Kristen writes: My husband and I are trying to steer the family into a more real foods lifestyle. We’ve been cutting out HCFS, no more fruit snacks, I’ve started making our bread, etc etc. I’ve always been big into baking and am trying to take that into a “healthier” route as well (although there aren’t many ways to make a chocolate chip cookie healthy!) So when I’m baking, be it cookies or bread or whatever, what should I be using for flour? I’ve been using unbleached all purpose flour for my sweets and I’m trying to get the kids to eat bread made from whole wheat flour, although sometimes I mix the two so that they’ll eat it.
My reply: Yay you! Cutting out HFCS and fruit snacks is a great first step. And making bread is quite a commitment. I have compromised with my bread, and I use half whole wheat flour and half white flour. If I have spelt flour, I will use that for some of the white. I am happy enough knowing that it is freshly homemade and doesn’t contain preservatives and HFCS. I haven’t yet banned white flour from our house, and I doubt I ever will.
When I make cookies, I usually use unbleached all purpose flour and white sugar. I often buy organic sugar, but I’m not sure how important that is. I usually do half sucanat, and no one seems to complain. Sometimes I will substitute 1/3 whole wheat pastry flour, and no one usually notices. I can’t get away with 1/2. Again, using refined flour and sugar is a compromise, but it beats industrially processed cookies any day.
I could go totally extreme with all of this, and I’m sure some thing I already have! But I really do try to keep everything in perspective. I go back and forth on how much I try to avoid the refined carbs and sugars; I know they are really bad for us, but I also don’t want my kids feeling so deprived that they go hog wild when they have the chance to make a choice for themselves. It’s all about balance, you know?
By the way, for muffins and things, whole wheat pastry flour works really well, especially if you go to the trouble of soaking the night before. I know, it’s more work, but much better for digestion, and it gives them a lighter taste.
I haven’t banned white flour either.
For me it depends on what I am making…pie crust-white, shortbread cookies-white, Choc chip cookies ½ & ½ or white +wheat germ, muffins-mostly wheat +milled flaxseed, pizza crust-½ to ¾ wheat + white.
King Arthur brand has a white whole wheat flour- it is great! Still whole wheat (“milled from hard white wheat”) but doesn’t have the “wheaty” appearance when baking, etc. My daughter (age 11 carb fiend) accepts it no problem.
I found it at my local grocery store- if yours doesn’t have it you might try the company website.
Thanks, you know, I tried that once and didn’t like it. Also, at the time, I didn’t know if it really was a legit substitute or not (it was before I started researching these topics). I’ve heard ppl recommend it, but I haven’t tried it again. Perhaps I should give it another go.
oh, and by the way, how brutal is this? I get your posts via email & at the end of the email, because HFCS was mentioned, they had a Google ad for “finding out the truth about corn syrup”. I knew what it was but clicked thru, and yup, it’s a website made by the HFCS industry to dispel all concerns. Isn’t that awful that Google is throwing that in there, on your email?
Yeah, and probably why I should get them off there. Blergh.
Okay…what’s HCFS?
Um, that would be a typo?
But HFCS = high fructose corn syrup.
I too love the King Arthur White Wheat flour. It’s legit – just made from ‘white’ wheat vs. ‘red’ wheat, which refers to the color of the bran. The white wheat flour is less wheat-y tasting, which I think makes it best for lighter recipes like choc chip cookies and mild (i.e. lemon) muffins and breads.
I think you can easily go to 50:50 whole:white flour in stronger flavored cookies and muffins, like pumpkin, spice and even banana bread, since there is another strong flavor component to balance out the wheat flavor.
I do notice that some muffin and quick bread recipes that aren’t developed for whole wheat flour benefit from upping the liquid component of the recipe a bit when whole wheat flour is added. WW flour absorbs more liquids, which can dry out the finished product a bit. For cookies, I usually leave the liquid alone, since it is already a low moisture recipe.
We have cut all wheat products and corn products from our diets. Right now we use spelt flour instead of the wheat. It is much different but taste almost the same as whole wheat breads. We have made biscuits, cakes, french bread. My daughter doesn’t seem to mind it to much. I haven’t tried cookies yet and that is actually on my list to make this week. We made peach cobbler last week and it was really good. My hubby and daughter chowed down on it. My major problem I had when we where changing our diets over to no wheat, corn, or chicken was the corn products. You would be surprised how many products that have corn in them. We don’t use any artificial sweeteners, instead we use agave, molasses, honey and organic sugar.