which have helped us day after day, month after month—and the ones that will continue to create continuity, structure, and joy as we move ahead.” - Esther Perel

• Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution - holy smokes what a great film. A short description: “A groundbreaking summer camp galvanizes a group of teens with disabilities to help build a movement, forging a new path toward greater equality.” It has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and won the Sundance Film Festival’s Audience Award last year. Watch the trailer here.

• “Because all we can see is whether we agree or not, whether we like them or not.”

“Movies are the most powerful empathy machine in all the arts. When I go to a great movie I can live somebody else's life for a while. I can walk in somebody else's shoes. I can see what it feels like to be a member of a different gender, a different race, a different economic class, to live in a different time, to have a different belief. The great movies enlarge us, they civilize us, they make us more decent people.”

- Roger Ebert (via On Being)

One Year On

These beautiful and poignant photos of normally bustling cities empty of humans are my favorite images captured of the lockdown last year.

Andrea Montovani for The New York Times

Today is the one year anniversary of our family’s pandemic experience. March 12, 2020 is the day I first closed my Pilates studio and the day my son’s school closed for a “two-week” quarantine.

In March of last year I think it’s safe to say that most of us couldn’t imagine that we’d still be living with such restrictions one year in the future. And yet here we are. Continuing to stretch ourselves and practicing the very important skill of being uncomfortable.

A few months before the pandemic I listened to Brené Brown’s excellent audiobook The Gifts of Imperfect Parenting. She talks about the importance of having a family gratitude practice with respect to the question: How do you raise kids who have everything they need to not be entitled? (And equally important, as an adult who has everything I need how do I keep myself from being entitled?) So two weeks before lockdown we all started writing in our own Five Minute Journal recommended by Tim Ferriss in his great conversation with (again) Brené Brown. My son has the kid version. In the beginning it was a great way for all of us to remind ourselves of how fortunate we were, right when it seemed as if all the “good stuff” was being taken from us. Now a year into the pandemic with all of its uncertainties, a few minutes spent writing in my gratitude journal has become an essential part of my morning routine.

When I think of gratitude I immediately think of David Steindl-Rast’s conversation with Krista Tippett. It resonated deeply with me when I first heard it years ago and I have been revisiting his words this week. As Krista writes “He calls joy ‘the happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens.’ And his gratefulness is not an easy gratitude or thanksgiving – but a full-blooded, reality-based practice and choice.”

From their conversation:

“Br. Steindl-Rast: Well, for me, this idea of listening and really looking and beholding — that comes in when people ask, “Well, how shall we practice this gratefulness?” And there is a very simple kind of methodology to it: Stop, look, go. Most of us — caught up in schedules and deadlines and rushing around, and so the first thing is that we have to stop, because otherwise we are not really coming into this present moment at all, and we can’t even appreciate the opportunity that is given to us, because we rush by, and it rushes by. So stopping is the first thing.

But that doesn’t have to be long. When you are in practice, a split second is enough — “stop.” And then you look: What is, now, the opportunity of this given moment, only this moment, and the unique opportunity this moment gives? And that is where this beholding comes in. And if we really see what the opportunity is, we must, of course, not stop there, but we must do something with it: Go. Avail yourself of that opportunity. And if you do that, if you try practicing that at this moment, tonight, we will already be happier people, because it has an immediate feedback of joy.

I always say, not — I don’t speak of the gift, because not for everything that’s given to you can you really be grateful. You can’t be grateful for war in a given situation, or violence or domestic violence or sickness, things like that. There are many things for which you cannot be grateful. But in every moment, you can be grateful.

For instance, the opportunity to learn something from a very difficult experience — what to grow by it, or even to protest, to stand up and take a stand — that is a wonderful gift in a situation in which things are not the way they ought to be. So opportunity is really the key when people ask, “Can you be grateful for everything?” — no, not for everything, but in every moment.”

My favorite film of late is the documentary The Biggest Little Farm. The cinematography is stunning, it is joyful, and it is a beautiful depiction of the complexity and wisdom found within the systems of nature. As Molly the farmer states, “The hardships we face make the dream feel so much more alive.” Rent it or watch it currently on Hulu. At a minimum watch the trailer…

Wise words from Alice Walker…

Alice Walker via Nitch

“Some periods of our growth are so confusing that we don’t even recognize that growth is happening. We may feel hostile or angry or weepy and hysterical, or we may feel depressed. It would never occur to us, unless we stumbled on a book or a person who explained to us, that we were in fact in the process of change... Whenever we grow, we tend to feel it, as a young seed must feel the weight and inertia of the earth as it seeks to break out of its shell on its way to becoming a plant... Often the feeling is anything but pleasant. But what is most unpleasant is the not knowing what is happening... Those long periods when something inside ourselves seems to be waiting, holding its breath, unsure about what the next step should be, eventually become the periods we wait for, for it is in those periods that we realize we are being prepared for the next phase of our life and that, in all probability, a new level of personality is about to be revealed.”

— Alice Walker

Worth Sharing

From Austin Kleon’s ‘Show Your Work!’

• My brother sent this to me: I Miss My Bar.

• “I am calling you for a poetic consultation,” said a warm voice on the telephone. “It all starts with a very simple question: How are you?”

• “When we adopt the posture of commitment, something extraordinary happens: The lessons get more profound and useful. The questions asked get more specific and urgent. The connections that are made get deeper.”

• Brad Montague’s delightful video The Dumpster Fire and the Garden.

• Stanley Tucci in Italy.
  

“For all the most important things, the timing always sucks. The stars will never align and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn’t conspire against you, but it doesn’t go out of its way to line up all the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. ‘Someday’ is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you…If it’s important to you and you want to do it ‘eventually’ just do it and correct course along the way.”

- Tim Ferriss (via Ali Abdaal)

Worth Sharing

via Studio Leitz

• My husband has started a new daily practice posting an ‘Homage to Albers’ color study a day.

• “Totally Fixed Were We Are” - watch this if you need to smile (and especially if you have kids).

• “Do as little as needed, not as much as possible.” - Henk Kraaijenhof (via Tim Ferriss)

• Watch the footage from Perseverance Rover’s descent and touchdown on Mars.

• “What is it that I know how to do, where is the need, and how can I help?” - Priya Parker with Brené Brown

• Max Richter’s tiny desk concert is still my favorite. He also has a more recent one playing from home.

• “Never let anyone be humiliated in your presence”

Quote by Dr. Maya Angelou shared by Cleo Wade via Swiss Miss

Creativity + Ego

“Creativity and ego cannot go together. If you free yourself from the comparing and jealous mind, your creativity opens up endlessly. Just as water springs from a fountain, creativity springs from every moment. You must not be your own obstacle. You must not be owned by the environment you are in. You must own the environment, the phenomenal world around you. You must be able to freely move in and out of your mind. This is being free. There is no way you can’t open up your creativity. There is no ego to speak of.”

— Jeong Kwan

Netflix

I have watched Jeong Kwan’s Chef’s Table episode three times over the last year. She is so calming, wise, and inspirational.

I made Samin Nosrat’s speedy and delicious spinach and cilantro soup for lunch today. I prefer it a little thicker so I use one cup less stock and start with less salt since my stock is already seasoned. If you have some leftover rice in your fridge add that to your bowl…

Photo by Ty Mecham via Food52

The Everlane Perform Bra is my new favorite…

I’ve been reading Big Ideas for Curious Minds with my son and it is wonderful. It’s from the folks at School of Life who do such great stuff…

It is filled with important little essays and delightful drawings and is equally appropriate for adults with things like ‘Learn to Say What’s on Your Mind’…

And ‘Why it’s Hard to Know What to Do With Your Life’…

Pomofocus is a cool tool.

And I think this shirt is made for me…

Gluten-Free Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

I think this supremely easy one-bowl chocolate cake is the most perfect chocolate cake and I’m not even a chocolate cake person. It is the most frequently baked cake at our house and my son made it for me on my last birthday. He prefers it without the additional chocolate so that is how it gets made most, but when I do add it I really like these Hu chocolate gems.

It is adapted from Aran Goyoaga’s Gluten-Free Chocolate Sourdough Cake (my often mentioned gluten-free baking guru).

GLUTEN FREE CHOCOLATE OLIVE OIL CAKE

1/2 cup (150 g) kefir or yogurt

3/4 cup (150 g) coconut sugar or light brown sugar

1/2 cup (110 g) olive oil, plus more for greasing

1 egg

3/4 cup (75 g) almond flour, sifted

1/2 cup (70 g) superfine brown rice flour

1/4 cup (25 g) unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

4 ounces (110 g) dark chocolate, coarsely chopped or chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease an 8-inch cake pan with some olive oil and place a circle of parchment paper in the bottom of the pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the kefir, sugar, olive oil, and egg. Add in the almond flour, brown rice flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt and whisk until the batter is smooth. Fold in the chopped chocolate if using.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool on a rack for at least 15 minutes before turning out of the pan.

Wintering

Good Sunday morning. We got 8 inches of snow at our house yesterday. It’s rare that we get snow in Seattle so it’s such a treat when it does happen. The last time we had a big snowfall was almost exactly two years ago. It just started snowing again this morning, candles are flickering throughout the house, my son is still sleeping, and everything feels quiet. The rain will return later this evening so we will savor it while we can…

A few weeks ago I listened to Katherine May’s wonderful On Being conversation on ‘Wintering.’ I loved it so much I listened to the unedited version as soon as I finished the first. From Krista:

“In so many stories and fables that shape us, cold and snow, the closing in of the light — these have deep psychological as much as physical reality. They draw us, even force us, to do what Katherine May calls deeply unfashionable things: slowing down, resting, retreating. This is “wintering,” as she illuminates it in her book of that title — wintering as at once a season of the natural world, a respite our bodies require, and a state of mind. A cyclical, recurrent weather pattern, if you will, in any life. It’s one way to describe our pandemic year: as one big extended communal experience of wintering. Some of us are laboring harder than ever on its front lines and also on its home front of parenting. I don’t know a single person right now who isn’t exhausted, almost as a state of being. It feels like Katherine May opens up exactly what I and so many need to hear, but haven’t known how to name.”

Katherine’s book Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times is just as delightful as her talk with Krista.

“Plants and animals don’t fight the winter; they don’t pretend it’s not happening and attempt to carry on living the same lives they lived in the summer. They prepare. They adapt. They perform extraordinary acts of metamorphosis to get them through. Wintering is a time of withdrawing from the world, maximizing scant resources, carrying out acts of brutal efficiency and vanishing from sight; but that’s where the transformation occurs. Winter is not the death of the life cycle, but its crucible.

“It’s a time for reflection and recuperation, for slow replenishment, for putting your house in order. Doing these deeply unfashionable things — slowing down, letting your spare time expand, getting enough sleep, resting — is a radical act now, but it’s essential. ”

February 11

Listening to birdsong is one of the most delightful and calming things I can think of. Until their joyful chatter returns to my yard in abundance, I am happy to have discovered tree fm which is kind of magic. It is especially lovely to listen to while soaking in the tub…

Speaking of birds ornithologist Drew Lanham’s words in his recent On Being conversation really resonated with me:

“In that moment of that little brown bird that’s always so inquisitive, that sings reliably — in that moment that I’m thinking about that wren, I’m not thinking about anything else. That’s joy. And so sometimes I think we have to recognize the joy that the world didn’t give us and that the world can’t take away, in the midst of the world taking away what it can.”

I added his book The Home Place to my reading list. Listen to him read a short excerpt here:

I read Sally Rooney’s wonderful book Normal People cover to cover one Saturday a few weeks ago and am still thinking about it. There is also a 12 part series on Hulu which was exquisitely done…

I am a consummate list-maker of all things and these free downloads from Appointed make me happy…

I have been back in the studio teaching which also means I’ve been getting to play and work on my own Pilates practice which is one of the most joyful things I get to do…

This gorgeous painting below is not a two-dimensional scene but a real person painted by the artist Alexa Meade. It’s worth listening to her short TED talk if you need motivation to step off your current path but feel too invested to make a change. She graduated with a political science degree and a dream to work in government only to be moved by a curiosity that compelled her to return home to her parents’ basement where she taught herself how to paint by painting the shadows on the ground, on her face, on her food…

Along similar lines, Seth Godin’s recent blog post struck a chord especially after living and working through this year of the “pivot.”

“Is ‘nimble’ a good thing? Should we seek to be flexible, resilient and quick to be able to shift and adapt?

Because often, it seems as though we work to create an environment where it’s difficult indeed to be nimble. We buy expensive assets, lock into long-term systems and fail to ignore sunk costs. We set foundations in concrete instead of using a lightweight tent…”

It’s hard to choose a favorite time of year in my garden, but when new green shoots start to emerge from the dirt it always feels like a miracle and I’m surprised every time it happens. These chives are making a go of it…

And the quote I’m taking to heart these days…

“You don’t always have to be doing something. You can just be, and that’s enough.”

— Alice Walker

Reflection

Happy New Year. This has been a welcome week of reflection - I spent the last evening of the year writing down my favorite memories from 2020 and thinking about my personal goals as I look ahead. As challenging a year this has been my gratefulness for just being alive is endless. To all those in my community that help make my life what it is, thank you for your love, support, humor, and kindness.

Looking back on my 2020…

January 25 - My brother C got married to my epically awesome now-sister-in-law B…

Sandwiched between my two brothers

February 1 - Painting with lime wash in our nearly finished backyard studio…

February 19 - Ready to occupy…

March 9 - Two days before I had to close my studio, I took a walk with my client/dearest friend R. I didn’t know this would be the last time I would see her for the year. It makes me smile just thinking of when we will be together again…

March 30 - At home filming a Pilates video…

May 9 - Sunset at home with my boy - 8:46pm…

June 8 - My second day back at the studio since March…

August 10 - The Bon Appetit smash burger of our summer…

August 14 - One of many by-appointment trips to the nursery…

August 20 - Our first family backpacking trip…

September 9 - Remote school…

October 10 - We finished our backyard!

November 26 - Thanksgiving. Beef tenderloin, my favorite swiss chard gratin, the best mashed potatoes, green beans and greens with fried shallots and Lambrusco…

December 17 - Endless cookie making and cookie deliveries…

Eggnog snickerdoodles (everyones’s new favorite), triple ginger from Tartine All Day, oatmeal creme pies from Bravetart, pistachio, lime + matcha snowballs from my GF baking bible Alternative Baker. Also from Alanna, hazelnut biscotti. Bakery boxes from here…

December 23 - Sunrise 7:51am…

December 27 - Solace with epsom salts and Rachel Naomi Remen’s excellent book Kitchen Table Wisdom…

With love and light as we move forward.