Keeping the joy in whole-grain holiday baking
When I was 5, my mom invited a bunch of my kindergarten girlfriends and their moms over for cookies, cocoa and caroling to celebrate the holidays. That tradition turned into an annual holiday ritual, and I grew up equating the holiday season with massive amounts of baking, particularly cookies.
The holiday party tradition has carried on today, decades later. My four daughters and I kick off the season by hosting a mother-daughter tea every year the weekend after Thanksgiving. So this is a perfect time to explore one of my favorite healthy baking secret weapons — white whole-wheat flour.
Let me start by clearing up any confusion about the term “white whole-wheat.”
Despite how it sounds, the term is not referring to bleached wheat flour. Rather, white whole-wheat flour is milled from a variety of wheat that has a lighter color and less pronounced flavor than the more conventional variety used for whole wheat. The result is a whole-grain flour that works great for baking since the texture (soft) and color (white) are closer to the all-purpose flour we associate with holiday baking.
Using white whole wheat in your baking means you can serve whole grains to your family, even while indulging in a sweet holiday treat. Fill up on cookies, you ask? It has been known to happen in our house ...
Try white whole-wheat flour in my chocolate almond crescent cookies and you'll have the added bonus of some healthy, filling fats (almonds and coconut oil), along with a relatively low sugar content. And then try swapping white whole-wheat flour for part or all of the all-purpose flour in some your own favorite recipes.
• Food Network star Melissa d'Arabian is an expert on healthy eating on a budget. She is the author of the upcoming cookbook, “Supermarket Healthy.”