I'd suggest you substitute low-glycemic agave nectar for sugar in baked goods if you are a diabetic (it is an appropriate sugar substitute for most diabetics - but you should check with your health care professional or nutritionists). It has the benefit of acting/performing like "sugar" in baked goods (including browning, tenderizing baked goods, and feeding yeast in breads), unlike chemical sweeteners (like Splenda), and you get a better end product. It's much sweeter than sugar and you can use much less. For things that require 1-cup of sugar, I usually use half that amount of agave nectar (or no more than 3/4 of a cup agave nectar for 1-cup of sugar - for people with a really "sweet" tooth). I sweeten a quart of homemade ice cream with only 1/4 c. of (low-glycemic) agave nectar. I mill soft white wheat for flour for baked goods that require less gluten (such as brownies, quick breads, etc) or spelt (also less gluten). Less gluten and gluten development will keep the texture more tender. Fat AND sugar are also tenderizers. Eliminate either of those and you have to find other ingredients that will work as tenderizers (baking science 101). The bran in whole grain flours absorb a lot of moisture, as well as the gluten in flour, and white whole wheat flour is generally higher in gluten than all-purpose. Therefore you may need to adjust the flour amount down a bit, or increase the liquid to compensate for bran and gluten. -Grainlady

You can also use file powder as a thickening agent, and this could be added to the separate dish of etouffee at the end. I think it would also provide flavor that would compliment the dish, although I don't think it has much power as a thickening agent. If you are serving the etouffee over rice, it doesn't have to be that thick anyway. File powder can also be added at the table just before eating. Lars This post was edited by publickman on Fri, Jan 18, 13 at 18:47

--Whole wheat pastry flour is milled from low-gluten, low-protein, soft wheat varieties. I use soft white wheat for pastry flour, or anywhere I don't need a lot of gluten development. Spelt is another good wholegrain choice when you don't need a lot of gluten development. Spelt has a gluten level that is 5,000 parts per million; compared to wheat which begins at 50,000 parts per million and go up from there. --Technically, "all-purpose" flour was developed commercially for bleached/unbleached flour from a mixture of hard wheat and soft wheat. There's enough hard wheat so it has enough gluten to make yeast breads, and enough soft wheat flour so it makes decent quick breads, pastry or cakes - so it covers "all purposes", but it's NOT the optimum choice of flour for most things, other than soft dinner rolls. We've just developed our flour use from the most common commercial flour available - all-purpose - with occasional moves to Southern all-purpose for biscuits and quick breads, and the even more elusive cake flour for beautiful tender cakes. Even in the world of commercial bleached/unbleached all-purpose flour there are great differences... Northern all-purpose flour (King Arthur and Robin Hood - 11-12) have a higher protein level than National Brands (Gold Medal and Pillsbury 10-12). Southern all-purpose flour (7.5-9.5) is milled from soft wheat, so it's best used for quick breads, biscuits, muffins, pastry, cookies, cakes - foods where you don't want a lot of gluten development. A mix of 3:2 hard wheat to soft white wheat is a great "all-purpose" mixture when you want soft yeast rolls. Otherwise, choosing a mix of hard wheat and soft wheat is less than optimum for other baked goods. --Whole wheat "bread" flour would mean a high protein level milled from hard wheat. Bleached/Unbleached bread flour has a protein level of 13-14. I've milled wheat that was 16% protein and made yeast bread with it, but it takes a lot more kneading to develop the gluten and you find you have tough bread as a result of the high protein level. This also happens when you add too much vital wheat gluten to a recipe, so more (protein/gluten) is not necessarily better. The protein levels of wheat I purchase is generally between 13% and 14% protein, which is more than enough to raise a lofty loaf of bread. If you tend to get short squatty loaves of 100% whole wheat bread, there are other factors you need to address besides protein/gluten levels - such as stop using a (quick mix) direct dough method and switch to a sponge method. A sponge will help soften the bran - the sharp edges of bran can cut the gluten strands. A sponge method also helps develop the gluten without kneading. Adding an acid ingredient (vinegar, lemon juice, ascorbic acid, etc) to the recipe has a positive effect. There is a substance in wheat germ called Gluthione which breaks down the gluten strands. Adding an acid, such as ascorbic acid, counteracts the negative effects of Glutathione. Ascorbic acid helps to prevent the gluten bonds from breaking down and will repair the gluten bonds, so you'll get a high-rising loaf of 100% whole wheat bread. I generally add 1/8 t. ascorbic acid per loaf of bread when making bread that includes wheatgerm (as a single ingredient or from whole wheat flour). -Something we tend to forget, or possibly didn't even know, hard wheat wasn't even available for milling until the late 1870's when the German Mennonites arrived here in Kansas and brought the granddad of all hard winter wheat varieties, Turkey Red, with them from Europe. Prior to the developing of the hard winter varieties of wheat, all flour was milled from soft wheat. The mills liked soft wheat for milling into flour because it was easy to grind in one pass through the mill, and had a much larger extraction of flour. Soft wheat tends to be a plumper seed with more endosperm, while hard winter wheat is small and rather wrinkled with more bran and less endosperm. You can tell the difference between hard and soft wheat when you mill it at home - the hard wheat flour is more coarse and gritty from the bran, while soft wheat renders a very soft, talcum powder feeling flour. --"Bread flour" or high protein flour milled from hard wheat, was available to commercial bakers and they referenced it by calling it "strong" wheat flour. Strong and weak wheats indicate a wheat or flour's baking strength. It wasn't until the advent of the bread machine in the 1980's that high-gluten bread flour became available for home use. Up until that time all-purpose flour, which is a medium-protein level flour, was about the only kind of flour available for home use. If "whole wheat bread flour" is called for, it means use a "regular" whole wheat flour which is milled from hard wheat, instead of "pastry" whole wheat flour, which is milled from soft wheat. -Grainlady

There are a whole bunch of recipes for apple/Greek yoghurt quickbreads: https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1SQJL_enUS795US795&ei=gkHIXtaGMI2wytMP37ql0A0&q=greek+yoghurt+apple+bread&oq=greek+yoghurt+apple+bread&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQAzIGCAAQFhAeMgYIABAWEB4yBggAEBYQHjIGCAAQFhAeOgQIABBHOggIIRAWEB0QHjoICAAQgwEQkQI6CAgAEJECEIsDOgcIABBDEIsDOggIABCDARCLAzoFCAAQiwM6DggAEOoCELQCEJoBEOUCOgQIABBDOgIIAFDD_jBYq7kxYOC6MWgBcAF4AIAB5AGIAb0kkgEGMC4zMC4xmAEAoAEBqgEHZ3dzLXdperABBrgBAg&sclient=psy-ab&ved=0ahUKEwjWz_fMssjpAhUNmHIEHV9dCdoQ4dUDCAw&uact=5 Re your muffin recipe, you could make it without the whole wheat flour, but you'd want to adjust the quantity of flour and sugar, and that could be tricky for it coming out right the first time. Do you have any bran or unsweetened bran cereal? Because you could make your own whole wheat flour substitute. That would give the rich flavor and earthy structure. You could also make a small pie with three granny smiths. :) Or poached or baked apples, or applesauce. .... I love tart apples. Nix that if you don't.