I’ve been waiting for months to write this post. The better part of a year, even. I’m positively itching to share this with you, so here we go. Late last summer (the lovely, gracious, talented) Luisa Weiss let me spend some time with the proofs of a baking book she was working on. She said she thought I’d like it. Which, it tuns out, was a dramatic understatement. The book she shared with me, Good to the Grain, is about baking with whole grain flours. It was written by Kim Boyce, and photographed by Quentin Bacon.

There aren’t many people writing contemporary books on whole grain baking. Among those few, this one is special. In a sentence, a top-flight pastry chef intersects whole grain flours in her home kitchen. To back up a bit, Kim is a former pastry chef with major chops (Spago / Campanile) who left the professional kitchen to raise her family. Her book delves into her exploration of a broad range of whole grain flours, each of the twelve main chapters explores a separate flour – whole-wheat flour, amaranth flour, barley flour, buckwheat flour, corn flour, kamut flour, multigrain flour, oat flour, quinoa flour, rye flour, spelt flour, and yes…even teff flour.

Here’s the quote I gave for the back of the book,”There was a point in my life when I realized limiting myself to baking with all-purpose flour was like limiting myself to painting with just one color. Kim Boyce’s collection of beautifully rustic recipes inspires us to move enthusiastically into the rich palette of flavorful whole-grain flours and explore all they have to offer. I just can’t get enough of this book.”

I wrote a good amount about baking with whole grain flours in SNC, but to see what someone like Kim is doing with them is both exciting and inspiring for me. I could tell at a glance, wow, she’s really excited about them too. It felt good to know someone like her was (mostly having fun exploring this range of flours and this approach to baking. I love seeing what she is doing, and now I know who to email when I’m stumped.

I could write an entire post about the photography in Good to the Grain, but I’ll save that for another day. Instead, I’ll leave you with a few notes related to the Figgy Buckwheat Scones I baked last weekend. They’re a bit of a project, but a fun one requiring two main components – the obscenely addictive fig butter (dried figs, port wine, red wine, spices, sugar) and the buckwheat scone dough. Make the fig butter ahead of time, and the scone dough is a breeze to pull together. They’re complex and jammy with a hint of sweetness and lots of flavor coming from the magical collision of the caramelized sugars in the fig butter and the hot baking sheet.

Related links:
- Kim Boyce (on twitter)
- Cheryl writes about Kim’s muesli (here)
- Good to the Grain: Baking with Whole-Grain Flours

Continue reading Figgy Buckwheat Scones…

Read more information

How to make a Nutty Irish Click to get more details

Read more information

Sweet potatoes and prunes, what a lovely combo. And what happens to them in this wonderful casserole is great. Cooked potatoes and sliced prunes are layered in a casserole with a honey, lemon, cinnamon, butter sauce. Forty-five minutes of baking does the

Read more information

Tired of the same old, boring carrot cake? THIS is the Carrot cake you’ll love forever! A little different because some of the ingredients aren’t what you’d find in a ‘normal’ carrot cake. My own MOTHER, who despises anything coconut, had two helpings for dessert and took some home!! Don’t knock it until you try it!! You’ll never go back to that boring recipe again.

Read more information

Recipe from Bon Appétit

Read more information

Ready in just 30 minutes, lamb that looks (and tastes) good enough to serve guests for a casual supper

Read more

Read more information

How to make a Silk Panties Click to get more details

Read more information

Recipe from Bon Appétit

Read more information

brought to you by epicurious.com and NutritionData.com

Calories 301; Total Fat 19g; Carbohydrates 11g

Shrimp, scallions, and mushrooms are lightly cooked with eggs and then topped with a rich-tasting brown sauce for a delicious Asian take on the frittata. Don’t be alarmed by the cholesterol count from this dish: The latest research suggests that eating cholesterol-rich foods like eggs and shrimp is unlikely to contribute to high cholesterol levels. Both are great sources of protein and the antioxidant mineral selenium. Bean sprouts are a very good source of vitamins C and K. Serve with stir-fried bok choy on the side and fruit salad with ginger syrup for dessert.

Go to the healthy recipe on epicurious.com
Photograph By: Romulo Yanes

Nutritional Information
Amounts per serving plus the % Daily Value (DV) based on a 2,000 calorie diet:

301 Calories (15%)
19g Total fat (29%)
4g Saturated Fat (10%)
487mg Cholesterol (162%)
515mg Sodium (22%)
11g Carbohydrate (4%)
2g Fiber (6%)
23g Protein (46%)

See the full nutritional analysis from NutritionData.com

More Healthy Recipes

Read more information

This fudge recipe is super creamy and everyone requests it during the holidays. While preparing, be sure that you don’t let the mix get hotter than 238 degrees or it gets really dry but still tastes good.

Read more information