Hempy Campers

Life has been a bit hectic lately, for various reasons, and on top of that our home internet has been a bit wonky - blogs are slow to load, and the comment pages almost always "Cannot Be Displayed", so my presence in the blog-o-sphere has been limited. But, I will hopefully make up for it with a giveaway post!

Hemp Foods Australia recently sent me a sample of their hulled hemp seeds, and have offered to give another pack to one of you, readers (if you live in Australia, that is. If you live elsewhere, stick around for a recipe).

Prior to this, we had only tried hemp as food once (though we both have a few items of hemp clothing) - as hemp milk, purchased in Toronto and consumed for breakfast in Upstate NY (which also reminds me that I still haven't posted about the last few weeks of our round the world trip...). For the last few weeks, though, we have tried hemp in various other forms.

For breakfast, I have added a spoonful of hemp seeds to smoothies, or to a bowl of granola.

I mixed some in to soy burgers, which we served with fried potatoes and sauteed pumpkin.

Hemp seeds are meant to be really good for you, and a good source of omega-3. I won't pretend to be a nutritionist here, because I am not one, but I was pretty happy with these hemp seeds. I felt healthy when I added them to food, and they add a nicely nutty flavour to things.

Toasted hemp seeds sprinkled on seitan & black bean stir fry.

My only complaint is that, although these were 'unhulled' seeds, there were a lot of hulls still in the mix. They were like tiny little egg shell pieces - you can eat them with no real trouble, but they aren't that nice.

When I was toasting seeds for baking which I would share with friends, I tried to get as many as I could out of the pan.

Hemp seeds, toasting.

 My favourite thing to do with them was, unsurprisingly, adding them to baked goods. Conveniently, a friend turned 30 and I offered to bring cake. Except, instead of cake, I made Maple-Banana Cinnamon Rolls with Hemp Seed filling.

These were sweet, and fruity, and soft, and chewy, and nutty, and delicious. They seemed to go down pretty well at the party, so I would call these a success. These are definitely dessert buns, and should probably not be considered breakfast by any but those with the sweetest of sweet teeth.

I will post the recipe below, but first, the rules of the giveaway:

• You have to live in Australia.
• Post a comment on this blog post for an entry.
• Only one entry per person, for ultimate fairness.
• Contest open until 10.00am on Friday, 23rd March (that's QLD time).
• I will choose one commenter at random after then and let you know the winner.
• Get commenting!

Maple-Banana Cinnamon Rolls with Hemp Seed filling
 
2 smallish (mediumish?) bananas
1/2 c. maple syrup
1/4 c. soy milk
1/2 c. hot water
2 T. vegan butter
2 T. dry yeast
3 1/4 c. plain flour
3 T. gluten flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt

Filling:
1/3 c. hulled hemp seeds, toasted
1 banana
3 T. maple syrup
1 T. vegan butter
4 tsp. cinnamon

Glaze: 1 c. icing sugar, 1 T. maple syrup, 1 tsp. soy milk

Blend 2 bananas, maple syrup and milk together until smooth. In a large mixing bowl, combine hot water and butter, stir until butter is melted. Add blended mixture and yeast, and set aside for 5 minutes. Mix in flour,gluten, cinnamon and salt and knead until well mixed, stretchy and smooth. Place in an oiled bowl, cover, and let rest until doubled in size, about 90 minutes. Punch down the dough, knead for a few minutes, the let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, generously oil a baking tray. Also, prepare the filling: blend together the banana, maple syrup, butter, and cinnamon and then stir in the hemp seeds.

Roll the dough into a long, thin rectangle. Try to make it even, and as thin as you can get it. Mine was about 20cm wide by maybe 40cm long.  Spread filling over the dough, leaving 5cm along the long edge filling-free. Roll the dough into a pinwheel, along its long edge (starting with the side where the filling comes right up to the edge).  Squeeze it to seal the end and make it cylindrical, then slice into 3cm pieces and place onto the oiled baking tray. They should be near each other, but not too close, since they rise. Cover, and let rise for another 30 minutes. In the meantime, heat your oven to 190 (375F). Bake the rolls for 25 minutes until they are golden and sound hollow when tapped.

As soon as you take the rolls out of the oven, mix together the glaze ingredients and pour over the rolls. Let them cool for 15 minutes and then remove from the pan. Cool completely, then store in an airtight container.

 Enjoy...