Wednesday, September 16, 2015

STPT Nutrition Challenge Recipes!

In the recipes below, I've replaced white flour with whole wheat and sugar with honey. Once I figure out the best substitute for white flour in my apple pie filling (whole wheat flour? cornstarch? something else?), I'll add that recipe here.


Pie Crust 
(adapted from The Moosewood Cookbook)

The following makes one (1) crust. Double or otherwise multiply as needed.

Cut together 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1/3 cup cold butter. Use a pastry cutter, two forks, or two knives. If the butter is unsalted, add 1/4 teaspoon salt. (The original recipe noted that 4/5 white flour plus 1/5 whole wheat flour was a nice mix.)

When the mixture is uniformly blended, add about 3 tablespoons cold buttermilk (the recipe says one can use cold water instead, but I've always made it with liquid or even powdered buttermilk plus cold water)  or enough so the mixture holds together enough to form a ball.

The recipe says to chill the dough for at least one hour. When I do this, it is incredibly hard to roll out, and the second crust always rolls much more easily than the first. Chilling it for a while is good, but a half hour suits me better than a full one.

Hearth Bread 
(adapted from a King Arthur flour recipe)

This makes two loaves. I make this in a Cuisinart mixer using the dough hook. It can be made by hand, but kneading it will be a real workout. Put 1 tablespoon yeast, 1 tablespoon salt, and 1 tablespoon honey in a bowl. Add 2 cups hot water (I use the hottest water that comes out of my tap) and let it proof. Add 6 cups of whole wheat flour, 2 cups at a time, beating a bunch after each addition. 

When it's all beaten together and reasonably smooth, give it a couple of kneads by hand. Put it in a buttered bowl, flipping over so that there's butter on the top as well as the bottom. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a towel. Put the bowl in a warm place. I let my dough rise on my stove, beside (not on) the burner that vents from the oven, with the oven temperature set at 500 degrees F. Let the dough rise an hour or until doubled in bulk. 

Punch the dough down, split it and give each half a knead or two to get it into a loaf shape and put it into loaf pans sprayed with cooking spray. (Aside: I have trouble getting the whole wheat version into a "pretty" loaf. Taking taste over appearance, I don't mind.) Let the loaves rise for 30 minutes.

Fill a 13 x 9 inch cake pan halfway with water, and put this on the bottom shelf of the oven. After 15 minutes, put the loaves in on the middle rack. After 10 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 400 degrees F. After 10 more minutes, they're done.

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