I almost always make my cornbread with whole wheat PASTRY flour, because I LIKE it, I like the "rustic" texture it adds to things. You can sub splenda for sugar in cornbread, that's what I do if I know I'm going to eat it up relatively quickly. I'm one of those people who thinks splenda is best in things that get eaten right way because if not I think it develops a chemical taste in foods over time. I have never made cornbread with applesauce, but that's a way to add the moistness sugar adds to things but less sweet. But still sweet. I like a middle of the road type cornbread, not sweet but not completely sugarless either, so I would probably like it with applesauce. My recipe calls for sour cream except I use non-fat plain yogurt with just as good results. I also use two egg whites instead of one egg. Sourcream (or yogurt) Cornmeal muffins 1 cup unbleached white flour 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour 3/4 cup fine yellow cornmeal 1/8 cup Splenda baking mix (or 1/4 cup sugar) 3 tsp. baking powder scant 1/2 tsp. salt 1 cup nonfat plain yogurt 1/2 tsp. baking soda added to yogurt 2 egg whites I entered this recipe in my recipe box on "SparkPeople" (check it out, it is GREAT for recipe and meal planning ideas). It's OK to join, they won't send you a bunch of junk mail. The stats on it are: Amount Per Serving Calories: 91.9 Total Fat: 0.5 g Cholesterol: 0.3 mg Sodium: 23.8 mg Total Carbs: 18.2 g Dietary Fiber: 1.1 g Protein: 3.0 Kinda low on fiber and high on carbs so you could improve it by subbing whole wheat flour for all or some of the white flour. I'd start out with half and half and move up as my tastebuds adjusted. Also could possibly reduce salt, but I can't vouch for that part since I have never made it that way. I've done it with at least half WWH flour though. I eat these muffins with spreadable "lite" butter, which you might want to look into since it is a mix of sat. and unsat. fat. Also, here's my recipe for lima beans, which I have served at a couple of potlucks and people have said they liked them. Elegant Lima Beans 4 cups cooked lima beans (I use the green baby limas, the frozen ones, but I'll bet this would be good with the white butter bean limas too. I've seen both green limas and butter beans sold canned some places. I just cooked up a batch of dry limas for the first time last year and I really liked them. I make my beans in the crockpot.) 1 can (15 oz.) tomato sauce 4 oz. shredded lowfat, lowsalt swiss cheese. Frankly I actually use jarlsburg swiss for this, or kasseri cheese, but both of those are high salt high fat cheeses. 1 - 3/4 cup chopped walnuts (I use the lower amount, walnuts are high in calories and fat. I'll bet you could even go down to 2/3 cup on those.) 1/4 tsp. dried basil, crumbled, (or maybe a little more, depends on how you feel about basil, I love it) 1 green pepper, diced (I also sometimes add a small diced zuchinni, which you can also add or sub. for the green pepper since some people don't like peppers. Can also use celery if you like it. Start with what you know you will like though. The additional veggies add more good fiber but I guess you could leave them out if you hate those green veggies.) 3/4 cup water or veg. broth, unsalted if possible 1/2 tsp. salt (you could experiment with less, I almost always use less than the recipe calls for, or even omit because canned tomato sauce has salt in it. I get unsalted veg. broth bouillon cubes in the health food section of Wegman's, but if you can't find unsalted broth, then use water or leave out additional salt.) 1/4 tsp. pepper minced parsley to garnish Combine cooked or defrosted limas, vegetables, tomato sauce and water or broth. Simmer 10-15 min. until vegetables are just starting to get tender. Mix in shredded cheese and walnuts, and bake in 350 degree oven for 30 min. Notes: You can toast the walnuts in the oven as it is preheating before adding them to the casserole, but watch them carefully so they don't burn. Usually about 8 min. in the oven at 300 is enough to toast. I hardly ever had fresh parsley so I stir in about 1-2 tsp. dried parsley to the stew before putting it in the oven.

Whistle - Here you go.... 1. Scalded the milk and cooled it. Mixed warm milk, warmed water and o.j., egg and agave nectar (or honey if you are using it) in the bottom of the pan. 2. Mixed together flours (and vital wheat gluten and flaxmeal, if used) and add to the top of the liquids. 3. Add the yeast to the top of the flour. (Note I added the fat and salt later during the kneading. It takes stress off the bread machine with this much bulk to mix the dough WITHOUT the salt. The gluten develops quicker, and once the salt is added, the gluten strands tighten up making kneading a little more difficult. 4. Set Zo. on QUICK DOUGH. Press START. 5. After 5 minutes of mixing/kneading, be sure to check to make sure the dough has the correct hydration and adjust it if you need to. You want a nice soft dough ball. 6. After 10 minutes of kneading (or when it looks like the gluten is developing nicely, add the melted butter and salt. When the add-in beep sounds, add 1/2-3/4 c. multi-grain cereal (if using it - I milled a mixture of barley, rye, triticale, spelt, oats and rice). 7. When the kneading is complete, remove the dough from the pan and place in a dough rising bucket (or however you normally work your dough). DO NOT allow the dough to rise in the bread machine because this is more dough than suggested for the machine. 8. Allow the dough to rise to just under double. Punch down. Divide dough (I had 3 portions that weighed around 1-lb. 2-oz. each. Round the dough (so you have the ball formed into a tight ball with NO shaggy edges from the dough being cut, and the gluten strands are going from the top to the bottom of the ball), cover (I use plastic wrap) and allow to rest 10-15 minutes so the gluten can relax. Form, cover (plastic wrap), and allow to rise to just under double...... I made one portion into 9 dinner rolls (8-inch square pan) and baked the bread in 8"x4-1/2" NORPRO pans, but I also use heavy-gauge Calphalon pans that are the same size, or will use some ancient Bake King loaf pans that are 7-1/2"x3-1/2" (for dough amounts between 12-16 ounces). If the dough is over 1-pound, I'll use the larger pans. I baked my loaves to 200°F. when tested with an instant read thermometer. -Grainlady

yes, Beachlily is right, that was a problem from the first time I posted the recipe and forgot to add the egg! I corrected the recipe but that old mistake just keeps coming back to haunt me! It's Elery's favorite bread and I made it just like you did, I let the bread machine do the work and then shape it and bake it in the oven. I've never made it without the egg, though, that's good to know in case I have a day when I'm out of eggs, so thanks for doing that "research". Now I don't have to. (grin) I have occasionally added half a cup of orange juice in place of some of the liquid, it gives a nice flavor and adds some acidity. Some people think whole wheat bread is bitter (although I love it) and the OJ seems to cut that. I think Grainlady also gave the scientific explanation of why to add citrus juice or acidity to bread dough, although the short version is that yeast likes an acidic environment and so the OJ creates an environment that yeast loves to grow in. You could actually do the same thing with a pinch of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) or a tablespoon of vinegar, but I like the orange flavor sometimes. Anyway, I'm glad you like it! Annie

The crumb will be dense if you use a straight dough (aka direct dough) method for 100% whole wheat flour bread. This is the "modern" bread-making method designed for making bread quickly using processed bleached and unbleached flour, and is not a great choice for wholegrain breads. If this is your preferred method and you are making the bread by hand, make sure you do a good job mixing the flour into the liquid ingredients. I'd suggest a Danish Dough Whisk for this task, but a good wooden spoon will also work. Add the flour a little at a time and make sure it's mixed well before adding more flour. By mixing, I mean you beat it with the spoon 50 or more strokes before adding more flour. Add the flour until you don't have the strength to beat it anymore - you may have several hundred strokes invested in mixing. It's okay to take a rest during mixing. Letting the mixture sit will allow the dry ingredients to absorb moisture, so take a 5-minute rest if necessary. Taking care to mix the ingredients well will develop the gluten as well, and this is a step that is often rushed and done incorrectly. If you toss a shaggy mess of dough out to be kneaded, you haven't done a good job of mixing. You'll actually get better results with wholegrain flour if you use a sponge method. This is a method where the yeast, liquid and a portion of the flour are beaten together and allowed to sit anywhere from 30-minutes to overnight - experts say 2-1/2 hours is optimum. The bran has time to soften and soak up the liquid, and the gluten will also have time to develop without manipulation (kneading). Those sharp shards of bran will actually cut the gluten strands during kneading, resulting in short squatty loaves and dense crumb. There is also a substance in wheat germ called Glutathione that affects the gluten development. Adding an acid to the recipe (lemon juice, vinegar, ascorbic acid) will not only help prevent the gluten bonds from breaking down; but it will help repair gluten bonds. Soaking the flour in an acid medium (using whey, yogurt/kefir, buttermilk, vinegar or lemon juice) is another method. I suggest adding 1/8 t. ascorbic acid crystals per loaf of bread to the flour mixture (or half of a 250 mg vitamin C tablet crushed using two teaspoons, per 2-loaves). If you happen to have some Fruit Fresh on hand, you can use it as the acid ingredient. Only use an acid in bread made with baker's yeast, not naturally-leavened bread (those made with a starter - aka sourdough bread) because naturally-leavened breads are already acidic from fermentation. I've never found additional gluten necessary, even milling my own flour. The only time I added vital wheat gluten is if there was a very large percentage of low- or gluten-free flour in the recipe. I'd also suggest using a quality bread machine (and highly recommend a Zojirushi bread machine) for making dough. That's what they use in the King Arthur Test Kitchen for mixing and kneading bread dough, and they claim it's better than by-hand or with a stand mixer. Several years ago, King Arthur had pictures in their catalogue showing the difference between a 100% whole wheat recipe made in a stand mixer and the dough made in a Zojirushi Bread Machine and baked in a loaf pan. The one made in the Zo was about 1-inch taller than the same recipe made in a stand mixer. Stand mixers tend to aerate the dough, while the Zo does what it's designed to do, knead the dough. I'll include a link to Sue Greggs 2-Stage method, which includes more information. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: Sue Gregg - 2-Stage Bread Method This post was edited by grainlady on Fri, Dec 6, 13 at 11:07