A Week of Whole Grain Baking, Day 8: Soft Barley Sugar Cookies

Yes, I am fully aware that there are only seven days in a week, but I just couldn't leave out these sugar cookies from the roundup, seeing as how they are whole grain and were a part of the baking marathon. (Rest assured, this is the last post in my series on whole grain baking! Sadly, even with all this baking, I didn't finish all the flour. On a side note, I have now made more than enough [winning] recipes from this book to give it a glowing review! Buy it!) Aside from the necessary overnight chill, these cookies, made with sour cream, were easy to make. The first line in the header for this recipe says, "These taste just like my Grandma's!" Now, these barley cookies definitely aren't my grandmother's, (now that I think of it I can't recall my grandmothers baking cookies..) but they do give off a comforting, homey scent. The cookies stay soft for a while, which is a major bonus. I'm guessing that's due to the sour cream in it. The recipe calls for making ten HUGE cookies but I made regular sized cookies. I made these the night the girls were set to head off to Poland and I think they were very much appreciated. What's amazing about this whole week of baking is that no one could tell these baked goods were whole grain, just delicious. This recipe included. I hope I've encouraged you enough to seek out some whole grain flours (if I can find them in Israel, you can!) and try some of these recipes.

A Week of Whole Grain Baking, Day 7: Chocolate Graham Crackers

This week long, whole grain bake fest involved a lot of cracker making. While I was at it, I decided to try my hand at the sweet kind, namely the Graham Cracker. Having made regular graham crackers ages ago, pretty much at the beginning of my blogging days, I decided to go with the chocolate graham. Besides, who doesnt love chocolate? Right. Aaaand, it would make a bigger dent in the barley flour-- let's not forget the reason for this week of wholesome baking. Anyway, the dough comes along pretty easily by hand and then takes a time out in the fridge. It then gets rolled out, docked and baked. The smell of them baking pervaded the entire hallway with a luxurious chocolate scent. Yum! And they taste as good as they smell, a deep chocolate flavor with a nice crackery crunch. I cut some of the cracker dough in half and so the smaller pieces got burned and threw them away; with such a deep colored dough, it's kind of hard to tell when theyre done. My next batch, I took them out earlier, which made for a softer, hbendier cracker, which my girls actually loved. The last batch, I made normally. I plunked a jar of peanut butter down next to the crackers, encouraging the girls to eat them together. Most girls did. Classic combination. Feel free to eat them plain or crush them up in a food processor to use as a crust in your favorite pie. Or make a chocolate smore. Whip out your cookie cutters and make animal crackers. Let your imagination run wild!

A Week of Whole Grain Baking, Day 6: Sesame Crackers

These are, hands down, some of my favorite things ever. Cracker + sesame? YUM! If you don't know this already about me, I love sesame, especially toasted sesame. I knew these were going to be winners before I even made them, so I don't know what took me so long. I guess I just needed the push of getting rid of flours to get me going. Seriously, I don't think I stopped munching on these from the time they came out of the oven until they were finished. These deserve to be made again (shocking!) this time with the addition of the optional sesame oil, to boost the sesame flavor. If you don't have it, don't fret- the toasted sesame really adds tons of flavor. By now you should be so used to the process of cracker making that you could do it with your eyes closed. Go on. Make them.

Introducing.....

A Week of Whole Grain Baking, Day 5: Sweet Spelt Sourdough

I figured that the easiest way to get rid of a whole bag of spelt flour was to make a loaf of bread. The only spelt bread recipe that I found in the Whole Grain Baking book was the Sweet Spelt Sourdough bread. Having been thinking about it all week, in preparation for Shabbat, I pulled out my sourdough starter. Let me tell you, that thing was severely neglected. Nevertheless, I discarded the nastiness that was on top of it, and began nourishing it anew with spelt flour. I seemed to be getting little action, which is not surprising as it had gone abandoned for so long and I didn't give it long enough to ferment properly. In any case, I disregarded this and proceeded with the recipe. In the end, I spiked the dough with 1 tsp of instant yeast to help it along. And it helped it along marvelously. (So much so, that should I ever want to make a spelt loaf, this is the recipe I'll use, adapting it as needed for a regular yeasted loaf.) The only other change I made was to use oil instead of melted butter. Additionally, I gave this loaf a rise in the fridge instead of baking it straight away. How did it turn out? AMAZING! that's how! With the very first bite, I tasted the sweetness of the spelt flour. The loaf had great, moist texture, perfect for sandwiches- and that's not just because the slices were nice and tall. The loaf didn't scream sourdough at all, but it was definitely there, the last thing you tasted in the loaf. Visually, this bread is one of my best yet; it slashed beautifully (I think because I was quick and confident!) and didnt collapse. The slashes opened up beautifully in the oven and I got a deep brown color on the crust. Pretty much, what I'm trying to say, is that I loved this bread, both by the slice and topped with dip. This one gets a repeat. I'm sending this off to Yeastspotting!