The biggest issue with different types of flours (other than flavor) is the gluten content. The easiest rule of thumb for bread baking is that you can use whole wheat flour instead of white if the bag it comes in either says in so many words that it is bread flour or has bread recipes printed on it rather than biscuit recipes, and you can generally substitute up to 25% of your total flour with non-wheat flour.
I've had great results in general using white whole wheat flour in pretty much anything. It has a milder flavor and softer texture than the usual hard red winter wheat that is more commonly grown in this country and associated with whole wheat flour.
Probably starting with muffins. I've been baking muffins weekly (mmm, Williams Sonoma muffin book) and while they are not nearly as over-sweetened and oily as the ones from the store I'd like to move away from processed white four where I can to continue making the food we eat really full of food and goodness.
Bread, cake, scones, pie crust.... slowly to follow. I have a whole wheat bread recipe I like that I'm using, but at some point I'll want something else. I think bread is the easy one, though.
What white whole wheat flour do you use? King Arthur? Hodgson Mill?
I always feel so much better when I'm eating less processed grains. I don't have any specific brand-loyalty as far as flour goes, but I tend to buy either King Arthur or Bob's Red Mill when I can because they're good, employee-owned, smallish companies. Trader Joe's carries white whole wheat flour that I also buy fairly often because it's reasonably priced and easy to pick up while I'm there for other stuff.
I do not use the whole weat that often for this reason - it's hard to know exactly how it will react - it often ends up thicker and doesn't rise as well. But I'm sure there must be some resources out there with solutions for that.
One of my friends moms used to make buckwheat pancakes with apple butter instead of syrup and it was always really delicious. I tried using regular wheat flour for this and it didn't work out so well. I've been using that Fiber One stuff recently for pancakes and such - usually substituting apple sauce or other fruit for some or all of the water.
I made some cinnamon rolls on Saturday that I substituted out 1/3 of the white flour with whole wheat and they turned out pretty good. I'm going to try Elana's suggestion on whole white flour and see what the results are.
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The biggest issue with different types of flours (other than flavor) is the gluten content. The easiest rule of thumb for bread baking is that you can use whole wheat flour instead of white if the bag it comes in either says in so many words that it is bread flour or has bread recipes printed on it rather than biscuit recipes, and you can generally substitute up to 25% of your total flour with non-wheat flour.
I've had great results in general using white whole wheat flour in pretty much anything. It has a milder flavor and softer texture than the usual hard red winter wheat that is more commonly grown in this country and associated with whole wheat flour.
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Probably starting with muffins. I've been baking muffins weekly (mmm, Williams Sonoma muffin book) and while they are not nearly as over-sweetened and oily as the ones from the store I'd like to move away from processed white four where I can to continue making the food we eat really full of food and goodness.
Bread, cake, scones, pie crust.... slowly to follow. I have a whole wheat bread recipe I like that I'm using, but at some point I'll want something else. I think bread is the easy one, though.
What white whole wheat flour do you use? King Arthur? Hodgson Mill?
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One of my friends moms used to make buckwheat pancakes with apple butter instead of syrup and it was always really delicious. I tried using regular wheat flour for this and it didn't work out so well. I've been using that Fiber One stuff recently for pancakes and such - usually substituting apple sauce or other fruit for some or all of the water.
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