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We here at Healthy Kitchens are concerned about today's food supply and how it affects our families' health.  This blog will be devoted to increasing awareness to all our readers about how to increase the nutritional content of the food that we feed our families daily.  We don't want to make it harder, so we have some great ideas on how to do this much easier with the use of some great tips and tricks.  We hope to have some great suggestions, recipes, nutritional information etc. that you all can use.  Please feel free to email us back with your comments and we will answer your questions and concerns or just add them to the posts.

Making Healthy Quick Breads and Muffins Friday, March 12, 2010   Making Healthy Quick Breads and Muffins --The Ingredients Nearly everyone enjoys muffins or a real nice quick bread slice.  They are great for breakfast, lunch and even a midnight snack.  It is a friendly comfortable type of bread, that is quicker than our normal yeast risen breads.  I am going to continue this post by talking about the ingredients that are used in making muffins and quick breads and how we can make them healthier. Eggs: Adding an egg or two to a quick bread makes it lighter, and its flavour substler-one reason that breads with more eggs often have more sugar and flavourings, too.  In addition, eggs act as binders, making the texture less crumbly: but if wheat flour is included, eggs are not necessary. Egg can provide enough leavening in a simple recipe--one that is not heavily laden with fruit, for example--so that you need no baking powder or soda at all (Discussed in last post).  Use one egg per cup of flour, beating the yolks separately into the combined fat and sweetener, folding the stiffly beaten whites into the batter as the last step.  Reduce the liquid measure by about 2 Tbsp. for each egg you added to the recipe. Flours:  Because they do not depend entirely on gluten for rising, quick breads and muffins can make good use of flours other than wheat, especially if the recipe includes some wheat flour or an egg or two.  They'll make a bread heavier than you'd get with wheat, though rollled oats--not really a flour, or course--can make astonishingly light, very pretty breads and muffins.  For one cup of wheat flour, you can substitute about: 1 cup rye flour or cornmeal 3/4 cup buckwheat, rice, or barley flour 1 1/4 cup bean flour 1 1/4 cup rolled oats Keep the flavour and the mood of your substitution in mind when you plan your bread.  None of these characters is a straight-across double for wheat; each has its own personality and flavour.  More perform better supported by wheat flour.  On the other hand, to use bread flour as the only flour especially in plain loaves or muffins, makes for a flat flavour, and if the vigor of your mixing develops the gluten, the bread will be chewy where it should be tender.  I recommend using Soft Wheat flour for your muffins and quick breads as it has almost no gluten in and does a great job of non-yeast products.  I also recommend using the cookie or batter whips with the Bosch Universal Plus and on the low or jog speed, so as not to encourage development of gluten when making these types of breads.  You can purchase Whole Wheat Pastry flour at some supermarkets or Natural Food stores which is made from the soft wheat. Click here for Basic Low Fat Corn Bread Wheat Germ:  Wheat germ can add a lot to quick breads, both in flavour and texture, and many recipes call for it.  It is better to toast it than to use it raw though.  Wheat germ goes rancid very fast, so don't buy it in large amounts and store in the refrigerator.  If you are milling your own flour, like I am in our Nutrimill, the wheat germ will already by in the flour so it is not necessary to add more. Liquids:  Water or any form of milk; potato cooking broth; fruit juice; crushed, stewed, blended, grated raw fruits; zucchini; any of these can provide acceptable "wet" ingredients for a quick bread or muffin.  As a rule of thumb, use about 1/2 to 1/3 cup of liquid for each cup of flour.  Of course this will vary with both the nature of the liquid and the type of flour.  If you are adding cooked beans or grains, reduce the liquid measure by about 2/3 cup for each cup of beans or cereal you add.  Fat:  Fat in quick breads my be oil or butter or a combination.  You can use sesame butter, peanut or other nut or seed butters.  If a recipe is plain, choosing dairy butter over oil may make a difference, but if the other ingredients provide interesting flavour, the bread may be just a tasty if you use plain oil.  If you do opt for butter, cream it with the sweetener until the mixture is fluffy.  The addition of fat in some form contributes tenderness, a soft, moist crumb, and fullness of flavour; and I haven't found any way to make good quick breads with none at all.  However, I am definitely against adding a whole cup of fat or oils and the recipe I attach to this blog will reflect that attitude.  Recently I have been trying my own oils that I can make with our new Omni Juicer oil extractor, using the flax seed oils and I like the results.  I will talk more about this unit in future blogs after we have tried out several applications of the oil. Sweeteners:  The sweetener tenderizes the crumb, too, and helps the bread cook properly, though if you use enough sweet fruit--bananas, for example, or dates--you actually can make a passable sweet-flavoured loat or muffin without adding the likes of honey or molasses.  More practical, though, it seems to me, is to use a little bit of sweetener and have a better-textured as well as a tastier bread.  Again, recently I have been experimenting with our new Xagave Naturaly Sweetener and have found some great recipes that it can be used in, cutting the calories in the muffins and quick breads in half and still making a great product. Click here for Pumpkin Bread using Xagave Tidbits:  Chopped dried fruit, nuts, seeds, sprouted grains--can be folded in when you're combining the wet and dry ingredients.  If it's protein you're after, you can incorperate as much as a cup of grated tofu or 1/2 cup cooked soy grits in a quick loaf.  The soy will make the bread's flavour blander so choose a recipe that will have a lot of flavour like one with applesauce or mince or pumpkin pie spices.  Nearly everyone has tried the standard zucchini loaves by now.  I like to add zucchini to herby/savoury/cheesy breads or muffins or to cornbread, where it helps to make the bread moist and light.   The flavour is superb grated into cornbread, providing you don't get carried away with the quantities.  Start with a cup per recipe and see how it goes. Click here for Herbed Crumb Muffins Toppings:  Before you pop your quick bread in the oven, there are various things you can sprinkle on the top for added glamour or goodness.  Oat flakes, wheat germ, almond meal, sesame or poppy seeds, finely chopped nuts, date sugar--all work well, either alone or in combination. One Last Word:  The variety possible in quick breads and muffins is really limited by your own imagination and the time you have to spend chopping and measuring.  The recipes I provide, are just some we enjoy, but you will not limit yourself to these few.  Mostly I am including breads that are not only good but also really QUICK--if half an hour goes by while you measure and chop and fuss, and another hour baking, and then the bread has to wait overnight to be ready to slice, from my point of view, it would hardly classify as a QUICK. My next post will continue on with techniques in making the quick breads and muffins and more recipes. We do invite any comments or recipes that you have found and would like to pass them on to others. posted by Carol Stiles at 11:42 am - 0 comments CLICK HERE to Add a Comment to This Post

Making Healthy Whole Grain Quick Breads and Muffins Friday, March 5, 2010 MAKING WHOLE GRAIN QUICK BREADS AND MUFFINS In the past few posts I have been talking a lot about making, rising, shaping and baking whole grain yeast breads.  I thought it was time we could take a look at the other types of breads that don't require and rising and use a different leaving product instead of yeast.  These breads are usually termed QUICK BREADS OR MUFFINS because of the short time it takes to create them. For rounding out a simple dinner when time is short, or making LUNCH out of lunch, a batch of muffins or a spicy loaf of quick bread can be just the thing.  Quick breads offer variety, interest, and flexibility, complementing rather than competing with the long-rising breads that are our staff of life.  Without the fermentation period, quick breads depend solely on their ingredients to give them pizzazz.  Most quick bread recipes that I have seen roaming around at large on the web world, call for a humongous amount of fat and, often, sugar too.  They are in fact not breads at all, but greasy cakes, hiding behind the unassumming innocence of names like " Wheat Germ Zucchini Loaf."  Tasty, but Good Grief!  A whole cup of oil, and two of sugar in one loaf? The breads that I will recommend are lean by comparison to such delicacies, but they are just as delicious.  Natural ingredients like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, and spices supply their full, satisfying flavours.  The recipes call for a minimum of fat and sweetener to make the breads tender ant tasty.  I have included flours and grains other than wheat here and there, and have tried to describe some of their possiblities and limitations.  We who eat wheat bread daily, welcome the variety the other grains have to offer.  Since quick breads do not depend completely on gluten for their rise and cohesiveness (particularly if the recipe calls for egg) some, or even all, of their flour can come from oats, rye, corn, and rice. Leavening for Quick Breads--Usually the ordinary, double-acting baking powders are effective, and of the several kinds of baking powder, they are the least bitter.  If you prefer to avoid the aluminum salts that these products contain, the old-fashioned cream of tartar baking powders--either made at home or bought in a natural foods store--work perfectly well.  To make your own baking powder, use 5/8 tsp. cream of tartar plus 1/4 tsp. bicarbonate of soda per cup of flour;  that is the equivalent of a teaspoon of single-acting baking powder.  Make it fresh each time, or make extra and store it air-tight, but only for short periods. If quick breads appear often on your table, the sodium content of these products and their destruction of thiamine may be more significant considerations than whether or not they contain aluminum. One teaspoon of baking soda contains 1360 mg. of sodium, commercial soda-based baking powders vary, ranging from those made with cream of tartar, with 200 mg. to those double-acting kind, with 330 mg. sodium per teaspoon.  Those who need to limit their sodium intake carefully can look for potassium bicarbonate baking powder at the health food store, or even in some supermarkets.  Sodium and aluminum aside, chemical leavenings always generate an alkaline pH and this destroys the B vitamin thaimine, which you would expect to be plentiful in a whole grain product.  For good rising power with a minimum of baking powder I suggest using 1 tsp. per cup of flour. In batters with a lot of acid ingredients, baking soda can be used by itself ( or in combination with baking  powder) to get a good rise without the addition of extra acid salts.  Here are a few simple rules to follow: NOTE: There is close to 1/4 tsp. baking soda in each teaspoon of baking powder. 1. Don't mix soda and acid liquids together.  Sift the soda (and cream of tartar) along with the dry ingredients, and measure the liquids with the liquid measure. 2.Always sift the dry leavening with the flour because if there are even small lumps, the final product will have little dark brown places that are impressively bitter. I will continue talking about the liquids, eggs, sweeteners and fats in the quick breads and muffins in our next few posts but I will always include a recipe with them as well.  This time we have one of my favorite whole grain muffin recipes.  CLICK HERE FOR MONSTER MUFFINS   posted by Carol Stiles at 9:01 am - 0 comments CLICK HERE to Add a Comment to This Post

Shapley Buns Friday, February 26, 2010 SHAPING ROLLS AND BUNS When you have built up a solid reputation as a breadbaker, the time will come when your Mother-in-Law approaches you and announces, ''You may make the rolls for the Family Reunion Thanksgiving Dinner.  Make them soft and tasty and light - not like those rocks you served when we had dinner at your house!'' Well, maybe your Mother-in-Law is more diplomatic, but the implication is there.  It is a challenge to ensure your buns are light and uniform. Here are some bun shaping tips that we think will help. Fluffy Brown Roll dough is our favourite dough for most rolls and specialty breads. Click Fluffy Brown Rolls for our favourite recipe. Buns and rolls should be placed on greased baking sheets, allow at least 1' space between rolls for rising.  Cover and let rise until more than doubled before baking. HAMBURGER BUNS: Take a piece of dough the size of a large egg.  Stretch it from the top middle, down the sides and press edges together underneath.  Press flat between your hands HOT DOG BUNS: Roll a peice of dough the size of an egg between your hands until it is 6" long and 1" in diameter. KAISER ROLLS: Shape a soft dough ball as for hamburger buns.  After the buns have risen, roll each ball into a circle 1/4" thick.  Fold 5 'flaps' towards the center and punch down firmly at center.  Cover and let rise again befor baking. QUICK PARKERHOUSE ROLLS: On a lightly oiled countertop, roll dough into a rectangle 1/4 to 3/8 thick.  Spread very lightly with butter if desired.  Uing a pizza cutter, cut the dough into 2 x 2 1/2 inch strps.  Pick up each piece and stretch it slightly to thin the dough in the middle.  Fold off-center so the top half overlaps the bottom just a little. Firmly press the folded edge.  Place close together on a lightly greased baking sheet.  Let rise until doubled in size. CRESCENT ROLLS: On a lightly oiled countertop, roll dough into circle 10 to 12 inches in diameter and 1/4 inch thick.  Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into 8 to 12 wedges.  Beginning at the rounded edge, roll each peice toward the point.  Place on a greased baking sheet with the point underneath.  Curve slightly into a crescent shape.  Let rise until double.   CLOVERLEAF ROLLS: Shape the dough into a large smooth ball.  Using your thumb and index finger as a pastry press, squeeze off 1-inch balls of dough.  Arrange 3 balls in each non-stick or lightly greased muffin cup.  Let rise until double.   CINNAMON ROLLS: On a lightly oiled surface, roll approximately 3 cups of dough at a time into a 12 x 16 inch rectangle, 1/4 to 1/3 inch thick.  Spread with desired filling (eg Pizza Mix) or spread with 1 tablespoon soft butter and sprinkle with a mixture of 1 tablespoon cinnamon, 1/3 cup of sugar (brown or white) and 1/2 cup of raisins. Roll up as for a jelly roll, starting with the long side.  Seal the seam by pinching the dough together.  With the seam side down, cut into 1 inch slices using fish line, heavy thread or string.  Slip the string under the roll, cross it over the top and pull down.  Place rolls cut-side up in a greased 9 x 13 baking pan, three across and five down, or in a round cake pan.  Flatten slightly with palm of hand.  Let rise until very light and double in size.   BOWKNOTS: Shape dough into a ball the size of an egg.  Roll between hands until the dough is 12" long.  Tie a loose know.  Tuck top under roll and tuck bottom into center of roll.  Place rolls on greased pan and let riae until double in size. What is your favourite roll or bun shaping technique?  Let us know what tricks you use to ensure light, fluffy and uniform rolls that even your Mother-in-law would be proud of!! posted by Carol Stiles at 9:30 am - 0 comments CLICK HERE to Add a Comment to This Post

Shaping Basic Bread Loaves Friday, February 19, 2010 Shaping Your Basic Bread One of the biggest advantages of making your own bread instead of using a Automatic Bread Machine is the opportunity to shape your dough to any number of traditional loaf shapes. A loaf of bread may be formed in many ways, and most bakers have their favorite.   The amount of time and effort spent on shaping varies by baker, for some it presents an opportunity to release frustrations by punching and slapping the dough.  For others, it is a ritual of simple perfection by flattening, folding and rolling.  Whatever your preferred technique, shaping the dough is an important step in breadmaking.  Shaping not only provides a decorative touch, but once shaped, a second rise takes place for the dough to produce more carbon dioxide and alcohol for better texture and taste. Shaping also forms the dough for an optimal oven-spring or rise when placed in an oven to bake and a shape so the dough won't drip and bake all over the oven. Over the next few blogs we will look at a few of the many many many shaping options available.  We will start with a regular traditional shape. Follow this link - BASIC BREAD RECIPE - for our 100% Whole Wheat Recipe. Shaping: Slightly flatten your ball of dough with your hands, and then cross-grain the dough by folding in each of the four sides, dirctly across from each other.  Using the palms of your hands or a rolling pin, flatten the dough into a rectangle, 7 by 15 inches for a large 4 by 8 1/2 inch loaf pan or 5 by 8 inches for a small loaf pan.     Roll up the dough, starting at the narrow side, sealing each turn tightly with the edge of your hand.       Tuck in the uneven ends, roll the dough one more time.  Ensuring that the tucks are under the loaf, you can pick it up and throw it against your kneading board, ensuring that it keeps its shape.  This should flatten out the tucks and give you a smooth loaf bottom.  Or, if you prefer the passive approach, roll the loaf back and forth to make it even.     Place into a lightly greased pan.  (Using the right size bread pan is very important.  Too much or too little dough resluts in a poor loaf of bread, particularly when using whole wheat.  Whole wheat dough is heavier than white dough and cannot support itself in a wide pan.  For best results, bake whole grain bread in a 4 by 8 1/2 inch or narrow bread pan).  When making white bread, fill the pan 1/2 full with dough.  When making whole wheat bread fill the pan 3/4 full. posted by Carol Stiles at 9:30 am - 0 comments CLICK HERE to Add a Comment to This Post

Using Non-Wheat Flours Friday, February 12, 2010 Adding Non-Wheat Flours to Your Bread We have been discussing adding extra grains to your breads in the last few posts so I thought it was due time to also talk about the non-wheat flours and how they react in your breads Another sort of mixed-grain bread simply includes a little of each of several kinds of flours along with the wheat.  If you want to try this you can keep your loaf light by following the example of commercial bakeries:  add only a tiny amount of each non-wheat flour.  A very good kneader or a really great kneading machine like the Bosch Universal Plus, and using a super high-gluten wheat flour could include as much as 2/3 cup total of non-wheat flours as part of a the 6 cups of total flour in the recipe.  Even then, remember, you have reduced your margin for error, so be careful to knead and ferment the dough just right. One consideration here is that most other grains are blander-tasting than wheat.  When you include them in whole wheat bread, they genearally do little more that make the loaf heavier and less flavourful.  Three exceptions: Rye Flour:  Added in amounts up to 1/2 cup per loaf in place of an equal quantity of wheat flour, enriches the flavour of the bread and makes a moister, heartier loaf.  Expect the dough to be a little bit on the sticky side.  If you want the bread to taste like rye, add a spoonful of caraway seeds.  I sometimes like to put in the the blender and powder the caraway before adding, so we get the flavour but not the seeds to pick out of your teeth.  Breads with a larger proportion of rye flour succeed best with a different mixing technique that requires a great deal more time.  I will talk about that in a future post. Buckwheat flour: is strong-flavoured and very heavy.  Use it in small quantities--1/4 to 1/3 cup per loaf will make a heafty buckwehat flavour.  The loaf will have a warm fragrance an the characteristic blue-gray colour.  Sunflower seeds and raisins both complement buckwheat's rather strident flavour beautifully, Triticale flour: (trit´-ih-kay´-lee)  is a newcomer among grains.  A cross between wheat and rye, it was developed for hardiness and high protein content.  Unfortunatley, depending on where the grain is grown, and which of hundreds of strains it came from, it may have considerable gluten content or very little.  We try to get a high gluten triticale when we do our big fall grain order however.  I have made high, sweet-flavoured loaves with 100 percent triticale flour, as well as some duds.  If you want to try, I suggest beginning with half wheat and half triticale, to see how it goes.  Be careful not to overknead.  I would also suggest doubling the honey in the recipe.  If you are milling your own flour, buy plump grains as they will be higher in starch, slim ones are higher in protein as a rule. With the exception of these, three, I find that chunky grains (either sprouts or coarsely cracked, lightly cooked cereals) work better than flours.  Perhaps because the dough can support a larger amount of grain than of flour, the grain give more flavour and character to the bread; it's appearance and keeping quality benefit as well.  We have quite a few recipes in the bread section of our New Recipes that do contain extra grains and extra flours so you can check it out here. posted by Carol Stiles at 9:00 am - 0 comments CLICK HERE to Add a Comment to This Post

More Cereal in Your Bread Friday, February 5, 2010 ADDING MORE CEREAL TO YOUR BREAD  I am continuing on our theme of adding different types of grains to our breads to make them more hearty and give them a different flavour.  Our last post talked about the more common grains to add to your breads like wheat, oats and barley so I thought we would discuss the more uncommon grains in this post. Corn: Nearly everybody likes the sweet flavour of corn and its sunny colour.  In yeasted bread, corn poses unique problems and takes a little extra care to achieve a light loaf.  The most cornmeal you can just plunk into a normal whole wheat bread recipe is about 1/2 cup, substituted for that much wheat flour.  The bread may be a little dense, but it should be tasty.  It is much better to cook the corn first, and then add it to a well-kneaded dough made with finely ground high gluten wheat flour.  Even then, corn softens the wheat gluten and you may begin to think you will have to pour the dough into the pan--but if you follow the method in our ANADAMA BREAD HERE,  you can hav light, delicious bread in a very corny mood. Generally choose cornmeal that is as coarsely ground as possible.  Your loaves will be lighter and the corn will show up better.  Cook the cornmeal before you add it to the kneaded dough, using as little water as possible.  If your recipe calls for oil, stir it into the cooled corn mush before adding it to the dough.  A final word on corn:  once ground, it turns rancid rapidly.  This is a phenonmenon of recent years, a side effect of breeding corn for very high yield crops.  Maybe in the near future breeders will be able to correct the problem, but in the meantime virtually all cornmeal--degermed or not--and other corn products that are sold commercially are a little rancid, a little bitter.  Cornmeal that is really fresh--homeground, most likely, and stored in the refrigerator for less than five days--is sweet, sweet, sweet, and astonishing difference no one can fail to celebrate.  I like to mill my own cornmeal on the coarsest setting on the Nutrimill or in our Family Grain Mill.  Both popcorn and regular dry corn will turn into cornmeal easily. Millet:  Millet sold for human consumption is hulled, and its tiny spheres are unusually clean.  It can be added just as is to bread dough, and will give crunch (but not tooth-breaking crunch) and a pretty dotted-swiss look to the slice.   I have also found that it adds a lot more moisture to the bread so it won't dry out as fast.  The flavour is very subtle, but for visual and textural effect, one-fourth cup of milled per loaf makes a good show.  To bring out its delicate flavour, rinse the grain and heat it dry (stirring all the while) in a big heavy pan until it just begins to brown.  For less crunch, cook the millet in water.  You can add a cup a loaf or more; if the grain is well cooked you won't see it in the slice.  The loaf will very likely be a little heavy, but it will be moist and will have millet's sunshiny warmth of flavour.  For a very good millet bread, add cooked millet as part of the water measure in a plain light bread recipe. Buckwheat Groats:  Kasha, as the Russians call it, or whole groats have every advantage in breadmaking over the flour ground from them.  The flour is heavy, and even a little bit makes the bread grayish and dense.  The groats, however, properly prepared, can flavour the loaf without weighing it down. To start with, make sure you are using the broken buckwheat which is called groats and not the whole black coloured whole buckwheat.  Rinse the grain and heat and stir in a heavy pan until lightly toasted and fragrant.  Mixing a beaten egg into a cup of groats before toasting is traditional and does help to keep the grains whole and separate; if you don't have a non-stick pan, a little oil helps prevent sticking.  After toasting, you can either cool the groats and add them as is to the dry ingredients for the recipe, or knead them in later.  Or you can soften them a little and instead of white sparkling crunchies in the slice, you will have soft taupe nubbets.  To soften, pour boiling water over the hot toasted grain.  Use water to equal only HALF the measure of the groats; stir it in, and cover tightly until the water is absorbed and the grain is cool.  If you are tempted to use leftover kasha (cooked groats, that is)  or cook the grain in the amount of water for normal eating, it will turn mushy and disappear in the dough.  This does not make for light bread.  Raisins and sunflower seeds are good with buckwheat.  Rice:  It is sometimes suggested that leftover rice (brown rice, of course)  be added to wheat dough.  Add one cup to a plain, light loaf's worth of dough, and you will have a chewy, rather flat-tasting bread with rice grains showing throughout.  A more interesting approach is to use rice in one of the "naturally fermented" breads.  Their fuller flavour and greater density accomodates rics's subtlety very well.  Rye and Triticale:  Either of these is good to use like wheat, cracked or whole , as described in the last posting.  Both are also useful ground into flour. Soy Grits:  Soy grits--like the largest crack possible--make a very successful cracked "grain" in bread, with a nutritional plus.  Be sure to precook them, even the toasted ones, for 15 min. or more in a equal quantitiy of boiling water; otherwise, they can rip up your dough.  About 1/3 cup of cooked grits per loaf is a reasonable amount.  For the best flavour, sweeter and not so beany, choose untoasted grits. MIxed Grain Cereals in Bread:  As many of you know we carry a Multimix grain of 9 grains (no wheat) that we make up at the time of yearly grain order in the fall.  I recomment two ways of using it.  Either crack up 1 to 2 cups (I use the Bosch Blender for 10 sec.) and then throw it in the hot water for your bread and let it sit there while you are assembling the rest of the ingredients and make you bread as you would normally.  The second method of using Multimix is to mill 1 to 2 cups in your Nutrimill Grain Mill, along with 9 cups of wheat and then make the bread with that flour.  You will get a lighter loaf with the first method, but if you don't want a lot of crunchy bits use the second method. There is a large natural foods firm that sells a nine-grain bread: for commercially produced loaf, it is excellent.  I thought I would try to duplicate it with my own version.  For starters, I tried just adding leftover cooked cereal (commercially purchased)  to dough, as I have done successful with just oatmeal--but what a disaster!  The cereal contains wheat, rye, barley, triticale, corn, oats, millet, flax and soy grits--an innocent list, but somewhere in there was dynamite for the dough.  Why do I tell you this?  I think it is by way of saying that someone else's mix of grains may not be just what you would want, and there are more reliable ways of coming up with a good mixed-grain bread than adding a cereal.  One simple and effective way is just to add half a cup of sprouted grains or the same amount of whole or coarsely cracked grains (steamed chewy-tender, drained and cooled) to the well-kneaded, elastic dough for any normal, high-rising whole wheat loaf.  There will be flavour and nubby aplenty, and the bread will look pretty too. Our next post will focus on using NON-WHEAT FLOUR in your breads posted by Carol Stiles at 9:00 am - 0 comments CLICK HERE to Add a Comment to This Post

Adding Cracked Grains or Cereals to Your Bread Friday, January 29, 2010 MAKING BREADS WITH CEREAL OR CRACKED GRAINS When it comes to adding cereal grains to breads, there are two schools of thought.  On one hand is the crowd who will add nearly anything--certainly any leftover cereal--to bread dough: the motive either can be earnest thriftiness or sometimes it's a kind of unabashed bravado.  These people are fond of their inevitably hearty loaves, and even when some of their friends don't share their enthusiasm, it turns out all right because a bread that has a lot of cooked grain in it will not stale quickly. In the second school, rather more button-down, are those who admire the featherlight commercial "honey-wheatberry" bread and long for a recipe that will enable them to make such loaves in their OWN KITCHENS: they want to reproduce the pale, airy, sweet, tender loaves, luscious with soft nuggets of REAL WHEAT strewn throughout.  Alas, careful reading of the fine print on the wrapper reveals that the first (the most plentiful) ingredient is white flour--cunningly called "Wheat" flour but not "Whole Wheat."  Very few home bakers would be able to replicate that bread with whole wheat flour (although we come pretty close when using our Bosch machines). Whatever school you favour, and even if you are not ready to join either, I hope the information in this post will get you interested in including whole and cracked grains, and grains other than wheat in your breads.  Wheat:  Here, I am talking about wheat that isn't ground into flour--about whole berries or kernels that have been cracked, and about bulgar wheat, a special kind of cracked wheat that is particularly good for baking. Cracked Wheat:  You can make nubbly, pretty bread with ordinary cracked wheat, very easily with the Bosch machine, however by hand it requires a little more work.  The main problem with cracked wheat that you purchase at the store is it is usually too finely ground.  When you buy it, or if you grind it yourself, try to get a crack that is nearly half of a wheat berry--very large.  Most of what I have seen on the shelves is more of a wheat meal, and when added to the bread it does nothing more than make it heavy and crumbly.  If you mill your own, it is worth sifting out the small particles.  You can crack your own in our hand operated Family Grain Mills or in the blender of the Bosch Universal Plus machines. (jogged a couple of times so as not to make meal) Bulgar Wheat:  This is a sort of cracked wheat that I like best for adding to bread.  I suggest to use the coarsest size.  It keeps it's shape, and is different enough in colour to show up against wheat dough.  Natural food stores often sell bulgar wheat in bulk, or you may find it on the supermarket shelf. You can soften grain for using in your dough in several ways.  Probably the easiest is to rinse a cup of grain and stir in a cup of boiling water, letting it stand, covered, until the water is absorbed.  If you use more water, as you would if cooking the wheat for normal eating, it will be too fluffy and tender to keep it's shape in the dough.  Wheat Berries:  If you sprout wheat for two or three days, it will make a good show in a whole wheat loaf.  Knead them, about half a cupful per loaf, into any bouncy plain bread dough.  Slightly less wonderful but plenty good are unsprouted whole berries cooked chewy-tender, kneaded into the dough in the same proportion.  ( I cook it like rice with a ratio of 2 to 1, water to wheat, for about 1/2 hour or so)  Oats:  Oats give whole wheat a subtle sweetness and a little extra chew.  The flavour of oats blends well with wheat, making it a taste richer.  You can use rolled oats uncooked in bread but it won't be any lighter for their presence.  On the other hand, if you use porridge made from rolled oats to replace most of the liquid in the bread dough, the results is an exceptionally light and chewy-tender loaf. Oat groats or steel cut oats (oat groats cut up) must be cooked.  Bread using their porridge makes a slightly heavier, moister loaf, but one with outstanding eating quality that keeps very well.  For a very pretty crust on the dark breads especially, or on any bread with oats inside, coat the loaf with rolled oats after shaping the dough.  Either spread the oats on a table and rol the loaf in them, or just sprinkle them in the greased pan before you put the bread into it;  for the top, brush with milk or water and dust with the oats just before putting the bread in the oven to bake.  Hearth loaves can be baked on a rolled-oat-strewn baking sheet, but strew with a light hand:  to thick a layer will keep the bread from cooking on the bottom. Barley:  Ordinary barley has tough, sharp hulls that adhere to tightly that the grain must be milled many times (pearled) to get them off;  the germ and the useful bran layers are lost in the milling, needless to say, along with the indigestible hull.  I wouldn't recommend using pearl barley.  A naturally hulless barley that we get with our grain order is good for this use.  Just make some porridge from it and use it in the bread the same way as the cooked oatmeal. Our next post will talk about adding different types of grains to bread such as corn, millet, buckwheat, rice, rye, triticale and quinoa. posted by Carol Stiles at 9:00 am - 0 comments CLICK HERE to Add a Comment to This Post

Making Your Own Breakfast Cereal - Granola Friday, January 22, 2010 MAKING YOUR OWN CEREAL - GRANOLA I have started to talk about making your own cereals in our last post and I have decided to continue in that same vain with some information about an old stand-by, Granola.  Granola does not need to be restricted to breakfast, snacks, and cookies. You want the best nutrition for you and your family. The Granola sold in supermarkets usually has minimal food value. So why bake your own Granola? It is easy, fun, and increases your food value. Wheat, oat, rye, barley, buckwheat, and spelt flakes can be used. They have slightly different flavors and textures. Once grains are milled, they oxidize quickly. It is wise to flake your grains and roll your oats with your Family Grain Flaker Mill as needed. Granola is seldom made of just flaked grains. As for the rest, the combinations are unlimited. Create your own Granola with the flavours that taste good to you. Powdered milk is an excellent addition nutritionally, and it costs almost nothing. Its protein is first rate, and it is a good source of minerals, especially calcium. Sesame and sunflower seeds both contribute greatly to texture, appearance, flavor, and health. They are high in minerals and vitamins. Nuts and seeds add to the texture and desirability of granola. Both the nuts and seeds should be left out of the baking process until the end of the baking time, so as to keep them unsaturated. Approximately 10 minutes before the Granola will be ready, sprinkle on, and mix in the seeds and nuts. Dried fruits are a common source of special taste in Granola. They need to be added after the baking is completed, for they burn easily and have no need of being cooked. Raisins are the most common, and dried apricots are among the healthiest. Many other dried fruits available can be used - dates, apples, bananas, pineapples, prunes, currants and figs. Different herbs and spices add a new and wonderful taste to Granola. To bake, spread the mixture on a cookie sheet or a similar baking pan and place in preheated 250 F ovens. Bake for 20 minutes. During the next 20 minutes stir after the first 10 minutes. About 10 minutes before the Granola is ready, mix in the seeds and nuts. If you are using dried fruit, sprinkle on after removing the pan from the oven. Allow to cool. Then store in a tightly sealed container. Refrigeration is not needed unless you use your Granola slowly. These a two recipes. One for a loose granola and the other for a granola bar. You can be a creative a you want to be in making your fresh granola. MULTI-GRAIN GRANOLA This recipe is a sweeter granola and is great for snacking and cereals. 2 cups rolled oat groats 1 cup honey 2 cups flaked wheat berries 1/2 cup sunflower seeds 1/2 cup rye flakes 1/4 cup sesame seeds 1/2 cup barley flakes 1 cup raisins 1/2 cup powdered milk 1 cup dried banana chips 1/2 cup sunflower oil 1. In a large bowl, mix the rolled oats, flaked wheat, flaked rye and flaked barley. 2. On low heat mix together sunflower oil and honey. Stir until blended and easy to pour. 3. Add to the flaked grain mixture, powdered milk, oil and honey mixture. Mix well until all of the dry ingredients are coated. 4. Bake in a preheated 300F oven for 50 minutes. Stir the mixture every 15 minutes. Add the sunflower and sesame seeds during the last 10 minutes. 5. Remove from the oven, transfer to a large bowl and let the mixture cool. Add raisins and banana chips. Store in an airtight container at room temperature. MAPLE DATE GRANOLA BARS These powerhouse granola bars are great for breakfast on the run and turns anytime snacks into a wholesome treat. These bars can be stored wrapped in room temperature up to a day, or keep in the freezer for a longer period of time. 3/4 cup fresh rolled oats 1/ 2 cup chopped dates 1/4 cup whole wheat flour 1/2 cup maple syrup 1/2 teaspoon baking power 2 large eggs or egg whites 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 1. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, wheat flakes, baking powder, soda and dates. 2. Stir in syrup, eggs, and vanilla; beat until smoothly mixed. 3. Spread batter evenly in a lightly oiled 8-inch square pan. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for about 20 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and just begins to pull from the pan sides. 4. Cut into 2-inch squares and serve either warm or cold. Our next post will be information on adding these different kinds cereal grain to breads both cooked and uncooked. posted by Carol Stiles at 9:00 am - 0 comments CLICK HERE to Add a Comment to This Post

Whole Grain Cereals-Make Them Yourself Friday, January 15, 2010   Whole Grain Cereals-Make Them Yourself Choosing a wholesome breakfast cereal can be a daunting task.  Ask any mother who has taken one of their children to the grocery store and had to brave the cereal isle.  Even a 5 years old has an opinion about which cereal they want only slightly influenced by the myriad of commercials on Children's TV about how great one is over the other.  We would hope as adults we recognize that having control of what you are eating, especially for breakfast can help us live a healthier and longer life.  Breakfast is the best time to get whole grains into our diet. We love old-fashioned rolled oats, but not every day; so I have come up with a concept that organizes and simplifies preparing breakfast, and gives us a large variety from which to choose. I have tried in this post to give you some quick and easy ideas about making your own cereals quickly and easily so that you are not spending hours in the kitchen preparing breakfast. Cereal can be a part of a healthy balanced diet. Cereals made from whole grains contain nutrients that are vital for the health and maintenance of our bodies, such as dietary fiber, several B vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and folate) and minerals (iron, magnesium and selenium). These nutrients have many important physiological functions such as: releasing energy from food; maintaining our nervous systems; forming red blood cells; carrying oxygen in the blood; building bones, and protecting our immune systems, to name a few. With the high cost of package cereals full of sodium, fat and sugar, these recipes will start your family's day off with wholesome goodness for pennies. The maxium nutrition is what you will be getting when rolling and flaking your own grains. Nothing tastes better, warms you more, and as my grandmother use to say “nothing sticks to your ribs better than hot cream of wheat or oatmeal.”  We use the Family Grain mIll flakers that either attach to the Bosch Kitchen Machines or a hand driven drive or their own motors, to roll grains such as oats or even harder grains like wheat and rye or kamut into flakes. You can also roll out the fresh oats, add milk, and wait for 2-3 minutes and you have a fresh cold oatmeal cereal. Adding fresh fruit, raisins and/or honey for a sweeter taste. Cinnamon is know to held regulate your sugar levels. 2 cups freshly flaked whole wheat or rolled oat groats 3 cups water 1. Place water in saucepan. Add flaked wheat or rolled oats. Bring to a rolling boil. Reduce heat. Simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes. Variation: Kamut, Spelt, Rye and/or Millet Use flaked kamut, spelt or rye instead of wheat or oats. HOT MUESLI Muesli has been a European favorite for many years. This is a great way to serve it hot 1 cup rolled oats 2 tablespoons plain yogurt 1/4 cup toasted almond slivers 1 cup warm water 1/4 cup dried unsweetened coconut flakes 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 cup raisins 1 cup warm water 1 tablespoon rolled flax seeds 1. In a medium bowl, mix the rolled oats with almonds, cinnamon and coconut flakes. 2. In a separate bowl, mix well the warm water and yogurt. Pour the water mixture over the rolled oats and mix well. Let this sit for 6-8 hours. This can be done the night before. 3. The next day, bring 1 cup of water to a boil with the salt. Add the oat mixture, reduce heat, cover and simmer several minutes. 4. Remove cereal from heat and stir in raisins and ground flax. Serve with butter or cream. Add sweetener if desired. FRESH HOMEMADE COLD CEREAL When it is hot outside, and your family is looking for cold cereals, create your own with freshly flaked whole grains. Those who are allergic to wheat can substitute the wheat with spelt or kamut  I sometimes steam the harder grains like kamut and spelt for a few minutes before rolling which gives them a flater shape. 2 cups rolled oat groats 1 cup flaked barley 2 cups flaked wheat berries 1 cup honey 1. Preheat oven to 250F. 2. In a large bowl, mix grains thoroughly. Stir in honey. Mix well. Spread grain mixture evenly on a baking sheet. 3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring twice. Remove from oven and cool. Store in a container. .3 Here is a little primer on using some of the various grains as cereals. Steel Cut Oats Steel-cut oats are whole grain groats (the inner portion of the oat kernel) which have been cut into only two or three pieces. Inexpensive and versatile, they are high in B vitamins, calcium, protein and fiber and can be prepared in about 20 minutes on the stovetop – along with cinnamon, vanilla, nuts, pure maple syrup, dried or fresh fruit for extra flavour or additional protein and fiber. A big batch of steel cut oats can be prepared ahead of time and stored in individual containers in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. On those busy mornings, simply reheat individual portions on the stove by adding a little milk (dairy, soy, rice or almond) or water. Millet Millet, with its mildly sweet, nut-like flavor, is one of the oldest foods known to humans and possibly the first cereal grain to be used for domestic purposes. It is highly nutritious, non-glutinous and easily digestible. In fact, it is considered to be one of the least allergenic and most digestible of all grains. It contains nearly 15% protein, high amounts of fiber, B-complex vitamins, methionine, lecithin, and some vitamin E. It is also particularly high in the minerals iron, magnesium, phosphorous, and potassium. Like steel cut oats, millet can be prepared ahead of time and stored in individual containers in the refrigerator. Quinoa Heralded as the “Mother Grain”, quinoa has been cultivated for more than 5,000 years and contains more protein than any other grain. Quinoa contains an almost perfect balance of all eight essential amino acids, and is an excellent source of dietary fiber, magnesium, potassium, iron, phosphorous, calcium, vitamin E and several B vitamins. Quinoa is also gluten-free and easy to digest. This nutty-flavored grain cooks completely in about 15 minutes and can be eaten hot or cold, and goes great with dried fruit. Bulgur This nutritious staple of the Middle East is pulverized from whole-wheat kernels that have been boiled, drained, dried, cracked and shifted – basically a precooked cracked wheat. Bulgur is a natural whole grain food: no chemicals or additives are used in processing the product. Bulgur, also called burghul, has a tender, chewy texture and comes in coarse, medium and fine grinds. Needing very little or no cooking it can be simply soaked and mixed with fruit, nuts, seeds or all natural yogurt for a quick and easy breakfast. Amaranth Amaranth, often referred to as a grain, is technically not a grain at all, but in fact a seed originally cultivated by the ancient Aztec people of South America. Gluten-free amaranth is high in protein, vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid), iron, phosphorus, zinc, copper, and magnesium. Like millet, it is also easily digestible. With its malty, slightly sweet and nutty undertones, it cooks up into a delicious breakfast cereal. posted by Carol Stiles at 11:07 am - 0 comments CLICK HERE to Add a Comment to This Post

Sweeteners For Breads Friday, January 8, 2010 Sweetening Your Homemade Breads #2 In our last post I promised I would talk more about the different sweeteners that can be added to our breads.  One thing I mentioned is that they aren't as necessary as one would think for the bread to rise as the dough itself has some natural sweeteness to it and will feed the yeast as well.  We want to talk about the less used sweeteners that are also used in breadmaking that will give your homemade breads a differents look, taste, texture and colour. Molasses:  Molasses is one of my favorite sweeteners, especially for the heartier breads, which it's dark flavour complements boldly.  There are many varieties of molasses, most by-products of sugar refining.  Sugarcane is pounded, the juice is extracted, and from the juice comes sugar.  What remains behind is first extraction molasses, the lightest.  Second extraction is darker because more sugar has been removed.  Finally, third extraction molasses, or blackstrap, is left.  It still contains some sugar, but so little that it is not commercially practical to take any more out.  Blackstrap is well known as a rich source of iron and other minerals, partly because sugar extracting used to be carried on in iron vessels.  Nowadays this is not necessarily so, and the iron content varies a lot from brand to brand (and so does the flavour). Because sulfur is used in the refining process of sugar, there is residual sulfur in the molasses--highly objectionable to people who are sensitive to it.  Unsulfured molasses is available most places; it is this that we have used in our recipes.  Which kind you prefer is very much a matter of your own taste.  As a rule of thumb, the darker the molasses is, the more sugar has been removed, and the stronger the flavour.  Blackstrap, by far the darkest of the lot,  is more flavouring agent than a sweetener, and it should be used with caution by those who haven't become addicted to it's tangy bite.  The "JOY OF COOKING" pronounces thus on it's pungency;  " Blackstrap molasses is a waste product...and is unpalatable."  To it's fans, blackstrap is marvelous.  Whatever kind of molasses you use, of course, it will make your bread darker in colour than if you had used another sweetener. Malt:  Malt is extracted from sprouted barley, usually, and sometimes from other grains.  It has a rich taste and so enhances the flavour of grain that manufacturers of white-flour products often use it to help approximate the satisfying warm flavour of whole wheat.  The form of malt that is most concentrated and most easily available is barley malt syrup, a thick, viscous semi-liquid.  When you buy it be careful to get the plain-flavoured kind--hop-flavoured malt syrup, sold for brewing, is quite bitter.  Look for a brand that has not been diluted with corn syrup, certainly. The malt syrup is non-diastatic:  it has been heated in it's manufacture, and contains no active enzymes that would affect your bread.  Diastatic malt, or dimalt, does contain adtive enzymes.  Dimalt is most often sold in natural or health food stores in the form of flour.  The flour is much less concentrated than syrup in sweetness and malty flavour, but because its enzymes convert dough starches to sugars, a small amount sweetens a whole loaf, making dimalt a good choice for people who want to make bread without sweeteners added.  The dimalts that are available to the home baker vary in potency, but as a rule, a quarter teaspoon per loaf is just about the maximum you can use without have the bread become a gooey mess that can't bake properly.   See our post on making your own dimalt or diastatic malt in our earlier May 09 posts (Use the search engine at the top) Maple Syrups:  Pure maple syrup is one of the most delicious sweeteners, whether you pour it on pancakes or use it to sweeten bread dough.  Be alert to it's freshness, though.  It does not keep well, even in the refrigerator.  If mold forms on the top, skim it off.  The molds can't survive in the syrup itself, but other micro-organisms can, and they can alter the flavour drastically.  If there is any question in your mind, bring the syrup to a boil--often that revives it's usefulness.  But even then always taste it before you cook with it, because when it's flavour is off it can ruin a whole baking.  The crystallized version keeps longer. Sorghum Syrups:  Sorghum is from a grain that grows well in most places in North America. It is rather sour, and I didn't like its flavour in the bread.  There may be many good ways to use it, but I am not familiar with them so I would recommend this as a lost resort. Crystallized Fruit Sugars:  There are many kinds of crystallized fruit sugars--date, banana and the like--and for that matter turbinado, demerara, and the whole health-food-store panoply--may have some subtle advantages over supermarket varieties, but they are expensive for what you are getting, which is ---sugar.  Some are far less sweet than their more common counterparts, so you may find it necessary to add much more to get the same sweetening effect. Fructose:  Finally a word about Fructose, which not long ago receive a whole lot of attention as a sinless "natural" sweetener.  It does occur naturally in honey and fruits and vegetables, but commercial fructose is a highly processed sugar, usually manufactured from corn syrups, which is itself a highly refined sugar.  I can't recommend it at all. posted by Carol Stiles at 9:00 am - 0 comments CLICK HERE to Add a Comment to This Post