Home Spun Soul: Adventures In Whole Grain Baking

Y'all know I bake with whole grains, or as much as is possible. Now I should give you a bit of background on my experiences with whole grains. Growing up, my Mother was a H.E.A.L.T.H. N.U.T. I am not kidding. We ate tofu dogs long before they were popular (and if you ask me, they still should not be popular). Rice milk, dairy free this, and sugar free that were staples at our house. Yuk. I believe in eating well, eating healthy so as to promote healthy bodies. However, there is a problem with all of this IF NO ONE WANTS TO EAT THE STUFF! *ahem* My mother forebade any sort of normal, or real cookies, candies or cakes in our house. At all, like never, not even for a treat. We weren't in danger of dying if we ate a single solitary chocolate chip cookie! That being said, I do believe in eating well, I also believe in small treats. You know why? Because my brother and I were so deprived when we would come in contact with said sugary treats we would gourge ourselves on the heavenly goodness. I can still ashamedly recall plunging my finger into a forbidden canister of chocolate frosting, over and over and over again at my grandmothers house. No wonder I grew up fat and frumpy.
So, I make cakes, cookies and treats at my house. Not everyday, not even every week, but there will always be some sort of sweet treat at my house for my kids and husband. My children are learning self control. But I still want to make those treats as healthy as possible, without sacrificing taste. The problem with the 'sweets' my mother had for us tasted like sawdust. They were junk and we didn't eat them. So I've been experimenting with whole grains. I've got the bread down pat. Rhys will even snack on a plain piece of bread. Which is just fine with me. But lately he's been wanting Nilla Wafers after his dinner. So I found a recipe to make my own. YAY! I wanted to put some whole wheat flour in it, but in the past when I replaced all of the wheat, they didn't turn out as nice. So this time I used a soft white winter wheat. Still the whole grain, but a lighter, better for cookies, cakes and quick breads. And I only replaced half the flour called for the whole wheat. They turned out great. I also made some chocolate chip cookies for the rest of the family and replaced half the flour with wheat and Nadia raved over them. If she can't tell the difference, and the girl knows her cookies, then they've got to be good. If they pass the Andrew test I know it works.
For your salivation delight, a few pics.