We made plans to go to an Amish market but Phillip was tuckered out so I went with his aunt and cousin. It turned out to be not quite as Amish as I thought it would be but still a really good trip! I brought home some wheat flour, wheat germ, raw sugar, and spices. Their prices were pretty inexpensive and from what we have used so far they seem to be a very good quality. I couldn't wait to use them! We had some friends come over for New Year's so I decided to try out some new recipes on them.
I usually make our own pizza crusts with white flour but I decided to try this recipe which calls for some whole wheat and white flour. I added raw sugar instead of white sugar and also added some rosemary, oregano, basil, and Parmesan into the dough. It turned out pretty well but it did not taste good reheated! Yuck!
When I go home to visit, my cousin Gina usually requests a batch of soft pretzels. I decided to try it out with some whole wheat flour because it was kind of like having a new toy. I had the mindset of "I'm going to use this on EVERYTHING!!!" (I'm having the same problem with the wheat germ too).
For these I used this recipe, I used 1 cup of bread flour, 1 cup of wheat flour, and 1.5 cups of white flour. They turned out quite a bit more dense than usual. Now it occurs to me that this was a different recipe than I typically use. They were kind of spongy, I also used real butter to coat them instead of margarine and it didn't stay melted, it got kind of goopy. I think I'll stick to making these with all white flour.
The next morning I made some whole wheat blueberry pancakes and those turned out really well. This recipe is a keeper!
Have you tried any new recipes or twists on old favorites recently?
I love cooking with whole wheat, the thing I have found is that yes it can make for denser breads and doughs but you can counteract that to some degree. If you are using a recipe that calls for white flour and want to sub either use about 3/4 of what it calls for of WW or you can use half white and a little less than half WW. You can also bump up the leavening a bit wether it's baking soda or baking flour.