Best Holiday Whole Grain Baking Tip

Tis the season for oodles of baking!  Let's do it the healthy way.   Don't be afraid to substitute whole grain flours for all of the refined white flours in your recipes.   A delicious blend of whole grains like kamut, spelt and hard white wheat can give you a beautiful baking flour.  You can still make a light, delicious treat, even the most refined addicts will enjoy.  You can also make a great consistency cookie.

The Best Whole Grain Baking Tip 

for the Holidays:

When preparing whole grain baked goods, like cookies and cakes,  DON'T OVER-MIX!!    

This is the most crucial aspect of the process.  Mix all of your other ingredients first and finally add you whole grain flour.  Just gently stir until combined.  It is critical NOT to mix vigorously.  If you do, the gluten will be begin to develop and you will end up with tough/doughy/ treats, not appealing to anyone.

If you've had a difficult time cooking with whole grain flours like wheat and kamut and spelt, don't give up.  Try again following this rule.

I remember the first time I tried to make cookies with whole wheat flour it was disaster.  My cookie dough had the texture of bread dough.  It took me a while to figure out what I was doing wrong.  However, once I learned, I never have an issue with heavy or tough baked goods using whole grains.  And even better, people can rarely tell I'll used whole grains and not refined flours.

The exception to the rule, is of course yeast breads, which we want to mix like crazy in a machine.

For some great holiday cookie recipes using whole grains and only natural sweeteners  click here!