When I was in the 4th grade, Mrs. Kokila read to about our local tribes of Native Americans. She read us books like 'Ishi in Two Worlds' and took us to museums to see Native American baskets and beads and cooking utensils. And some where along the line, someone mentioned eating acorns and cambium. I was hooked.
Eating cambium is nothing new.
But what do you do with it?
If you come to my classes, we harvested buckets full last year. We did the 'normal' things with it. Baked it. Fried it. Boiled it.
(yawn)
It was bland. It was boring. It was dull.
But then I read that the Finns used it as a flour.
Perfect.
I used Pinus sabiniana, harvested in February. We had a warm early spring and I was able to get some early. Otherwise, I would have waited another few weeks. P sabiniana (or Gray pine) is probably not the most flavorful of pine. In fact, there aren't many uses for any part of the Gray pine. It's so full of knots that you can't get a straight board out of it. It's messy and drips pitch all over whatever is under it. And every once in a while, it drops one of it's huge cones and takes out a car windshield. It does have a nice seed, but it's (cough.cough)...a tough nut to crack. But it's fast growing and I have tons of it. I'm trying to open up the meadow and increase the edges. So these are trees that are coming down any way. I don't recommend cutting down a slow growing, beautiful, useful pine just for the sake of eating it.
I ground up my cambium and started experimenting. I wanted to see how far I could take it. And this was extreme. I made junk food. Yep. Junk food. But yummy junk food.
Doughnuts.
I wish I could say that using cambium made these healthier, especially the fried ones. I would have an excuse to eat more of them. But alas, they probably not any healthier than doughnuts bought a really good doughnut shop. Tender on the outside Moist on the inside. A soft glaze that sticks to your fingers...but no taste of pine. Anywhere. Just pure, sweet doughnut. I did cut the sugar down on the baked version a bit, and baking cuts down a few of the calories.
Cambium doesn't have gluten, so you always have to add something to make it stick together. I used wheat flour and almond flour in these two recipes I added the almond flour in the baked version to cut down on the sugar and make them slightly healthier.
If you decide to work with cambium, my experiments showed I could take it to about a 50:50 ratio with flour. Your mileage may vary. I thought I could go higher actually, but I cannot bring one more doughnut into this house for a few months. Yes, I made that many batches and ate that many of them. I do not want to see another doughnut for a very long time.
Baked Cambium Donuts
These are the healthiest of the two. I cut down the sugar a little, with the addition of almond flour.
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup pine cambium
3 heaping tablespoons almond flour
5 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons milk
1 egg (beaten)
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a doughnut pan.
Scald milk and melt the butter in it.
In a large bowl, mix flours, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Stir in eggs, vanilla and butter. Beat until blended.
Spoon batter into doughnut pan.
Bake 10-15 minutes, until doughnuts spring back when touched. Slightly cool before removing from pan.
I thought these were fine without glazing, but if you want to frost, glaze, sprinkle with powdered sugar, whatever, knock yourself out.
And now for the 'fat pills'...
Raised Cambium Doughnuts
1/2 cup warm water
2 pkg active dry yeast
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar plus 1 teaspoon for yeast
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour (plus extra for kneading)
2 cups cambium flour
1/3 cup shortening
2 eggs
Soak yeast in warm water, add the 1 teaspoon of sugar. In a small saucepan, add the shortening to the milk and scald. In a large bowl, mix sugar and salt together and then pour the scalded milk over. Stir until dissolved. Let cool until the mixture is warm. If too hat, your yeast will die.
Add 1 cup of flour, eggs and yeast mixture. Beat until smooth. Add remaining flours and mix. Dough will be very, very soft. Keep your hands floured to keep it from sticking. When dough begins to leave the sides of the bowl, turn out onto a lightly floured board. Knead until dough becomes smooth and elastic, working in extra flour if needed (I worked in about another half cup of flour to get a dough that had enough body to roll out.)
Place dough in a greased bowl, turn over so top is coated with oil. Cover with a towel and place in a warm spot until doubled (about an hour).
Roll out dough to 1/2 inch thickness and cut doughnuts out. (I used a doughnut cutter, but you could use a glass and a bottle cap, a 32 can and a small canape cutter, pill bottle, whatever works for you).
Let rise until very light (about 40 minutes.
Drop into hot fat (325-350 degrees) and turn when doughnuts are just barely brown. Turn once again when doughnuts are browned sufficiently.
Drain on absorbent paper. Glaze while still warm, or roll in sugar or cinnamon sugar.
Glaze
1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup confectioners sugar
Mix together, add a few more drops of water to thin if necessary.
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