For a long time on the shelves of our stores you could find only wheat flour, but today you can buy a product from a wide variety of grains everywhere. So the barley flour, so revered in antiquity, returned to our table. How is it useful and what delicious can you cook from it?
Differences of barley flour
Barley is one of the most ancient cultures, which was known even in ancient Korea and Egypt, where flour was made from grain and porridge was cooked. The Bible also speaks of grain, but all because barley is unpretentious and can grow in such arid lands as, for example, Palestine. And in Russia this product was known. By the way, the gingerbread man is not only a fairy-tale character, but also traditional baking from barley flour. And also oatmeal was made from her and oatmeal.
Barley flour is grayish-white. It itself does not have taste or smell, but gives the finished product a characteristic tart aftertaste due to the large amount of fiber. Also, flour can be of two types:
- Wallpaper - almost whole grain flour with a lot of bran.
- Sown - more "pure" flour without shells of grain.
Beneficial features
In the ranking of useful products for humans, which scientists made, barley is in second place. It helps in lowering "bad" cholesterol due to the high content of beta-glucan. In addition, it is a source of vitamins A, B, PP, as well as iron, potassium, sodium and other trace elements, which are rich in barley flour. Useful properties of the product also depend on the presence of bran (and, therefore, a large amount of fiber), which perfectly affect the digestive tract.
Features of cooking and storage
Barley pancakes are excellent, but it is also good to use for thickening sauces. It gives special softness to baking, but for cooking bread it is better to mix it with wheat - barley forms too little gluten, so bread is not very attractive from it.
Barley flour is a perishable product, so do not leave a pack open for a long time, but it is best to pour the product into a glass or metal jar with a tightly closed lid. If you are going to use flour rarely, then store the jar not in the cabinet, but in a cool place, such as in the refrigerator.
Barley flour: recipes for dishes from it
If you bought a pack of barley flour and don’t know what to make of it, feel free to start with baking, for example, with the legendary koloboks.
Barley buns are prepared like this. You will need:
- 2.5 cups of barley flour;
- half a glass of water;
- half a glass of sour cream;
- 200 grams of butter;
- a tablespoon of sugar;
- a teaspoon of salt;
- sesame seeds for boning.
Sift flour into a bowl, add the remaining dry ingredients and mix well with a whisk. Pour in water, put sour cream and butter (it should be melted). Mix everything with a spatula, and then knead the dough with your hands until smooth and uniform. Let the dough lie down a little, and then, plucking off the pieces, roll the balls the size of a chicken egg with your hands. Roll the prepared koloboks in sesame and bake on low heat (no more than 170 degrees) for about 40 minutes. Make sure that sesame seeds do not burn. You should have crispy, aromatic bread rolls that are perfect for breakfast or a glass of milk.
But for sweet pastries, barley flour will be useful. It is useful when cooking, for example, cookies.
Crispy cookies are prepared as follows:
- a glass of barley flour;
- a glass of wheat flour;
- 100 grams of butter;
- 3 tablespoons of sugar with a slide;
- a teaspoon of soda;
- 2 eggs.
Mix the soft butter, eggs and sugar thoroughly and beat with a mixer. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients and introduce them into the butter-egg mixture in portions. Knead a smooth, tough dough. If necessary, add more wheat flour. Roll out the dough into a 5 mm thick layer and cut out cookies with a tin. Bake at 160 degrees for 30 minutes, but be careful not to burn.
And of course, where without soft, fragrant and healthy barley bread. Try to cook it on a dough. For her, prepare in advance:
- 200 grams of barley flour;
- 250 grams of water;
- a tablespoon of malt syrup.
Mix everything and leave in a warm place for a day. Then make the dough from dough and the following ingredients:
- 500 ml of warm water;
- 300 grams of barley flour;
- 500 grams of wheat flour;
- a tablespoon of salt.
First add water to the dough, mix everything, then introduce a mixture of different flour and salt, kneading the dough. It will turn out moist and a little liquid. Leave it to lie down for half an hour, and then spread it on a surface dusted with flour and divide into two parts. So you get two loaves or rolls. Put the dough in the mold and leave for 2 hours. Bake in a mold at a temperature of 200 degrees with steam (just throw a few ice cubes on the bottom of the oven) for 10 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 175 degrees and cook already without steam for 50 minutes, and turn on the blow, if any, in the oven. So the crust will turn out crispy. When the bread is baked, cool it under a towel so that the crust does not soften.