Oh wheat, how I missed you!

“Wheat is not the enemy! Or is it… I don’t know, I’m so confused!” That may be what many of you are thinking when contemplating about jumping on the gluten free band wagon. Or maybe you are attempting to go grain free (or already have reached that level of clean eating or Paleo Nirvana). Or maybe you are eating a loaf of bread in your closet right now as you read this blog or could care less and happily eat your bread with your burgers and ketchup as well!

Well, let me tell you a little bit about where our family is on the whole wheat debate. I read the book “Wheat Belly” which I highly recommend to anyone who wants to be ridden with guilt whenever they eat even the most organic homemade loaf of bread. But seriously, I immediately took my daughter off of wheat products (she has always had tummy troubles and I thought this might help after reading the book). I already knew that there were benefits to being gluten free, but that there is a good way to do the gluten free thing, and what I consider to be the not as healthy way to do it. Many gluten free products are based on corn which is often made with genetically modified corn which I avoid like the plague. I didn’t want to just substitute all of my daughter’s diet with GM corn or other insulin spiking grains (or processed gluten free junk they sometimes market in the stores). But I know wheat can be one of the worst culprits of many different health and behavioral issues. So, I stopped using it all together. I didn’t want to be eating delicious wheat products like wheat pasta in front of my daughter while she sat there eating zucchini spaghetti all by her lonesome. We were in it as a team! “Wheat free is the way to be!”, or so I tried to convince my 5 year old daughter. Sure, we occasionally get pizza for a quick dinner when having extended family over and I make her a mock pizza with rice cakes. But for the most part we share in her wheat free lifestyle when she is present.

So now what do I do with the bulk barrels of organic wheat flour I have sitting in my pantry? Good thing it will last a while, right? Every time I need to bake for any of my non-grain free friends they get my high quality wheat baked goods. And as the weather cools I had been doing a lot of friendly baking. And the smells, oh the smells, have been tempting my wheat loving nose. So… I caved.

One of my favorite organic wheat containing recipes is passionate homemaking (an amazing blog you should check out) whole wheat tortillas. While it takes an immense amount of work to soak these tortillas over night and press them all and fry them on the stove they are more than worth it. The bread like chewy deliciousness one experiences when biting into a fresh warm homemade wheat tortilla is something words cannot begin to describe. You can find the recipe here (for the wheat lovers!). My daughter loves these tortillas from her pre-anti-wheat days. I had vowed to never make them again now that she is off wheat, especially since I have yet to find a grain free tortilla that can replace the amazingness of these wheat tortillas (and I didn’t want to eat them in front of her).

So I decided to experiment with my favorite recipe and replace wheat flour with oat flour. I was happy with what I got and so were the kids.

Now, in my opinion the oat ones did not compare to the wheat,  but the kids begged for more oat tortillas so in my book this recipe gets an “A”…. okay, maybe “A-” (especially since the oat ones don’t hold together well like the wheat).

Here is what I did…

I soaked the oat flour and other ingredients (organic oat flour, warm filtered water, apple cider vinegar, and coconut oil) just like I soak the wheat (overnight). The wheat is on the left.

Here are the oat dough balls I made after adding baking powder and salt.

I then used my tortilla press to press the tortillas. I put parchment paper on each side when pressing the oat flour tortillas so that they didn’t stick to the press.

Then I used a very generous amount of coconut oil to fry them (think pancakes… you don’t want them sticking) on my cast iron griddle.

Here are my finished oat tortillas.

Compared with the wheat tortillas…

My mouth is watering just looking at this photo (yes, wheat is addicting).

Now, you might not be able to tell from the photo but the whole wheat tortillas have this amazing chewy quality and pull apart like bread. The oatmeal tortillas break apart when folded and have a different consistency but they have a yummy oat taste that warms your belly and my kids had been missing out on with the grain free variety I had made in the past. I got nothing but praise from my kiddos who didn’t even miss the wheat ones. Success!

So, just click on over to passionate homemaking and try these delish whole wheat tortillas. They are far better for you than store bought and taste so much better, you may never go back. Also, by soaking the flour overnight you are making them tummy friendly since they will be much easier to digest. If you would like the oat variety just replace the wheat flour with oat flour (I just blended some oats in my blender to make my oat flour by the way-easy peasy!) and you have a fun gluten free substitute.

Oh, and yes, I ate the wheat ones… I did try a bite of my kids oat tortillas but nothing will ever truly take the place of home made wheat tortillas… oh how I missed you!

TIP: If you make them with oats you might have to add extra water or coconut oil to get them the right consistency (so they aren’t too dry).

Update: Here is a link (click here) to a grain free tortilla recipe (made with cauliflower) I have been wanting to try. I will keep you posted when I do. Anyone else have any delish homemade tortilla recipe’s they would like to share?

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