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What’s Cooking in Illinois: Bring the kids into the kitchen to work on their baking (and math!) skills with these healthy bread recipes.

Charlyn Fargo Ware

April 16, 2020

4 Min Read
muffins on pan
MUFFINS? If you don’t think your family is ready for a dense bread like Ezekiel Bread, try these muffins. Charlyn Fargo

What better time to learn to do some healthy baking than now? The kids are home from school, looking for things to do, as we all weather social distancing to flatten the curve of COVID-19. They can even work on their math skills by downsizing a recipe and figuring substitutions for healthier eating.

As evidence of the surge of baking when we’re homebound, King Arthur Flour’s website shared the company was out of a lot of supplies: “An unexpected volume of sales has made this March unlike any other. It’s the same on grocery shelves.” King Arthur said it was contacting its mills, production partners and stores to replenish stock as soon as possible.

Prior to the outbreak, I had helped with a bread baking lab for medical students where we made Ezekiel Bread, and we used that same healthy blend of flour for Morning Glory Muffins.

This is the bread (supposedly) that Ezekiel ate while he was in the desert for two years. It is supposed to be nutritionally complete. Ezekiel 4:9 reads, “Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself …”

Not bad advice for keeping healthy. This bread has a rich flavor and dense texture. It’s also a complete source of plant-based protein, containing all the amino acids your body needs. If you don’t think your family is ready for a denser bread, try the flour in the muffins or breakfast bars.

The recipe calls for grinding your own flour from a variety of grains and dried beans. Typically, it has four types of cereal grains — wheat, millet, barley and spelt — and two types of legumes, which are soybeans and lentils. But use the grains and dried beans you have on hand.

To get the flour fine enough, it’s best to grind wheat in your Kitchen Aid mixer with a grinding attachment, or in a coffee grinder. Beans can be ground into flour using a blender like a Vitamix.

freshly ground Ezekiel flour

FLOUR: Ezekiel Bread, made from freshly ground Ezekiel flour, is a complete source of plant-based protein, containing all the amino acids your body needs.

 

Ezekiel Bread

2½ cups wheat berries (hard red or hard white)
1½ cups spelt
½ cup hulled barley
¼ cup millet
¼ cup dry green lentils
2 tablespoons dry northern beans
2 tablespoons dry kidney beans
2 tablespoons dry pinto beans
4 cups water, lukewarm
1 cup honey
½ cup oil (olive, avocado or canola)
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons active dry yeast (2 packages)
½ cup milled flax seed
1 egg plus 2 tablespoons water, optional, for egg wash
Sunflower or sesame seeds for garnish, optional

Combine all grains and legumes, and grind in grain mill. (If you purchased an already milled Ezekiel blend, skip this step and measure out 9 cups of the flour).

In mixing bowl, combine water, yeast, honey and oil. Let sit until yeast gets bubbly. In separate bowl, mix flour, salt and ground flax seed until well combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir/knead for about 10 minutes (You can also mix with a dough hook.) The dough will be more like a batter bread rather than typical bread dough.

Pour dough into two greased loaf pans. This recipe makes two large loaf pans or four small loaf pans. Egg wash the top and sprinkle with sunflower or sesame seeds, if desired.

Cover with a clean towel and allow to rise for an hour, or until dough is a quarter inch from the top of the pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 to 50 minutes (depending on size of pan). Remove pans from oven when done and immediately turn out on cooling rack.

Morning Glory Muffins

1 cup Ezekiel flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cups grated carrots (4 medium)
1 apple, peeled and finely chopped
½ cup raisins
1 large egg
2 large egg whites
½ cup apple butter
¼ cup canola oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts or pecans
2 tablespoons toasted wheat germ

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Coat 18 muffin cups with cooking spray or paper liners. Whisk Ezekiel flour, all-purpose flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Stir in carrots, apple and raisins. Whisk egg, egg whites, apple butter, oil and vanilla in medium bowl. Make a well in the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients with a spatula just until combined.

Spoon the batter in to prepared muffin cups, filling about three-quarters full. Combine walnuts and wheat germ in small bowl; sprinkle over muffin tops. Bake until tops are golden-brown and spring back when touched lightly, 15 to 25 minutes. Let cool in pans 5 minutes. Loosen edges and turn muffins out onto wire rack to cool.

Fargo is a registered dietitian with Southern Illinois University Medical School in Springfield, Ill. Send recipe ideas to her at [email protected].

Read more about:

Covid 19

About the Author(s)

Charlyn Fargo Ware

Charlyn Fargo Ware is a registered dietitian with Southern Illinois University Medical School in Springfield, Ill. Email recipe ideas to her at [email protected].

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