Ultimate Recipe Swap: Flour

 

Today, over at Life As Mom the topic of conversation is FLOUR.

Honestly, baking is just not my thing. I will do it, and sometimes I even enjoy it. Usually though, when I bake, I do it from scratch. I despise boxed mixes even more than baking from scratch! 

So here are a few of my favorite recipes that use FLOUR.

Basic Whole Wheat Pancakes
*Found at Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes*

1 cup whole wheat FLOUR
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 cup 1% milk
3 large egg whites
2 tsp oil
1 tbsp sugar or honey
¼ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
butter flavor cooking spray

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl. Add wet ingredients to the mixing bowl and mix well with a spoon until there are no more dry spots. Don't over-mix.

Heat a large skillet on medium heat. Spray oil to lightly coat and pour ¼ cup of pancake batter. When the pancake starts to bubble, you may add your fruit if you wish. When the bubbles settle and the edges begin to set, flip the pancakes. Repeat with the remainder of the batter.

Top with fruit, preserves, honey, or your favorite sugar-free syrup. (extra points)

Servings: 4 * Size: 2 pancakes * Time: 15 minutes * Calories: 294 * Points: 3.5 ww point

Country Butter Biscuits

1/3 c Shortening
2c all purpose FLOUR
3 t baking powder
1 t salt
1/4 c FIRM butter
about 3/4 c milk

Preheat oven to 450. Combine FLOUR, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Cut shortening into mixture until it resembles fine crumbs (I use a fork for this). Cut butter into 1/4'' pieces (I cannot stress how important it is to keep the butter chilled and firm for this). Toss with FLOUR mixture (Do not mash them down.) Stir in just enough milk till dough balls up and leaves the sides of the bowl (it usually takes the entire 3/4c plus about another T. for me).

Turn dough onto lightly FLOURed surface. Gently roll to coat. Now here is the trick to getting perfect fluffy, flaky biscuits. You do NOT want to over work the dough. It will make them dry and dense. I usually knead my dough about 10 times. Also, if you will fold the dough, then mash it down instead of kneading it with your fists, it will create the layers.

So fold it over itself and knead about 10 times. Then roll or pat dough out to about 1/2'' thick and cut with floured 3'' cutter. Place 1'' apart on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for about 12-15 mins. Remove immediately and brush tops with melted butter! 

Homemade Samoas (a.k.a. Caramel de-Lites)*Found at Baking Bites*

Cookies
1 cup butter, soft
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups all purpose FLOUR
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
up to 2 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Mix in FLOUR, baking powder and salt at a low speed, followed by the vanilla and milk, adding in the milk as needed to make the dough come together without being sticky (it’s possible you might not need to add milk at all). The dough should come together into a soft, not-too-sticky ball. Add in a bit of extra FLOUR if your dough is very sticky.
Roll the dough (working in two or three batches) out between pieces of wax paper to about 1/4-inch thickness (or slightly less) and use a 1 1/2-inch cookie cutter to make rounds. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and use a knife, or the end of a wide straw, to cut a smaller center hole. Repeat with remaining dough. Alternatively, use scant tablespoons of dough and press into an even layer in a mini donut pan to form the rounds.
Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, until bottoms are lightly browned and cookies are set. If using a mini donut pan, bake for only about 10 minutes, until edges are light gold.
Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Topping
3 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
12-oz good-quality chewy caramels
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp milk
8 oz. dark or semisweet chocolate (chocolate chips are ok)

Preheat oven to 300. Spread coconut evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet (preferably one with sides) and toast 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until coconut is golden. Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside.
Unwrap the caramels and place in a large microwave-safe bowl with milk and salt. Cook on high for 3-4 minutes, stopping to stir a few times to help the caramel melt. When smooth, fold in toasted coconut with a spatula.
Using the spatula or a small offset spatula, spread topping on cooled cookies, using about 2-3 tsp per cookie. Reheat caramel for a few seconds in the microwave if it gets too firm to work with.
While topping sets up, melt chocolate in a small bowl. Heat on high in the microwave in 45 second intervals, stirring thoroughly to prevent scorching. Dip the base of each cookie into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment paper. Transfer all remaining chocolate (or melt a bit of additional chocolate, if necessary) into a piping bag or a ziplock bag with the corner snipped off and drizzle finished cookies with chocolate.
Let chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container.
Makes about 3 1/2-4 dozen cookies.
Note: These cookies are fairly time consuming to make, but if you take your time and have fun with them, the results will be worth it.  

So head on over to Life As Mom and hop from blog to blog for some new recipes!