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From CULINATE

This book makes the most of little-used grains

I thought I knew chocolate-chip cookies. And then I made Kim Boyce’s, from her book Good to the Grain: Baking With Whole-Grain Flours.

Her chocolate-chip cookies, made completely with whole-wheat flour, lack nuts. Sacrilege! But the cookies — and the book — are a revelation. The whole-wheat flour provides a nutty flavor and nubby texture for a cookie that exceeded my chocolate-chip-cookie expectations.

You might expect a whole-grain baking book to be full of health-food recipes. But Boyce brings serious pastry experience (she was a pastry chef at the Los Angeles restaurants Spago and Campanile) to her recipes.

With chapters arranged by flour type rather than by recipe category, Boyce encourages readers to experiment with underused grains, such as amaranth and quinoa, as well as more familiar ones, like whole wheat and rye. Her interest is in highlighting a grain’s flavor, not in hiding it to nourish the unsuspecting.

Sometimes this means treating a familiar grain in an unexpected manner. Boyce’s Seeded Granola begins with rolled oats. I like nuts in my granola, but there aren’t any here. Again, I didn’t miss them. The seeds (pumpkin, poppy, two types of sesame, sunflower, and flax) provide a complex texture, and an unexpected hit of cayenne is just enough to heighten all the flavors.

Other recipes call for restraint. Boyce’s sublime Sand Cookie is made from Kamut flour. Only butter, sugar, and salt bolster its sweet taste and slightly gritty texture; your hands are the only required mixing tools. The cookie’s simplicity — in preparation and flavor — delights…

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