Millet is one of the oldest known grains consumed by humans. You can cook it up into a tasty side dish or grind it into flour for baking. It's high in protein, vitamins and minerals and easily digested. It adds a light, sweet flavor and slightly crumbly texture to baked goods. Millet contains high levels of two essential amino acids (proteins),
methionine and cysteine. Our bodies need adequate supplies of all of the
essential amino acids for growth and cellular repair. Most grains,
including rice, corn, wheat and sorghum have low levels of these two
important proteins.
Recently on Facebook I was telling the girls that I'm experimenting with millet and other whole grains and asked for ideas. I had used millet in my new
Crescent Rolls and it gave them a rustic crunch that was really wonderful and I wanted to try it other recipes.
Elise shared her mom Doris's favorite recipe for millet
cake. I love family recipes and couldn't wait to try it!
The cake is tender, sweet and beautifully fragrant with the organic plums and peaches that I
got from my friends
at
Space Girl Organics and by leaving the skins on the fruit it gave it a lovely bit of tartness. It's wonderful with more sliced fruit on top and some fresh whipped cream or frozen yogurt. Thank you Doris for sharing your wonderful recipe with us.
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Adapted from Doris Ann Biggers Loomis's Millet Cake recipe. (See the original below)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a springform or cake pan with cooking spray. Makes one layer cake
Dry Ingredients:
3/4 cup
gluten free millet flour, or try what I do and grind millet and oatmeal in the coffee grinder until fine.
1/2 cup gluten free oatmeal flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder. I use
Clabber Girl, see thier info here
1 tablespoon psyllium husks, opt
Wet Ingredients:
2 tablespoons coconut oil
2 tablespoons local honey
2 large organic eggs
tiny splash of lemon juice (to activate the baking powder)
15-20 drops of vanilla liquid stevia
1/3 cup almond milk
Fruit: You can use any stone fruits you have on hand. You will need apx 2 cups. Measure after dicing
3-4 organic small red plums, diced with skins on
1 small peach, diced with skin on
2 tablespoons oatmeal or millet flour (toss with the fruit)
Instructions:
- In a small bowl whisk or beat the oil, honey, stevia, lemon & eggs until light. In another small bowl add the lemon to the milk.
- Sift the millet and oatmeal flours. Regrind any large bits. Add all of the dry ingredients together in a separate larger bowl and whisk thoroughly.
- While
stirring with whisk or large spoon, alternately add egg and milk mixtures to the
dry ingredients and stir only as much as needed to finish
mixing. It should be a little thick. If it's too thin you can add one tablespoon of millet flour at a time until it reaches a cake batter consistency.
- Fold the floured fruit gently into your cake batter. Pour into greased pan.
- Bake on the middle rack for apx 35-40 minutes. Test with a toothpick in the
center. If it comes out clean they are done.
- Cool on rack.
Notes- I added some psyllium husks to give the cake structure. I don't
know if I needed them, but again I'm just learning and they certainly
didn't hurt it!
I didn't have quite enough millet left after making the crescent rolls
and decided to use some oatmeal flour too. It worked great, but you can
use all millet if you prefer.
I buy my millet grain from my local Asian grocery store. It's only
$2.00 a bag and grinds up beautifully in the coffee grinder. You can also use
Bob's Redmill Gluten Free Millet flour if you can't find the whole grain.
Doris Ann Biggers Loomis's Chocolate Millet Cake -original recipe -
I'm going to have one of my recipe testers make this exactly as written and we will get back to you with the results!
Millet Cake: (preheat oven to 350 degrees)
1. Grease two glass cake pans
with butter.
2. Assemble ingredients: (makes two layers)
1/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cup honey
4 large egg yolks
1 cup milk
1.5 cups plus 2 Tablespoons millet flour
1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons of Carob powder
2.5
teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3. MIXING:
1) In a small bowl beat oil, honey & egg yolks until light.
2) Sift
and thoroughly stir dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
3) while
stirring with a large spoon, alternately add milk and egg mixture to the
dry ingredients and beat with mixer only as much as needed to finish
mixing.
4) Bake about 45 minutes and test with a toothpick in the
center. If it comes out clean they are done.
5)Place on cooling racks.