This post is sponsored by King Arthur Flour. Thank you for your support! A year ago, a friend and excellent baker mentioned she had stopped using all white flour in her bread recipes. It just felt wrong to her not to throw some whole wheat flour into the mix. I’m embarrassed to admit that before this conversation I had never thought twice about the many all-white flour loaves I turn out on a daily basis. My friend’s comment made me think about how much bread my family eats — morning toast, midday sandwiches, bread with dinner — and that maybe I, too, should start working some whole grains into our daily bread. I soon began doing the same thing as my friend: replacing a cup of all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour in whatever bread I was baking and gradually increasing the proportion from there. Today, I often bake the peasant bread with 50% whole wheat flour (see photos below), and most recently I’ve had excellent results using King Arthur Flour’s white whole wheat flour.
What is White Whole Wheat Flour?
King Arthur Flour’s white whole wheat flour is …
… milled from white winter wheat seeds which lack some of the pigmentation in the bran layer contained in the red wheat berry (from which traditional whole wheat flour is milled).… lighter in color and milder in taste — the pigment from red wheat carries a bolder flavor. (Read more about wheat varieties here.)… grown from certified seeds that are selected through field and baking tests for optimal performance in the kitchen. … as nutritious as traditional whole wheat flour.
What’s more, the farmers who are growing the wheat for KAF employ sustainable farming practices that include no till, crop rotation, and water conservation.
White Whole Wheat English Muffins
In addition to the peasant bread, I’ve been using KAF’s white whole wheat flour in Peter Reinhart’s English muffins and have actually had great success using 100% white whole wheat flour in this recipe. This recipe is a little fussier — it requires an overnight rise and English muffin rings (see notes below) because the dough is so wet — but it is fun to make and the reward of a homemade egg sandwich or eggs benedict or simply a warm muffin spread with butter and jam is well worth the planning and effort. Substituting white whole wheat flour for all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour is pretty straightforward but if you’re looking for a little more direction, King Arthur Flour came up with this handy guide. And to learn more about King Arthur Flour’s identity-preserved white whole wheat flour, read this or watch this video. King Arthur Flour is dedicated to providing more traceability and transparency to their consumers and their identity-preserved white whole wheat flour is just their first step. Thank you King Arthur Flour for sponsoring this post! A 1/3-cup measure is great for portioning the dough into the rings: Love my retro bread bin: Peasant Bread made with 50% White Whole Wheat flour: 5 from 13 reviews
This dough is very wet, like batter, so you will need English muffin rings or something similar (empty tuna cans, Ball jar rings, etc.) to constrain the dough. The key with this recipe is to be sure to portion the dough into 10 rings. I only have 8 English muffin rings, and twice I’ve divided the batter into those 8 rings, and twice I’ve been disappointed — it’s very hard to cook the muffins all the way through on the griddle when they are on the large size. Use two Ball jar rings or empty tuna cans or be patient and reuse two of your rings to ensure you get 10 muffins out of the batter. You will doubt the need to divide the dough into 10 rings as you portion it out — I do every time — but the dough spreads and fills the rings as it cooks slowly on the griddle. With 100% white whole wheat flour, the texture isn’t quite like that of a Thomas’ English muffin (see photo of halved muffin above), but it is still light and airy.
