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

Lisa, bread baking is addictive although I don't do it as much anymore because we don't eat a ton of bread. Just wait until you decide you want to try a sourdough starter-I become completely obsessed and even asked my friend to "babysit" it when I went out of town. As far as baking it free form, I don't see any differences in instructions except scoring the loaf right before baking. There are instructions for hearth baking which include using a steam pan and baking stones/tiles. I don't have the patience for that so what I would probably do would be to place it on a baking stone covered with parchment and mist it lightly with water before baking. More experienced bakers will probably have better suggestions. Lisa, Instant yeast vs. regular yeast from the book: "instant yeast is recommended because it can be added directly to the dough. Active dry yeast will also work, but it must be hydrated in warm water before it is added." I believe instant yeast is the same thing as bread machine yeast. I buy my instant yeast in bulk packages from Sam's club. As for the water, I think the chlorine can be a factor so that's why they say to use spring or filtered water. Please let me know how yours turns out! It really was good bread-it's a little crumbly but not dry if that makes any sense and the flavor is awesome. No bitterness or heavy wheat taste. I don't know how much it affected the final flavor but I did use white wheat flour which is a lighter flour than traditional whole wheat. I really hope some of you guys try this and let us know how it turns out! Tracey

I'm waiting for my pizza to get done. It's Lou's dough/sauce and looks wonderful. After dinner, if not too much wine, I'll post the recipe ... OK just found it on this computer. The recipe doesn't tell when to add the egg. I broke it into a small bowl, forked it and added it to the warm liquid. Also, put this in the bread machine. Here it is: HONEY WHOLE WHEAT BREAD INGREDIENTS:  3-1/2 to 4 cups all purpose flour  2-1/2 cups whole wheat flour  2 pkg. active dry yeast  2 tsp. salt  1 cup milk  1 cup water  1/2 cup honey  3 Tbsp. oil  1 egg PREPARATION: In large bowl, combine 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, the yeast, and salt and mix well. In saucepan, heat milk, water, honey, and oil until a thermometer reads 120-130 degrees F (warm) Add liquid mixture to flour mixture and stir to combine. Beat this batter for 3 minutes. Then, gradually stir in rest of whole wheat flour and enough remaining all-purpose four to form a firm dough. Sprinkle work surface with flour and knead dough, adding more flour if necessary, for 5-8 minutes until smooth and satiny. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning the dough in the bowl to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place about 1 hour, until double in bulk. Punch down dough and divide into 2 pieces. On lightly floured surface, roll or press each piece of dough to a 14x7" rectangle. Starting with shorter side, roll up tightly, pressing dough into roll with each turn. Pinch edges and ends to seal and place dough, seam-side down, into greased 9x5" bread pans, making sure short ends of bread are snugly fitted against the sides of the pans. Cover and let rise in warm place until the dough fills the corners of the pans and is double in bulk, 30-40 minutes. Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 35-40 minutes, until bread is golden brown. Remove from pans and cool on wire racks. I like to brush the bread with butter when it's still hot from the oven for a softer crust.