Homemade Food Coloring

Food coloring has always been a bit of a mystery to me. What ingredients really go into making food coloring? Surely Yellow No. 5 cannot be found growing in nature. To avoid the unknowns of store bought food coloring, The Encyclopedia of Country Living lists herbs and food products you can use to make your own colorings.

Black: barberry leaves

Blue: blueberries

Brown: nut hulls (walnuts are best), tea, coffee, rose hips, tobacco, hickory chips

Green: beet tops, sunflower seeds, birch leaves, Spanish onion skins (outer leaves only), elderberry leaves, spinach, cabbage, rhubarb leaves

Orange: orange juice

Pink: cherries, beat and sassafras roots

Purple: blackberries, cherries, huckleberries, cranberries, raspberries, grapes, purple cabbage

Red: red onion skins, bloodroot, fresh beet juice, madder root, and logwood

Yellow: the stem, leaves, and flowers of apple bark, barberry stems and roots, cinnamon, curry, ginger, the stems, leaves, and flowers of goldenrod, hickory bark, mustard, paprika, pear leaves, saffron, tangle wood stems, turmeric

If you lack the time, ingredients, or patience to create your own homemade food coloring and have a small selection of store bought food colorings at home, use this chart to create new colors with what you have on hand.

COLOR BLENDING CHART:

2 drops yellow, 1 drop green, and 1 drop red= blue

1 drop red, 2 drops green, and 1 drop blue= gray

2 drops blue, 1 drop green= dark green

3 drops yellow, 1 drop blue= light green

12 drops yellow, 1 drop green= olive

2 drops red, 1 drop blue= orchid

3 drops red, 1 drop yellow= orange

3 drops red, 4 drops yellow, and 1 drop green= tangerine 

Homemade Corn Bread

It may be June, but it feels like fall. This weather is perfect for a dinner of vegetarian (or meat) chili and homemade cornbread. This classic meal is warm, filling, and quite tasty. One reader of The Encyclopedia of Country Living states that she "didn't add the melted butter [to the batter] and they were really good anyway." If you are looking to cut calories, feel free to skip on the butter, but not on taste!

CORN/WHEAT BREAD:

Combine 1 cup cornmeal, 1 cup home-ground (or whole) wheat flour, 1/2 teaspoons of salt, and 1 tablespoon baking powder in a bowl. In another bowl, stir together 1 egg, 1/2 cup honey, and 1-cup milk. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ones and stir together. Add 2 tablespoons of melted butter (or lard). Stir a moment more, but don't over stir, because you don't want to stir your bubble out. Pour into a greased 8-inch square-baking pan. Bake at 425 degrees for about 25 minutes. 

Homemade Vanilla Extract

Recently, I have been interested in making my own ingredients instead of buying processed ingredients at the store. When I came across this recipe for homemade vanilla extract in The Encyclopedia of Country Living I was very excited. Carla Emery lists three different recipes for vanilla extract- two that include alcohol and one that does not include alcohol. I am not sure which one would taste better, especially since you would not be able to taste the alcohol flavor in the final product, however it seems that the non-alcoholic recipe can be used immediately, while the alcoholic versions need to sit between 1-2 months before they can be used.

OLD-TIME VANILLA EXTRACT:

Use 4 oz. vanilla beans, 16 oz. edible alcohol, and 16 oz. water. Slice the beans and cut into fine pieces with a sharp knife. Thoroughly powder them in a mortar with 1-2 oz. granulated sugar. Put the powder into the alcohol and water mixture. If you don't have pure alcohol and are substituting a strong whisky blend or brandy, use correspondingly less water. Let the vanilla soak in the liquid for 4 weeks. Strain. The liquid is your extract.

EASY VANILLA EXTRACT:

 Use 1 quart of any good 80-proof brandy and two split vanilla beans. Soak them in a corked jar for two months before using.

NON-ALCOHOLIC VANILLA EXTRACT:

Cut up one vanilla bean into small pieces, place in a bowl. Pour 1/4 cup of boiling water over them; cover bowl and allow mixture to steep overnight. Blend mixture. Strain and return juice to the blender. Add 1/2 teaspoon of liquid lecithin, 1-tablespoon honey, and 1-tablespoon vegetable oil. Blend; pour into a bottle, cap and refrigerate. Before using, shake well. 

Baking with Honey

As a baker, I am always looking for ways to keep cakes, cupcakes and cookies moist. Not many people are fond of hard or dry pastries. Carla Emery received this tip from Marilyn Gordon and her husband, who raise and sell honey:

"To substitute honey for sugar in a baking recipes use 3/4 cup honey for 1 cup sugar and reduce liquid in the recipe by 1/4 cup - like in cakes. If liquid isn't called for in your recipe, add 4 tablespoons of additional flour for each 3/4 cup of honey used in cookies. Bake at a temperature of 25 degrees lower than called for, as baked goods with honey will brown faster. Cakes, cookies, and breads will be moist and stay fresh longer because of the honey's moistness."

Carla also states: "Honey is acidic. If there is as much as 1 cup of honey in the recipe, you can add 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda (per 1 cup honey) and get a leavening action as well as neutralize the acidic quality."

With this tip it will be fun to try new recipes, such as these honey fudge brownies.

HONEY FUDGE BROWNIES

In a saucepan over low heat, melt together 1/2 cup butter, 2 squares of unsweetened chocolate, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Mix well. Remove from heat. Blend in 1 cup of honey, 1/2 cup un-sifted flour, and 1 teaspoon of baking powder. Add 2 well-beaten eggs. Beat the mixture well. Pour into a thoroughly greased 9-inch square pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 35 minutes (or until done in the center). Cool on wire rack for 15 minutes before marking into 16 squares.  

How to Mind Your Own Beeswax

Lately, I’ve been facing a difficult dilemma. I’ve recently come to the age where I need to start thinking about what I eat. As a kid (and even through high school and college, I have to admit) I pretty much ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and rarely experienced any consequences to make me consider changing my behavior. But as I begin to acknowledge my own adulthood, I’m realizing that processed foods—while often tasty and satisfying—might be doing more harm than good in my diet. Refined sugars, for example, are ever-present in packaged food and many dessert recipes, but serve no nutritional purpose. So here is the dilemma: how can I live without the unhealthy sweets for which I yearn on a daily basis?

Luckily, Carla Emery has the answer: honey.

Honey has been around longer than refined sugar and is easier for your body to digest. Honey is composed of simple sugars, mainly fructose and glucose. Best of all, you can substitute honey in nearly any recipe that calls for refined sugar and trade guilt for flavor!

Carla Emery has all kinds of advice for personal beekeeping to pollinate your crops and collect honey, but if you feel a bit squirmy about spending a lot of time with these buzzing pollinators (like I do), you can also buy wholesale honey direct from another beekeeper. If you are purchasing honey from a beekeeper, she suggests buying in 5-gallon quantities to supply an average family for a year.

Storing Honey

Honey keeps easily — better than just about anything else. Unlike most food storage, storing honey at a warm temperature, in a closed bottle, does not result in any loss of flavor. It doesn’t need to be frozen, canned, or even refrigerated. In fact, storing honey in a cool place can actually speed up the granulation process. (Your honey may crystallize into a stiff whitish texture—this is normal and doesn’t harm your honey, but each time you re-melt it your honey may lose some of its flavor and nutrition.) It keeps just fine in glass, plastic, pottery, or metal, inside or outside. But store where it won’t get warmer than 75 degrees Fahrenheit since above that temperature it may lose flavor and color (the higher above 75 degrees F, the faster the change). Ideally, pack your honey in wide-mouthed 1-gallon jars in comfortable room temperature (chilly, stiff honey won’t mix with other ingredients very easily).

Cooking and Baking with Honey

The sweet taste of honey tends to be more concentrated than that of sugar, so you can substitute less honey than the sugar called for and end up with your dish equally sweet tasting. You can substitute honey for sugar in any recipe, but because honey is a liquid you should then also decrease the liquid in the recipe. Carla Emery has a helpful cheat sheet for substituting honey for sugar when cooking:

· 2/3—3/4 cup honey = 1 cup sugar

· ¾ cup honey = add 2-3 T. liquid

· 1 cup honey = add ¼ cup liquid

· Baked goods with honey will brown faster than with sugar, so bake at a temperature 25 degrees lower than called for.

· Honey is acidic. If there is as much as 1 cup of honey in the recipe, you can add ½ t. baking soda (per 1 cup honey) and get a leavening action as well as neutralize the acidic quality.

· Honey is easiest to measure if your measuring container has first held the oil or other fat for the recipe, or if you first coat the spoon or cup with oil (or with nonstick pan-coating spray). Then the honey won’t stick in the measuring container and you’ll be able to get it all back out easily.

· Combine honey with other liquids in the recipe.

· If liquid isn’t called for in your recipe (like for cookies) add 4 T. additional flour for each ¾ cup honey.

· Cakes, cookies, and breads will be moist and stay fresh longer because of honey’s moistness.

And here are a couple of Carla Emery’s mouth-watering recipes to try without losing an ounce of sweetness!

Honey-applesauce cookies:

Cream together 1 ½ cup honey and 1 cup shortening. Add 2 beaten eggs and beat mixture until smooth. Add 2 t. soda to 2 cups applesauce. Sift in 2 t. cinnamon, 1 t. nutmeg, 1 t. salt, and 3 ½ cups flour. Stir in 2 cups quick-cooking oats (or rolled wheat), 2 cups raisins, and 1 cup walnuts. Drop on cookie sheet with a spoon. Bake at 325 degrees F for 10 minutes.

Honey-Fudge Brownies:

In a saucepan over low heat, melt together ½ cup butter, 2 squares unsweetened chocolate, ½ t. salt, and 1 t. vanilla. Mix well. Remove from heat. Blend in 1 cup honey, ½ cup unsifted flour, and 1 t. baking powder. Add 2 well-beaten eggs. Beat the mixture well. Pour into a thoroughly greased 9-inch-square pan. Bake at 325 degrees F for 35 minutes (or until done in center). Cool on wire rack 15 minutes before marking in 16 squares.