Jennifer Katzinger - Honey & Oats: Everyday Favorites Baked with Whole Grains and Natural Sweeteners

Please store all of your whole-grain flours in resealable plastic bags in the freezer or refrigerator to ensure they stay fresh.

Oats impart a chewy bite, adding texture to breads and batters. Their mild, creamy, slightly sweet flavor is also neutral enough to provide a wonderful backdrop for more assertive flavors such as fruit and chocolate.

You should check to ensure that the oats you purchase are whole grain, as some oats marketed as old-fashioned have had the bran removed and therefore do not offer the same level of nutrition. Though oats are naturally gluten-free, most packaged oats contain trace amounts of gluten as the result of being ground in mills that also grind grains containing gluten. However, gluten-free oats are now widely available from trusted sources such as Bobs Red Mill.

The most ancient of all cultivated grains, einkorn is rich in both flavor and nutrients, making it an increasingly popular whole grain. This creamy pale-yellow grain is milled into a fine flour that yields a desirable smooth texture and a robust flavor that is slightly sweet and nutty.

An attractively simple plant, einkorn is the least complex of all of the varieties of wheat and has the lowest gluten content. Einkorn, like most plants, contains only two sets of chromosomes. Later variations of wheat became much more genetically complex through cross-breeding. Einkorn means one grain in German and as its name suggests, it has only one grain per husk. Its grains are small and have thick, tough husks which makes threshing (the removal of the inedible husks) more difficult.

The domestication of wild einkorn in the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia more than 12,000 years ago facilitated the shift from hunter-gather societies to agricultural communities. Einkorn use spread throughout the Middle East and Central Europe, even making its way as far south as Egypt. Significant evidence of einkorn cultivation has been found in many archaeological sites.

Einkorn use declined around 3,000 years ago when newer forms of wheat became favored for their higher yield, higher gluten content (leavened breads rise better when a higher gluten flour is used), and ease of threshing. Those very same qualities that caused einkorn to fall out of favor make it an excellent choice for farmers today. Unlike its modern counterparts, einkorns thick husk makes it more resistant to disease and it has a deep root system making it easier to grow in natural soil using organic methods. Low levels of gluten and excellent digestibility make it a promising option for many with gluten sensitivities. Einkorn can still be found growing wild in some parts of Turkey and is currently being cultivated on a small scale in parts of Europe, the Middle East, and most recently, the United States.

The rich flavor and exceptional nutritional value of einkorn make it an obvious choice for anyone looking to create delicious, healthful baked goods. It contains high levels of vitamin A, beta-carotene, lutein (a powerful antioxidant), and riboflavin. It also has twice the protein of modern wheat and has been shown to retain more antioxidants and nutrients after processing and baking.