Whole Wheat Lovin'

When I was newly married and still in College, Jesse (culinary genius) made a loaf of whole wheat bread. It turned out rock solid. Very dense, but I loved it. She was disappointed. She couldn't figure out what went wrong. Since that experience I have been mortified at the thought of using whole wheat flour because if Jesse couldn't figure it out, I was a lost cause.

Then, I moved to Virginia. Home of the Mennonites. And not just Mennonites, "conservative" Mennonites, ya know, "old order", wearing bonnets and dresses and driving carriages. I over hear girls younger than me raving about their canned salsa, their home made bread, their made from scratch something or other. It's inspiring.

Then I visited a lady in my ward (sister h-). She's pretty much an exact replica of my own mother. Down to the hair. She got on a whole wheat kick in attempt to make her diet more "healthy". She's been substituting whole wheat flour straight into all her regular white all purpose flour recipes. I drilled her on how in the world she does it. She said, " I measures it out like I always do." She raved about how her kids loved it. And what finally convinced me I needed to make the switch was when she said "my kids prefer the wheat flour, they think stuff tastes way to sweet if I use white."

I always say stuff is too rich or too sweet for my liking. Could I start savoring chocolate cakes and cookies by making them less sweet by using whole wheat flour? I had to try it! With my inspiring Mennonite influence and Sister H-'s easy-smeasy attitude I had a little too much confidence. I started substituting like crazy. The texture was crazy. It's a big difference. So, I stepped back and decided to do half and half. Again I went over board and bought a bag of white and a bag of wheat and combined them (less hassle).

Enter Brad. Boy was he disappointed when I said I combined both bags in their entirety. He tried to be patient with me and told me next time not to combine all of it. But, in the mean while we've got 10 pounds of combined flour to use.

Cream Puff recipe I've been dying to try? Whole Wheat Lovin'

Cookies for our new Iraqi Refugee family that moved in? Whole Wheat Lovin'

Another one of Kaci's birthday cakes because someone somewhere surely had a b-day today and needs a cake to celebrate? Whole Wheat Lovin'

Honestly, they all turned out fine! People even said they liked the stuff, they wanted to know the secret. There ya have it. Jesse's dense bread was a fluke. Even culinary geniuses make a mistake sometimes. I'm lovin' the combined flour. I'm going to try the new white whole wheat flour next. Maybe someday I'll be using whole wheat flour straight too, ya never know!