One of the hardest changes I’ve made to my family’s diet is switching from white breads to whole grain breads. It’s been a struggle to get everyone accustomed to the taste and although my husband still doesn’t love it, we know that it’s a necessary change. We both want to up the fiber content and lower the glycemic index of the foods we eat, and eating more whole grains is the best way to accomplish that.
Unfortunately, it isn’t as simple as changing just our sandwich bread. We like bagels and tortillas, pastas and crackers, coffee cakes and pizza crusts. And without realizing it, our cupboards were full of white flour.
White flour, also known as ‘enriched wheat flour’ is omnipresent in our grocery stores. It’s that word ‘enriched.’ That’s the one that’s supposed to fool us all into thinking what we are eating is good for us. Instead the flour manufacturers have stripped out everything good from the wheat and put back just a few vitamins and nutrients so they can call it enriched.
It’s not like I haven’t known this for years, I just had my head in the sand, not wanting to change. Now, no longer avoiding the issue, I’m reading every ingredient on every label. Just as I did in getting rid of high fructose corn syrup, I’m avoiding most everything with enriched flour and replacing them with products containing whole grains.
By the way, do you know how hard it is to find regular sliced bread that has whole grains and does not have hfcs – without breaking the bank?? Far harder than I ever imagined. I finally found one we like from Arnold’s that tastes good and is minimally processed. I know I can make my own bread, and I do, I just can’t as often as I’d like.
Easier was finding good whole grain tortillas, and there are plenty of options for bagels, but I don’t think I’ll be making banana bread from a box ever again. I’ll have to learn how to do that from scratch. Anyone have a good banana bread recipe using whole grains?! I’m going to try my hand at homemade pizza dough soon too.
Have you made the switch to whole grains? Do you avoid all white flour or just sometimes? Have you met resistance from family members when you’ve served whole grain breads? Surprisingly, to me anyway, my son is the only one who hasn’t resisted, in fact, hasn’t really even noticed!
by Annette K.
Photo graciously provided by sky_mitch, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved
11 responses so far ↓
STL Mom // Mar 18, 2009 at 6:09 am
I’m the only one in my family who will eat whole-wheat bread, but my husband and kids will happily devour whole-wheat brownies and cinnamon rolls from the “King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking” cookbook. It’s a great cookbook with lots of recipes and advice on how to change your own recipes. Some recipes are on the King Arthur Flour website: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/whole-grains/view-all
Jane Brody’s cookbooks also have some good whole-grain recipes. And have you tried allrecipes.com? You can do an ingredient search for “whole wheat.” I make that website’s “playgroup granola bars” and switch the flour to whole wheat.
I haven’t changed my family’s beloved banana bread or pancake recipes yet, but I do add 1/4 cup golden flaxseed to add a little whole grain goodness.
Count yourself lucky for having a husband who, even reluctantly, has agreed to switch. My husband likes to refer to my whole wheat bread as “colon blow”. Gee, I wonder why my kids won’t eat it?!
Anita B // Mar 18, 2009 at 8:11 am
We just switched to gluten and dairy free breads because we found out my son was intolerant. I found a wonderful bread mix that’s healthy, but as far as the crackers, pizza, etc, we just cut that out completely. We haven’t had any since September, but I’m slowly trying to find alternatives. But if we have to live without that stuff forever, now we wouldn’t really miss it.
Chris // Mar 18, 2009 at 9:02 am
I used to buy the inexpensive whole grain breads, but like you, when I realized they all had HFCS and/or hydrogenated oils, I faced the difficulty of finding affordable bread without all those ingredients I didn’t want. We simply could not afford $5 loaves of bread, so I began baking sandwich loaves and bagels a couple years ago. Now I made 3 sandwich loaves and 10 bagels for less than $5 in flour plus another dollar or so for sweeteners, fats, and yeast.
When I first began baking bread at home, I started with a white flour sandwich loaf recipe that I gradually added more and more whole wheat, until I figure out how to make a satisfactory loaf with 100% whole wheat (dough made with whole wheat flour needs a little more liquid–I use molasses instead of crystallized sugar for additional liquid).
I use flour made from white wheat–as opposed to traditional red wheat. It’s milder in flavor and has baking characteristics more like white bread flour. I also keep unbleached bread flour, white pastry flour, and whole wheat pastry flour at home, and use them for different baked goods. For banana bread, I would start with a 50-50 mix of whole wheat pastry and white pastry and if you want, gradually change that to 100% whole wheat pastry flour. I use pastry flour for most any baked good that doesn’t contain yeast–pie dough, pancakes, cookies, cakes, muffins, quick breads, cobblers, etc.
My philosophy on “white vs. whole” flour is now this: for everyday, we eat whole grains, but for occasional treats, I make them with white flour or a mix of white and whole flours. There’s no pretending that chocolate cake is “healthy,” so I figure it might as well tastes as good as it can on the times that we eat it. (I make the chocolate cake from Alice Waters’ Simple Food with a 50-50 mix of white and whole wheat pastry flour and it’s fantastic. Here’s a good banana bread recipe to adapt to whole wheat pastry flour: http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/001465banana_bread.php
Meg // Mar 18, 2009 at 11:04 am
I’m so thankful that Chris has agreed to come live with me for a month to help me figure out the disaster (slight exaggeration) that is ww bread making in my house. I’ve had slightly better luck with the white whole grain flour- but only slightly.
When is it that you’re coming to the “other” Portland again, Chris?
Chris // Mar 18, 2009 at 11:17 am
Hey, Meg–You buy the plane ticket and find someone to watch my kids and I’m there!! Try this recipe in the meantime–a Lost Arts Kitchen specialty. It makes a lot, but can easily be divided.
Whole Wheat Sandwich Loaf Recipe
Makes two 9” x 4” loaves and eight dinner rolls
2 tablespoons instant yeast or 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon dry active yeast
4 cups water
1536 grams or 12-13 cups white whole wheat flour
1 stick unsalted butter, softened (or melted, if you forget to take it out in time soften)
5 tablespoons unsulphured molasses (or 2 tablespoons Rapadura or sugar)
2 tablespoons sea salt
additional softened butter for greasing loaf pans
Proof yeast in 1 cup lukewarm water for five minutes. Add proofed yeast and remaining 3 cups of water, molasses, butter, and half of the flour to mixer. Mix until flour is incorporated. Mix salt into the remaining flour. One cup at a time, add the flour and salt mixture to the dough, waiting until the flour is fully incorporated before adding the next cup. Mix for no more than 10 minutes total. The dough should be a bit sticky, but if it feels too sticky to handle, add up to another ½ cup flour, a tablespoon or so at a time. Turn dough out onto the counter, and hand knead for a minute or two, just long enough to smooth it into a ball. Rise in a large bowl for one hour or until doubled in size.
Butter two loaf pans and put parchment paper on a baking sheet. To make a sandwich loaf for a 9” x 4” loaf pan, begin by gently shaping 2 pounds of dough into a 10” wide by 12” deep rectangle. For a different size loaf pan, make the rectangle about 1” wider than the length of the pan by about three times the width of your pan (for example, the rectangle would be 11” wide by 9” deep for a 10” x 3” pan). Orient the rectangle so that one of the short sides is close to you, parallel to the counter. Fold the far side in to the center line of the rectangle, then fold the near side to the center line. Pinch the two edges together. Fold in about one inch of the each end of the dough, pinching it to seal. Gently turn the formed dough over, into buttered loaf pan. Make a second loaf with another two pounds of dough. You’ll have dough leftover for pretzels, rolls, cheese sticks, or maybe a pizza crust. Form your “extras.” Let formed loaves and rolls rise for 45-60 minutes, until doubled in bulk.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake loaves for about 30-40 minutes, until golden brown. The center of the loaf should be about 200°F. Remove from pans and cool on a rack. Store bread in an airtight container for 3-4 days or freeze for up to a month.
Kelly Damron // Mar 18, 2009 at 11:48 am
We are doing more whole wheat products. I read ingredients before I buy something. We found good whole wheat flour tortillas – finally. I’m thinking I need to relook the bread I buy to see what else it has in it…
For the most part my family is okay with these changes. We’ve been eating wheat bread since our daughters learned about bread products. They do love the white bread – especially hamburger buns. We are slowly switching everything out. We still do some white products, but try to minimize them.
One of the biggest changes I made was switching from white pasta to brown rice pasta. My husband wasn’t too happy about this change at first, but now seems to enjoy the rice pasta okay. We do have white pasta still with one of his favorite recipes.
It’s a process. But I’ve noticed a difference with how my daughters process food (and my body too).
Megin Hatch // Mar 18, 2009 at 7:11 pm
Kelly- my family hates the wheat and rice pasta… h.a.t.e.s. it!
Chris- you had me until… “To make a sandwich loaf for a 9” x 4” loaf pan…” then I needed photos… or a video… or… a chef
I am going to try this next week, for sure- thanks!
STL Mom // Mar 18, 2009 at 7:46 pm
My family won’t touch whole wheat pasta (and I suspect brown rice pasta wouldn’t go over well either) but they will eat Barilla Plus. It’s not whole grain, but it has more protein and fiber than regular white pasta. The ingredients include lentils, chickpeas, spelt & flaxseed. However, it doesn’t have that grainy texture that whole wheat pasta often has.
Megin, here’s a video of someone making the King Arthur Flour recipe for whole wheat sandwich bread:
http://www.breadtopia.com/all-whole-wheat-bread/
Don’t freak out when he starts by milling his own flour! I made this recipe with store-bought white whole wheat flour and it turned out very well.
Anita B // Mar 18, 2009 at 8:35 pm
I thought the same thing about rice pasta when I first heard of it, but after cooking it a couple of times to get just the right amount of ‘doneness’ I really don’t even notice a difference between the brown rice pasta and the white pasta. If you buy the right brand (which is Pasta Joy-www.ricepasta.com or http://www.tinkyada.com) then you can boil the water, stir in the pasta, turn off the burner, cover the pot and let it sit for 10-12 minutes and it’s done. No cooking necessary. But you do have to play around with it a few times before getting it right. We also live a mile high, so steaming times might be different. But like I said, I really can’t taste the difference.
Annette K. // Mar 19, 2009 at 4:29 am
I am so happy to get all these suggestions! I can’t wait to try everything out. I think just writing all this has made me even more motivated to bake my bread again. I’m definitely going to try the brown rice pasta too. Thank you so much!
amy // Apr 5, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Let me throw this at you. 4 in the Family -Husband and 10 Daughter needs to eat Whole Grain, my 8 y Autistic Son- Completely Gluten/Casein Free, and now myself Casein Free and no Whole Wheat only Enriched because Whole Wheat has too much Gluten for me. We are HFCS free, Nitrite and Sulfite free and preservative and additive free. So life is not easy at our house with Foods.
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