Everyone who wants to stick to a healthy diet, sooner or later faces the problem of giving up baked goods. And inevitably the question arises: a beautiful and healthy body or an extra piece of cake? But are all pastries so harmful and calorie-dense? There’s a great solution — give up wheat flour! Following the principles of proper nutrition, you can well afford delicious baked goods, just replace the wheat flour of the highest grade with a healthier one. Why is wheat flour so bad?
Let’s understand what flour is. It is made by grinding different crops, both cereals (wheat, rye, rice, buckwheat, oats, corn, etc.) and legumes (such as peas). For production of flour of the highest grade is used only wheat grain without a shell (which is rich in vitamins and oils).
The advantage of premium flour is that baked goods are puffy, light, delicate and, of course, delicious. Since each of us has been accustomed to its taste since childhood, it is quite difficult to give it up completely, and the taste of other, coarser flour at first seems unaccustomed.
The disadvantages of the highest grade wheat flour are obvious. White flour is now considered not only a useless, «empty» product, but also quite harmful. Its excess in the diet often leads to obesity, which, in turn, can lead to diabetes. In addition, high wheat flour is a «fast carbohydrate», retains water in the body and gives an extremely short-lived satiety.
If you find it difficult to give up wheat flour completely, replace it with lower-grade (1, 2 grades) or whole wheat durum wheat flour. Such flour is great for proper nutrition and can be used to make pasta, baked goods, pastries, pancakes, muffins, dumplings, etc.
Let’s break down the most common options for replacing wheat flour.
Buckwheat flour
Buckwheat flour is an excellent protein product that contains a lot of amino acids. It is also high in fiber, but the amount of fat, sugar (link text why sugar is bad) and carbohydrate is minimal. Buckwheat flour boasts a number of vitamins and minerals, including B vitamins, magnesium, zinc, potassium, etc.
By the way, you can make buckwheat flour yourself at home by grinding buckwheat groats in a blender or coffee grinder.
What to make: pancakes, dumplings, pastries, use for breading, any unsweetened dough.
Rye pumpernickel flour
This flour is most commonly used for baked goods. This flour retains the healthy particles of the grain’s hull, which are visible even to the naked eye. Because of this, it is rich in iron, vitamins and fiber. Rye flour has little protein, so it is mixed with wheat flour to make bread.
What to make: rye bread.
Oat flour
Everyone knows about the useful properties of oatmeal! Oat flour also contains vitamins B, E, phosphorus, zinc and manganese. Baking from oat flour is considered dietary, despite the rather high caloric content (350 kcal per 100 grams), as it contains a large amount of fiber and proteins, which perfectly saturate the body. Oat flour is an excellent substitute for wheat flour in confectionery products.
By the way, you can make oat flour yourself at home by grinding oat flakes in a blender or coffee grinder (choose the least refined flakes).
What to make: oatmeal cookies, pancakes, sweet pastries, casseroles, porridge, pancakes.
Flax Flour
Flaxseed meal is excellent for a healthy diet because it holds a record for protein content! As much as 30 grams per 100 grams of flour. It also contains a lot of fiber and fatty acids such as Omega-3 and Omega-6. The composition of this flour is rich in folic acid, antioxidants and vitamins that are incredibly useful for our body. It also helps to improve intestinal function.
What to cook: use as a breading, a substitute for eggs in dough, casseroles, muffins, cheesecakes
Cornmeal
Corn flour is rich in elements such as calcium, potassium, magnesium and iron, B vitamins and PP. It is easily digested, normalizes metabolism, helps with digestion. Durum wheat flour is considered the most useful. Rough corn flour is used to bake bread and tortillas.
What to make: muffins, tortillas, pancakes, polenta, biscuits
The most common flour on the supermarket shelves is Garnet flour (a huge selection: oatmeal, rye, flaxseed, whole grain, corn, rice, buckwheat, pea and others).
You can also find whole wheat flour company French Thing, Belovodye and other brands.
Cedar flour
In appearance, cedar flour is characterized by a homogeneous yellowish mass with a pleasant aroma, made from pine nuts. It has a balanced chemical composition, it includes fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, vitamin C, B vitamins, as well as useful macro-and micronutrients: potassium, magnesium, zinc, selenium, copper, iron and calcium.
Pros and cons
It is difficult to overestimate the benefits of cedar flour. Due to its unique beneficial properties, it is used in therapeutic and dietary nutrition. It is recommended to use cedar flour for blood and lymphatic diseases, as well as for gastritis and kidney diseases. It also effectively absorbs toxins and waste products, helping to eliminate them from the body. Taking cedar flour as a dietary supplement is recommended for pregnant and nursing mothers, children, athletes to build muscle mass and the elderly to increase vitality. Flour is not recommended for those who have an individual intolerance to the product, as well as a pronounced tendency to allergies, including gluten. Otherwise, eating cedar flour will not do any harm.
Where to use
Cedar flour is widely used in cooking. It is used alone or as part of a mixture with wheat flour for baking and muffins. Cedar flour is also used to make sauces, it is added to salads, cocktails, a variety of desserts and dairy products. In cosmetology cedar flour is used in the preparation of moisturizing lotions for the face. In addition, regular use of cedar milk (cedar flour diluted in water) to wipe the face saturates skin cells with vitamins, promotes healing of acne and pustules. With regular use, there is a noticeable anti-aging effect of this procedure.
Recipe with cedar flour
Rum pancakes
It looks like an ordinary pancakes, but tastes like a nutty treat. In addition, useful: pine flour, which is part of the pancakes, contains a lot of vitamins and trace elements necessary for the body.
Ingredients:
- Butter — 50 g;
- eggs — 3-4 pcs;
- sugar — 3 tbsp;
- salt — 1/2 tsp;
- water — 200 ml;
- milk — 200 ml;
- rum — 50 ml;
- cedar flour — 250 gr;
- olive oil — 1 tsp.
Recipe:
- Melt the butter over low heat or in the microwave;
- whisk eggs with sugar and salt;
- add water, milk, melted butter and rum;
- mix the mixture;
- add sifted cedar flour, stir to make sure there are no lumps;
- Grease a hot frying pan with olive oil; fry pancakes for 1 to 2 minutes on each side.
Rice flour
Rice flour is the most popular among all kinds of cereal flour. It has a high biological value and is rich in starch. Rice flour contains all the most important vitamins and minerals, so it must be included in the diet of both children and adults.
Pros and cons
The absence of gluten, rich vitamin and mineral composition contributed to the use of rice flour as a permanent component of dishes for children’s and dietary meals. Rice flour is recommended for allergy sufferers because it has absolutely no gluten. It is especially effective for therapeutic diets for diseases of the heart and blood vessels. Also rice flour helps in cleansing the body and improves digestion, and its only harm is that with excessive consumption constipation can appear.
Where is it used
A key area in which rice flour is actively used is in baby food production. Products made on the basis of rice flour are recommended by pediatricians for use as children’s complementary foods. In cooking, it is used to prepare rice noodles, funchoza, confectionery, baking, and is used as a breading for fish and meat.
Recipe with rice flour
Rice flour muffins
A delicious and appetizing dish, also very easy to prepare. At the same time, it is healthy, and if you replace the butter with coconut oil, it becomes dietary.
Ingredients:
- almond flour — 100 gr;
- rice flour — 200 gr;
- starch (potato, corn) — 100 gr;
- sugar — 1/2 cup;
- salt — 1/2 tsp;
- butter — 100 gr;
- milk — 100 ml;
- berries — 200 gr;
- cinnamon — 2 tsp.
Recipe:
- Mix all the dry ingredients, then add butter and milk;
- knead the dough, it should be crumbly;
- Spread the mixture into the molds, adding a few fresh berries to each mold;
- bake at 180-200 degrees for 25 minutes.
Sesame Flour
Sesame seeds are used to make a valuable food product — sesame flour, which has a pleasant nutty taste and flavor. It contains various amino acids, including tryptophan, which is necessary for the production of seratonin — the hormone of happiness, vitamins (E, T, group B), many macro-and micronutrients, antioxidants, pectin, fiber.
Pros and cons
The benefits of sesame flour are due, first of all, to its useful composition. It saturates the body with a huge amount of vitamins, trace elements and amino acids of plant origin. In sesame flour in large quantities contains fiber, which is necessary to activate the peristalsis of the gastrointestinal tract and stimulate the process of purification and excretion of toxins.
However, for all its benefits, there are also contraindications. Doctors do not recommend eating sesame flour for patients with thrombosis or varicose veins, as this food additive thickens the blood.
Where to use it
In cooking, sesame flour is commonly used as a coating for cutlets, added to baked goods, sauces and gravies as a thickening agent. Due to the pronounced usefulness of the product and medicinal properties, it is also used in medicine. Sesame flour is an effective phytomedicine for the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases. In addition, it has a beneficial effect in the treatment of acne and dermatitis.
Recipe with sesame flour
Chocolate chip cookies
Ingredients:
- cocoa powder — 35 g;
- wheat flour — 200 gr;
- sesame flour- 1 tbsp;
- eggs- 2 pcs;
- milk- 150 ml;
- dry yeast- 3 gr;
- salt, sugar, spices — to taste.
Recipe:
- in a saucepan mix cocoa and milk, add sesame flour, heat the mixture over low heat, without bringing it to a boil;
- In a separate bowl, whisk two eggs and combine with the milk mixture and all the dry ingredients;
- mix thoroughly until a homogeneous mass is obtained, put the dough in a warm place for half an hour to let it rise;
- roll out the dough with a rolling pin in a thin layer and use a glass to cut out round pieces;
- Place them on a baking tray greased with butter (butter or coconut), bake at 180-190 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.