It is sad, but finally true. Our beloved baker, Kyrie Juchemich is leaving Bob’s Red Mill bakery this month. We have known about Kyrie’s departure  since the middle of the summer, considering she is not just leaving Bob’s, but the country. Yes, the country; she is relocating to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany where she will be working on a vacation military resort. Kyrie will be offering her best hospitality to the U.S. military, while they are on vacation. Her journey will bring many great adventures.

While at Bob’s Red Mill, Kyrie has contributed many ideas and much energy to the bakery. More precisely, she has developed recipes and helped to organize our much loved Wheat-Free and Vegan pastry cases. One of her popular recipes that many of you enjoy is the Dairy-Free Granola Bars. They are served fresh every Monday and keep well through the week for a filling snack anytime. Another “Kyrie” favorite in the vegan case every Friday is the Pumpkin Seed, Chocolate and Cashew Muffin. Following, you will find the recipe for you to make in your own kitchen. We hope you enjoy the recipe and thank you for all the support! Also, a special thanks to Kyrie for all your hard work and fun you brought to the Bob’s Red Mill Bakery.

Vegan Pumpkin Seed, Cashew and Chocolate Muffin

Mix 3 tbsp. flax meal and 9 tbsp, of water together in a measuring cup.

Mix the following in a bowl:

½ cup safflower oil
3/4 cup evaporated cane juice

Add flax mixture to bowl, as well as:

2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt

Scrape bowl.

Then add:

¾-1 cup soymilk or ricemilk
1/3 cup of each: cashews, pumpkin seeds and chocolate chips

1. Use a spatula to mix in remaining ingredients until smooth, but be careful not to over mix.
2. Use desired muffin scoop to scoop into lined muffin pans.
3. Bake at 350º for approximately 18-23 minutes.

Yields approximately 9  2- inch muffins.

In our hearts, we will always be World Porridge Champions. It’s a title few can claim as their own and we are lucky to have won it. While we’re busy preparing for our journey to the Highlands of Scotland in three and a half short weeks (yikes!), I wanted to urge you to come by our store and look at the trophy before it’s gone. We may be lucky enough to win it again, but winning two years in a row is a rare feat done only once in the history of the competition.

If you’re in the area, come by and bless our trophy before we take it back to the Scots where it may just find a new home in Scotland, Canada, England or possibly in the United States again. If you can’t get down to bless the trophy, we’d love if you would leave us some well-wishes for our champion, Matt Cox as he prepares to battle it out against the world’s top porridge makers.

We’ve got some great things in store for you as the time ticks down to October 10th. We’ll share a wonderful video of the progress we’re making on our specialty dish- now known as Bob’s Savory Oat Fritters- and we’ve got a recipe to give you and some tips for making your own savory oat fritters. We’ll have some guest posts from bloggers of every sort and we cannot wait to share what they’ve written for you! October will be filled with some wonderful giveaways in honor of Celiac Disease Awareness Month. We’ve got a lot of great things planned, so be sure to check back often!

What do you do with that old bicycle that is still in decent shape, but that you just don’t ride anymore? Why, use it to eat breakfast with us, of course!

Last Saturday about 100 Portlanders traded in their old bikes for breakfast at the Bob’s Red Mill Whole Grains Store and Visitors Center during our Second Annual Bike Drive. In the spirit of sharing and recycling we even accepted useable bicycle parts in exchange for breakfast. Each year we donate all the bikes we collect to the Portland Community Cycling Center. This great organization turns unloved bikes into road-worthy cycles for riders of all ages, abilities and incomes.

Breesa Culver said it best, “The bike collection hosted by Bob’s Red Mill last weekend was a resounding success! We collected more than 100 bikes in four hours. These bikes will support all of our bike safety programs, from after school Bike Clubs to Holiday Bike Drive to ‘Create-a-Commuter’ workshops.”

About 20 bicycles were collected during last year’s drive, but by this year’s event word had sure spread around town! We’re hoping that next year we can collect even more bikes for the community so that everyone has the option to share our passion for biking!

We love seeing all the photos that have been submitted!  It is so exciting to see recipes come to life through the magic of photography.  Since baking season is just starting up with fall quickly approaching, we decided to extend our photo contest until November 30th.  To add your photos into the running, please send them our way!  Below are the details once again about how to enter, prizes and terms and conditions of the contest.

I love capturing the appeal of recipes with good lighting (preferably natural), the perfect backdrop, complimentary tableware and a good camera angle.  It is fun taking photos from all sorts of angles, close up or further away or possibly directly above the dish.  Sometimes I will take lots of photos using all sorts of variations before finding that perfect photo. 

 

Here are two photos of the Blueberry Almond Muffins so you can see different takes of the same exact recipe.  I chose the photo which showed the delicate texture of the muffins and tasty blueberries for our website, but both photos are decent. 

It doesn’t matter if you’re new to baking and cooking, or new to trying to capture the beauty of cooking through photography, we’d love to see what you’re cooking up at home.

What to do to enter:

Pick a recipe from our site or one of your favorite original recipes, prepare it and take a digital photo. Email the photo and recipe used to us at Chelsea (at) bobsredmill.com for submission (please use the subject header of “Photo Contest”).  If you pick one of our recipes, simply let us know which one. If you use an original recipe, we need a copy to add to our website to be eligible to enter. The key here is don’t pick a recipe that you don’t want to share. Of course you’ll get full credit for the recipe and all photos. Even if you don’t win the contest, we’ll try to use your photo for the recipe you chose. We’re just trying to get as many photos for our recipes as possible. You have until midnight on November 30, 2010 to enter. You can submit up to three photos, however each individual will be eligible for only one spot in the first round of judging (i.e. no one person can win twice).

Your recipes should fall into one of these categories: Breakfast (this includes muffins, granola, etc.), Breads (both yeast-risen and quick), Main Dishes, Soups/Salads/Sides, and Desserts. We’ll select a winner from each category for both conventional and gluten free recipes (10 total). Only digital photos will be accepted.

How we will select winners:

Winners will be selected by a committee of Bob’s Red Mill employees. We will pick two winners from each category- conventional and gluten free- for a total of 10 photos. These photos will be published here on the blog and be open for public voting for one week. The top conventional and gluten free photo will be awarded the grand prize.

Prizes:

The eight runners up will receive a gift box from Bob’s Red Mill valued at $50. Boxes will contain conventional or gluten free Bob’s Red Mill products. The grand prize winners will receive a $100 gift card redeemable at bobsredmill.com or the Bob’s Red Mill Whole Grain Store in Milwaukie, Oregon.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN.

ELIGIBILITY: The Bob’s Red Mill Recipe Photo Contest is open only to permanent legal U.S. residents physically residing in the fifty (50) United States of America and the District of Columbia and legal Canadian residents.

Employees of Bob’s Red Mill and affiliated entities, and their immediate families (spouse, parents, children, siblings and their spouses) and individuals living in the same household as such employees are ineligible. This contest is subject to all applicable federal, state, local laws and regulations. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.

HOW TO ENTER: The entry period begins on August 2, 2010 and ends at 11:59 p.m. PST on November 30, 2010 (“Contest Period”).

To enter the Contest and qualify for the prizes:

1. Create and submit a digital photograph for any recipe found on Bobsredmill.com/recipes or submit a personal recipe and photograph.

2. Submit recipe and a single photograph of entry to Chelsea@bobsredmill.com via e-mail.

3. If a Bob’s Red Mill recipe is not chosen, your recipe must be original—not from a cookbook or website.

4. Each individual may submit up to three photographs period (three of the same recipe or three different recipes- but three photographs total) and the recipe should fall into one of these five categories: Breakfast Item (including muffins, bars, etc.), Main Dish, Soup/Salad/Side Dish, Dessert, Bread.

JUDGING: Each eligible entry in the Contest will be judged by selected Bob’s Red Mill employees. Two photographs will be selected for each category- one to represent a gluten free recipe and one to represent a conventional recipe. Ten (10) photographs total will be published on the Bob’s Red Mill Blog for public voting. Two photographs (one conventional and one gluten free) will be selected as Grand Prize winners. All runners up will receive a prize box of Bob’s Red Mill products (valued at $50 USD). Grand Prize winners will receive a gift card valued at $100 for use at bobsredmill.com or the Bob’s Red Mill Whole Grain Store in Milwaukie, Oregon.

ADDITIONAL TERMS:

An eligible Entry submitted for this Contest is subject to these conditions. Contestant retains all ownership rights of said Entry. However, by submitting an Entry in this Contest, you grant Bob’s Red Mill a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the Entry in connection with the Bob’s Red Mill Website and Bob’s Red Mill’s (and its successors’ and affiliates’) business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Bob’s Red Mill Website (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels. You shall be solely responsible for your own Entry and the consequences of posting or publishing them. In connection with the Entry, you affirm, represent, and warrant that: you own or have the necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions to use and authorize Bob’s Red Mill to use all patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights in and to any and all Entries to enable inclusion and use of the Entry in the manner contemplated by the Terms of Service listed at Bob’s Red Mill.com (http://www.bobsredmill.com/help.php?section=conditions). In connection with the Entry, you further agree that you will not submit material that is copyrighted, protected by trade secret or otherwise subject to third party proprietary rights, including privacy and publicity rights, unless you are the owner of such rights or have permission from their rightful owner to post the material and to grant Bob’s Red Mill all of the license rights granted herein.

You know for certain that awareness of Celiac Disease and gluten intolerance is growing when you get the chance to attend an amazing event like the Suffolk County Celiacs Gluten Free Vendor Fair & Fundraiser in Hauppage, NY. This show is one of the oldest and best attended in the country, and continues to grow in popularity year after year. Bob’s Red Mill was there for our third show, and we brought a wide variety of our gluten free products to display. We also brought along an entire palette of Gluten Free Vanilla Cake Mix and Gluten Free Pizza Crust Mix so that we could hand out free full sized samples to every visitor to our booth.

Many people who stopped by during the weekend wanted to know where they could find our newest oat products and other hard to find ingredients. Luckily Peter Kochanowski, one of our east coast sales representatives, was on hand all weekend to answer all lots of questions about which stores in the area usually sell which types of products. It’s not often that you get the chance to talk to someone with an encyclopedic knowledge of most of the stores and products in your area.

Through out both days, Cassidy and I answered questions about everything from how we make and source our products, to how to use some popular ingredient substitutions. We made sure to let everyone who talked to us know that one of the things that really sets us apart as a company is our amazing Customer Support Team. Many visitors were astounded to discover they had someone they could call with questions about how to use our products. It’s hard to overstate how relieved the newly diagnosed, and the parents of newly diagnosed children, were to know that they had someone that they could call when they got stuck trying to prepare a recipe.

Of course, as the knowledge of how to eat with dietary restrictions grows, so do the number of new products to try. We were particularly amazed by how many prepared foods makers stopped by to ask us about buying in bulk because they have developed tasty new products based on our wide variety of products. As the world of gluten free ready to eat foods and restaurant options continues to grow, it’s nice to be able to let food service entrepreneurs know that we have an amazing specialist like Tim Steiner on hand that they can contact to get the ingredients that they need to keep their businesses growing.

We are always happy when people stopped by to tell us that our products are the very best they’ve tried. It’s always great to see people point us out to their friends while they’re walking towards our booth and say “They’re the best!” or “This is my favorite stuff!” It was even better to be able to send everyone off with some free products to try out in the comfort of their own kitchens.

Hard White Whole Wheat Flour can be a confusing product.  Is it white flour? Is it wheat flour? Is it whole grain? What does it mean? These are all valid questions; after all, there’s no such thing as whole grain white flour, right?

Right?

Well, this flour is actually ground from certified organic whole grain hard white wheat berries, so it really is a 100% whole wheat white flour. Hard white wheat contains a smaller amount of tannin, which is a bigger component in hard red wheat which makes the flour darker in color and heartier in taste.  This is why hard white wheat it is lighter in color (really a cream color) and lighter in flavor.

Elizabeth in our customer service department is a big fan of this flour.  She says, “There’s not a week that goes by when I don’t use this flour. I use it for bread, cookies, brownies, pizza dough, pancakes, for breading and thickening… I don’t know what I would do without this flour, and I often wonder how my grandmother survived all her years of home baking without it. Organic Hard White Wheat Flour is the Mercedes of whole grain flours and every home and professional baker should keep it on hand at all times and use it in every circumstance and guard it with their life at all costs.”  She’s a dedicated user!

I am a fan as well.  I never heard of Hard White Whole Wheat Flour before I started working here at Bob’s Red Mill, and now it is my favorite flour.  I really like using it in recipes that call for white flour and replacing half the flour with Hard White Whole Wheat Flour.  You can hardly notice any difference in the baked good and you can’t even tell it’s partly whole grain!  I have tried this with biscuits, crescent rolls, bread and now muffins.  Each time has been a great success.  Here is a recipe for Applesauce Cinnamon Muffins which uses this great half and half flour combination.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Applesauce Cinnamon Muffins

1 cup Evaporated Cane Juice (or regular sugar)
½ cup Margarine (Non-Hydrogenated)
½ cup Milk (Soy, Rice, Almond)
1 tsp Vanilla
1 cup Applesauce
1 cup Organic Unbleached White Flour
1 cup Organic Hard White Whole Wheat Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
¼ tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
½ cup Walnut Pieces

Blend together the sugar and margarine. Add the applesauce, vanilla and milk and blend until smooth. Add the flours, baking powder and cinnamon and blend. Stir in the walnut pieces. Scoop batter into muffin tins until 3/4 full. Bake at 400°F for 20 minutes. Makes 1 dozen muffins.