"white whole wheat" news and stories

Happy Fat Tuesday, everyone.

The whole idea behind having pancakes on Fat Tuesday is to use up the butter, milk, eggs and other indulgent ingredients that you might having lying around the house so that you won't be tempted during Lent. But because everyone likes pancakes and not everyone observes lent, calling the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday "National Pancake Day" makes the tradition open to all - and I think that we can all agree that more pancakes are not a bad thing.

For my pancake day breakfast, I opted not to go with something decadent, but instead with something more wholesome so that I don't feel too bad about starting the day with a couple more pancakes (topped with maple syrup, of course), than I need.

In most cases, we look at finished products as Food Porn -- a colorful salad, a steaming soup, a steak with herb butter melting over the edges. In the case of food blog 101 Cookbooks, I suppose the first picture of the finished pizza topped with potatoes, cheese, and herbs in Heidi Swanson's post about pizza made of white whole wheat pizza dough is the natural pick.

However, I was totally drawn to the photo of the white whole wheat pizza dough -- perfect pillows of softly "buff"-colored dough flecked with herbs, resting, definitely qualify as "raw" porn. Heidi goes on to say that with this pizza dough, she got close to something she was looking for: "chewy, soft, and unstructured."

More on white whole wheat:
The definition of "white whole wheat"
Sara Lee's hot dog and hamburger buns made with white whole wheat

The sales of White Whole Wheat Flour have increased dramatically this year over previous years and as consumer interest has grown, so have supplies. More grocery stores, large and small, now carry the flour. While the product is not new, having been available for more than a decade, its sale is no longer limited to specialty stores and it is far more widely available than ever before. This increased availability means that more people are exposed to it but many are still unfamiliar with the product.

White whole wheat flour is made from a naturally occurring albino variety of wheat. The wheat does not have the tannins or phenolic acid that are found in the outer bran of ordinary red wheat, so not only does it lack the color, but it does not any of the slightly bitter taste that is often associated with whole wheat flour. The flavor is mild and sweet, very similar to that out plain or all-purpose flour, though it does have a hint of the nuttiness of whole wheat.