Flour gives baked items goodness of whole grains

King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour. $2.99 per 5-pound bag. Available in many supermarkets and also at www.bakerscatalogue.com.

Bonnie: ConAgra was the first company to come out with a whole-wheat flour that looked and acted like all-purpose white. But Ultragrain was unfortunately available only to food companies and restaurants — unfortunately, because using this flour is a great way to increase consumption of whole grains, especially for those who prefer the texture and taste of white flour.

But now the King Arthur Flour company has introduced a similar product that's available to consumers. Substitute its White Whole Wheat flour cup-for-cup for all-purpose flour in cookies, quick breads or brownies, and no one will probably be the wiser. In other recipes, begin by substituting only half, to see how it works in your recipe.

Your dough may be a tad drier or thicker, so you may have to compensate a bit by adding some more liquid. But the results will be worth it: baked goods with all the goodness of whole grains.

Carolyn: We all know what white flour is. Most people know what whole-wheat flour is, too. But what's white whole-wheat flour? Flour made from the sweet white winter wheat that has all the nutrition of whole wheat but not the usual strong wheat taste.

Sound interesting and innovative? It is. And because of that, King Arthur needs to do as much education as it does selling. Right now its information is vague and contradictory. The package says to substitute "part of the all-purpose flour" in your favorite recipes, while the Web site says to substitute it cup-for-cup. So which is it?

An expert at the company's you-pay baker's hotline (802-649-3717) warned against using white whole-wheat for any light-tasting or light-looking baked good (angel food cake or sugar cookies, for instance). But she said I could use half to all white whole-wheat in most other bread, muffin, breakfast bread and cookie recipes. When I mentioned the classic Toll House cookie recipe, she said she had made them with 100 percent white whole wheat and that it had worked great.

For her and Bonnie, maybe. When I did it, the cookie dough didn't hold together that well, nor did it spread out or puff up in the usual way. Although they didn't taste horrible, they also didn't taste like Toll House.

Cookies really aren't the best place to get your government-mandated day's supply of fiber anyway. Baked goods take too much time and work and are too important to risk ruining with untried new ingredients.

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