At Planet Organic, our home baking section has everything for the tastiest healthy baking. Do you know why you should bake with wholemeal spelt flour? Do you know what’s so great about rice malt syrup? Have you ever used organic chocolate drops?
Bread has long been a part of our culture. Egyptians were baking bread in 2500 B.C., Greeks were making patterned, honeyed tortes in 400 B.C. and the Romans (you gotta love ‘em) had more than 300 pastry chefs in Rome alone around 1 A.D.! Because of Rome, baking spread through Europe to eastern Asia.
Baked goods have been integral to ceremonies and celebrations from birthdays to rights of passage to holidays. Where would we be without mince pies, hot cross buns or gingerbread men? Baking, which used to be for survival – like nomads carrying their starter to make sourdough bread – is now often for pleasure – like fluffy fairy cakes and decadent chocolate cookies.
The thing about baking is that you can make beautiful treats – for snacks, desserts and weekend feasts – but you waste the chance to eat some goodness if you are using only white flour. I’m not saying never to use or eat white flour. But for home baking – whether you are a single college kid or a granny with lots of grandchildren – it makes good sense to bake with wholemeal flour for all of your favourite biscuits/cookies, muffins, pies and cakes. It doesn’t really change the flavour, but it makes all the difference in terms of nutrients.
Why switch to wholemeal flour? Well, as usual, I have a few reasons for you:
- you are feeding yourself and/or friends and family a complex carbohydrate instead of a simple one
- you are baking in goodness – instead of making just a sugary confection with empty calories
- you can’t taste the difference
- you can use the recipes you know and love – just replace the white flour with wholewheat
None of us eat perfectly all of the time and much of the food we eat is compromised nutritionally. Also, our bodies endure stresses just from every day living, so it makes sense to make most mouthfuls count. Baked goods made with wholemeal flour are delicious treats – and you are eating excellent nutrition and fibre to boot. I apply the 80/20 rule to eating, which is to eat well at home (which is most of the time) – and then don’t worry about food so much when you are eating out at restaurants or friends.
Why should the wholemeal flour you use be spelt? Here’s why:
- wheat has been hybridised for so long that it is no longer as nature created it
- spelt is an ancient form of wheat
- many people who are allergic or sensitive to wheat are fine with spelt
- baking with spelt adds variety into a diet often dominated by wheat and wheat products
What’s so great about brown rice malt syrup?
It is a delicately flavoured natural sweetener that is made up mostly of complex sugars and therefore releases slowly into the bloodstream. Because it is a complex carbohydrate, rice malt syrup does not give you – or children if you have them – the crazy high from sugar, which is followed by the ‘sugar blues’ that happens when your body tries to balance out the high amount of sugar in your blood. Rice malt syrup is actually good for you – unlike sugar, which is not. To convert the sugar in your recipes to this syrup, use 185ml/6fl oz/¾ cup rice malt for every 220g/7¾oz/1 cup of sugar and reduce liquids by 60ml/2fl oz/¼ cup. The syrup is not as sweet as sugar, so this conversion will also reduce the sweetness. If you prefer, you can convert to the same amount.
In our Planet Organic Home Baking section, we have all of the usual products that you are used to, like bread flour and baking soda and mixed peel. But in our range of flours, we have spelt, Kamut (another ancient relative of wheat) and rye. These are worth using instead of wheat, to get different foods into your week or month. How about Kamut cookies or rye rolls? Also, even if you aren’t gluten-free, you could add a proportion of gluten-free flours into your baking to change the flavours and/or add different nutrients.
At Planet Organic we are completely committed to our free-from ranges, so we have a fabulous range of gluten-free flours for baking bread, pizza and all of your other favourites. These flours are made from ingredients like brown rice, chickpea, buckwheat, corn, quinoa, chestnut, coconut – and purple corn. When you don’t have time to bake from scratch, we have mixes for gluten-free bread, pizza dough, crumble, brownies, sponge, pancake, cookies and shortbread. We even have a gluten substitute, gluten-free ‘gluten’!
Planet Organic has organic versions of everyday products like hundreds & thousands, baking chocolate, mixed peel, glace cherries, dried yeast, lemon juice, lime juice, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and corn flour, as well as organic pumpkin puree, marzipan, ghee and carob powder. Some of our more unusual products include the following:
Whole Egg Replacer
Use this instead of eggs in any recipe; 20g of egg replacer equals 1 egg.
Xanthum Gum
A gluten-free starch used as a stabiliser and thickener.
Organic Arrowroot
Starch from the arrowroot plant that is used as a thickener.
Organic Cream of Tartar
Use to help stabilise and give more volume to beaten egg white.
Fruit jelly crystals
Gelatine-free jellies with real fruit flavouring and without artificial colours, preservatives or flavours.
Vegetable Rennet
To make soft or hard cheeses, including haloumi types, or Paneer.
Vegetable Suet
Not organic, but vegetarian suet made from palm oil, sunflower oil and rice flour.
Unbleached Baking Cups
100% unbleached, heavy duty greaseproof baking cups that can be used with or without a muffin pan.
Unbleached Parchment Baking Paper
Greaseproof, silicone- coated 100% unbleached paper free from chlorine and quilon.
And what’s the best thing to do with all of this stuff? Well, bake, of course. Here we go.
Recipe: Zesty Seed Spelt Muffins
Summary: Made with 100% spelt, these muffins are great for breakfast or snack time. They are moist, deliciously-flavoured with lemon and seeds – and full of goodness.
Ingredients
- 200g/7oz/1½ cups wholemeal spelt flour
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 4 tbsp sunflower oil
- 240ml/8fl oz/scant 1 cup rice malt syrup
- 2 tbsp finely grated lemon zest
- 1 tbsp poppy seeds
- 2 tbsp linseeds
- 3 tbsp sunflower seeds
- 6 tbsp natural yogurt
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin or use unbleached baking cups.
- In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a medium bowl, mix the egg, oil, syrup, lemon zest, poppy seeds, linseeds, sunflower seeds and yogurt and mix well. Add the flour mixture and stir gently until just mixed.
- Spoon the mixture equally into the 12 muffin cups. It will fill all of the cups to about ¾ full. (Remember, if you ever don’t have enough batter to fill 1 or 2 cups, fill with water so the tray doesn’t buckle while they’re baking.)
- Bake for 15-18 minutes until the muffins are slightly domed, lightly browned and feel dry to the touch. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Cooking time (duration): 25
Number of servings (yield): 12
Meal type: snack
My rating:
Eat well; live better.
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It’s a shame that the art of bread making is almost lost these days.