Whole-grain roundup

A baker's dozen of whole grain treats

I’ve been adding more whole grains to my cooking and baking lately—including numerous batches of Nick Balla’s seeded whole grain bread (below)—to fill my need for healthier eating, so I thought it was time for a little round up since there are so many new subscribers. I was about to write ‘post-holiday feasting’ since I still feel the cookies-and-cake hangover, but maybe that’s because it’s part of my job. March feels like a long pause before we (at least in California) start seeing all the spring fruit bursting into the market that is so inspiring to us pastry chefs and bakers.

I grew up in Brooklyn in the ‘60s and ‘70s in a very yoga-no soda-brown rice household—similar to today, but back then we didn’t have the range of grains we do now and the milling wasn’t nearly as good and the reputation of ‘wholesome’ baked goods is still recovering from the health-food-store carob saw-dust date-sweetened power bars of my hippy-lite childhood.

If you’re looking for some all-grain or added-grain sweet or savory recipes, so many great ideas to try on this list:

• Oat Digestive Biscuits NF can be DF

  Made with whole oats and oat flour and not too sweet, these are the classic Scottish biscuit found all over the UK—wonderful coated in chocolate

• Buckwheat Crepes

  Made with 100% buckwheat flour (highly recommend Big Bold Health brand), these crepes are traditionally used in Brittany for savory ingredients like eggs, ham, cheese and mushrooms, but are just as fantastic as a sweet crepe

• Granola Bark DF, V

  This recipe is from my book Tartine All Day and makes a light, crisp granola in a sheet that you can break apart and is adaptable to your favorite granola add-ons

• Chocolate-Oat-Walnut Cookie

  This cookie, featured last year in the Washington Post in an article on gluten-free baking, is my ultimate chocolate chip cookie and one that we’ve been making since day-one at Tartine Bakery—finally converted to a gluten-free recipe

• Socca NF, DF

  Socca isn’t made with a grain, but it’s an all-chickpea flour pancake found in Nice (and all over France) that is fried in olive oil and crisp outside, soft inside, and makes a perfect accompaniment to soup or salad

• Seeded Oat-Apple Bread, chef Nick Balla

  I’ve made at least 5 batches of this since publishing the recipe last year—it’s 100% whole oats with sunflower and pumpkin seeds, flax, chia, hemp, and psyllium—and no yeast or raising agent! Just mix and bake. The recipe, which makes 2 loaves (they freeze very well), also has over a pound and a half of whole roasted apples

• Seeded Olive Oil Crackers DF

  Completely addictive, quick to make, add your own spin. These are light and crisp and full of seeds

• Fruit Crisp for one or two

  The topping is a simple oat-butter-sugar crust, and you can make it 100% wholegrain by subbing the few tablespoons of GF flour with sorghum, buckwheat, or brown rice flours

• Lemon Tart in Buckwheat Crust

  This crust is predominantly made with buckwheat flour which goes beautifully with the flavor of the lemon filling—use it for any fruit tart

• Salted Chocolate Buckwheat Cookies

  Chewy with a crackly shine, these chocolate cookies work really well with the nutty earthiness of buckwheat

• Laurie Ellen’s Seeded Oatmeal Shortbread

  Laurie Ellen’s is renown for her creative flavor combinations and lower-sugar cookies and we are lucky to have had her as a guest chef with these beauties

• Teff Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

  The classic cake, but made with teff, a slightly nutty seed flour that works perfectly with the carrots, spices, coconut sugar, and walnuts in this chunky cake recipe that was chosen to grace the cover of Saveur Magazine’s 25th anniversary issue

• Wild Mushroom Tart with Sorghum Crust

  A little richer than a quiche with creme fraiche and yolk in the filling, this tart is perfect for showcasing beautiful mushrooms that are sautéed with shallots. The sorghum adds a little texture and crispness to the crust that pairs perfectly with the custard filling