Cooking with whole grains in India is as ancient as it can be. There are lot many Indian grains, which have completely disappeared from the increasingly modernized, urban kitchens. In fact, the whole grains which are more fashionably being termed as The Super Foods, were the staples of Indian homes ages back.

And in most Indian kitchens, the benefits of whole grains only tend to get limited to wheat. Wheat has become the primary component of our diet, in form of rotis or chapatis. I can remember my mother spending a lot of time on procuring new seasonal whole wheat in bulk, storing them in a huge container and washing, cleaning and sun drying the grains and getting them milled at a local flour mill. In fact, she never used to sift the flour, so as to keep the bran and fiber intact. Taste of those whole wheat chapatis, smeared with desi ghee {Indian clarified butter}, is something which can never be replaced, I guess.

But these days, because of the busy urban life, our whole wheat flour comes from a plastic bag now. Wish people had enough time for themselves, like they used to have in old times! But I feel that people are getting more and more conscious about their health these days, at least this is what I have experienced over past couple of years.

You must have seen people buying a whole wheat or multi-grain bread more happily than a refined flour based sandwich bread or replacing their refined cooking oil with cold pressed olive or mustard oil. Now, how much nutrient value those foods bring to our diet is different question all together. But at least, the dietary scene is changing, however slow-paced it might be. This change could be partly be owed to the marketing gimmicks of packaged food industry. But that is bringing some awareness about the importance of whole foods to the fore.

And I must tell you, my sweet blogger friends Sangeeta & Deeba have been inspiring me a lot these days to bake/cook with whole grains. Thanks a million…both you sweet ladies! I have tried replacing refined flour in my baked goods with wholewheat flour and other alternate flour in past too, and the results were quite good.

My friends and family couldn’t make out the taste, until I told them. And this happened again when I recently baked these wholewheat brownies yesterday, for my office mates. I took them to my office and when I opened the box, I declared that these were made of whole wheat and I had replaced some of the butter with olive oil, most of my colleagues asked for a second. It gave them a healthy excuse…isn’t that sweet?

And it made me happy happy. 🙂 And now, I am tempted to make a wholewheat chocolate fudge cake soon, until then keep watching this space!

Recipe source PassionateAboutBaking

Ingredients

60 gm butter
40 ml olive oil
80 gm wholewheat flour
2 large eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
100 gm sugar
100 gm dark chocolate
50 gm chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat the oven at 180 degree C. Butter and line an 8 x 8 inch square pan with parchment paper and keep aside.
2. In a big bowl, melt together the chocolate, butter and oil on a double boiler, making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the boiling water beneath.
3. Once chocolate is melted. Let it a cool for 5 minutes. Whisk in the sugar. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla.
4. Add flour, salt and baking powder and mix well. Mix in the chopped walnuts.
5. Pour the batter into prepared pan. Bake for around 20 minutes.
6. Let cool in pan completely. Cut into 16 equal squares.