Baking with Whole Grains by Mani Niall

September is a great time to bake, as there are a bounty of summer fruits still ripe and the beginnings of the desire to nest, to fill the cupboards and cookie jars for the fall.  Blueberries and strawberries are abundant, so I have finally set out to test a recipe from Bruce Goetz, a Sebastopol farmer and berry grower.  His wonderful Double Take Pie combines both raw and cooked berries.  The cooked berries impart a smooth, jam-like silky texture, then fresh berries are folded in for a juicy burst of fresh flavor.  Feel free to use all blueberries if you like, but I had some wonderfully fragrant strawberries and couldn’t resist combining them.  Cooking the berries in corn starch was a textural improvement over the flour Bruce called for in his original recipe, but other than that I left it intact.
 
Whoopie Pies are all the rage and I can hardly read an online Food column without seeing a story or reading another recipe about these Amish treats.  I thought about a whole grain version, but can never seem to make a whole grain chocolate cake that I feel stands up to the taste test, so for these whoopie pies I tried another approach – gluten free.  Honestly, my guests had no idea.  You can use white rice or brown rice flour – they both are relatively high in protein for flour, and the brown rice flour has a significant amount of iron.  Beyond that, you don’t eat whoopie pies for nutritional value – they are just for fun!
 
Speaking of Food columns, the White House pastry chef is getting a lot of mileage out of their granola bar recipe.  A few writers took them to task for the amount of fat and calories as compared to chocolate chip cookies, but I found it maddening that they completely overlooked the quality of fat and calories in these bars—loaded with oats, dried fruit, nuts and whole grains.  Fat and calories are the fuel that makes our bodies run, they are not the enemy!  However, I looked at their recipe and realized I could use less fat, sweeten with local honey and still make a tasty bar.  And if you have trouble getting kids to eat them, just add in a cup of their favorite cereal to create some visual familiarity.

Recipes:

Blueberry Strawberry Double Take Pie

Single Crust Pie Dough

 

Whoopie Pies - gluten free
If gluten is not an issue, simply use a total of 2 cups all-purpose flour in place of the rice flour and tapioca starch.  Omit the xanthan gum.

 

Wildflower Honey Cereal Bars
The flour, egg and juice separate this from a heavy, grainy granola bar, and the addition of your favorite cereal makes them light and crispy.  Use any cereal that appeals to you or your inner child.  I couldn’t decide between Cheerios and Rice Krispies, so I used 1/2 cup of each!