Your "Whole Wheat" Flour Isn't Whole At All

As you probably know, I’m a bit of a bread geek. More specifically, I’m a whole wheat bread geek. Maybe an “obsessive” is a better word. I bake a loaf pretty much every day, with the goal of developing (and sharing…that day will come) a recipe for a totally doable, mind-blowingly delicious bread made with nothing but whole wheat flour, water, natural yeast, and salt. (You can read more about that mission here.)

With that in mind, please forgive me for taking today’s newsletter as an opportunity to point you towards this story that my colleague, Melissa McCart and I wrote. It’s about some like-minded bread/grain nerds who are on a similar quest to bake with real whole wheat. I say “real” whole wheat because it turns out that several national brand flours that are packaged as “whole wheat” actually contain as little as 60% whole wheat. (Some “whole wheat” pastas have as little as 10%!). It’s basically refined white flour.

Whole wheat has a huge stigma attached to it, so much so that many of the restaurants and trailblazing bakers/cooks who are making the most incredible 100% whole grain products shy away from calling them “whole wheat” on their menus because customers get turned off. But the potential (both in terms of flavor and health) of reshaping our attitudes towards whole wheat is enormous. Anyway, I’ll end this rant here; if you’re interested in baking, or flour, or one of the many ways in which our industrial food system has gone off the rails, check out the article, and I’ll see you Friday.

—Mark

Talk To Me, Goose!

Questions, comments, brilliant suggestions? Just want to share the recipe for your grandma’s potato salad, or your mom’s meatloaf, or your uncle Drew’s three-day 100-percent rye loaf (yes, please)? Don’t hesitate to reach out anytime.