Real Snacks (2 page)

The supermarket aisles are full
of foods that I love, much of them convenience “junk foods” packed with equal parts favorite childhood memories and industrial additives. The nostalgia of these foods gives me cravings that are often far stronger than I can resist. Who hasn’t had a jonesing for a handful of cheesy Goldfish crackers or gotten just a little bit giddy at opening a package of chocolatey Ding Dongs? Sweet or savory, we all have our favorite snack foods.

The guilt sets in when I turn that packaging over and read the laundry list of gums, “ides,” and “ates,” not to mention added artificial colors and flavorings. Natural food producers have created a whole industry to address this guilt, creating their own versions that are just as convenient, but slightly less processed, than the big-name brands. Unfortunately, these are usually far more expensive than their industrial originals, and, let’s face it, not as tasty. Carob is no substitute for chocolate, and lentils do not replace potatoes in a chip, even when the potato has been processed beyond recognition.

It’s time to take back our snacks!

This book is all about re-creating favorite childhood snacks, reimagined with more nutritional ingredients (like whole-grain flours and less-processed sugars) that amp up the flavors and textures. These standard pantry items can be found in any grocery with old-world whole grains and other unprocessed ingredients. And for those with gluten sensitivity or who prefer vegan treats, these recipes offer some suggestions for you. The recipes in this book aren’t intended to be low-calorie. They are simply
real food
that I think you’ll love to indulge in now and then.

Baking with only white flour
and white granulated sugar is sort of like cooking with only one spice. There is a world of grains and sweeteners with their own flavors and textures just waiting to be incorporated into your baking. Not only will they make your treats more healthful, but they will also make them taste better!

While it’s easy to stop at white all-purpose when you think of flour, there are all sorts of flours that each bring a little something extra to snacks. Understanding the flavors and textures of these flours is important when you decide to incorporate them into your cooking.

Barley flour brings a slight sweetness to your baked goods, along with a good amount of dietary fiber. Adding a bit in place of wheat flour makes for very tender baked goods, so it’s best used for cakes or pastries that benefit from the extra lightness.

Graham flour is a blend of coarsely grown 100 percent whole-wheat flour with all-purpose white flour. You can buy graham flour already blended, or make your own to use as a great general substitute for straight all-purpose flour.

When it comes to rye flour, forget about the strong aroma of rye bread, which comes from the caraway seeds in the dough rather than from the grain. Rye actually has a very subtle wheat-like flavor that is just a bit more complex than traditional whole-wheat flours. It’s a great flour to use in chocolate baked goods.

Spelt and kamut flours are in the same family as wheat flour, but they have a lower gluten level that is more easily tolerated by people with mild gluten intolerance. Because they still contain gluten, spelt and kamut flours can easily replace wheat flour in most recipes, but they are not recommended for those with celiac or severe gluten allergies.

There are many different types of whole-wheat flours suited for different purposes; they all contain the full goodness of the grain. The recipes in this book will often call for white whole-wheat flour (processed the same way as regular whole-wheat flour, but made from hard white spring wheat instead of red wheat), whole-wheat pastry flour (more finely milled, lower protein soft wheat), or traditional whole-wheat flour. You can easily substitute spelt flour (either white or whole-grain) for these flours.

It seems like every day new flours show up on the shelves of my local market. While many of the recipes in this book specify particular flours, feel free to experiment. If you have a favorite flour, try substituting a little into the recipes for your own versions of these snacks.

Arrowroot, made from the root of the plant of the same name, is one of the most common substitutes for cornstarch. Arrowroot thickens quickly and can be used in frozen desserts to help keep ice crystals from forming.

Despite the name, buckwheat isn’t related to wheat. When leafy buckwheat plants flower, they produce triangularly shaped groats that can be cracked and ground into a nutty flour. Buckwheat flour pairs equally well with sweet or savory foods.

Although not as readily available as many of the other nut flours, chestnut flour has been used for ages in baking (primarily in Italian baked goods) and has a subtle sweetness, reminiscent of cocoa. It’s fantastic when used in small amounts to boost the flavor of doughs, but it’s quite dense, so use it sparingly.

Chia seed meal is made by finely grinding whole chia seeds. You can easily make your own with a spice grinder at home. In addition to being high in nutrients, chia meal becomes viscous when wet, and can add elasticity to gluten-free dough, making it easier to handle. Moistened, ground chia seeds are also a very good replacement for eggs in baked goods.

Chickpea, or garbanzo bean, flour is a strongly flavored flour that loses some of its beany aroma during baking. While chickpea flour has a great texture for baking, it’s typically better used for savory baked goods, like flat-breads and crackers, where its flavor enhances rather than detracts from the finished product.

Corn flour is finely ground cornmeal that can be used in baked goods to lighten texture. Because the meal is so finely ground, it doesn’t have the grit that stone-ground cornmeal has. Cornmeal is more coarsely ground and is often prepared more as a cereal, such as in grits or polenta. Cornmeal can be white or yellow and comes in a variety of coarsenesses, from stone-ground to fine ground. Added to baked goods, it brings a light crunch and slightly nubby texture.

Cornstarch acts as a thickener, but it also has anticaking properties; it is often used to help keep moisture from creeping into dry goods and forming clumps. When making your own pantry items, it’s easy to replace cornstarch with other starches such as arrowroot, potato starch, tapioca starch, or rice starch.

Flaxseed meal is made by finely grinding whole flaxseed. You can easily make your own with a spice grinder at home. In addition to being high in nutrients, flaxseed meal can also act as a binder and, when mixed with a bit of water, is a surprisingly good replacement for eggs in baked goods.

Most gluten-free whole-grain flours have strong underlying flavors, but not ground millet. This fine, powdery flour is hard to distinguish in flavor from its wheat counterpart and is an excellent way to add iron and fiber to lighter, more refined baked goods.

Finely ground nuts of any sort—such as almonds, hazelnuts, or walnuts—make a great addition to many baked goods and in some cases can replace other flours altogether. French macarons, for instance, traditionally use finely ground almond meal folded into meringue. Ground nuts bring moisture, flavor, and protein to baked goods.

Oat flour has a soft sweetness that helps create tender doughs. It produces the best results when mixed with other flours; otherwise the doughs can get too dense. I like oat flour best when used in cookie and cracker doughs. Although oat flour can be gluten-free, it’s important to be careful of your source, as oat fields and wheat fields are often grown side by side and many oat products may have some wheat accidentally incorporated into them.

Potato flour absorbs moisture, and while it can impart a lovely flavor and help to bind dough almost as much as gluten does, too much will result in a very rubbery or gummy texture. Potato flour has a strong potato flavor, so it should always be used sparingly. While potato flour is made from whole potatoes, potato starch is made from dehydrated, peeled potatoes. Unlike potato flour, potato starch is neutral in flavor. You can use potato starch in place of cornstarch in most recipes.

Sweet rice starch (like
mochiko
) or glutinous rice starch is a mild starch that is used to lighten baked goods. Brown rice flour can be used as well, but be sure to get it finely ground or your baked goods may have a slightly gritty texture.

Sorghum is a grass grain that is one of the more common flours found in gluten-free baking. Mildly sweet in flavor, sorghum adds dietary fiber, protein, and iron to baked goods. Sorghum needs to be combined with other starches to bake well and should typically only make up 20 percent of the overall flour content.

Tapioca starch (sometimes called tapioca flour) is made from cassava root and is commonly used as a thickener. This starch is also used to make tapioca balls (or pearls). Tapioca starch can absorb up to twice its volume in liquid and can also be used to absorb liquid fats to create a granule or powder, as in Cheese Powder (
this page
).

Teff is a dark, ancient grain that is gluten-free. Teff is most widely known as the grain used in
injera
, an Ethiopian sourdough cràpe. Because of its mild and slightly malty flavor, it’s easily incorporated into chocolate baked goods as well as more savory crackers and breads.

Flours like
quinoa flour
and
amaranth flour
are packed with nutrition and have a grassy, slightly bitter flavor.
Mesquite flour
is subtly sweet and almost cocoa-like in flavor. A tablespoon of
soy flour
or
kinako flour
helps baked goods stay fresh longer.

You can easily purchase all-purpose gluten-free baking mixes in most grocery stores now, but if you want to make your own, I suggest following the recommendation of Shauna James Ahern (
GlutenFreeGirl.com
) to combine 40 percent whole-grain flour with 60 percent starch, based on the flavor profile you like. A great combination would be 100 grams sorghum or oat flour, 100 grams ground millet flour, 100 grams sweet rice starch, 100 grams tapioca starch, and 100 grams potato starch (not flour!).