So the great thing about living in a small rural community is that when you are out for a walk in the summer or fall, you can just randomly come across a little stand with free vegetables or fruit. We came across just such a stand yesterday and picked up a pound of freshly harvested green beans and a couple of jalapeno peppers. Such a delight! I will be sure to go back to the address and drop off some jalapeno focaccia later this week. A few weeks ago, another neighbour was giving away bushelsful of early Transparent Apples, which are amazing apples for pie! I made a pie for us and a pie for him–vegan, of course, but he didn’t know that!

I haven’t yet decided on a recipe for the green beans, but I’ll keep you posted! Meanwhile, I’ve been experimenting with my blender bread from a couple of months ago. I looooove cornbread, so I thought it might be fun to try making cornbread with a similar process to the blender bread. My first experiment was okay, but did not rise much and seemed to lack the umami taste you need in cornbread. Frankie suggested I increase the yeast, which I did (and which worked a treat!) and I also added a TBS of BTB for that increased umami.

So here we go!

Cornbread Blender Bread

First, rinse and soak for eight to twelve hours:

• 1 cup raw white rice (basmati is a good choice!)

Add the drained rice to the Vitamix (you can use only a high-speed blender for this recipe), add the following, and blend for about a minute until smooth:

• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 cup cool water
• 3 TBS sunflower oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 TBS Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Base (optional)
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 12 grams yeast

Check the temperature of the blended ingredients after a minute: you want to ensure that the batter is smooth AND achieves a temperature of about 105 degrees and no warmer. This means after the one-minute mark, you’ll need to check every 10 seconds or so.

Pour the batter into a lightly-greased loaf pan–I used my 9 x 4 x 4 Pullman pan. Smack the pan on the counter a couple of times to release air bubbles and spread evenly. Spray the top of the loaf with water, cover, and proof at 100f for 20 minutes (loaf should have doubled in size after 20 minutes). Preheat oven to 375 F.

Pour a cup of water into a roasting pan on the lowest rack of the oven; spray the loaf with water again and slide the loaf pan onto middle rack. Bake uncovered for about 40 mins at 375 degrees–the internal temperature should be about 205 to 210 degrees.

Remove from pan and let cool on a cooling rack.

Here is a comparison of my first experiment and my second–the increased yeast made a big difference!

The bread is excellent toasted with mashed avocado or smeared with peanut butter and a drizzle of honey. It’s also great as an accompaniment to vegan chilli!

And our song of the day is Chet Baker’s “Let’s Get Lost”…