Whole Grain Baking - Sue Gregg Cookbooks

Whole Grain Blender Magic!
With my blender, I have always been able to grind rolled
oats and tiny grains such as millet, quinoa, amaranth, and teff
into flour, to coarsely grind cornmeal from whole corn (this
takes a sturdy blender), and to unevenly crack most other
whole grains for hot cereal. Then a neighbor shared a whole
wheat pancake recipe with me that called for adding the grain, whole
and raw, to the liquid ingedients in the blender. The high speed
blending action of the blender completely "milled" the grain.
The result was incredible! Instead of making whole wheat pancakes,
however, I converted my recipe for kamut-oat waffles to the blender
procedure, using 1 egg to replace my usual 3 egg yolks + 3 beaten egg
whites. These blender waffles were the lightest, most tender I had ever
made. Why hadn't I thought of this fifteen years earlier? Convinced this
blender process was working, I started experimenting with more waffle/
pancake recipes, muffins, coffee cakes, crepes, and cornbread. They
all turned out successfully, using all kinds of grains, except instant or
parboiled brown rice.
What's most exciting about this is that most households have
blenders and they are not expensive. To do many recipes with whole
grains you don't have to have a grain mill. This is the ultimate in
convenience --requiring less than 15 minutes of your time to get the
blender process going and completed, even with the two-stage process.
What could be easier?
Now there are limitations to this. There must be enough liquid in
proportion to the grain to keep the blender churning for 3 minutes to
grind the grain without putting excessive stress on the blender. This is
why I call it blender batter baking. Any batter recipe with a ratio of
about 1 cup grain to 1-1¹⁄₄ cups combined liquid ingredients usually
works. The steps are simple and virtually the same for any blender
batter recipe. The details follow the summary of steps below.
Summary of Steps
1. Blend liquids and grain on high speed 3 - 5 minutes.
2. Cover blender and let stand several hours.
3. Add egg and reblend 1 - 3 minutes.
4. Add leavenings, salt, spices; blend just to mix.
5. Fold in nuts, etc.
6. Pour into pan or pans and bake.
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