Alright, so I’m still on the wheat band wagon. Not only does it have a lot of health benefits but it is cheap compared to the other ancient whole grains. (For the price of what it would cost to feed a family of four a serving of quinoa you could buy an entire can of wheat!) But cooking with wheat, in the past, has been tricky but not anymore! Here are my best tips for successfully cooking with wheat in your family’s favorite recipes.
WHAT TYPE OF WHEAT SHOULD I USE, WHITE OR RED?
Here is the deal with the two types of wheat. Red wheat has a stronger, nuttier flavor. The white wheat has a more delicate flavor that is much easier to disguise. So I would suggest always using the white wheat-especially in baked goods. What is that you say? The red wheat is more nutritious so, why not use it? I thought you might ask that. Red wheat IS more nutritious. And by more nutritious, I mean that it has 2% more protein than the white. HOWEVER, in order to make most anything palatable with 100% red wheat you have to mix it half and half with the all-purpose flour. In that case, you’ve just cut the nutrition by half….or you could just use the 2% less protein white wheat flour and use it 100%. Now, do you think I mean that you ALWAYS have to use 100% wheat in your baking? NO! You use it how your family would like it and I’ll give you some good tips for how to use it successfully and how to know if your recipe is best for 100% whole wheat, half and half or less.
[pinit]
SUBSTITUTING FOR 100% WHOLE WHEAT
There are a lot of recipes that are great for substitution 100% whole wheat. I’d say as a general rule of thumb, if your recipe has two or more of the following ingredients in it-you’re good to go with 100% whole wheat.
- At least equal amounts of brown sugar and white sugar. All brown sugar or more brown sugar than white sugar works even better!
- Strong spices like cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, apple pie spice, etc.
- Mashed fruit (non-citrus) or vegetables like bananas, zucchini, pumpkin, etc.
- Nuts-wheat is very complimentary to nuts.
- Oats. Oats already have that hearty feeling and wheat goes great with it!
- Chocolate-Let’s be honest, chocolate covers a myriad of flavors and tastes great!
[pinit]
USING HALF WHOLE WHEAT AND HALF ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR IN YOUR RECIPES
So what to do if you recipe doesn’t have two of the above? Think sugar cookies, white cake, etc. If you’re at all nervous you can always do 1/6 wheat with LITTLE to NO taste difference. If you’re feeling a little daring, you can do half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose. You may be able to taste the wheat a little but it doesn’t mean it’s a bad flavor. Remember, with cooking just because it tastes different doesn’t automatically mean it tastes bad. It just means it tastes different and you if have to decide if you like it better or worse that way.
HI Crystal, I agree with you regarding the use of wheat. I don’t care how unhealthy people say it may be. I am experimenting with sourdough, soaking, and sprouting. I soaked and sprouted, and dried some hard white wheat and the ground it into flour. I replaced the regular hard white wheat with the dried sprouted wheat in your wonderful bread recipe and it had the consistency of batter than bread dough. Do you have any idea what I did wrong? Jonna
If people would just try red wheat they might like it. I always hated store-bought whole wheat bread because it tasted like ground-up sticks. My husband and I went right into 100% whole wheat when we got our mill and haven’t looked back since. The only real difference we find between red and white is the color of the loaf – not a problem for us. We even played a trick on a friend who “only likes white bread!” He came just before we were ready to slice a loaf and was raving about the smell of the house from the fresh baked bread. We made him close his eyes, buttered all the slices, and made him take a bite. He loved it!!!!!! But he confessed he wouldn’t have eaten it if he had seen it first.