My mind is longing for the cooler days that are a calendar page away. Being a true north-westerner, I do not love the sun. It is not my friend; it makes me squint, burn, and sweat. Homes do not come with standard air conditioning here and thus my workplace is sweltering. I am scared of robbers and want my windows closed and locked at night, thus I must choose to spend my nights either worrying or sweating. I spent many days long ago worshipping this false god. I slathered on oil to baste. My sisters warned me that I would regret it and now I have an ugly scar that looks like I had a tracheotomy on the spot where my chest meets my neck where I have had two skin cancers removed. My 4 year old is fascinated with it and I tell him in my angry voice that the sun bit me. I am raising him fear the sun and stay close to me in my native land. As I nurse my sunburn that I received yesterday sitting at the beach I will give you my recipe for my favorite autumn treat.But first, You need to start on you new quest to use whole grains. "Nevertheless, wheat for man..." (D&C 89:17). You will find that by substituting whole wheat in recipes the flavor will be nuttier and richer. Try using whole wheat in banana bread, zucchini bread, and peanut butter, molasses, and oatmeal cookies. Experiment with Applesauce cake, Banana cake and Carrot cake as well. I use the same measurements I would with white. Remember all tastes are acquired. I have learned to like carrots and tomatoes, when 20 years ago I thought of them only as a punishment. I am sure you have things you have learned to like before. Using only wheat flour might be a different taste experience, but by using it your body feels fuller and keeps you from craving naughty things. If you don’t like it then learn to, you know you expect your children to do just that.
Invest in a wheat grinder. You are supposed to be using your wheat storage anyway, so you might as well have a way to grind the stuff. Chewing on a handful of wheat kernels really gets old after the first hour. If you aren’t ready to invest, you can find ground wheat flour at any store. The fresher the flour the healthier it is, I am not sure why, so if any one knows, please post the reason. Many health food stores even carry their wheat flour in the fridge, I have been told to do the same for the flour that I have ground and am not going to use right away. I have gotten to the point where I just use white flour for play dough and chocolate chip cookies. I can’t eat either, so who cares?
Using nonfat mayonnaise for the fat in cookies may seem disgusting, but by replacing it for the oil and eggs it makes these cookies go from 3 fat grams to 0 – and from 79 calories to 53,- without the chocolate chips of course. I can’t taste a difference so I say use the mayo, and add the chocolate, and you have reached a nice compromise. Either way they are healthier than most, use whole wheat and are OH SO GOOD!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
¾ cup nonfat mayonnaise or ½ cup oil and 2 eggs
½ cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups canned pumpkin
3 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon ginger
½ cup chocolate chips (optional)
Cream mayonnaise (or oil and eggs), sugars, and pumpkin. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop from spoon onto non-stick baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool completly on a cooling rack. These cookies are very moist and do not store well in air tight containers, if you need to store, freeze and then eat right away.
Enjoy with a glass of milk and dream of cooler days ahead.
7 comments:
Looks like a yummy recipe! I'll have to try it. When I sub with whole wheat (which is often), sometimes I have to use slightly less flour. It seems to soak up more liquid.
As far as why to freeze flour...the oils in freshly ground flour start to break down and become rancid. Freezing or refrigerating helps slow the process.
It's good to experiment with other grains too. I can only tolerate small amounts of wheat, but quinoa is becoming a favorite grain!
I've made more batches of banana bread this summer than I can count... simply because we buy bananas and set them on the counter, and because of the warm weather they ripen faster than we can eat them. In fact I have four bananas right now that are awaiting their turn in the oven.
But, last week I decided to try the recipe with whole wheat flour and it was GOOD! I even liked it better than the previous batches. My favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe uses whole wheat flour, too. I still buy white flour... but, I can't think now what I use it for. lol.
I looooove these cookies!
Rebecca, can you use quinoa just like wheat?
Megan, give me the chocolate chip recipe. I would love to have a whole wheat one
I looovvvvee you General
Nope. I know there must be recipes for something like that, but you'd have to buy quinoa flour. Quinoa has a bitter coating that needs to be rinsed off before cooking. It's a natural insect defense. You wouldn't want to grind it after rinsing, though! It also has very little or no gluten, I don't remember. I use it sometimes as a sub for rice, it cooks in 15 minutes (from a boil) and the taste is slightly reminiscent of corn. Very good with stirfried veggies. We love steel-cut oats too. They are good for you that way, because they're much lower on the glycemic index than minute or instant oats are. That's important to me because I have some blood sugar issues. I put stevia in mine so I don't have sugar. Of course, my kids are all about the cinnamon and sugar!
Ok, I'm trying to figure this out so I can sub in other recipies of mine...2 eggs = 1/4 cup mayo?
Calamity Jane: I hope it is okay that I linked this recipe to my blog! I made them today and they were just so good, I wanted to tell everyone else! :)
By the way, I love your blog! I has really helped me to start making healthier choices. I may not be actively trying to lose weight, but I am on my way... and am making small changes everyday! Thank you!
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