Mom Advice Experiment- Who Bread:White vs Wheat

Bread 1: Bread Flour

Bread 2: All-purpose flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour

So, I decided to give the Mom Advise Notebook Experiments a try. Amy has a notebook where she list all kinds of great ideas she finds online. Many of them are projects that I really want to do. I've looked through her past notebooks and have booked marked lots of things to try. So, I'll be back for the weekly experiments. I really like how Amy makes them look like an experiment when she post them, so hopefully she won't mind if I do mine the same. I got a bread machine with our income tax refund this year and I love it. Although I still have a lot to learn! This is the first recipe we tried and really love, Low-Fat Bread Machine Italian Bread . I was really excited to try a different one.

Experiment: Can I make Who (pronounced hooo, like an owl) bread and will my kids and husband will still like it if I substitute 1 cup of whole wheat flour for 1 cup of the bread flour?

Experiment taken from: Notebook Entry 02.14.07

Materials needed: Here's the recipe that I used from SouleMama.

WHO Bread
(makes 1.5 lb loaf, set to 'basic' with medium crust)
1 1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons butter @ room temperature
1 tsp salt
3 cups of flour (we do 2 cups unbleached white, 1 cup whole wheat pastry)
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (or, one package)
Add ingredients to pan in order listed according to bread machine instructions. Makes 1.5 lb loaf, set to medium crust and basic.



Results:
Part 1: The first loaf we made was with just the bread flour. This bread rose quite a bit in my machine and looked more like a 2 lb loaf. I was worried that my lid would come off of the top of my machine, but it did not. I thought maybe I did something wrong, but I followed the instructions exactly! So, I thought? After rereading the recipe, it called for plain flour and not the bread flour, which is probably what made it rise more. My kids ate the bread fine and said they liked it okay. I liked it.

Part 2: The second loaf I made was the one that I substituted 1 cup of whole wheat flour for 1 cup of the white flour. Now why would I want to do this? Well, first it is healthier for my kids and second since being on Weight Watchers, I noticed that using the whole wheat flour lowered my points sometimes and after running the recipe through the recipe builder (you have to be an e-tools subscriber to get this service) on the Weight Watchers Website, I found that it did indeed lower it by one point. If it tasted just as good, that was the one I wanted to use. The bread rose more like it was suppose too since I used the all-purpose flour. (I did not have any unbleached white.) The top fell, but the results were that my bread's crust was crispier and the bread really did taste better to me than the first one I tried. But how did my kids like it? Well, my oldest one said it's okay. I asked him what he did not like about it and he said it taste like wheat. The others are 4 years old and 2 years old and basically they will eat warm bread with butter on it.


Conclusion: Well, I guess my kids will eat the bread with the wheat in it, although they seem to like the white flour bread better. My dh and my 9 year old refuse to eat wheat bread. I don't have any other answers as to how to get them to eat healthier and to eat wheat. Personally, I liked the second one and if I make this bread again, that will be the one I choose. This however is not my first pick for my favorite bread.
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For more experiments go here.

Whole Wheat Cookies

Whole Wheat Cookies
Lots of times people are scared to stored long term food storage items, like wheat, because they are not used to cooking with it. I really think if you are going to store it, you need to know how to use it and every now and then, make some of the recipes so your family can get used to them. I started with cookies because I knew my kids would be more likely to eat them. I also like to make my own cookies. Not only are they cheaper to make, they are also so much better! Guess what? My family loved them! So, here are a couple recipes you can make and try out on your family with some of your food storage items. They only thing I had to buy was the butter.
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The Whole Wheat Tollhouse Cookie
1 cup whole wheat flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup old fashioned rolled oatmeal
1 cup chocolate chips
½ cup nuts, chopped (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet or cover with parchment paper (I used nonstick cooking spray.) In a large bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Cream the butter with the brown sugar until light in color, about 4 minutes. Beat in the egg until incorporated. Stir in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and blend well. Stir in the oats, chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, or until brown. Cool on a wire rack.
From Bob’s Red Mill Baking Book, a recipe from 1937.
Note: I used margarine instead of butter and omitted the nuts just to make these cookies more affordable.
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Easy Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Cookies
1 cup peanut butter
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup honey
½ cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1¼ cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking flour
½ cup old fashioned oatmeal
In a large bowl, mix together the peanut butter, butter, honey, brown sugar, and egg until smooth. Combine the whole wheat flour and baking powder; stir into the batter until blended. Refrigerate dough for 1 hour. Roll into small balls, and place on a greased cookie sheet. Flatten slightly using a fork. Bake for 13-15 minutes in a preheated 350 degree F oven, or until cookies are slightly toasted at the edges.
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Whole Wheat Snickerdoodles
1 cup shortening, butter, or margarine
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
2 ¾ cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp cream of tarter
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Combine together 1 ½ cups sugar and shortening. Add eggs and beat well. Combine flour, cream of tarter, salt, and soda. Add to sugar mixture and mix well. Roll into approximately 1 inch balls. Combine 2 Tablespoons sugar and cinnamon. Roll dough balls in cinnamon /sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart. Slightly flatten. Bake 400 degrees F for 8-10 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet and cool on rack. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.
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Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Bars
½ cup butter or margarine
1 cup oil
2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups quick oats
1 cup nuts (optional)
1 cup chocolate chips
Cream together margarine, oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Add nuts and chocolate chips. Place in a 9x13 inch cake pan and bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.