After pastry chef Kim Boyce left the professional kitchens of Campanile to raise her family, it was a pancake that would forever change the way she baked. This was no ordinary pancake. With her kitchen under construction and a hungry toddler to feed, Boyce did what any good chef would do and improvised. She grabbed some multigrain pancake mix, added the usual milk, eggs, and butter, along with the not-so-usual beets and apples to create a quick and nutritious dinner for her daughter Lola.
It was on that day that Boyce had an epiphany: “Cooking with whole grain flours brought so much more flavor to the plate.” Soon she began experimenting with every grain she could get her hands on – whole-wheat to buckwheat, and spelt to Teff.
Cooking with whole grains is not an easy matter. You cannot simply replace processed white flour with whole grains and bake until your heart’s content. Whole grains tend to be more dense, heavier and often tougher than that great American standard known as all purpose flour. To see for yourself, try taking a favorite biscuit recipe and replace the white flour with whole-wheat. What results will be closer to a hockey puck than a light, airy biscuit.
In her book Good to the Grain: Baking with Whole-Grain Flours, Boyce talks about the trials and errors she endured in order to find the right balance of ingredients that would result not only in the right texture but would also exploit the unique tastes of whole grains.
This is a collection of unique, earthier flavors that only come from using whole grains. As Boyce puts it, “These are not the fancy recipes of my former life as a pastry chef.” Translated: This is a collection for the committed. Don’t come to the party looking for recipes that simply add some fiber to your favorite cakes and pies. These are new and unique recipes. Imagine tastes like Honey Amaranth Waffles (p. 55), Strawberry Barley Scones (p. 67), Figgy and Buckwheat Scones (p. 80), and Soft Rye Pretzels (p. 155) and you’ll start to get a feel for this unique collection.
If you have an adventurous palate that longs to get past the bland taste of white flour, this book is meant for you. Come and explore the unique tastes and textures of these diverse flours – some of which might be tricky to track down. I wouldn’t have thought that kamut would be so difficult to find in a metropolitan area like Washington, DC, but it was. Of course, for many home chefs, the hunt is half the fun.
Boyce has grouped the recipes according to the type of grain they require – whole -wheat, amaranth, barley, buckwheat, kamut, oat, quinoa, rye, spelt and teff. Plus there is a section for multigrain recipes and jams and compotes.
Ruth and I tried several recipes including Sweet Potato Muffins (p. 44) made with whole-wheat, Muscovado Sugar Cake (p. 59) made with Amaranth, Coconut Cookies (p. 68) made with barley flour, and Olive Oil Cake (p. 172) made with spelt., but my clear favorites were Chocolate Chip Cookies made completely from whole-wheat flour and Ginger Peach Muffins made with oat flour. (Recipes follow.)
The Olive Oil Cake may be one of the most talked about recipes because of its unusual juxtaposition of ingredients – olive oil, rosemary and chocolate. Boyce uses the chocolate and rosemary to pull out the “spice and fruitiness” of the olive oil. As such, she recommends using an olive oil with a lot of flavor. Ruth, who travels in and out of the Mediterranean as though it were simply the next state over, couldn’t understand why anyone would keep flavorless olive oil. She used Moroccan cold press oil and tested the recipe on some dinner guest. Much to her surprise, they were able to guess the rosemary, but she felt that mint might be a more natural pairing.
Most of the recipes suggest eating the dishes warm from the oven, and we found this to be particularly true with the chocolate chip cookies, but we found that the cakes and muffins tasted better a few hours out of the oven when the flavors had time to blend.
Ruth also served her guests the Coconut Cookies, which everyone liked. The texture was delicate and the flavor enhanced by the three forms of coconut – milk, flour and shredded. Perhaps because the texture was so delicate, the cookie bottoms of her first batch burned. She added parchment paper to the next batch and moved the oven rack up a notch, and they came out fine. But watch them carefully, she warned.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
My first host son, Thomas, was visiting from Germany, and he helped me with these cookies. I have to admit, straight out of the oven, I could not tell that these were made with whole-wheat. The next day I could distinguish more of the nuttiness of the flour, but I’m sold. These are my chocolate chip cookies going forward. I mean if you can make something with 100% whole grain and it taste great, than why use white flour?
My strongest recommendation is to do as Boyce says and use high-quality chocolate in bar form and chop it into large chunks. Chocolate chips are too small. We used two Ghirardelli’s 60% Cacao Bittersweet Baking Bars, but next time I’m trying three. Also, follow her instructions to keep the cookies on the large size and put only six to a baking sheet.
Thomas likes his cookies crisp, and I like mine chewy. We made a batch of each. For chewy, we baked them for only 16 minutes. For crisp, we baked them the full 20 minutes. I think the chewy ones fared better the next day, but both got a boost from the salt.
Dry Ingredients:
3 cups (15 oz) whole-wheat flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1½ teaspoons kosher salt
Wet Ingredients:
8 ounces (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into ½–inch pieces
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Chocolate Ingredients:
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped into ¼ and ½ pieces.
Place two racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350°F. Line two backing sheets with parchment paper.
Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl; pouring back into the bowl any bits of grain or other ingredients that may remain in the sifter.
Add the butter and both sugars into the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. With the mixer on low speed, mix just until the butter and sugars are blended, about 2 minutes. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until each is combined. Mix in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture to the bowl and blend on low speed until the flour is barely combined, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
Add the chocolate all at once to the batter. Mix on low speed until the chocolate is evenly combined. Use the spatula to scrape down the side and bottom of the bowl, then scrape the batter out onto a work surface, and use your hands to fully incorporate all the ingredients.
Scoop mound of dough about 3 tablespoons in size onto the baking sheets, leaving 3 inches between them, or about six to a sheet.
Bake the cookies for 16 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through, until the cookies are evenly dark brown. Transfer the parchment paper, with the cookies on them, to the counter to cool, and repeat with the remaining dough. These will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Makes about 20 large cookies
Ginger Peach Muffins
In have to confess, I am a muffinaholic. I consider them a less-guilty alternative to cupcakes. So I was immediately drawn to this recipe when I first perused the book. Unfortunately, peaches were out of season when I tested this recipe. I ended up using this peach-like object that was flown in from Peru or Chile or someplace like that. So I can imagine these will be that much better come this summer when I make them again.
I recommend avoiding the temptation to devour all of these when they come out of the oven. Save some for the next day when the ginger flavor seems to come through even more.
Butter for the tins
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
Peach Topping:
1 large or 2 small peaches, ripe but firm
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon honey
Dry Mix:
1 cup oat flour
¾ cup all purpose flour
½ cup whole-wheat flour
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
Wet Mix:
3 ounces (¾ stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
¾ cup whole milk
½ cup sour cream
1 egg
3 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger
Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350°F. Rub muffin tins with a 1/3 cup capacity with butter (I used cooking spray with flour.)
Grate ginger into a large bowl. Some will be used for the topping and the rest for the batter.
For the topping, halve the peach or peaches, remove the pit, and slice the halves into slices about ¼ inch thick. Add the butter, honey, and 1 teaspoon of the grated ginger to a medium skillet. Place the skillet over a medium flame to melt the mixture stirring to combine. Cook until the syrup begins to bubble, about 2 minutes. Add the peaches and toss in the pan to coat. Set aside.
Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl, pouring back into the bowl any grain or other ingredients that may remain in the sifter. Add the wet ingredients to the bowl with the grated ginger and whisk until thoroughly combined.
Using a spatula, mix the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients and gently combine.
Scoop the batter into 9 of the muffin cups using a spoon or an ice cream scoop. The batter should be slightly mounded above the edge.
Toss the pan of peaches to coat hem with the pan juices. Lay one slice of peach over each of the muffins, tucking a second slice partway into the batter. Any extra peaches are delicious over yogurt or ice cream.
Spoon the pan juices over the peaches.
Bake for 24 to 28 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. The muffins are ready to come out when they smell nutty, their bottoms are golden in color, and the edges of the muffin are caramelized. [Note: the author recommends twisting a muffin the check the bottoms for goldern color. I had a little trouble doing this, perhaps I shouldn’t have used the cooking spray after all.]
Take the muffin tin out of the oven, twist each muffin out, and place it on its side to cool. This ensures that the muffin stays crusty instead of getting soggy. [Again, I had problems with the twisting, choosing instead to turn the tins over and pour the muffins onto a clean tea towel.
Yields 9 muffins
There are several more recipes from the book that I look forward to testing, and I will update this review as I do.
By the way, Thomas not only assisted me with the cooking and taste testing. He also took these great pictures.
Recipes adapted from Good to the Grain: Cooking with Whole-Grain Flours by Kim Boyce from Stewart, Tabori & Chang. Reprinted with permission.
