The Perfect Wheat Flour

I love to bake. With the holiday season around the corner, I'm itching to try a few new recipes. When the weather turned cool for a few brief days, I broke in my pie pans with homemade apple and pumpkin pies. Part of my excitement for the baking season is my new found love: Wheat Montana Flour. (And, no I'm not being paid to say that.)

Cookies can be made from wheat flour.
Photo by Snowbear, Morguefile.

I've searched for the past few months for a perfect baking flour. My criteria is strict: it can't be bleached or bromated, it must be grown in the United States and minimal processing is a bonus. I've tried organic rice flour, too many wheat flours to count and garbanzo bean flour (don't laugh).

Rice flour made my cookies too crumbly. One whole wheat flour made my rolls into hockey pucks. And flour made from beans, well, tasted like beans. I love beans, but not bean-flavored bread. It was just plain weird.

Over the past several months I've given the Wheat Montana Hard White Spring a good work out. Pie crusts. Oatmeal molasses cookies. Chocolate chip cookies. Chocolate birthday cake. Lemon bars. Honey wheat rolls.

I did mention I love to bake, right?

Every recipe made with this flour turned out great. Here are a few details straight from the company's website:

• Wheat Montana is family owned and operated.
• The flour is Certified Chemical Free and Certified Organic.
• The flour is milled at a low 94 degrees to maintain the nutrient value of the wheat.

Do you have a flour or baking ingredient that you can't live without? Tell me about it. I'm always up for trying a new product. It gives me an excuse to spend a little more time in the kitchen!

Until Next Time,
Choose Healthy,
Angela

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My Secret Cookie Ingredient

In addition to learning about whole foods and their nutritional properties, I enjoy experimenting in the kitchen. And, it's partly out of necessity.

We don't have vegan, vegetarian or whole foods restaurants in my neck of the woods. If you want to avoid processed foods, fried foods or unnecessary calories, you need to get crafty in the kitchen. Luckily, I look forward to my "kitchen time" each day.

My Secret Ingredient: Raw Sugar

Raw Sugar
Photo by Fritzs, Wikimedia Commons

My most recent unexpected discovery is the baking quality of raw sugar. Everyday all-purpose baking sugar gets processed with chemicals to create a pure white, even-textured sweetener. A package of raw sugar contains uneven granules of honey-colored sugar cane. Although raw sugar isn't a true whole food, it's much closer to natural sugar cane than white sugar.

Using Raw Sugar

Sprinkling raw sugar atop a homemade apple pie gives it a rustic look. The oversized sugar granules add a tasty, sweet crunch to the top of blueberry muffin. And my personal favorite: Cookies baked with raw sugar stay thicker than those made with brown or white sugar. If you like a dense chocolate chip cookie, substitute raw sugar in your next batch.

Magically, when I made my first pumpkin pie of the season with raw sugar it turned out perfect. I was unsure if the large granules would melt. Pumpkin pie should have a creamy, smooth filling. The raw sugar didn't let me down.

Although I could sing praises about raw sugar all day long, it's still best enjoyed in moderation. But, if you need a recommendation for a calorie-free sweetener, try my other kitchen buddy, stevia.

Until Next Time,
Choose Healthy!

Angela

Lovin' Limes

Try baking with fresh limes.
Photo by Hotblack, Morguefile.com

One of my favorite summertime flavors is lime. So, what's the first lime-flavored treat that comes to mind? For me, it's always key lime pie.

The tangy, creamy, cool pie somehow melts away the heat, humidity and better part of an afternoon. It isn't a quick pie to make when you're working from scratch.

My local grocery store had limes on sale 12/$1 and I just couldn't resist grabbing a few. Since I didn't have the time or patience to whip up a pie, I had to search for a new use for those limes.

I stumbled across a lime shortbread cookie recipe at the Land O' Lakes website that looked easy and tasty. I whipped up a batch in no time (using unbleached rice flour) and they were fabulous! Since I can't eat healthy all the time, this was a nice little homemade treat.

Next time I'm going to try substituting powdered stevia for the ultra-bad-for-me powdered sugar. What are you favorite lime recipes? I'd love to learn a healthier, yet sweet, lime concoction for the future.

Until Next Time!

Choose Healthy,
Angela

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