Sunday, June 27, 2010

Cornbread

Expectation: To learn more about corn and bake a delicious, healthier cornbread!

Winning Recipe: Whole Grain Cornbread with Honey Butter


I chose to try out some cornbread since it's such a classic summer treat. I found a great recipe in the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking book, which had a lot of variations that sounded interesting. I made the basic recipe and it turned out really well. Then I tried my own variation to use some fresh corn that came in our veggie box. The end result both times exceeded my expectations, and was better than any cornbread I had ever had. The trick is in the whole cornmeal (read more about this at the bottom of this post), which is much more substantial (not to mention healthier) then regular cornmeal. The bread is heavy, and very satisfying, with a strong corn taste. When you eat a piece, you feel like you're getting a lot of bang for your buck - a filling treat instead of empty calories. 

To find the basic cornbread recipe, buy this book. The recipe I came up with is a bit sweeter and includes fresh corn kernels:.

Ingredients:
  • 2 cups whole grain cornmeal
  • 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (how to measure flour)
  • 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups buttermilk (if you like it extra moist, replace 1/2 cup with heavy cream)
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 1/4-1/3 cup brown sugar (to taste - I used 1/4 cup, and it was just slightly sweet)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup fresh corn kernels (optional)
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 tablespoon butter for pan
  • butter and honey for honey butter
Preparations:
Preheat oven to 400°F. Place the 9-inch square pan or cast-iron skillet in the oven to preheat. (Cornbread is best made in cast-iron, which I don't own. These directions work for either.)

Whisk together the cornmeal, flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together the buttermilk, honey, brown sugar, eggs, corn kernels and melted butter in a separate bowl. Add, all at once, to the dry ingredients, stirring quickly and lightly just until the batter is evenly combined. 

Remove the pan or skillet from the oven and place the tablespoon of butter into it. Swirl the pan around so the butter melts and covers the bottom and sides. Carefully transfer the batter to the hot pan, and return it to the oven to bake until the top is golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve warm. 

To make the honey butter, mix one part butter with one part honey.

Nutrition facts for one serving (1/9 of recipe):
409 calories
13g fat
55g carbohydrate
6g fiber
GI 76
GL 35

About the grains and ingredients:

Whole Cornmeal retains its nutrients and fiber, unlike the more common cornmeal, found at most grocery stores, which has had it's germ removed to assure a longer shelf life. Whole cornmeal is gritty, and has a rich, round flavor. It is a great source of vitamin A, manganese and potassium. It can be found at most health food grocery stores (I found it at Whole Foods). 

Whole Wheat Pastry Flour comes from the same grain as regular whole wheat flour, but is made from a softer variety and milled to a finer texture. It has a higher starch content, but is lower in gluten and protein. The end product is lighter and more tender than that of regular whole wheat flour. Whole wheat pastry flour can be found at most health food grocery stores (I found it at Whole Foods).

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Easy Whole Grains

A lot of my readers (all three of them) have requested information about ways to add whole grains to their diets without all the work of baking. Here are some of my favorite products that are super tasty and full of healthy whole grains:

Annie's Organic Whole Wheat Shells and White Cheddar

This macaroni and cheese is really good, easy to make, and 100% whole wheat. I use it to make one of my favorite meals; Veggie Mac and Cheese! Here's what I do:

Boil the water as directed on the box. When you add the pasta to the water, also add whatever chopped vegetables you want; spinach, green beans, broccoli, squash, carrots, zucchini - almost anything works! Cook the pasta and veggies together for 8-10 minutes as directed on box. I like my sauce a little creamier and spicy so, along with the cheese packet, I use 1/4 milk, 2 tablespoons butter, and a couple dashes of cayenne pepper. I also sometimes throw in some cream cheese or shredded cheddar to make it a bit cheesier. It's a pretty fail-proof meal (how can you go wrong with pasta and cheese?), so get creative!

Trader Joe's 12 Grain Mini Snack Crackers

These crackers are amazing! The taste is slightly sweet and salty, with a nice buttery crunch - kind of like a healthy version of Ritz Crackers. They are perfect with almost any kind of cheese, and are practically a nightly snack at our house. These crackers contain enriched flour (white flour, so they are not completely whole grain), oatmeal, inulin (an all-natural, soluble, prebiotic fiber), rye flour, a multi-grain flour blend (containing wheat, triticale, barley, corn, millet, rice, flax, durum wheat and oats), and wheat germ. That's a whole bunch of tasty whole grains!

La Tortilla Factory Hand Made Style Corn Tortillas

These tortillas are awesome because they contain some corn and some wheat, but they feel like flour tortillas. They are not hard or dry like most corn tortillas. The ingredients include stone ground corn masa flour and wheat gluten. I use these in another one of my favorite meals; Veggie Wraps!

To make veggie wraps, I cook veggies (usually frozen spinach, broccoli and bell peppers, but again, almost anything works) in a pan with some olive oil. While those are cooking, lay out some tortillas and put shredded cheese (Monterey Jack works great) on top. Once the veggies are done, put a good size spoonful on each tortilla until the veggies are all out of the pan, but leave the burner on. Add a bit more oil to the pan and lay the tortillas on one or two at a time until the cheese melts. Remove them, fold them up and enjoy!

Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

This is a big ball of dough which makes great pizzas, and can also be used for calzones, empenadas, breadsticks and anything else you can come up with. It is not 100% whole wheat, but it tastes good and is easy to work with. It can be found in the refrigerated section of Trader Joe's.

What to Look for in the Grocery Store

There are a lot of terms and tricks out there that make incorporating true whole grains into your diet a challenge. Words like "multi-grain", "stone ground", and "wheat" are buzz-words used to help sell products. The key lies in the word "whole".

  • Bread: Many "wheat" or "7-grain" breads have enriched flour as the first ingredient, which is another term for refined white flour. Whole wheat flour is the first and only flour in true whole wheat bread.
  • Cereal: Special K has a healthy reputation, but it is made from white rice. Cheerios, on the other hand, have whole grain oats at the top of the list
  • Tortilla Chips: Although corn is a whole grain, many products use refined corn that has been stripped of it's nutrients. Look for "whole corn".
  • Crackers: Whole Wheat Ritz crackers have enriched flour at the top of the ingredient list. However, Whole Grain Wheat Thins and Triscuits are 100% whole grain. 

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Blueberry Buckle Coffeecake

Expectation: To make an amazing whole-grain coffeecake.

Winning Recipe: Blueberry Buckle Coffeecake


I decided to take on this coffeecake because we were looking for a way to use some blueberries that came in our veggie box. The King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking Book, where I found the recipe, made some pretty hefty claims about it, promising that "Blueberry Buckle Coffeecake is rarely still around for more than an hour out of the oven, but should you have admirable restraint, it will still be just as delicious later for dessert, under a scoop of ice cream." It certainly lived up to my expectation, and I couldn't taste even a hint of whole wheat. I can't say that the cake is particularly "healthy", but you can feel a little better about it knowing you are getting the extra nutrients and health benefits of whole grains. 

First, a little explanation. I had no idea what a buckle coffeecake was, and I thought for sure that it would be explained here at ochef.com, where they describe the difference between betty, clafoutis, cobbler, crisp, crumble, grunt, pandowdy, and slump (I promise these are all baked goods and not diseases). But, alas, the buckle was left out. I did find a bit of an explanation at cooks.com, which states that "a classic buckle is made by covering a layer of fruit with a cake batter and sweet crumbs. A coffeecake made 'buckle fashion' will buckle and crack as it bakes." The cake we ended up with might be better described as a crisp, but I am certainly not complaining.

I made the recipe exactly as written in the book, and it was pretty easy to do. I did have to go out and buy some white whole wheat flour, which I will explain further below.

Ingredients:

Streusel
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (how to measure flour)
  • 1/4 cup unbleached (preferably) all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened
Buckle
  • 2 cups white whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen- I used fresh)
Preparations:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease and flour a 9-inch square pan.

To make the Streusel: Whisk together the sugar, flours, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a medium bowl. Add the butter and mix to make medium-size crumbs. (Here I am pictured grinding fresh nutmeg - yummy!) We found it works best to cut the butter up into small pieces before adding it to the dry ingredients, then cut it in with a pastry knife or two butter knives.

To make the Buckle: Whisk together the flours, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Cream together the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy, then add the eggs, one at a time, stopping to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl between additions.

Stir in half the dry ingredients, then the milk and vanilla, scraping down the sides. Stir in the remaining dry ingredients, then gently fold in the blueberries. Spread the batter in the prepared pan, and sprinkle the streusel evenly over the top. 

Bake the buckle until a cake tester (in other words: toothpick) inserted in the center comes out clean, 45-50 minutes. Remove it from the oven and let it cool, in the pan, on a rack. The book also says that this recipe can be made with any berry you like, or cherries, or diced stone fruits, such as peaches, plums or nectarines. 

Nutrition facts for one serving (one 2 1/4 inch square):
252 calories
8g fat
43g carbohydrate
3g fiber
GI 68
GL 27

About the grains and ingredients:

Unbleached Flour comes from exactly the same thing as bleached flour, only it is bleached naturally as it ages instead of being mixed with a bleaching agent. A bleaching agent is typically added to flour to give it a whiter appearance, and to oxidize the surface of the flour grains. Known bleaching agents include benzoyl peroxide, calcium peroxide, nitrogen dioxide, and chlorine dioxide (which, incidentally, produces alloxan, a contaminant that has been identified as a possible cause of type-1 diabetes). Unbleached flour is supposedly best for yeast breads and pastries, whereas bleached is best for more typical baked goods like cookies and pancakes, because it gives foods more volume and finer grain. 

White Whole Wheat Flour is produced from a hard, white (instead of red) variety of the wheat plant. It tastes and appears more like refined flour, even though it has almost the same nutrient content as red whole wheat. It can be found at most health food grocery stores (I found it at Whole Foods). 

Whole Wheat Pastry Flour comes from the same grain as regular whole wheat flour, but is made from a softer variety and milled to a finer texture. It has a higher starch content, but is lower in gluten and protein. The end product is lighter and more tender than that of regular whole wheat flour. Whole wheat pastry flour can be found at most health food grocery stores (I found it at Whole Foods).

Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats are oat groats that have been steamed and flattened by a roller. Oat grains have an outer husk when they come off the plant which must be removed to uncover the whole oat kernel called groats. Rolled oats cannot be eaten raw, but are the main ingredient in minimally cooked recipes, like granola. Oats are a top source of soluble fiber, which can help lower cholesterol levels. Oat bran also contains beta glucan, which has been shown to enhance the immune system's response to bacterial infection. They also contain a large amount of protein and healthy fats.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Quaker Oats Oatmeal Pancake Mix

The other day at Safeway I stumbled upon a new product, Quaker Oats Oatmeal Pancake Mix. The mix is 100% whole grain, containing oat flour and whole wheat flour. On the back of the box there are recipes for Heart Healthy Pancakes and Waffles (with skim milk and egg white) and Traditional Pancakes and Waffles (with 2% milk, a whole egg, and oil.)

I made the traditional pancakes and was quite pleased! They were very easy to make, and the final product was light, fluffy, moist and had great flavor.

The recipe said it would make 7-9 pancakes, but I ended up with 4 (mine were each 4-5 inches large, not dollar pancakes). After eating two (with tasty banana topping and eggs on the side), I felt like I had eaten a substantial meal, without feeling tired or too full. I definitely recommend this mix as an easy way to add whole grain to your weekend breakfast, without sacrificing flavor!

The nutrition facts for 1/3 cup mix (each of my pancakes were 1/4 cup) are:
150 Calories
2 g Fat
31g Carbohydrates
4g Fiber

Friday, June 4, 2010

Pretzels

Expectation: That yet again the dough wouldn't rise. 

Winner: Whole Wheat Soft Pretzels


As you know from the great pretzel failure and more lessons learned, we had been working on pretzels all week. I'm actually surprised we even bothered one more time, but we came across a recipe that looked promising (and this one had reviews written by real people who actually made them), and we were determined. 

I found the recipe at BakingBites.com, and the original recipe can be found here. One thing I really liked about the recipe is that it has check points throughout the process so that you can tell things are working. And, unlike the first recipe we tried, it is 100 percent whole grain. 

The end product was actually a lot more delicious than I expected. The pretzels did not have a dry "whole wheat" taste, but were moist, substantial and really tasted like pretzels! We dipped a few in pub cheese, dunked some in mustard, and made one awesome turkey-melted Gouda-apple-pretzel sandwich. They were also really fun to make, although it was more or less an all day activity (including gathering the ingredients, waiting for the dough to rise and shaping the dough).



My best estimate of the nutrition facts for one pretzel:
181 calories
1g fat
37g carbohydrate
5g fiber
GI 67
GL 22

About the grains:

Vital Wheat Gluten is the natural protein found in wheat. The flour (found in most grocery stores), is wheat flour with the starch and bran removed (leaving mostly the protein). A small amount added to yeast bread recipes improves the texture and elasticity of the dough. It gives structure to yeast breads and helps them rise. Wheat gluten is also used as a meat substitute in many vegetarian dishes. 

Whole Wheat Flour contains the macro nutrients of the wheat's bran and germ (the whole kernel). It is hearty and more robust than white flour and a good source of calcium, iron and fiber. It can be substituted for some or all of the white flour in most recipes, and found in most grocery stores.


Thursday, June 3, 2010

More Lessons Learned

After the great pretzel failure that occurred on Monday, we were determined to make the damn pretzels. Upon further inspection of the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking book, we found a couple of informational sections that looked important: the section about yeast. and the section about how to measure flour.

The yeast section explains, "Instant yeast can be added to the dough along with the other dry ingredients, no dissolving necessary. A third type of yeast, rapid rise, is inappropriate for these recipes." So apparently, contrary to what many websites and other books said, there is a difference between instant yeast and rapid rise yeast. We had used rapid rise in the pretzels, when it had called for instant yeast. Clue #1.

The other section was a little paragraph hiding in the front of the book about how to measure flour. The book states, "Use a fork or spoon to vigorously fluff up the flour in the bag or container that it's in. This, of course, incorporates air into the flour, and air is one of nature's very best leaveners, and a powerful one to boot. Then dip a flour scoop or spoon into the container and sprinkle the flour into your dry measuring cup. This will assure that you don't pack in the flour - a certain path to dry, hard, crumbly bread or cookies and so on. Take the edge of the flour scoop or the flat edge of a knife and level the cup." Clue #2.

So there we had it - the reasons for our pretzel fail. We set off to Safeway to buy some instant yeast, but wait! They didn't have any! They only had active dry and rapid rise. This sounded like a problem for the King Arthur Baking Hotline! I called the hotline and told them what had happened, and that I couldn't find any instant yeast at the grocery store. She told me to buy something called "bread machine yeast", which should give me much better results.

So we tried again. This time we used the bread machine yeast and fluffed the flour. Then we sat back and let our mouths water with visions of pretzel-deliciousness while the dough was supposed to rise. BUT, you guessed it - it didn't rise. A fourth batch of pretzel dough thrown into the trash.

Still determined to make the pretzels, I emailed the baking hotline and told them the whole story. Once again, I got the same response: bread machine yeast and how to measure flour. But, I do want to share with you exactly what Frank at the hotline told me:

Currently there are 3 types of yeast on the market:
1) Rapid Rise/Quick Rise: These are proprietary strains of yeast designed for only 1 strong rise. This type of yeast can not be proofed. We do not recommend this style of yeast.
2) Active Dry: This is a dried yeast that requires proofing before incorporation into the final dough.
3) Instant/Bread Machine: This is a dried yeast that is added directly with the flour. It can not be proofed. It is designed for traditional multiple rises.

He also said, "When a whole wheat recipe has difficulty rising, the first thing to review is how the flour has been measured. Because whole wheat flour contains bran, having the correct water: flour ratio is essential. All of our recipes use the sprinkle and sweep method. You will find an explanation and video of the method here. If a dough is too dry, especially a whole wheat dough, no amount of yeast will be able to budge it."

I really appreciated Frank's response, but I had to tell him that we had basically done these things, and just weren't up for trying the same recipe again, unless he could see some other obvious thing we were doing wrong. He told me he had always had success with this recipe.


This recipe is not whole grain, so I won't be making it (at least for the blog). I have found another recipe that looks more promising, so stay tuned for that one!