Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Filling, yet still delicious.

Ingredients:

3/4 c. butter, softened

1 c. white sugar

1 c. brown sugar, packed

2 t. vanilla

2 eggs

2 1/2 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 c. all-purpose flour

3/4 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

1 1/2 c. chocolate chips

1/2 c. pecans or walnuts (optional)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets.

Cream the butter, sugars, and vanilla until smooth and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time.

In a separate bowl, stir together flours, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add to the wet ingredients, stirring as you go.

Stir in chocolate chips and nuts if desired. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto cookie sheets.

Bake for 8-10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool completely on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Tips:

I grind my own wheat, and for this recipe, I make sure it's ground really, really fine. It keeps the cookies light.

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

This bread comes out just perfect - easy to slice, even in thin pieces, and holds together really well. It is so delicious!

Recipe from my dear friend, Jennie Christopherson (who has an amazing craft/food/etc. blog HERE that you should totally check out).

Ingredients:

2.5 c hot water (around 110-115 degrees Fahrenheit)

1.25 T yeast

2 t sugar

1 T salt

1/3 c extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 c sugar (or 1/3 c honey)

1.25 T bottled lemon juice

1/3 c flax seed

1/3 c gluten

5.5 - 6 c whole wheat flour

Directions:

- Mix together the yeast, water, and 2 t. sugar and let rise about 10 minutes (should puff up).

- Mix the salt, oil, sugar, and lemon juice together in a mixer with a dough hook.

- Add the yeast mixture and mix.

- Blend the flax seed in a blender or food processor until broken apart and fluffy.

- Add the flax plus enough whole wheat flour to equal 3.5 cups to the mixer.

- Add the gluten and mix.

- Continue adding an additional 2-2.5 cups of flour until the dough comes cleanly off the sides of the bowl as you knead it with the dough hook. Knead in the mixer about 10 minutes. The dough will be very soft, but will be elastic when pulled apart.

- Preheat the oven for a few minutes to lukewarm and turn off.

- Turn dough onto oiled counter top, divide, shape into loaves, and place in oiled pans.

- Let rise in warm oven 30-45 minutes until the dough fills in and reaches the top of the pans.

- Do not remove bread from oven; turn oven to 350 degrees and bake 30 minutes.

- Let cool 10 minutes in pans, then remove from pans.

Yields 2 large or 3 small loaves.

Bread Maker Wheat Bread

Basically, I took this recipe and halved it (with some minor changes), but it came out GREAT in my bread machine.  YUM.

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups warm-to-hot water
3/4 T. yeast
3 T oil
1/4 cup honey
1 t. salt
1 T. gluten
1.5 cups white flour
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

Directions: 

- Put in bread machine.

- Set timer.

- Wake up to the best smell ever.

- Eat more than you should.

- Repeat as needed.

Whole Wheat Snickerdoodles

Adapted from AllRecipes.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter

1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions:

- Cream butter and brown sugar until fluffy.

- Add eggs and vanilla.  Beat well.

- Add dry ingredients, except sugar and cinnamon.

- Mix sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl.

- Shape dough into small balls and roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture.

- Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.

- Bake at 375F for 8-10 minutes.

Wheat Bread

Well, I guess when it rains recipes, it pours recipes. =)

I'll preface this by saying that I'm not good at making bread. AT. ALL. But I can make THIS bread turn out really nicely. That's sayin' something, folks.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups warm-to-hot water
1 1/2 T. yeast
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup honey
2 t. salt
2 T gluten
3 cups white flour
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

Mix yeast with water. Add the oil and honey. Let sit for 10 minutes.

Add 1 cup white flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, gluten, and salt. Stir to combine--work out the lumps.

Add the rest of the flour until the dough no longer sticks to the side of the bowl. Turn onto floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes.

Divide into 2 balls. Form loaves and put into greased pans. Place into warm oven (the lowest temperature on my oven is 170, and this works just fine) for 40-45 minutes until dough doubles in size.

Turn the oven to 350 and bake for 25-30 minutes.

Bread is done when it sounds hollow when you tap on the top.

(credit for this recipe goes to the wife of my husband's freshman roommate....who's blog I stalk....There. It's all out in the open). =)

Whole Wheat (Quick) Bread

Since I'm bread-stupid, this was the perfect thing to use my wheat. I can't make a loaf of yeast bread to save my life...but THIS worked well.... I served it with honey butter and it was fan-TAS-tic.

Whole Wheat Quick Bread

1 egg, beaten
2 cups buttermilk*
2 T molasses or honey
2 T butter, melted
2 cups whole wheat flour**
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 t baking powder

In a bowl, combine egg, buttermilk, molasses (or honey), and butter. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder. Stir well; add to first mixture and mix well. Pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 400 degrees for about 45-50 minutes, until lightly brown. Cool slightly, then turn out of the pan onto a wire rack. Slice while warm. Makes one loaf. 

*I used regular milk.

**After I mixed the ingredients together, the mixture seemed a little watery, so I added an extra half cup of flour and it was great. I don't think my wheat grinder made a fine enough grind.

Zucchini Yogurt Multigrain Muffins

I had a lot of zucchini that I needed to use up and I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. These were SO healthy and SO delicious. Super moist. These were eaten up by my family- by super picky eaters as well.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup oat flour (I just ground some oats in a blender)
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup honey
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup shredded zucchini
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)
• 1/2 cup raisins (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease 24 muffin cups.
2. In a bowl, sift together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, oat flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In a separate bowl, beat together eggs, vegetable oil, applesauce, yogurt, sugar, honey, and vanilla. Mix the flour mixture into the egg mixture. Fold in the zucchini, carrots, pecans, and raisins. Scoop into the prepared muffin cups.
3. Bake 18 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Wheat Berry Parfait

Here is one of the many things you can do with wheat berries (shown PW style):

Yum, doesn't that look good


Here are your ingredients:

Fresh blueberries. You can use what ever fruit you want, these just looked good.

Fresh Bananas. Again you could use what ever kind of fruit you would like.

Yogurt, whatever flavor you like. I used strawberry.

These are wheat berries. They taste better then they look.

O.k. here's how to put it all together (not PW style).

1. Put some wheat berries in a cup or what ever you have that will work.
2. Put some yogurt on top of the wheat berries
3. Put in some fruit on top of the yogurt
4. Repeat
5. Enjoy.

My kids like this so much they saved what they couldn't eat for their snacks later that day.

Wheat Berries

Have you ever wondered what you can do with all that wheat you have stored? It's not just for grinding. Here is a recipe that uses whole wheat kernels.

1 cup of wheat kernels
2-3 cups of water

Put the ingredients together in a crockpot and cook overnight on low. In the morning you have a nice hot breakfast. I like to put honey and milk on my wheat berries. One of my kids likes them with sugar and cinnamon. This is a hot cereal. Like oatmeal.

I usually have leftover wheat berries and there are a few things you can do with them. I will post those recipes later.

Try them you just might like them.

Warning: If you are not used to eating whole grains please don't have these for breakfast every morning. Work into it slowly. (Wheat can do a number on your system).

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

I got this recipe from some magazine, but I can't remember which. I doubled it to use up some oats and it fit just fine in my KitchenAid mixer, even though it seems like it might not.

1 stick butter

1 cup dark brown sugar (regular worked fine for me)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup pureed fresh or canned pumpkin

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

3 cups rolled oats (I used the quick-cooking kind)

6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips (not in the original recipe, but I think it makes them even better)

Heat oven to 350. Beat together butter and sugars. Add pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla; beat. Mix in combined flours, baking soda, and spices, then stir in oats. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes. Let cool.

I was out of butter, so I used the vegetable shortening substitution (1 cup butter or margarine = 1 cup shortening + 6 teaspoons water). I couldn't tell a major difference in the cookies compared to the first time I made them. I think they could use a little bit more spice, but they definitely have a pumpkin flavor. And I prefer the chocolate chips in them because they compliment the pumpkin and spice flavor so nicely.

Flour Tortillas

These tortillas are pretty easy and sooooo good. Plus they freeze well, so I encourage making a large batch and then saving for later.

Also, as a quick note... if you're going to make them more than once, I HIGHLY recommend a tortilla press. You can get them dirt cheap at your local Latino market ($5-$10) and are worth every penny. Rolling them out by hand is at least 3 times more work. I have a 8 inch metal one that I looooooooove. The perk of metal is that you don't have to use a piece of wax paper when you roll them out like you do on a wood press. Ok, enough about that.

Ingredients:
5 c. flour (or, if using whole wheat, 4 cups whole wheat flour and 1 cup white flour)
1/2 c. olive oil (you can also use lard or shortening... but I like to pretend I'm being healthy, despite my plans to top them with piles of cheese)
2 t. salt
1.5 c. boiling water

Directions:
Mix the flour, olive oil and salt together with a fork, or ideally, a pastry blender. Make a well and pour in the boiling water. Mix together with a fork and then as it begins to become one large ball, knead by hand until it is moist, but does not stick to your hands. Add flour or boiling water as needed to get to this consistency.
Form 1-2 inch balls and set on a plate. Cover with a towel and set aside for 15-20 minutes, up to an hour. I have no idea why this step is important, but it makes a big difference.
Roll (or press) out until very thin. I usually press the tortillas twice, once on each side, to make them as even as possible.
Heat a griddle or large frying pan over medium-high heat. Place the tortillas on, and flip over when they start to bubble and have light brown spots. Remove and place in a stack on a plate or in a cloth napkin, or allow to cool slightly and then refrigerate or freeze.

Brother Butler's Whole Wheat Bread

I need to say that I cannot make bread. I have the wrong hands my grandmother told me. But regardless of the recipe I have never been successful. My friends tell me it is just because I need a Bosch. True, but who wants to invest in a Bosch if it doesn't work anyhow. BUT . . .my sweet friend Emma who makes insanely good bread passed this recipe on to me and I figure if Bro. Butler (real person) can make this bread so can I. AND wowwy wow wow I did! It is amazing bread. No crumbs and freezes well too. Hope you all give it a try.

1/3 C oil
1/4 C molasses
1/4 C honey
1/2 c potato flakes
1/2 TB salt
2 TB yeast
1/3 c Gluten
5 C flour (white or whole wheat or both)
4 C hot water (as hot as your faucet will go)
1/4 c dough enhancer
4 c flour (put in 3 and see what the consistency is)

Bloom yeast with 2 C hot water then add the rest of the ingredients down through the dough enhancer. (I don't use this because I don't have it and it is spendy). Mix well and then add the remaining flour. Knead 10 minutes. (YEAH RIGHT. if you have a machine, great, if not, FIVE is all I can do and it seems to work well. Put dough in a well oiled bowl and cover. let rise until doubled. I punch down twice. Punch down and divide in 4 loaves. Put in greased pans. Rise 25 minutes. Bake 350 for 25 minutes. Eat with lots of butter.
Just a thought about gluten. If you live anywhere humid I would not reccommend using it. A good friend in Ohio said it just makes a gummy mess out there, but here in the arid west it is a must! I have yet to make this 100% whole wheat, but the last batch I made I only used 3 cups white flour out of the 9 cups. It isn't that heavy wheaty taste either, really light and sweet.

Whole Wheat Waffles

2 eggs
2 cups whole wheat flour (I love King Arthur wheat flour. You can also use regular white flour.)
2 TBS sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 2/3 cups milk

1. Heat waffle iron
2. Beat eggs until fluffy
3. Beat in remaining ingredients until smooth
4. Bake 5 minutes

Yields 7 waffles (probably more if you don't left half the batter ooze out the sides of the iron...)

These are hearty and really filling. Eating two will leave you satisfied for a long time. And it gives you 60% of your daily fiber intake.

Liz, can you please post some of Kim Bodily's whole wheat recipes?