I love to bake; I've been doing it for over 20 years and have made a wide assortment of baked goods for family, friends, fundraisers and more.
Over the years as I began to learn more about the health benefits of fresh ground flour I made changes in how I baked. Then I started grains&more and things have never been the same since.
When I began to teach whole grain baking classes I also began to create recipes of my own. One of the challenges that I ran into was that some of the people who took my classes weren't ready to switch to fresh ground flour but they wanted to still enjoy some of the recipes I created. This is a quick overview of a few substitutions you can make to my recipes. Although the flavors may change slightly the recipes should still work just fine.
fresh ground wheat - I highly recommend King Arthur Flour's Whole Wheat as a substitute. While some of the nutrition has oxidized out all the fiber is there. Hodgson Mills also makes a great product and is a good substitute if you cannot find King Arthur however the Hodgson Mill product tends to be a little coarser than King Arthur and you'll need to run it through a blender or food processor to make it finer
ezekiel flour - whole wheat flour is a reasonable substitution here, see above
spelt flour - again, whole wheat flour is a reasonable substitution, see above
oat flour - I grind oat groats to make this but you can grind rolled oats in your blender or food processor
brown rice flour - Bob's Red Mill makes an excellent brown rice flour or you can try grinding this in your food processor
corn flour - this tends to be finer and richer than corn meal plus, of course, it is the whole grain. Bob's Red Mill has a good corn flour. If you prefer to use cornmeal (which I don't really recommend) you need to grind it in your blender or food processor to make it finer and preserve the texture of the baked goods
flax meal - there is no substitution for this, the purchased flax meal is usually de-germed for shelf stability. Simply buy flax seeds and an inexpensive coffee grinder to make your own
sucanat - if you cannot find this product on your store shelves use organic evaporated cane juice crystals. I DO NOT recommend white sugar at all. Sucanat has a very rich flavor due to the molasses and minerals still present. In some recipes (such as pumpkin muffins) you want that rich flavor so I would add a tablespoon of molasses with the cane juice crystals
coconut oil - in spite of the fact that so many people think this is not good for you it is an excellent choice as a baking fat. However a good substitute is organic unsalted butter. NOTE: when using coconut oil only use virgin, cold pressed coconut oil
buttermilk or kefir - a quick substitute is to put 1 T. of fresh lemon juice into 1 C. whole milk and let it sit for at least 5 minutes to sour
photo courtesy of freephoto.com
As a Nutrition Educator I do more than talk to people about food. We talk about choices, changes, finding ways to reduce stress in our lives, adding exercise, meditation and a lot of different things. Stress is a big one. We all face it every day. How we react to it can have a huge impact on our health, so finding ways to reduce our stress can be a very good thing to do.
