Monday, January 26, 2009

Wonder Flour

I've posted about Wonder Flour before, but I thought I'd devote an entire post to it because it's so amazing. Wonder Flour was discovered by my Uncle Chef Brad who I've posted about before also. Wonder flour is made up of equal parts of three different grains: Spelt, Brown Rice and Barley. To make wonder flour simply dump equal portions of each of the three grains in your grain mill and grind on a fine setting and ...WAHLAH, you have wonder flour. Here's a Quote from a Chef Brad newsletter about Wonder Flour:

"For my favorite grain combo, you will need barley, brown rice, and spelt. Take these and grind them in equal portions on the fine setting on your grinder. I do this about once a week and I have a container and that is what I use for white flour. I use it in everything from sauces and gravies to pastries and treats; I have had the best success yet." I have also had great success with this flour! It is amazing and I use it as a white flour substitute all the time. It is delicious in waffles, cookies, muffins, brownies, etc. If you haven't tried this flour out, go for it. If you're scared because you've never heard of spelt, I've posted about it here. You can buy it in most health food stores in the bulk foods section or ask to buy it in bulk (and they usually give a discount). If you don't have a grain mill, spelt flour is available in the health food store as well (I'm not sure about the others).

The most valuable thing about this flour to me is that it allows you to make the lighter baked goods (like those that I mentioned earlier) without having to use ANY white flour. You actually don't feel too bad offering your family desserts when they are made with a whole-grain flour. And the desserts don't taste heavy like many of those made with wheat. In fact, the wonder flour has such a delicious flavor that our family prefers it to most baked goods made with white flour.

So here's my own cooking rule of thumb: I use as much wheat as I can get away with in my baking. I use whole-wheat for bread, pizza dough, breadsticks and other recipes. But when the wheat fails, I try wonder flour and it rarely fails. It's performance is worthy of it's name!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is really cool! I would like to try it someday. I need some barley so will have to wait a month or so. :D Thanks!

Love, Wardeh
from GNOWFGLINS

Heather {Healthy Family Cookin} said...

Chef Brad wrote an article about Wonder flour. Here it is if you're interested. http://chefbrad.com/education/articles.php?qid=5

Unknown said...

I am bookmarking this post for when I have a grain grinder!!! Someday... this sounds like a wonderful alternative to white (and wheat! Because some people are allergic) flours.

Devon said...

i might just have to try this.....

do you have to have a grain mill or can you use a blender? i'm not sure of the difference...

Heather {Healthy Family Cookin} said...

I recommend a grain mill (electric is best because it is so convenient and fast), but you can also use a high-quality blender (very high quality though because otherwise your grain will not be ground very fine and will have a gritty texture). It will wear out your blender blades after a while. I have a bosch blender and have tried it and it really doesn't work very well, but if it's all you have, give it a whirl and see if it works. You can buy grain mills online or at a kitchen store.

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