Whole Wheat Pancakes and Buttermilk Syrup

I bought some wheat from a church cannery a while back. A friend went and brought me some back. Our cannery is not real close, so we took orders and brought back for people. So, I have been trying to make some things using my wheat. I also took our income tax money and bought a wheat grinder, that I just love! These pancakes are adapted from a Cooking Light recipe. I really liked them. We had them for dinner. My husband is not a big wheat fan, but he even liked these and the kids devoured them. I don't know why Cooking Light called them Whole Wheat pancakes because they are actually 50/50 if you look at the recipe. I really think you could add all wheat flour and make them whole wheat. I like these with Smucker's sugar free syrup, my kids love the buttermilk syrup. Don't let that name scare you, it taste like a caramel syrup. Believe me, you will not want to go back to regular syrup after trying this syrup. You can also use the Homemade Pancake Syrup, that I posted awhile back. I made a double batch of these pancakes and froze the leftovers. They freeze nicely and then you just heat them in your microwave. I also like to serve these with fruit and bacon for dinner.

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup all purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups fat free buttermilk(can use 1 cup of fat free milk with 1 tbsp lemon juice as a substitute, mix milk and lemon juice and let it set for about 10 min. prior to using)

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 large egg

1 large egg white

cooking spray

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together buttermilk, oil, egg, and egg white. Pour wet ingredients into dry ones. Stir until combined and the dry ingredients are just barely moistened.

Heat a nonstick griddle or nonstick skillet with cooking spray over medium heat. Using a measuring cup, pour 1/2 cup batter on the hot surface. Repeat until you've finished the skillet with pancakes. (You will have 2-3 batches depending on your pan size)

Flip pancakes when their edges look lightly browned and many bubbles appear on the surfaces facing you. Continue to cook until both sides are lightly browned. Serve with butter and syrup.

Makes 12 pancakes (I measured mine (1/4 cup) and making 2 batches came out with 25 pancakes)

Cost of recipe: around $2.00, I fed 6 with this recipe.

Buttermilk Syrup (We eat this rarely, it is special at my house!)

1 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 cup fat free buttermilk

1/2 cup butter

2 tablespoons corn syrup

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons vanilla

Place first 5 ingredients in large saucepan and bring to boil. Cook for 7 minutes, stirring to prevent scorching. (Mixture will foam.) Remove from heat and add vanilla.

2010 Food Storage Goals

I look at other food storage blogs most have these great "Yearly Food Storage Goals" post. So, about a month ago, I decided to make some goals for myself. It took some time thinking about it hence the lateness of this post. I think goals are a great way to get something accomplished so I'm hoping this will help me a lot this year!

Lorie's 2010 Food Storage Goals

1. Continue to work on building my 3-month storage

2. Use my food storage more in everyday meals so I can rotate

3. Learn to make things homemade that I would usually buy at the grocery like bagels and English Muffins and other things too.

4. Start a food storage binder with things I have been saving on food storage so everything is in one place

5. Work on gardening again this year, hopefully I will have a better year.

6. Continue to store water by reusuing juice containers

Buttermilk American Sandwich Bread

I recently got a Kitchen Aid mixer and wanted to find a sandwich bread my family would eat. Bread has gotten so high at the grocery that I thought this might help my budget some. My husband refuses wheat bread so he said that was okay if he got his white bread, so I went off and found a recipe that had ingredients I kept on hand most of the time and this was what I decided to try first. I also bought a bread slicing guide which makes it quite easy to cut them into the perfect bread for sandwiches. You can also make your own buttermilk using vinegar or lemon juice, but the butter flavor is not as intense. My family really liked this bread and it held up well for sandwiches.


Buttermilk American Sandwich Bread

3 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the work surface
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup cold buttermilk (can use 1 cup of milk with 1 tbsp lemon juice as a substitute, mix milk and lemon juice and let it set for about 10 min. prior to using)
1/3 cup boiling water
2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
3 tablespoons honey
1 envelope instant yeast (about 2 1/4 teaspoons)(I used Rapid Rise)
Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 200 degrees. Once the oven temperature reaches 200 degrees, maintain the heat for 10 minutes, then turn off the oven.
Mix 3 1/2 cups of the flour and the salt in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the dough hook. Mix the milk, water, butter, honey, and yeast in a 4-cup liquid measuring cup. Turn the machine to low and slowly add the liquid. When the dough comes together, increase the speed to medium and mix until the dough is smooth and satiny, stopping the machine two or three times to scrape dough from the hook, if necessary, about 10 min. (After 5 minutes of kneading, if the dough is still sticking to the sides of the bowl, add flour, 1 tablespoon at a time and up to 1/4 cup total, until the dough is no longer sticky.) Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface; knead to form a smooth, round ball, about 15 seconds.
Place dough in very lightly oiled large bowl, rubbing the dough around the bowl to coat lightly. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place it in the warmed oven until the dough doubles in size, 50 to 60 minutes.
Gently press the dough into a rectangle 1 inch thick and no longer than 9 inches. With a long side facing you, roll the dough firmly into a cylinder, pressing with your fingers to make sure the dough sticks to itself. Turn the dough seam-side up and pinch it closed. Place the dough seam-side down in a greased 9 by 5-inch loaf pan and press it gently so it touches all four sides of the pan. Cover with damp cloth; set aside in warm spot until the dough almost doubles in size 20-30 min.
Keep one oven rack at the lowest position and place the other at the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Place an empty baking pan on the bottom rack. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Pour boiling water into the empty pan on the bottom rack and set the loaf onto the middle rack. Bake until an instant-read thermometer inserted at an angle from the short end just above the pan rim into the center of the loaf reads 195 degrees, 40 to 50 minutes. Remove bread from the pan, transfer to wire rack, and cool to room temperature. Slice and serve.

From Recipes For Laughter

Get your Baking Supplies Stock Up at Walmart

For the last month, I have been stocking up on Walmart brand flour that has been $1.54 a bag, which I thought was really good until I found the Gold Medal brand at Walmart for $1.50 a bag. I have a ton of flour now and continue to stock up on it, while it is that price. I have not seen it that low for awhile for the 5 lb bag. Also some people have reported to me that 5lb bags of sugar are on sale at Walmart for $1.89 a bag which is the cheapest I've seen it for awhile, but that's not at all Walmart's. My Walmart is $2.24. Also, I found mini marshmallows the Kraft brand for $0.75 cents a bag and the small bag of chocolate chips for $1.80 something. They are usually almost $3.00. There were also $0.40 cents a pound turkeys, Stove Top stuffing for $0 89 cents a box and many more sales on Thanksgiving type food. Tis the season for stocking up on baking supplies at Walmart!

Back to School Food Storage Basics-Whole Wheat

Today Crystal is talking about whole wheat on her Everyday Food Storage website during her Back to School Week series. You can see her full whole wheat article here. Everyday I plan to list things I learned from that series on my blog to help me better understand it. I am pretty new to the food storage area so I hope these really help me! I have never really owned any whole wheat. I did go to an enrichment activity where the person showed us how to use a wheat grinder and she gave us so of the flour she had ground and I used that in a couple of recipes. Our church is planning to take an order for the LDS cannery and several people are going to go down and bring back the stuff for us and whole wheat is definitely something I want to buy. As I was looking over the order form, I was thinking to myself what's the difference between hard red and hard white wheat. I think I got my answers today.

Here's what I learned today:
1. Wheat gives you fiber, cuts down on cavities, keeps you fuller, saves you money, and keeps you regular.
2. There are two types of wheat hard red and hard white. Hard red has a nutty strong some people say bitter taste and it is harder to get your family to eat. Hard white has some things added to it that make it have a softer flavor but can still be stored for a long time.
3. You have to use hard wheat not soft because it will store for a long time.
4. Red Wheat has more protein.
5. Look for recipes that have equal brown sugar and white sugar, recipes with chocolate. recipes with strong spices like cinnamon, recipes with applesauce or other fruits and vegetable, and recipes with oats to help disguise the whole wheat.
6. Cook with whole wheat gradually and get your family used to it. You may need to use 1/2 whole wheat and half white for some recipes.

Some things I found on Crystal's website that I find helpful with whole wheat:
1. Wheat handout- this handout give information and recipes about wheat
2. Cracked Wheat video- this shows you how to crack wheat in your blender
3. How to make homemade video- shows step-by-step how to make homemade bread
4. Tips for making bread in your bread machine- gives great ideas for getting great bread from your bread machine.
5. Dough enhancer video- shows you how and why to use dough enhancers in bread making.

Some recipes I want to try using whole wheat:
1. Brown Sugar Zucchini Bread
2. Blender Wheat Pancakes
3. Wheat Thins
4. Graham Crackers
5. Whole Wheat Carrot Cake Muffins- found on another blog and copied but forgot where it was.
6. Whole Wheat Banana Bread- I made this last week the one on Crystal site, so yummy and it really is better the next day!

What I take away from this lesson:
I want to buy some hard white whole wheat and start trying it in my cooking. I also want to experiment with the dough enhancers.

Questions I still have after this lesson:
Will my family notice the difference? I made the Whole Wheat Banana Bread and my kids loved it so I think they might try some and I can't wait to do it.

Back to School Food Storage Basics-Powdered Eggs

Today Crystal is talking about powdered eggs on her Everyday Food Storage website during her Back to School Week series. You can see her full powdered egg article here. Everyday I plan to list things I learned from that series on my blog to help me better understand it. I am pretty new to the food storage area so I hope these really help me! Recently our church took a group order for whole powdered eggs. We also had an Enrichment meeting that focused on using our food storage. They made an egg casserole that I would like to try. I have not even opened my #10 can of whole powdered eggs so I was ready to learn a few things.

Here's what I learned today:

1. Powdered eggs last 5-7 years. You should keep it in a cool dry place with the lid on after opening.

2. Powdered eggs will save you money. Most #10 cans have about 226 eggs and the average price is $17.00 which makes 1 dozen 94 cents. We did a group order and with shipping and all we paid $16.00 a can so my eggs are an even better value!

3. 1 Tbsp.= medium egg and 2 Tbsp. = extra large egg

4. Benifets of using powdered eggs are no egg shells, they are pasteurized so no worry if you want to lick the batter, save you time because you do not have to wash your hands after cracking an egg, and you can half an egg if you need to half a recipe and have an odd number of eggs.

Some things I found on Crystal's site that I find helpful about powdered eggs:

1. Breakfast handout- great information and recipes that use eggs.

Some recipes I want to try uing powdered eggs:

1. Blender Wheat Pancakes

2. Whole Wheat Quick Bread

3. Low-fat Chocolate Chip Cookies

What I take away from this lesson:

I need to order some more powdered eggs to use with my regular recipes because it really saves money! I also learned how long they last. When our church ordered them someone asked that question and nobody knew the answer.

Questions I still have after this lesson:

After reading my new Emergency Essentials catalog, I noticed that there are seveal different powdered egg products like egg whites, scrambled eggs, etc that I need to look into more.