You can replace cornmeal in baked goods. What can replace flour in baking

Adherents proper nutrition usually try to avoid wheat flour, and PP recipes often feature alternative options. Why this is so, and how justified it is - let's figure it out.

Flour by itself more calories than cereals, but porridge on a diet is considered a product more than approved, and flour - the first evil. In fact, it is not the flour that is to blame, but its quantity.

Flour products are usually very tasty, and if you are unlikely to eat more than one bowl of porridge, then there is much more space for dumplings and buns. In addition, flour is, in combination, very fatty. fried donuts and pies, shortbread and pies, cream pies and pastries - all of these products are comparable in fat content to some varieties of margarine.

We also like to eat ordinary bread with butter, cheese or sausage, pizza with bacon ... There are almost no vitamins and other valuable substances, but a lot of fats and refined carbohydrates.

If you indulge yourself like this in small quantities, nothing bad will happen. But if abused, please - excess weight, problems with the gastrointestinal tract and skin, blood vessels and pancreas. Therefore, it is generally accepted that flour is harmful.

Wheat flour calories

If you look at the table energy value, then you can see that in terms of calories, wheat flour is not much different from any other - they are all about the same. Oatmeal is even more nutritious than wheat, and go ahead - in diet menu considered more preferable. What's the catch - read below, but for now let's focus on the "naked" numbers.

Do you stick to the flexible and know how to stop at the right moment, “attaching” to the flour? Do you suffer from gluten intolerance, diabetes, acne and constipation? Then calmly eat wheat flour products in reasonable quantities and enjoy life. If the problems of nutrition and health are more acute, it makes sense to introduce variety.

Why is wheat flour harmful?

Atmentioned gluten (aka gluten) - the protein contained in some cereals (including wheat) can cause allergies. Approximately 1% of the world's population suffers from severe gluten intolerance (celiac disease).
With allergies, acne, bloating, indigestion, itching on the skin, and a rash can be observed. With celiac disease - severe reactions, up to death. People usually know about celiac disease since childhood, and allergies can sometimes be calculated only after long experiments with food.

ABOUT lack of fiber. In wheat flour premium almost not dietary fiber, and considering high content gluten, it can interfere with normal digestion and cause constipation.

Low content of vitamins and minerals. Many say that wheat flour is generally an “empty” product and there is nothing useful in it. Actually there is, but not much. This does not mean that wheat flour is harmful. Just don't make it a staple on your menu.

What can replace wheat flour?

White wheat flour can be replaced with whole grains. For its production, the grain is crushed together with the shell, therefore, in such flour more fiber, vitamins and microelements. In the test, it behaves almost the same as a regular one, but it needs a little less.

IN home baking you can experiment and try different types flour.

Here are the most popular:

Rye;
;
rice;
buckwheat;
;
linen;
;
coconut.

Sometimes bran or powdered fiber is used instead of flour. Each option has its pros and cons, which I will cover in more detail in future articles.
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Everyone who wants to stick to proper nutrition sooner or later faces the problem of giving up baking. And the question inevitably arises: beautiful and healthy body Or an extra piece of cake? But are all pastries so harmful and high in calories? Eat perfect solution- give up wheat flour! By following the principles of proper nutrition, you can easily afford delicious pastries, it is enough just to replace the premium wheat flour with a more useful one. Why is wheat flour so bad?

Let's figure out what flour is. It is produced by grinding different cultures, both cereals (wheat, rye, rice, buckwheat, oats, corn, etc.), and legumes (such as peas). For the manufacture of premium flour, only wheat grain without a shell is used (which is rich in vitamins and oils).
+ The advantages of premium flour are that baking on it is lush, light, tender and, of course, delicious. Since each of us has been accustomed to its taste since childhood, it is quite difficult to refuse it completely and the taste is different, more coarse flour seems odd at first.

— The disadvantages of premium wheat flour are obvious. white flour Nowadays it is considered not only a useless, “empty” product, but also quite harmful. Its excess in the diet often leads to obesity, which in turn can lead to diabetes. In addition, premium flour is a “fast carbohydrate”, it retains water in the body and gives an extremely short-term saturation.

If you find it difficult to completely give up wheat flour, replace it with lower grades (grade 1, 2) or whole grain flour from durum wheat. Such flour is great for proper nutrition and can be used for making pasta, baking, confectionery, pancakes, muffins, dumplings, etc.

Let's take a look at the most common options for replacing wheat flour.

?Buckwheat flour

Buckwheat flour is great protein product containing a large number of amino acids. In addition, it contains a large amount of fiber, but the amount of fat and carbohydrate is minimal. Buckwheat flour boasts the amount of vitamins and minerals, including B vitamins, magnesium, zinc, potassium, etc.

By the way, buckwheat flour you can cook at home by grinding buckwheat in a blender or coffee grinder.

What to cook: pancakes, dumplings, pastries, use for breading, any unsweetened dough.

?Peeled rye flour

This flour is most commonly used for baking bakery products. In this flour, useful particles of grain shells are preserved, which are visible even to the naked eye. Because of this, it is rich in iron, vitamins and fiber. IN rye flour there is little protein, so for making bread it is mixed with wheat flour.

What to cook: Rye bread.

?Oat flour

ABOUT useful properties everyone knows oatmeal! Oatmeal also contains vitamins B, E, phosphorus, zinc and manganese. Oatmeal baking is considered dietary, despite the rather high calorie content (350 kcal per 100 g), as it contains a large amount of fiber and proteins that perfectly saturate the body. Oat flour - great replacement wheat flour in confectionery.

By the way, oat flour you can make your own at home by grinding oatmeal in a blender or coffee grinder (choose the least refined flakes).

What to cook: oat cookies, pancakes, sweet pastries, casseroles, cereals, pancakes.

?Linen flour

Flaxseed flour is great for proper nutrition, because it is the champion in protein content! As much as 30 grams per 100 grams of flour. It also contains a lot of fiber and fatty acids such as Omega-3 and Omega-6. The composition of such flour is rich in folic acid, antioxidants and vitamins, which are incredibly beneficial for our body. It also helps improve bowel function.

What to cook: use as a breading, replacing eggs in dough, casseroles, buns, cheesecakes

?Corn flour

Cornmeal is rich in elements such as calcium, potassium, magnesium and iron, vitamins B and PP. It is easily digested, normalizes metabolism, helps digestion. The most useful is flour from hard varieties corn. Wholemeal flour is used for baking bread and tortillas.

What to cook: cake, tortillas, pancakes, polenta, biscuits

The most common flour on the shelves of supermarkets is Garnets flour ( huge selection: oatmeal, rye, flaxseed, whole grain, corn, rice, buckwheat, pea and others).

What if we do not sell wholemeal flour, only whole grain breads and expensive whole grain cereals are sold, maybe something can replace wholemeal flour in recipes?

Unfortunately, now the demand for wholemeal flour is quite high, but it is far from being available everywhere.

The network advises you to cook whole grain flour yourself: buy bran and wheat germ and enrich them with premium wheat flour in the proportion: flour - 83%, bran - 15-17% and germ - 2%.

You can grind grain in a coffee grinder. For health it will the best option. To obtain the desired gluten in the dough, I think you will have to add premium wheat flour, or buckwheat flour, it has a very high ability to glue the dough.

In the interests healthy eating instead of wholemeal flour, you can mix ground whole grain bread into the dough for pancakes and casseroles. I do that myself sometimes. This is, of course, a hybrid method, but we get more healthy meals than with refined foods.

I came up with this method by accident. I bought whole grain bread, they were dry and hard. In order not to throw away an expensive product, I passed them through a meat grinder.

It is better to twist hard loaves in a mechanical meat grinder in small portions, otherwise it is difficult, they are too hard.

My husband once joked that I lost weight not from a healthy diet, but because almost every day I grind bread with a meat grinder. It's not that big exercise stress to make it so.

I draw your attention to the fact that I use round loaves, like washers, you can see from them that there is flattened whole grain. Although tasty, I didn’t like the bread sticks, despite the fact that they are very easy to grind, they just crumble. It seems that they contain bran and flour of the highest grade.

I read in one article by an experienced baker that the taste of flour can vary greatly depending on what it is ground on. It should be the same for bread rolls. I ground them in a meat grinder and crushed them with a rolling pin on a kitchen board.

In the photo: on the left through a mechanical meat grinder (medium-sized grate, diameter 4-5 mm), on the right is what happens when you press on the board with a rolling pin.

I think that you can grind them in a coffee grinder and blender.

Let's calculate the calorie content of ground whole grain bread, we will grind a pack of round loaves weighing 100 g.

I count tablespoons with a slide, how much it fits, and not on the edge of the spoon, it’s more convenient.

1. Through a meat grinder, I got 500 ml of water on a scale.

Tablespoons with a good slide -18-19.

Calorie content 100 g (read on the pack) - 290 kcal

In 1 tablespoon 5-6 g, 25 ml, 15-16 kcal

25 g of ground bread - 125 ml on a water scale - 72 kcal

2. With a rolling pin on the board it turned out 800 ml on a water scale (it is clear that the pieces are larger)

24 heaping tablespoons

Calorie content 100 g - 290 kcal

In 1 tablespoon 4 g, 33 ml, 11 kcal

25 g crushed bread - 200 ml water - 72 kcal

How to use

1. cabbage salad with dill and ground bread

1. Cabbage - 250 g, 75 kcal
2. Dill - a little
3. Ground bread - 2-3 pieces, 72 kcal

Finely chop or grate the cabbage coarse grater. If cut, mash so that the juice is released. Add dill, ground bread, mix. For salad, I liked ground bread through a meat grinder more. Good hearty breakfast for the summer.

Calorie content: about 150 kcal.

2. Omelette with ground bread and cabbage or any greens

1. Egg - 2 pcs., 140 kcal
2. Cabbage on a coarse grater - 2 tablespoons, 40 g, 12 kcal
3. Dill - a pinch
4. Ground bread - 5 g, 15 kcal

Mix everything and fry in a pan.

Calorie content: about 170 kcal.

You can put more bread, but it doesn’t cost much, it can turn out dry.

Similarly, you can cook an omelet with the addition of other vegetables according to the season. Delicious with wild garlic, as in the photo.

3. Add ground bread to cutlets

Instead of a bun soaked in milk, you can use ground whole grain bread. Soak 2-3 tablespoons of ground bread for 5 minutes in milk. Very tasty and satisfying.

You can put a lot more of them, the taste will only improve.

By the way, the cutlets in the photo are breaded in coarse corn flour, it turns out very tasty, but you should not make too thick a layer of breading, it will be dry.

4. Sprinkle over cooked pasta

Love to sprinkle pasta with ground breadcrumbs, try ground bread for sprinkling, tasty and healthy.

And yet, you can cook whole grain porridge from bread, about this in.

It is clear that in holiday baking don't add breadcrumbs.

© Taisiya Fevronina, 2010.

What's wrong with regular flour?

Premium wheat flour is the most common type of flour that can be found in any grocery store. Most products are also baked from it - of course, white bread, loaves, rolls, pastries, cakes, cookies.

Premium flour can lead to severe diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and overweight. We can definitely say that in the long run, everyone gets fat from premium wheat flour! Sooner or later, the weight will start to increase. And for many, it happens almost immediately.

The reason for that is high calorie content, high glycemic index, starch. White flour is fast carbohydrate which retains water in our body. That's why you literally "swell up" after bread feasts, cakes and cookies. This is empty flour that contains nothing useful in itself!

One more problem" white bread- yeast. So if it's hard for you to give up flour products, choose yeast-free. For example, pita bread, although some manufacturers manage to put yeast there, which should not be there.

Cookies and muffins can also be found yeast-free, you just have to pay more attention to the composition. And it is best to cook all the pastries at home, since industrial formulations almost always contain vegetable fat. Any homemade cookies it will be tastier and healthier than homemade, even if you bake it with the addition of butter or vegetable oil and flour.

The lower the grade of wheat flour, the better for the body. Therefore, choose grade 1 or 2, and preferably whole grain flour, but not the highest. On early stages transition, it can be at least a mixture of premium flour and some other useful one.

But the rejection of white flour does not mean a complete rejection of the usual dishes. Bread, cookies, pies, casseroles, cheesecakes, rolls, pancakes, pancakes - all this can be cooked and eaten! It is enough just to enlist recipes, and get various types of flour in health food stores or on the market. Consider the most popular of them, which can be either added to wheat or used independently.

Buckwheat flour

There is no gluten in this flour;
Gray color and specific taste;
Good in combination with ½ part of wheat flour;
Makes the dough "cool" and dense.
What is suitable for: pancakes, bread, pies.

Flax flour

A lot of protein in the composition;
A lot of fiber in the composition;
Polyunsaturated fatty acids;
Contains a lot of potassium (more than in bananas!), magnesium and zinc;
Medicinal properties for the stomach and of cardio-vascular system.
What it is suitable for: it will not work to use it on its own for baking, but it mixes well with other types of flour, including wheat. While improving nutritional value product and lowering the overall GI level of baked goods.

Oat flour

Promotes the production of serotonin (hormone of joy);
A small percentage of starch;
Enough a large number fat;
Low gluten content.
What it's good for: Great for quick baking- cakes, pancakes, pancakes, cookies.

It makes no sense to buy such flour if you have a coffee grinder or a powerful blender. I grind oatmeal into the finest powder right at home! Cheap and cheerful.

soy flour

Can replace eggs or milk in some recipes;
Does not contain gluten;
Improves bread baking, and allows her not to stale longer.
What it is suitable for: good as an additive to wheat, you can also use it instead for making sauces, for example, bechamel.

Rice flour

Rich in vitamins B1 and B2;
Contains 2 times less fat than in premium wheat;
Does not contain gluten;
Of the minuses - a lot of starch and little fiber.
What it's good for: Improves quality wheat bread. In Asian cuisine, you can find many recipes for desserts and pastries with rice flour.

Corn flour

Contains many vitamins - magnesium, calcium, phosphate, group B, potassium, iron;
Does not contain gluten.
What it is suitable for: cakes, cheesecakes, casseroles. But for baking to be successful, you need to add butter or vegetable oil.

Snow-white flour of the highest grade from wheat grains - you think this is the best and wholesome flour? But no! The highest grade means the finest grinding. Such flour has a maximum of calories, and in baking it turns into gluten, which is poorly absorbed by our digestive tract and disrupting his work. There are almost no vitamins here either, as well as fiber, therefore, there are also benefits, respectively. Among other things, wheat itself can cause intolerance - due to the content of gluten in it, and also a high glycemic index. But all this does not mean that you should give up baking and favorite dishes that use flour. Just replace wheat with some other!

1. Cornmeal

One of the most affordable on the shelves of our stores. Just don't confuse it with corn grits- it has a finer grinding, although not the same as that of premium wheat flour. Cornmeal contains B vitamins and vitamin PP, as well as iron, which positively affects the blood and blood vessels, calcium and potassium, magnesium and silicon. Flour from corn kernels is absorbed by the body much better than wheat, normalizes the secretion of bile and reduces arterial pressure and even treats anemia.

2. Oatmeal

Oatmeal is considered even healthier than cornmeal. To obtain it, oat grains are used, and at home, you can simply grind it in a blender cereals. Just don't take oatmeal fast food, it is better to prefer flakes like "Hercules" that need to be boiled. In oat flour - a lot essential amino acids for the normal functioning of our body, calcium and phosphorus salts, vitamins E and group B, trace elements, in particular, silicon, which is responsible for the normalization of metabolism.

3. Buckwheat flour

Buckwheat flour is less popular than the previous two, and completely in vain. Do you care about your figure and health, but do not want to give up baking? Then feel free to take buckwheat flour - it has a minimum of calories and a lot of dietary fiber, which have a beneficial effect on the entire digestive system. And also - vitamins (B1, B2, B6, B9, E, PP), macro- and microelements (iron and zinc, manganese and phosphorus, copper and sulfur, calcium and potassium), and folic acid, which is necessary not only for pregnant women, but also for the hematopoiesis of any person, regardless of his gender and position.

4. Rice flour

Did you know that the first bread in the history of mankind was not baked from wheat, but from rice, because this culture was domesticated about 9 thousand years ago! Rice flour is very dietary and contains a minimum of substances that can cause allergies, which is why it is so often included in the composition. baby food. It contains all the important B vitamins (B1, B2, B4, B5, B6, B9), as well as selenium and magnesium, which are necessary for the cardiovascular system. Using rice flour for baking, you can be sure that you will get not only carbohydrates, but also enough high-quality vegetable protein with a set of useful amino acids.

5. Coconut flour

More exotic and more expensive, but much more useful flour is coconut flour. There is no gluten in it at all - coconut, as you know, is not a grain crop, therefore, for those who have intolerance to this substance, it is recommended that coconut flour. The low glycemic index makes it suitable for people suffering from diabetes. There is a minimum of calories and carbohydrates, but a lot of protein (about 40 grams per 100 grams of flour - for comparison, in chicken fillet only about 30-35 grams!). In addition, flour does not have a pronounced taste of coconut, so it can be used not only for desserts.