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Singer and actor Liv Austen has turned a health issue into a passion for cooking, by taking control of every ingredient that goes in to her meals. Every week she shares something she has learned from cooking from scratch, and goes through a recipe she loves, so you can cook alongside the podcast. Cook from scratch - your body will thank you.
Oh goodie! Finally a nut that is an actual nut. Pecans are a tree nut that originate in North America. I feel like they may be slightly more commonly used in North America still, I’m thinking of pecan pie for example, which is maybe not so common here in the UK where I am. We often use walnuts, and there’s nothing wrong with those, but genuinely - if you’re not using pecans in your salads, granolas or baking - why not? They are so yummy, they have this natural sweetness to them, even when consumed raw, that makes any honey or other sweetener redundant. I absolutely love them and they are probably the nut that is consumed the most in our home at the moment.
Like other nuts we have looked at, pecans are calorie dense. I think that is a wonderful thing, calories = energy, which is fantastic. But it’s something you may want to consider if for some reason you are trying to cut down on your calorie intake. An ounce of pecans equal nearly 200 calories. They contain a lot of good fat (remember fat is not the enemy, or do you need a refresher?), as well as copper, Vitamin B1, zinc and magnesium. We’ve looked at zinc and magnesium several times so you can go back to previous posts to learn more about those, but what is Vitamin B1 really? Well, also called Thiamine, Vitamin B1 converts carbs into energy that your body can use. Nice! That ounce of pecans also contains about 4 grams of carbs, and possibly other food that you eat alongside the pecans will contain even more. Copper I believe we’ve covered a bit before too, but let’s just remind ourselves: it’s good for our immune system and nerve cell function.
I love to top up my bran flakes with pecans, and I add them to my homemade granola. I also pop some in my salads, and add them to brownies.
After the break, I will share how to make my favourite bread - polar bread!
Polarbröd, polar bread, is - maybe unsurprisingly - a brand name. They’re not from the North Pole, you don’t eat them frozen. However, the freezing of the bread is apparently what sparked the idea for the name. Polarbröd is a family owned business started in the late 1800s, and has been passed down through generations. It was in the 50s that they got the name, after the family froze the bread (and prepared sandwiches made with the bread) in order to ship them and sell them fresh all over Sweden. These are also hugely popular in Norway, where I’ve had them many times and love them! I was reminded of polar bread when I watched one of my favourite youtubers, Kent Survival (check him out if you are in to hiking or food or both!), do a trip through Sweden and Norway and had these with him. My first thought was “these are perfect for hikes!” but then quickly realised… these are perfect every day! Especially if we can make them at home, and avoid any preservatives or unnecessary processing. And considering how easy they are to freeze and reheat, there’s absolutely no need for any weird preservatives in our home made version. There are quite a few recipes out there for polar bread, especially in Swedish and Norwegian. I found one that I used as a base from godt.no, but I simplified it a bit and cut down on sugar and salt. I’m super happy with the result - try it yourself!
Polarbread
Makes 18-20
Time: Prep 15 min | Rise & rest 45 min + 15 min | Bake 4-5 min (possibly several rounds)
50g butter
300 ml milk
200 ml water
2 tsp fast action dry yeast
1 tbsp honey/syrup/sugar (I used pine and fir tree honey and it was amazing!)
1/2 tsp salt (pink himalayan is great for lots of flavour without using tons!)
100g ground oats/oat flour (just blitz oats in a blender for a few seconds - you can even use leftover oat pulp from oat milk!
250g wholemeal flour
300g plain flour
Melt the butter gently and pour it into a bowl. Add the milk and water and mix in the yeast - let it all blend well and settle for a minute. Add your sweetener of choice and salt, and then bit by bit add your flours until you have a nice dough - knead it gently (you don’t have to knead it for too long) and let it rise under a damp cloth or cling film in your bowl for 45 minutes to an hour.
On a floured surface, roll the dough in to a long sausage shape and cut into equal parts - like small buns that fit inside your hand. With a rolling pin, flatten them until they are about half a cm thick and round, and look like round pittas, or thick pancakes. I got 18 rolls when I made this, but your dough might give you 16 or 20. Use a fork to prick holes all over the surface of the breads (mine look horrible in the photos as my baby started to fuss when I was doing this and it became a bit haphazard!). This lets the steam out when they bake. Put a tea towel over the breads and let them rest for about 15 minutes.
Heat your oven to 250ºC or the hottest it goes if it doesn’t reach that (482ºF), possibly a bit less for fan assisted ovens. Put your baking tray(s) in the oven and let them heat up (do not forget that the trays are hot when you put them back in with the breads!) and once the oven has reached desired temperature, take the trays out, cover with baking paper and place the breads on them. Bake the breads for about 4 to 5 minutes, maybe even less - all ovens are different! You don’t want them overly cooked as they won’t be soft. Let them cool on a cooling rack and freeze the ones that you’re not going to have there and then. They thaw quickly so you can take some out each night and have them fresh the next day - or even take them out and defrost in your toaster!
Polar breads are delicious with any kind of “pålegg”, as we call it in Norway, which basically means any kind of spread or food you choose to top your bread with - be it Nowegian brown cheese (highly recommended!), jam, egg, avocado, Jarlsberg, honey, Notella or whatever you want.
Did you make the polar bread? Did you like them? What did you have them with? Share on Instagram and tag @TheFromScratchBody and hashtag #TheFromScratchBody so I don’t miss it, and I will see you next week!