Best 20 Whole Grain Recipes

WHOLE GRAIN WAFFLES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, oil, applesauce, and vanilla. Beat in whole wheat pastry flour, flax seed meal, wheat germ, all-purpose flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt until batter is smooth.
• Preheat a waffle iron, and coat with cooking spray. Pour batter into waffle iron in batches, and cook until crisp and golden brown.

WHOLE GRAIN 'STEEL-CUT' OATMEAL COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Cream butter.
• Add both sugars, salt, baking powder, baking soda, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon and half the flour. Beat to combine.
• Beat in the remaining flour.
• Add oats, pecans and cranraisins.
• Drop by rounded teaspoon on ungreased cookie sheet.
• Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Cool on wire rack.

GRAIN AND NUT WHOLE WHEAT PANCAKES

Steps:

• Grind the oats in a blender or food processor until fine. In a large bowl, combine ground oats, whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
• In another bowl, combine buttermilk, milk, oil, egg, and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. Mix wet ingredients into dry with a few swift strokes. Stir in nuts, if desired.
• Lightly oil a skillet or griddle, and preheat it to medium heat. Ladle 1/3 cup of the batter onto the hot skillet; cook the pancakes for 2 to 4 minutes per side, or until brown.

WHOLE GRAIN PANCAKES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, stir together the whole wheat flour, oats, cornmeal, flaxseed meal, brown sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Pour in buttermilk and egg. Stir just until smooth.
• Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium heat. Coat with cooking spray. Drop batter by large spoonfuls onto the griddle, and cook until bubbles form and the edges are dry. Flip, and cook until browned on the other side. Repeat with remaining batter.

WHOLE-GRAIN BREAD

Steps:

• Stir whole-wheat flour, bran, and 1 cup water in a bowl. Let stand 30 minutes.
• Stir milk and 1 tablespoon sugar in a bowl until sugar dissolves. Stir in yeast. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.
• Put whole-wheat flour mixture, milk mixture, remaining 3 tablespoons sugar, the cornmeal, 3 tablespoons oats, the ground flaxseed, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook; mix on medium-low speed until combined. Add 2 1/2 cups bread flour; mix until dough is tacky, but not sticky, about 2 minutes (if dough is too sticky, add more flour, 1 teaspoon at a time). Continue kneading until dough is soft and elastic, about 5 minutes more.
• Coat a large bowl with cooking spray. Add dough to bowl; turn to coat. Cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour (or refrigerate overnight; bring to room temperature).
• Turn out dough onto a work surface; shape into a loaf about 9 inches long. Using a spray bottle, mist with water; sprinkle top with remaining 2 teaspoons oats and the whole flaxseed. Coat a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan and a piece of plastic wrap with cooking spray. Transfer loaf to the pan, and cover lightly with the plastic wrap. Let stand until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mist oven with water; place loaf in oven. Bake 5 minutes; mist oven again. Continue to bake, rotating pan once, until well browned, 25 to 30 minutes. Unmold bread onto a wire rack; return to oven, and bake directly on oven rack 5 minutes more. Remove from oven; let cool completely on rack.

NORDIC WHOLE-GRAIN RYE BREAD

Steps:

• On Day 1, make the starter: In a medium-size bowl, mix 3/4 cup warm water with the buttermilk or yogurt. Whisk flour and yeast together, add to the buttermilk mixture and use your hands to mix together until sticky and moist; add more warm water as needed. Cover tightly and set aside at cool room temperature overnight, or up to 24 hours.
• Also on Day 1, soak the grains: Mix 4 cups cold water with the rye berries (or meal) and sunflower seeds. Cover and set aside at cool room temperature overnight, or up to 24 hours.
• On Day 2, make the bread: Drain the soaked grains in a colander. Measure 35 ounces/1,000 grams of the grains and place in a deep bowl. Add 14 ounces/400 grams of the starter and mix well. (Any remaining starter can be saved to use with other bread recipes.) Add the flour, salt, malt (or molasses), yeast and 2 cups water. Mix dough firmly by hand to combine. The dough should be grainy, but quite runny and wet, almost like a thick batter. To achieve that texture, add cold water, 1/4 cup at a time, mixing after each addition. To test: When a walnut-size piece of dough smeared on the rim of the bowl slides slowly and smoothly down the inside, like a snail leaving a trail, the dough it is wet enough.
• Thickly butter 3 medium or 2 standard-size loaf pans. Divide the dough evenly among the pans, filling them about half full. Cover and let rise at room temperature until dough almost fills pans, about 2 hours. (Dough will not rise more during baking.)
• Heat oven to 450 degrees. Bake loaves for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 360 and bake until firm and glossy brown, 80 minutes to 2 hours more depending on size and moisture content of loaves. Let cool completely in the pans before turning out. Bread freezes well, and lasts for at least a week at room temperature, wrapped in paper.

HOMEMADE WHOLE GRAIN CRACKERS

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees with the racks positioned in the middle and upper third. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Mix together the flour, sesame seeds and salt in a mixing bowl, in the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a food processor fitted with a steel blade. If using a mixing bowl, add the oil and cut in with a fork. If using a stand mixer, mix at medium speed. In a food processor, pulse until the mixture is crumbly. Add the water, and mix with your hands, or at medium speed in a mixer or in the food processor, until you can gather the dough into a ball.
• Lightly dust your work surface and roll out the dough, or roll out between pieces of parchment, plastic or wax paper. Cut into desired shapes -- squares, diamonds or cookie-cutter shapes -- and place on the baking sheet, close together but not touching.
• Bake 15 to 20 minutes until lightly browned, switching the sheet trays front to back and top to middle halfway through. Remove from the heat, and allow to cool on racks.

WHOLE-GRAIN BANANA YOGURT MUFFINS

Steps:

• Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners or generously grease (with nonstick cooking spray or butter).
• In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk the bananas, yogurt, egg, brown sugar, oil and honey until just smooth.
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and gently stir with a silicone spatula just until no streaks of flour remain. Divide the batter evenly among the muffins cups. Sprinkle on toppings if you'd like.
• Bake until a toothpick inserted into a center muffin comes out clean, 20 to 23 minutes.
• Cool in the tin on a rack for 5 minutes, unmold and cool completely or serve warm.

WHOLE GRAIN SOURDOUGH RUSTIC COUNTRY LOAF

Steps:

• Combine salt with flour in a mixing bowl, then add water and mix either by hand or with a dough whisk until fully incorporated into a "shaggy mass."
• Add starter and mix / squish by hand until fully incorporated. The process of incorporating the starter is a bit of primary kneading and should result in the dough smoothing out some, but don't go nuts. As soon as the starter is fully incorporated, you're done.
• Cover mixing bowl and let sit.
• First Bulk Fermentation Period
• The first (of three) bulk fermentation period is at room temperature which for me is 73 - 75 degrees F, and lasts about 10 hours.
• At about an hour in, do 5-10 minutes of hand kneading (see notes and video below) until the dough develops some strength and elasticity and becomes noticeably smoother. Cover and let sit.
• Every 1-2 hours (exact timing is not important - really!) do a short round of stretching and folding to re-develop the dough's elasticity (see notes and video below). Then re-cover and let sit.
• Second Bulk Fermentation Period
• After about 10 hours, or whenever the dough has risen to about 1.5 times its original volume, put the covered bowl of dough into a cold (~40 F) refrigerator and let sit (for me, this is overnight) for about 10 hours.
• Third Bulk Fermentation Period
• Remove dough from refrigerator and let sit at room temperature again.
• As the dough warms up, resume periodic stretch and folds. Dough should be feeling progressively more lively, developing a bit of sour aroma, and eventually starting to bubble some.
• This final bulk fermentation period is the hardest to put a time length on. Getting it right matters, and it will totally depend on how active your starter is, how warm your kitchen is, and a whole host of other mostly invisible things. You are shooting to finish this period when the dough has risen to 2 - 2.5 times its original volume and ideally is actively blowing a few bubbles. I've had this take anywhere from 4 - 8 hours depending on this and that. Your mileage may vary. Try not to overshoot this - you'll probably have a better result erring on the too soon side than the too late side.
• Shaping and Proofing
• (See notes and video below)
• Prepare a lined proofing basket by generously flouring the inside and set it aside.
• Lightly flour a large work surface and turn the dough out onto it.
• Wet your hands, punch down the dough and then stretch and flatten it into a large thin rectangle.
• Fold dough in half from top to bottom and press top into bottom, flattening again but not as big as the initial rectangle. At this point, you want the height of the dough rectangle to be right about the length of your proofing basket (no more than that).
• [Optional] Lightly flour the top of the dough (and your hands).
• Start at one end and roll the dough rectangle into a cylinder.
• Keep track of the seam and transfer the dough cylinder into the lined, floured proofing basket seam-side up.
• Cover and let sit for 1 - 1.5 hours.
• Baking
• From 30 - 60 minutes after transferring dough into proofing basket, pre-heat oven and clay baker to 450 degrees F ~ about 20 - 30 minutes.
• Uncover dough and transfer from proofing basket into base of clay baker, score top of dough, cover and bake at 450 F for 25 minutes.
• Uncover clay baker, reduce oven temperature to 400 F and bake uncovered for another 20-25 minutes (or until desired crust color develops).
• Remove bread and place on cooling rack for at least a couple hours before cutting.

ARTISAN WHOLE GRAIN SOURDOUGH

Steps:

• Evening of Day 1:
• Mix all ingredients together
• Ferment (let sit out at room temperature covered loosely with plastic) at 69F for 12 hours.
• Morning of Day 2:
• Add day 2 to day 1 ingredients
• Knead, place in plastic covered bowl and refrigerate for 24 hours.
• Morning of Day 3:
• Form a boule (round loaf) and ferment (let sit out on counter) 5 hours at 69F.
• Bake at 485F for 40-45 minutes.

BARILLA WHOLE GRAIN SPAGHETTI WITH ZUCCHINI AND YELLOW SQUASH

Steps:

• BRING a large pot of water to a boil.
• HEAT olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and saute until slightly yellow in color.
• COOK pasta 1 minute less than recommended cook time on package.
• Meanwhile, ADD zucchini and yellow squash to the skillet and saute for 3-4 minutes.
• ADD tomatoes and 1/2 cup water. Season with salt and pepper.
• DRAIN pasta and add to the skillet. Toss with the sauce. Let pasta continue to cook in the skillet for 1 minute.
• TURN off heat and toss in basil.
• TOP with Parmesan cheese before serving.

WHOLE GRAIN BREAKFAST COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Pulse the walnuts in a food processor several times to chop; continue processing until the walnuts are ground into flour; transfer to a bowl. Mix in the rolled oats, whole wheat flour, flax meal, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon until thoroughly combined.
• Combine the almond butter, canola oil, agave nectar, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla extract in the food processor and process a few seconds to blend the ingredients well; transfer the almond butter mixture to a large bowl and fold in the dried cherries and chocolate chips. Mix the walnut-oatmeal mixture into the almond butter mixture (dough will be very thick).
• Scoop up heaping teaspoons of dough, and form into balls; lay the dough balls onto the prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart.
• Bake in the preheated oven until lightly browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven and flatten the cookies with a spatula. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes on the baking sheets before removing to finish cooling on wire racks.

SEEDED WHOLE GRAIN LOAF

Steps:

• In bread machine pan, place all the ingredients in order suggested by manufacturer. Select basic bread setting. Choose crust color and loaf size if available. Bake according to bread machine directions (check dough after 5 minutes of mixing; add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water or flour if needed).

WHOLE GRAIN MUSTARD AïOLI

Steps:

• Using mortar with pestle, mash garlic with coarse kosher salt until paste forms (or mince garlic and mix with salt). Transfer garlic mixture to small bowl. Mix in all remaining ingredients. Season with salt and pepper. DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 days ahead. Cover tightly and refrigerate.

ROASTED GUINEA HENS WITH WHOLE-GRAIN MUSTARD AND HERBS

Steps:

• Cook garlic and potatoes:
• Fill a 3-quart saucepan halfway with water and bring to a boil. Add garlic and simmer 5 minutes. Remove garlic with a slotted spoon and reserve. Add potatoes to water with bay leaf and salt to taste, then simmer, covered, 10 minutes (potatoes will not be fully cooked). Cool potatoes in hot water, uncovered, then drain and peel.
• Make mustard butter and prepare hens while potatoes are cooling:
• Put a 17- by 11-inch roasting pan in middle of oven and preheat oven to 425°F.
• Melt 1 tablespoon butter and set aside. Mash together mustard, chives, remaining 5 tablespoons butter, and salt and pepper to taste. Reserve 1 tablespoon mustard butter for sauce.
• Remove excess fat from cavities and necks, then rinse hens and pat dry. Run your finger between skin and flesh of breast and legs of each hen to loosen skin (outsides of thighs are easier to access from neck end). Push mustard butter under skin and massage skin from outside to spread butter evenly over breast and legs. Season hens inside and out with salt and pepper and put half of herb stems in cavity of each bird. Tie legs together with kitchen string and close cavity with toothpicks.
• Brush melted butter over hens.
• Roast hens:
• Remove roasting pan from oven and add oil, tilting to coat. Put hens in pan, breast sides up, and scatter potatoes and shallots around them. Roast hens, basting every 10 minutes with a brush and turning vegetables, 30 minutes. Scatter reserved garlic and thyme leaves around hens and roast, basting frequently and turning vegetables, until a thermometer inserted in thickest part of a thigh (without touching bone) registers 170°F and vegetables are tender, 20 to 30 minutes more (30 to 40 minutes more for chickens). Discard string and toothpicks from hens and transfer hens to a platter. Surround with vegetables and keep warm, loosely covered, while making sauce.
• Make sauce:
• Skim fat from pan juices and add chicken broth, then deglaze by boiling, scraping up brown bits, until reduced to about 1/2 cup. Pour sauce through a sieve into a sauceboat and stir in reserved tablespoon mustard butter with salt and pepper to taste.
• Chop tarragon and parsley leaves and scatter over hens and vegetables. Serve with sauce.

WHOLE-GRAIN BLUEBERRY LEMON SCONES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Whisk all-purpose flour, whole wheat pastry flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Rub in cubed butter with your fingers until mixture resembles coarse meal. Fold in blueberries and lemon zest.
• Whisk 5 tablespoons heavy cream, honey, and egg together in a small bowl. Pour over the flour mixture; mix gently with your hands until dough just comes together.
• Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Pat dough into a 6-inch round about 1 inch thick. Cut dough into 12 rounds using a round cutter.
• Transfer rounds to the prepared baking sheet. Drizzle remaining 2 tablespoons heavy cream over the tops.
• Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes.

WHOLE GRAIN WAFFLES

Steps:

• Preheat a waffle iron to medium-high.
• Whisk the flour with the oats, sugar, wheat germ, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl. In another medium bowl, lightly whisk the eggs, then add the milk, butter, and oil.
• Gently stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon, to make a batter. Take care not to overwork the batter, it's fine if there are a few lumps.
• Pour 1/3 to 1/2 cup of batter per waffle (it depends on the size of your waffle iron) and cook until the outside of the waffle is crisp and inside is cooked through, 3 to 5 minutes. (The time varies depending on the size and spread of a waffle iron). Serve warm with maple syrup. Repeat with remaining batter.

WHOLE-GRAIN OAT BREAD

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, cover steel-cut oats with the boiling water. Let stand until room temperature. Stir in bulghur wheat and honey; set aside.
• Place the warm water in a small bowl. Sprinkle yeast over water. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the reserved oat mixture with the yeast mixture, whole-wheat flour, and salt. Add the all-purpose flour until the dough is tacky, but not sticky. Continue kneading about 5 minutes more.
• Place dough in a buttered bowl, and cover with buttered plastic wrap directly on the surface. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 90 minutes, or refrigerate overnight.
• Turn out dough onto a clean work surface; form into a loaf about 9 inches long. Lightly mist with water; sprinkle with rolled oats. Place in a well-buttered 9-by-5-by-2 1/2-inch loaf pan; let stand until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Using a serrated knife, slash top of loaf lengthwise down center. Place immediately in oven. Bake until nicely browned and cooked through, about 1 hour. Remove from pan; let cool on a wire rack.

WHOLE GRAIN MUSTARD AIOLI

Steps:

• Using mortar with pestle, mash garlic with coarse kosher salt until paste forms (or mince garlic and mix with salt).
• Transfer garlic mixture to small bowl.
• Mix in all remaining ingredients.
• Season with salt and pepper.
• DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 days ahead; cover tightly and refrigerate.

BEST WHOLE GRAIN GLUTEN-FREE BREAD FOR A BREAD MACHINE

Steps:

• Mix cornstarch, millet flour, tapioca flour, rice flour, teff flour, ground flax, psyllium husk, and guar gum in a bowl.
• Place eggs, warm water, canola oil, vinegar, sugar, yeast, cornstarch mixture, salt, and milk in a bread machine pan in the order listed, or in the order listed by the manufacturer. Stir gently with a wooden spoon to combine yeast with the rest of the ingredients.
• Run "rapid bake" cycle for 2 hours. Select "dark" crust setting; bake for 50 minutes.