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

Whole wheat flour, technically, is flour milled from the whole grain, and nothing more. It can be milled from hard or soft grain, spring or winter grain, red or white varieties, or even durum wheat (which is used for making pasta). Although it's generally understood "whole wheat" flour is flour with enough gluten in it for yeast breads. Pastry flour, as already posted by lpinkmountain is milled from soft wheat varieties - which is lower in gluten and best used for baked goods where you don't want a lot of gluten development - cakes, pastry, cookies, quick breads, etc. When you mill your own flour it's important to understand these grains and their baking characteristics. In storage I keep: -hard red winter and hard white winter wheat varieties -hard red spring and hard white spring wheat -soft white wheat -durum wheat (used for pasta) -triticale (a hybrid of rye and durum wheat) To make "cake" flour, which is lower in gluten than pastry flour, I use a 3:1 mixture of soft white wheat and either oats or spelt. The low-gluten flour is great for delicate cakes like Chiffon or Angel Food. Winter/Spring - indicates the growing season of wheat. In the mid- and southern States that grow wheat, it's planted in the fall, grows about 8-10-inches and winters-over. The plants go dormant during the winter, breaks dormancy late Feb., and matures during the summer and is harvested in June/July/August, starting in the southern States and traveling north. Spring wheat is grown in the northern States and southern Canada. It is planted in the spring and harvested late summer/early fall. Winter wheat generally is a smaller seed than spring wheat. Hard winter wheat mills into a slightly stronger flour, containing more glutenins than spring wheat because of the longer growing season than spring wheat. But those smaller grains of hard winter wheat contain more bran after it's milled, while spring wheat has more of the starchy endosperm. Hard/Soft - These are primarily terms of interest to millers to describe the texture of the endosperm and how it breaks down in milling, but are also related to bread-making strength. Hard for higher gluten levels, soft for lower gluten levels. If you forget which variety of wheat you milled into flour, all you have to do is rub it between your fingers to know. Hard wheat varieties are slightly gritty, while soft wheat is soft like talcum powder. Red/White - Bran color. Red and white wheat have the same plant traits and nutrition, but the bran color is different. Red wheat has 3 genes that determines the bran color. Early varieties, such as Turkey Red, had 3 genes that made the bran very dark, the flour very dark, and the taste was very acidic. Most of today's varieties of red wheat only have one or two of these genes for less color and a less acidic flavor. Think of white wheat as the albino of wheat varieties. It has no genes for bran color so it's light in color and the taste is mild and almost sweet-tasting. Durum is a different variety that has the highest amount of protein, but the dominant of the protein group in durum wheat is the gliadin protein, rather than the glutenin. Therefore it's best used for pasta because of it's strength and viscosity. -Grainlady

Sue, according to Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver if you make your own creAm cheese it will be lactose free. Commercially produced stuff uses chemicals so the lactose is still there. Co-op food stores and health food stores etc might also have cultured cream cheese. Here is an oatmeal wheat bread that I got from Ohio Mom's website. I tried to find it on her site to link to it and could not find it. This is my families favorite bread. Oatmeal Wheat Bread 2 packages yeast 1/4 cup warm water 2 cups cooked oatmeal (not instant) 1/2 cup warm buttermilk 1/3 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup melted butter 2 tsp. salt 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour Mix the yeast and water, let stand for 5 minutes. Mix again. Add oatmeal, buttermilk, sugar, butter, salt and whole wheat flour and all purpose flour. Work in enough to form a soft dough. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. Place in a large bowl and cover with damp cloth. Let rise in a warm place (not oven) for 2 hours. Punch down the dough and let rest for 10 minutes. Form 2 loaves and place in buttered loaf pans. (9x5x3inch) Redampen the cloth and cover the loaves, allow to rise another 45 minutes in a warm place until proofed. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake for about 40 to 45 minutes. Here is a link that might be useful: Ohio Mom's Blog

If the recipe calls for all purpose flour I would use that. I don't think substituting a couple of cups of the pastry flour is going to hurt anything, but I don't think that you want to use 5 cups of it. The Cake and Pastry flour will be really "soft" having a lower percentage of protein. Ann