When Matt was growing up, his Dad would make waffles just about every Sunday for the family.  He has such fond memories of it, and wanted to start the same tradition with our kids.  Even though our little girl isn’t due for another 6 weeks, and even though she won’t be eating solids for quite some time, he wanted to get a head start on his waffle making experience.   About 3 years ago I totally splurged on the All-Clad 4 square waffle maker from Williams Sonoma.  Even though it has received very little usage since then, I don’t regret the purchase.  This thing will likely survive a nuclear attack.  It is SOLID.

Wanting to try a whole grain recipe, I did some research to find one that looked especially tasty.   There are surprisingly FEW waffle recipes out there… I went to a favorite source for healthy recipes, 101Cookbooks, and found exactly what I was looking for.   Heidi has a recipe for Multigrain Waffles, that can easily compete with any traditional waffle recipe out there.  These waffles start out with a flour mix of three different grains: oats, barley and rye.  We had all three on hand, and so happily used them.  I think the major player in this recipe are the poppyseeds.  Heidi recommends soaking them in the buttermilk overnight, which we gladly did.   These waffles came together very quickly, and the taste was outstanding!  They had a great crunch, light, full of flavor, and weren’t sickeningly sweet. She said that the recipe makes 6-8 waffles, but we had a full 10.  We each ate 2 that morning, and then par-baked and froze the other 6 so that they’d be great for easy grabbing and toasting during the week.  I brought two to work with me the next morning, and everyone inquired as to where I bought the waffles from.  They really are quite pretty.  Proudly, I responded “my husband made them” to which they all oohed and aahed, green with envy   :)

I wish that waffles were a bit more photogenic… I’m going to continue working on my skillz’.

Here is the recipe, verbatim from Heidi’s site, 101Cookbooks:

Multigrain Waffles

1 1/2 tablespoons poppy seeds
2 cups / 475 ml buttermilk
1 cup / 3.5 oz / 100g barley flour
1/2 cup / 1.5 oz / 45 g oat flour
1/2 cup / 2 oz / 55g rye flour
1 tablespoon natural cane sugar or Muscovado sugar
1 tablespoon aluminum-free baking powder
scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
3 large eggs, whisked
1/3 cup / 3 oz unsalted butter, melted and cooled a bit

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If you happen to remember, soak the poppy seeds in the buttermilk overnight, if not, it’s no big deal. Just add them to the wet mix later on.

Preheat your waffle iron. I set mine to medium heat, but you’ll have to play around a bit with the settings on your particular waffle iron to settle on the right temperature.

In a large bowl mix the flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt together. In a separate bowl whisk the eggs into the buttermilk mixture, then whisk in the melted butter. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until just combined.

I use about 1/2 cup / 120 ml of batter per waffle. Close the iron, and resist the urge to peek for a couple of minutes, the waffle needs time to set and develop a bit of a skin. After that you can check to see how your waffle is coming along. Cook until deeply golden. If you aren’t eating the waffles immediately, keep in mind they can get a bit soggy if you place them directly on a plate. I tend to set hot waffles on a metal cookie rack in a warm/hot place while cooking the remainders. Serve with syrup, preserves, or sprinkled with more Muscovado sugar.

Makes 6 – 8 standard waffles.

Last night, at about 4pm, hubby says he’d love to have pizza for dinner.  At that point I’m wondering if we can have dough ready by a reasonable time, or if we need to stop by Trader Joe’s on the way home for a pre-made dough.  Its been a long while since I’ve made pizza from scratch, and I just couldn’t remember how long it would take . After a quick google search I was able to find enough recipes ensuring a speedy dough to give me the confidence to say yes to from-scratch pizza for dinner.

I wanted to make a 100% whole wheat crust, but I was most concerned with it being both tasty AND crisp.  I decided to use “hard white wheat” which has a milder flavor than hard red.  At this point, my opinion is that hard red is fantastic when you really want the bread flavor to shine, and the white is great when wanting the other flavors to have the opportunity to shine.

So here are a couple of photos of the wheat, the mill, and the flour:

You can see here that I buy my grain from BreadBeckers – they have a website and ship for those that are interested, plus a slew of valuable information and resources on their site.   They sell both regular and organic grains; the green label means organic.

This is what wheat looks like just before its milled.  Red wheat is a little darker (I’ll do a more detailed post to come about the differences, including SOFT vs. HARD wheat).  But you can get an idea of the size of the kernels.  That is a one cup measure.

Here’s the workhorse!  I have a WonderMill grain mill, and I believe this model is called the “whisper mill”.  Its definitely louder than a whisper, but its not unbearable.  You can see (barely) in the photo that there is a dial next to the power swtich, which has “pastry”, “bread”, and “coarse” settings.  This allows you to choose how finely ground you want your flour to be.  I don’t think I’ve ever used coarse, usually just bread, or pastry, or somewhere between the two.   The mill HAS to be turned on prior to pouring grain into the top.  Once its on for a second or two, you pour in the grain, then it shoots flour through the grey tube and into the container.

Here is the freshly milled flour, after measuring out what I needed for this recipe.  Even though the lighting isn’t outstanding, you can see that this is definitely not snow white in color.  Its much more a light cream, and has such a nice, earthy smell to it!

Once the dough was proofing, I fired up our Big Green Egg.  If you don’t have one, you should know that the amazing thing about this ceramic grill is that it can get upwards of 800 degrees!  Perfection for pizza crust, as this creates an environment very similar to a wood fired oven.  After making this recipe, I’ve decided that it should either be halved for one pizza, or cut in half to make two crusts, possibly saving one for later.  The recipe below will include that. This was just a bit too thick for us, but the taste was fantastic!   Does it taste the same as traditional white pizza dough?  No, but I will tell you this – we’ve ordered Papa John’s whole wheat crust in the past, and we made that mistake only once.  This was FAR superior, and we didn’t feel as though we were making any taste compromises.   The crust was super crisp (can’t wait to make it thinner this week!) and had a really nice mellow flavor to it.  I encourage you to try for yourself, and see what you think!

And now for the recipe!

Yields: Two 14″ crusts
Active time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 12-18 minutes depending on the heat of your oven
Total time before baking:  90 minutes

Ingredients:

3 cups whole wheat flour
1 packet active dry yeast
1 tsp honey
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup warm water  (~100 degrees)

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Directions:

Start by stirring the honey into the warm water, then stir in the yeast.  Allow it to sit at least 5 minutes, until the whole mixture looks creamy.

With the flour in the bowl of a stand mixer, mix in the salt, then pour the yeast-water-honey mixture into the flour.   (It’s a smart practice to withhold a few tablespoons of the liquid to see if the dough needs it, then added during the mixing process if the dough is too dry).     Mix initially on low speed to incorporate all ingredients, then turn up to medium for about 15-18 minutes until the dough is a sticky, cohesive ball and cleans the sides of the bowl.   This dough is on the wetter side, which IMO is great because you get more holes in the crust!

Form the dough into a ball, and place into an oiled bowl.  Cover, and let stand until doubled in size, roughly 40 minutes.

Turn dough out onto floured surface (it will be sticky!), punch it down, then reform it into a ball and place back in oiled bowl for an additional 2o minutes.   At this time, preheat your oven or Egg as hot as it can go!  Don’t forget your baking stone :)

After you’ve turned on your oven, get your ingredients ready and your pizza peel out!  When the dough is done proofing, sprinkle corn meal on your pizza peel.  Split the dough in half.  Freeze second crust in a double wrapped plastic bag if not using immediately.  Gently flatten the dough and press into a 14″ circle.  If the dough isn’t cooperating, let it rest for 10 minutes and try shaping again. Lay down on the peel and add your ingredients.  I find it very beneficial to gently shake the dough while on the peel every so often to make sure it doesn’t stick.  (don’t ask me how I know that this is a good idea)

Stick in the oven or grill!  If you’re cooking on a grill, I leave the temperature as high as it goes, but if baking in the oven, keep a watch on the pizza – you may need to drop the temp down to around 425 or 450 so that it doesn’t burn.

*and last, but not least, don’t do what I did and lazily place the dough on the stone, letting the pizza overhang the stone by a cm on one side… this is what you’ll get :)   Oops!  (that was hubby’s piece!)

We’re planning to have this again on Friday, and I’ll be sure to take better pictures, and sow you the thinner crust.  Enjoy!

When I hear something called “wholesome” it makes me think of flavorless cardboard with a side of glue.  The texture is never right, and the flavor always leaves you wanting a Twinkie.

About 4 years ago, a close friend brought over some “wholesome” muffins that she had just baked.  Be still my heart. There were even funny ingredients like spelt and millet.  Mill-what? Then, as if those ingredients weren’t appealing enough, she proceeds to tell me that she milled her own flour.  Before that it never occurred to me where flour came from.  I guess if I thought hard enough I’d eventually mumble out in a low, very uncertain voice, “wheat?”   And it certainly never occurred to me that you could create it at home.  Quite reluctantly I tried one of her muffins.   Big surprise of the story is that I LOVED them.  Not the same way you love a chocolate-chocolate-chip-bigger-than-your-head jumbo muffin from Costco.  Those smack you upside the head with sweetness, and leave you feeling nothing short of disgusting after you’ve consumed one or two.  The muffins that Jen brought over had a really pleasant subtle sweetness from the honey, and the crunchy millet gave it both texture and even still a little more sweetness.  I didn’t feel run down after I had one (it helps that they weren’t the size of a soft ball).  She brought me four of them, and they were gone by the next evening.  Then I proceeded to do what I do best – devour the internet  - in search of the benefits of whole grains (truly whole grains, not the kind that are being marketed in Froot Loops), and why milling at home, or at least freshly milled flour, is preferred.  I was hooked, and somehow had to convince my husband of the same benefits so he would be on board with me buying a grain mill and buckets o’grain.  I’ll spare you the details, but that took a little while.

As it turns out, and that most people know by now, the benefits of whole grains are staggering.  Everything from the healthy oils, fiber, protein and nutrients make these truly power players in the food arena.  One thing that I’m really NOT into is the whole concept of “super foods”.  With extreme diets like raw food eating popping up, you’re seeing more and more people claim the benefits of a particular super food, and how it will cure all your problems from ugliness to stupidity.  It’s my personal belief that a balanced diet is key to longevity, not putting all your eggs in one super food basket.  What’s great about whole grains is that they can be made into just about anything that you’re used to consuming the white counterpart of.  Sure, there are something better left to traditional industrial milled white flour, like croissants, but the flexibility of whole grains make them super appealing.  Equally, I’m not into “faux foods” and think its scary how the majority of our super markets are comprised of processed foods containing ingredients that neither a 3rd grader or PhD could pronounce.   I wish more people were concerned by the fact that a Twinkie has a longer life span than a Golden Retriever.  I digress…

Here is the recipe for truly delicious and truly healthy whole grain banana nut muffins that has both the flavor and texture calling you back for seconds:

Yields: 12 – 14 muffins
Active time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients:

2.5 cups freshly milled flour – (I used a 1:1 ratio of hard red wheat to hard white wheat)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon – best you can get your hands on
1/4 tsp nutmeg – preferably freshly grated
1/4 cup pecans – I used pre-chopped dry roasted pecans from Trader Joe’s
3 Tb amaranth – optional!  Millet would be a fantastic substitution

1 cup buttermilk**
1 egg, large
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup honey – extra to taste
1 tsp vanilla
3 small mashed bananas

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Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.   Grease a 12 cup muffin tin, or place in liners.

Measure and mix dry ingredients into mixing bowl.  In another bowl, mash bananas then add other wet ingredients.  Combine all ingredients until well blended, which just traces of raw flour still popping up.   Divide evenly amongst tin, and bake for approximately 18 minutes, checking regularly with toothpick after 15 min.  Rotate pan after 8 minutes for an even bake.

One tip when working with both honey and oil – always measure and pour the oil first, so that when you use the same measuring cup for your honey, your honey slides right out with minimal sticking and subsequent scraping.

**When you don’t have buttermilk on hand, its easy to create a good substitution in a pinch.  Just mix 1 cup of milk with 1 tablespoon of white vinegar and stir.  I like to let it sit for a few moments before adding other ingredients, as it just makes me feel better  : )