White Flour Substitute | Our Adventures in Using Chef Brad's Whole Grain WonderFlour

Sinckerdoodles

Posted on 08/11/2012 by Whitney

Okay sorry it has been so long since the last recipe… Johnny and I bought our first (and hopefully last…for a while) home! So don’t fret we will get back on track with these recipes and I will try to make up for lost time…

So let’s get going on our Snickerdoodles. These cookies were SO good. They have such a great taste and they are made with Wonderflour. I think (okay I know for a fact) that I ate at least 7…Oops! But honestly they are so good.

So let’s get started – gather your ingredients.

Next – Cream your butter and eggs together.

Mix all of your dry ingredients.

Then combine the two and mix.

How easy was that?

Scoop out your dough and roll them into a cinnamon sugar mix.

Place them on your pan.

The back row of cookies was rolled only in cinnamon. I just love cinnamon! The front row has been rolled in the sugar cinnamon mixture.

Bake for 8-10 minutes at 400 degrees.

Remove from the oven and let cool.

When making this recipe on your own, make sure to watch your dough when baking. I had to add two extra cups of Wonderflour to get them from turning into flat pancakes!

So until next time….

Peach Pie

Posted on 06/29/2012 by Whitney

Well summer is finally here! That means it’s time to break out the pies for all the picnics you’re going to be enjoying. I’m not a huge pie fan, but I do love a good peach pie and chef brad has a recipe for one. But before we get our hearts set on eating this pie, we first have to make one!

Since We made Mamie’s Pie Dough last night, we are already on the road to a great peach pie!

So let’s start… gather your ingredients.

Then remove Mamie’s pie dough from the fridge. Roll it out and line your pie pan.

Then you will combine in your mixing bowl:

Egg yolks

Wonderflour

Sugar

Melted butter

Vanilla

Start placing your peaches in the pie crust.

Once filled in with peaches, pour your mixture over them.

Bake your pie at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 300 degrees and bake for another 50 minutes.

Remove from the oven.

Now you can serve it warm or cold. Either way I say serve it with ice cream or whipped cream, or heck live on the edge and use both!

So Until Next Time…

Mamie’s Pie Dough

Posted on 06/24/2012 by Whitney

In order to have a delicious pie, you have to make a fantastic crust! Chef Brad makes a very good case for this pie crust so we are going to be making “Mamie’s Pie Dough”. And because pie dough is only better when it has swirls of fat in it, we are going to be using Lard… yes I said it LARD! But rest assured because we are using freshly ground WonderFlour in place of white flour, so you can start breathing again. Besides, you can always fill Mamie’s Pie dough with your favorite fruit and you’re good as gold!

So let’s start. Gather your ingredients.

There aren’t many ingredients. Just salt, WonderFlour, lard and *ice water

*I measured out my water then added ice cubes to it and let it chill for about 15 min. When you are ready to use it, you can remove the ice cubes and re-measure out what you need.

Place your WonderFlour, salt and lard in the mixer and mix well.

Mix until the lard is broken down into little pea size balls.

At this point you should switch out your beaters for a dough hook. As your dough mixture is slowly turning in your mixer, drizzle your ice water in and mix until it begins to pull together.

Chef Brad warns not to over mix so as soon as the dough pulled together I turned off the mixer and flipped the dough out and quickly kneaded it together .

I then wrapped it in plastic wrap and placed it in the fridge over night.

I hate to ruin the surprise but tomorrow we will be using Mamie’s Pie Dough to make a Peach Pie… oh how I love Peach Pie!

So until next time…..

Old Time Sugar Cookies

Posted on 06/21/2012 by Whitney

Whenever the holidays roll around, or some ward function comes up that is in need of refreshment, or someone needs a lift me up, I always make my sugar cookies! Now to be honest they are the kind of sugar cookies that have a very nice padding of frosting on top. However every now and then I get the craving for a sugar cookie like the one that Subway sells, you know the sugar cookie that is all cracked and flat and crispy on the outside, yet soft and chewy in the middle? Needless to say I really enjoyed this recipe and it helps me to know that they are made with whole grains. That way when I grab my 2nd or perhaps my 5th, I can be confident that my jeans will still button up!

Not only were the cookies delicious but they were so simple to make.

First thing first…gather your ingredients.

Cream your butter, shortening, sugar, & eggs together.

Then add your salt, soda, cream of tartar and Cardamom Seed to the mixture.

Add your vanilla

Add all your Wonderflour and mix well.

Turn it out on to the counter and roll into a ball. Then measure out your cookie balls to whatever size you want. I used my cookie scoop and then plopped them down on to my pan and baked them for 13 minutes and they were perfect.

I loved these cookies but they were just a tad bit heavy on the cardamom seed for my taste. I think next time I won’t add as much and they will be even better!

You make a batch and let me know how you feel about it!

So until next time…..

Texas Sheet Cake

Posted on 06/14/2012 by Whitney

I am a firm believer that almost all family functions should have a TEXAS SHEET CAKE. So when I saw that chef brad had a recipe for Texas sheet cake, I knew I had to give it a try! This cake turned out really good. It was made with whole grains and tasted almost just the same as a normal sheet cake made with white flour. I promise you will not be disappointed in this recipe…just try it out and when you eat your third slice you won’t feel as bad because it’s made with whole grains!!

Round up your ingredients.

Now this recipes calls for freshly ground amaranth, so if I were you I would grind the amaranth first.

Put the amaranth in your grain mill.

And crank away

Here is the amaranth before and after it has been ground

Now let’s start in on the rest of the recipe.

Bring your buttermilk, butter, & cocoa to a boil. (Buttermilk is a new ingredient that I had never thought to add to my Texas sheet cakes!)

While that’s warming up, sift together the Wonderflour, ground amaranth, sugar, salt & soda.

Once the buttermilk mixture is boiling, remove from the heat and let it cool for a couple minutes.

While that is now cooling mix together the sour cream, eggs, and vanilla.

Use the warm buttermilk mixture to slowly temper the egg mixture and then add it to the dry mixture and mix. Pour it all into a greased sheet pan.

Cook for 25 minutes and remove from the oven.

When the cake has about 10 minutes left to bake go ahead and start to make the frosting for it.

Bring to a boil the butter, milk and cocoa

When it begins to boil, add the vanilla and powdered sugar.

Mix all that together. Once the cake comes out of the oven, pour the frosting over it and… TA-DAH! Your whole grain Texas Sheet Cake is done and ready to be eaten!

So until next time…

Coconut Custard Pie

Posted on 06/10/2012 by Whitney

The other day I was out to dinner with my mom. I ordered a soup and salad, so naturally I had to have dessert. My mom and I both ordered Coconut Cream pie, which we BOTH absolutely love. Unfortunately my mom called me up all disappointed because it didn’t taste good. I didn’t even get to try it because my husband ate every last bite when I got home! Honestly though I couldn’t really get his opinion on how it tasted because he eats just about everything I bring home…

So this last week I was flipping through Cooking with Chef Brad wondering what recipe I was going to make and I spotted his recipe for Coconut Custard Pie! I stopped looking right then and even though I had never made a pie before, I decided to rise to new heights and satisfy my mom’s hunger for coconut pie. Now I hate to ruin the ending…but SHE LOVED IT, and it was a crowd pleaser.

I made the crust first, so let’s get those ingredients together!

Put your butter pieces, salt, sugar, & Wonderflour into your food processor.

Pulse this until it becomes a coarse meal.

Then add the milk one tablespoon at a time until it starts to form a ball.

Remove the dough from your processor and roll it into ball. Flatten it into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for 1 hour.

After about an hour take it out of the fridge, roll out, and place in your pie dish.

***Chef Brad suggests covering the pie with foil and pie weights, but I didn’t have pie weights so I used spoons and they worked just fine.***

Bake the pie crust for 12 minutes. Remove the foil and weights, and cook for 9 more minutes.

Let the crust cool.

While the curst is cooling gather the ingredient for the coconut custard filling

In a mixing bowl combine the eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla and coconut. Mix well.

Next you will scald the milk in a pan, add the mixture to it, and mix it.

Pour it into your crust…

Place that into the oven for 30 minutes and bake. After it’s done let it chill for 4 hours in the fridge and enjoy!

This pie turned out really good, but just so you are aware it’s not coconut cream pie. It’s coconut custard pie but it was delicious nonetheless, so don’t let that stop you from making it!

So until next time…

Alegria a.k.a. Happy Food

Posted on 06/09/2012 by Whitney

Well its been a busy week, but I’ve got an EXTREMELY easy recipe for you to make this week! You probably thought that it couldn’t get any easier than thumbprint cookies, but honestly I think this just might be the one!

So let’s talk about Alegria, also known as HAPPY FOOD. It only has five ingredients: honey, corn syrup, vanilla, butter, & Amaranth. Since we already learned how to pop amaranth when we made our Mexican Wedding Cookies, the only “work” part is conquered. I would have expected this recipe to be a little runnier before it cooled, and also for it to turn into more of a brittle but it wasn’t so. I hope it turned out right! Anyways let’s just get to the Happy Food!

Gather your ingredients

First pop the amaranth and set it aside.

Then put your other ingredients in a large pot

Bring them to a boil

Then turn down the heat and let it boil until it turns a golden brown, which for me was about 10 min.

Dump the amaranth in the pot with the sugar mixture and mix it up. Then pour it out into your pan that is lined with parchment paper.

Then just let it cool, break off a piece, and enjoy it!!!

Now I’m not sure if this is how it was supposed to turn out, so go and try it and let me know how you enjoyed it. If you have any suggestions on how you would change it then let me know.

Like I said at the beginning, I’ve never had this or made anything like it before. I felt in making this that the ratio of Amaranth and hot syrup wasn’t right, so I made two batches of the syrup and put that with the one batch of Amaranth. It turned out GREAT, but you decide and let me know.

So until next time…

Thumbprint Cookies

Posted on 05/16/2012 by Whitney

While I was away at college I found a recipe similar to this one. And don’t ask me why, but while other girls were busy cooking Plain Jane chocolate chip cookies, or sugar cookies (even though I LOVE sugar cookies), I would always turn to thumbprint cookies! That may be why when I cook chocolate chip cookies my husband tells me they look like big cow pies 🙁

I have always loved making thumbprint cookies so when I found this recipe I was so happy to make it. In fact I was so excited that I totally forgot to take pictures of the steps until I was letting the dough chill in the fridge… SORRY, I promise to never let my excitement overshadow the picture taking again!

This is the fastest cookie (that you have to bake), that I’ve ever made. So if you want something sweet after you get home from a long day of work – which is what happened to me, I got home at 8 and by 8:20 I was enjoying my cookies- then you need thumbprint cookies!

So get your ingredients together

Honestly these cookies will come together so fast….you just cut your butter into your sugar, then add your vanilla and Wonderflour until you get a dough. Split the dough into three piles and roll them into logs. After that you will take the nut of your choice, chop them up, and then roll your logs in the nuts to cover. I chose pecans because I really have come to love them! Chef Brad suggests covering them and placing them in the fridge to chill. I hadn’t handled the dough too much so I skipped that step. The only difference I noticed is that on the chilled dough it was harder for me to press my thumb into.

Okay now you’re ready so preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cut your cookies about ¼ of an inch thick and lay them on your cookie sheet. From here you just let your thumb do the rest of the work!

Next add jam to the valleys. Chef Brad uses red currant jam but I love raspberry jam, so I did half of my cookies red currant and half red raspberry jam. Honestly, you can use whatever jam you love. My sister suggested using peach, so I think that is what I will try next time! I really can’t imagine a jam that wouldn’t taste good in this recipe, so let your imagination run wild.

Bake them for about 10-12 minutes and enjoy! I swear your going to love them. I loved them and my family gave rave reviews at our Sunday dinner!

So until next time…

Mexican Wedding Cookies

Posted on 05/16/2012 by Whitney

Well today’s recipe was a new one for me. I’ve never been to a Mexican wedding, which goes to say that I’ve never had Mexican Wedding Cookies! And if that is not enough, it was my first time using Amaranth too. Since I’ve never had a Mexican wedding cookie I’m not sure how they are supposed to taste, but I found them to be quite tasty. They were a little dry for my liking, but not enough to make my husband stop eating them!

So let’s get started.

First I got my pecans and toasted them so they would have time to cool before I put them in my food processor. It only takes about 6- 8 min so just lay your nuts out on the pan, turn your oven on and then pop them in and let them bake until they’re nicely toasted.

Then let them cool and toss them in the food processor

And hit the power button

Next in your mixer place your butter, salt, vanilla, almond extract and half of your powder sugar.

Then add your pecans until fully combined

Now here is where I took a break and tried my hand at popping Amaranth

First get a pan (I used a large pot) and get it REALLY REALLY hot!

Don’t worry about using oil or any sort of liquid. You want it DRY and HOT

Take your un-popped Amaranth in 2 Tablespoon quantities. That is what chef Brad suggests, but I burned my first three batches so I only did one tablespoon at a time! Hopefully one day I can pop like a pro and do two tablespoons!

Unless your pan moves easily on the stove, keep a spoon nearby to push around the amaranth

The lighter- white pieces are the popped amaranth. A word of warning: DON’T LET IT SIT TOO LONG or it will burn and it smells like burnt popcorn.

Here is a close up of the unpopped and popped

Now add your flour and popped amaranth into the cookie mixture

Roll the dough in to small balls. They don’t spread out, so feel free to pack the pan more than I did and cook for 10-15 min

Just a note. It’s pretty dry dough, so try not to roll the dough in your hands, or it just kinda crumbles. I found that if I just pinched it together it worked better.

Once cooked and cooled, roll the cookies in your remaining powder sugar and enjoy!

So until next time…

Fresh Buttermilk Vanilla Ice Cream

Posted on 05/06/2012 by Whitney

I scream…you scream…WE ALL scream… for Fresh Buttermilk Vanilla Ice Cream! Okay well I would have screamed for chocolate ice cream, but I have to say I REALLY REALLY liked this ice cream. When I first read through the recipe I was hesitant. I’ll be honest, I’m not a huge buttermilk fan so naturally I had my doubts. But after the first couple bites I couldn’t stop eating! I would say I even started to crave it, so I proceeded to eat two bowls…don’t judge me.

It was every easy to make and the whole family devoured it at our family barbecue on Sunday night. Because of the buttermilk this ice cream had a very “buttery” taste, obviously. It reminded me of a pralines and caramel or a butter pecan ice cream, both of which I love. Now you may be thinking to yourself, “where is the whole grain?” Well there is none, but honestly how much more can a food be considered “comfort food” than homemade buttermilk ice cream?

1^st Step: Round up your ingredients2^nd Step: Make your base

At this point you should place your sugar, vanilla, salt, eggs, and half & half into the blender and blend for 4 minutes. Not to sound dumb, but I don’t know why it’s 4 minutes, but Chef Brad knows and so 4 minutes it is.(I made my base the night before and just left it in the fridge.)

Now it’s time to get your ice cream maker ready!

Follow your own ice cream maker’s direction on the ice to salt ratio and how to run your maker.