Today, I am baking with flour made of Park wheat. It is freshly ground, whole grain, organic, and unbleached. The Park variety of wheat is from the classification of Canadian Northern Hard Red. Park is a heritage variety that made its debut in 1963. I was very curious to see how it performed in baking, and how it tasted. I used it for this muffin recipe. It makes hearty muffins that allow all the banana flavour to come through. Even though the flour was a whole grain, there was no bitterness at all. I also made pancakes using the whole grain Park wheat flour, and they turned out amazing, the pancakes were fluffy, and mild in flavor. For sure they are a winner. I will be continuing to bake and experiment with this flour, and hopefully, soon, it will be available for purchase. There is an enterprising lady, that is grinding organic heritage wheat from the seeds into fresh flour and will be making a business out of it. I love the idea of being able to bake with heritage wheat. These muffins are great for your harvest crew, or for back-to-school lunches.
The great thing about doing your own baking is that you are in charge of all the ingredients. You don’t have food additives, artificial flavours, industrial highly processed oils, or a whole long list of food preservatives. Just real food that our bodies recognize and know what to do with. Unfortunately, highly processed vegetable oils are used in industrial commercial baking. While the term “vegetable” sounds healthy, they are hard on our bodies, causing inflammation which in turn leads to disease. Leading nutritional experts in fats and oils recommend butter, gee, lard, coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil and avocado oil for our bodies for optimal health. We also benefit from foods high in omega 3 oils. Poly unsaturated vegetable oils are omega 6 oils and have a half-life of about 600 days or more to break down in our bodies. Poly unsaturated fats are unstable in the body and are prone to lipid (fat) peroxidation producing damaging free radicals. Canola oil and peanut oil are mostly monosaturated, however, they are high in omega 6, so they should be consumed in moderation. Olive oil and nuts are part of the healthy monosaturated fats found in the Mediterranean diet. Saturated fats like butter, coconut oil, and lard, are very stable and are not prone to oxidation in the body or to cause inflammation, in fact, 50% of our cell membranes are made up of saturated fat.
Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
3 overripe bananas
1/2 cup melted butter or lard
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour, unbleached
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a muffin tin with muffin paper wrappers. Mash bananas. Mix in egg, sugar and butter. Add the flour, and then sprinkle on the baking powder, baking soda, salt and stir in. Stir in the chocolate chips. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean
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