Purveyors of the Obvious

A Tale of Two Flours

// July 9th, 2009 // Uncategorized

On Sunday morning my husband woke to the option of one of two tasks:

1.  Go for a bike ride.  Get orange juice for mimosas.

2.  Stay home.  Make waffles.

In his dreary stupor he paused too long and I was out the door with my pannier on my bike to get the orange juice.  Sucker.

I didn’t realize I would be leaving him with an overwhelming task.  We eat whole-wheat waffles 3-4 times a month.  He made a batch last summer when I was headed out for a work trip so that I would have a week of breakfast in my hotel fridge.  His waffle mastery is still being worked on.  In this latest batch he forgot to add the whole-wheat flour and we were left with some sub-par waffles.  The taste, texture, and satiety of the breakfast just was not there.

In my husband’s defense I admit I do not have the clearest directions in my “black book” of recipes.

First off, if you know me at all, I cannot eat sugar.  Or at least not cane sugar.  I have an allergy.  And for those a-holes of you that want to correct me and say I have an intolerance why not hang around me next time my throat closes and the breathing thing does not work out so well.  For the 2 tbsp. in this recipe it is a given to use crystalline fructose, xylitol, or beet sugar.  Or use agave and a little extra flour.

Second, the flour.  I copied this recipe from somewhere and did not make the modifications on the page because they seemed obvious to me.  1 cup boring processed flour, 1 cup of rock and roll stone ground wheat flour.  A 1:1 ratio so that there is some substance to the waffles while still letting them be fluffy.

There is a difference between the two flours which is shocking considering they are the same food.  Just on different ends of the processing spectrum.

Actually not on completely different ends of the spectrum.  My husband thought the wheat was already mixed in because I have been known to combine them in the past, and it wasn’t as white as the flour he was used to seeing his mom cook with.  It is unbleached organic flour from the bulk bins.  There is flour out there that is whiter.

The stone ground wheat flour comes from Butte Mill Flour Company at the Boulder Farmers Market for $1/pound.  Farmer John also sells via Cure or you can pick it up off from his porch in the winter months.

Besides the color of the waffles there was something else different.  The taste.  The texture.  The experience.  We max out on the number of waffles we eat pretty early.  With the batch we had over the weekend we could have eaten all 12 of them.  They were not satisfying.  It was disturbing but at least we supplemented what was going in our tummies with blueberries, champagne, and orange juice.

If you have any questions about the difference between the two flours first look at the glycemic index.  It is an index of how carbohydrates breakdown in our systems and are assimilated in our blood stream thus affecting our glucose levels.  The bland white flour absorbs much more quickly than the robust brown flour.  It basically acts like a sugar dissolving in water when compared to its counterpart that still retains fiber (and nutrients).  We basically had sugar waffles that our bodies absorbed rapidly compared to the wheat waffles we usually eat.

Thanks to my crazy food allergies we do not eat many processed foods in our home.  We manage to stay away from a lot of the overly-processed diet that many Americans thrive on.  The case of these two flours is only a miniscule example of why people can eat so much damn food all the time and still be hungry.  Over processing plays tricks on our bodies and we don’t feel full.  There is no substance.  Wheat is only a tiny portion of what we eat in the U. S.  Anyone that has seen King Corn or basically knows about the prevalence of corn in our diets knows exactly what I am talking about.

We ate the bland processed flour waffles.  Hubby took a stack of them to work with some fruit and maple syrup.  He also learned a basic kitchen 101 for our household, there is a huge difference between stone ground whole wheat flour and the more processed flour.