Good afternoon! Here is a shout out to Stephanie. She wants you all to know she is my number one fan!!

Today I am going to teach you something short and saweet about the term, "whole-grain".

In order to learn the full benefit of eating whole grains, I decided that I should make some whole grain bread at home. Ha, Not really. I cannot tell a lie.....I do not bake. I just make believe cook. It can be just as fulfilling as the real thing, but not quite as messy. So, I checked at the local Hy-Vee for whole grain. However, when I went to the grocery store, I could only find flour labelled 'whole wheat'.

"Whole-grain" means that all parts of the grain (germ, endosperm, and bran) are present. Wheat is one type of grain. So, "whole-wheat flour" is absolutely a whole-grain product. You can make whole-grain bread using whole-wheat flour or a combination of whole-grain flours, such as oat, spelt, kamut, rice, rye, or buckwheat.

I found out there can be some challenges with baking whole-grain breads at home. Breads made with 100% whole-wheat (or whole-grain) flour can be somewhat coarse and heavy. They don't keep very well. Many bakers like to mix in some refined flour to lighten the texture while still getting the benefit of whole grains. Or, look for King Arthur's White Whole Wheat Flour.

"White flour" usually refers to flour that has had the germ and bran removed--which is not a whole-grain flour. But the King Arthur's White Whole Wheat is a 100% whole-wheat flour that's milled from a different strain of wheat (called "white wheat"). White wheat is lighter in texture. When you bake with it, the result is more like a combination of regular whole wheat and refined white flour....but it's still 100% whole grain.

Now that all my blogger buddies are experts on this whole grain stuff, you can all bake me some bread!