Ingredients
Ingredients are HUGE! I figured this was a great place to start…….
Not only are manufacturers hiding sugar and other nasty ingredients in items on the store shelves, they are hiding it in plain sight; disguising it with other names that the average person scanning over doesn’t notice. Or like most people, just grabbing and throwing it into the cart out of habit and not ever really taking a peek at the back. There are a few main pantry staples that I really want to talk about that most people don’t really give a second thought to; up until 6-ish years ago I know I never really had, and I wish that I had known years before. We won’t even go into any of the already prepared, boxed, ready to eat type of “food like substances” filling store shelves…..
BAKING POWDER, FLOUR, SALT are the three that I want to touch on!
Baking Powder:
But Hattie, isn’t baking powder just baking powder?? Are there really any differences other than the label itself?? YES! At least to me. Everyone is out there doing the best they can for their own family, and that’s all we can do. I personally prefer aluminum free baking powder. To you it may not matter in the least, and that’s fine; but, for most people (like me years and years ago) you go in and grab that staple item and never really look to see anything deeper. Look, I am by no means claiming to be a scientist or an expert; I am literally just a Mom trying to do the best I can for my family and their needs and sharing what I have found over the years. I LOVE Bob’s Red Mill Aluminum Free Baking Powder, it is what I buy and use in all of my baking! Nope, don’t get anything from sharing….I just love it, and I only share things I use and love!
Flour:
For someone who bakes as much as I do flour is pretty dang important. I am verrrrrrry picky about my flour and prefer whole wheat for the obvious reasons. The standard bag of flour is bleached, bromate, and has some weird things going on…….it’s gummy and as far as I am concerned, just plain gross. Baking desserts with 100% whole wheat flour can leave something to be desired, BUT baking with WHITE WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR is a freaking dream! My personal flour brand of choice is KING ARTHUR! Again, no I don’t get a single thing for sharing that. I just really do love their flour! I exclusively use their WHITE WHOLE WHEAT flour in all of my baking as far as dessert go. I use their regular 100% whole wheat flour and their bread flour for all of our sourdough bread and I do use their all purpose for flour tortillas too! King Arthur’s flour is all UNBLEACHED, the gluten forming protein content listed on the bag is perfect, the QUALITY is freaking outstanding, and everything bakes up perfectly with great texture!!
Salt:
Salt is one item that I truly thought was safe from the “hidden” in plain sight debacle. I mean what would they add to salt??, it’s SALT! Sugar, they add freaking SUGAR to salt, listed as dextrose. Now, not all companies do this; but the most common and well known company that we grab from the grocery store shelf does. I use a sea salt grinder that I re-load with the salt “rocks” for cooking, but when baking that isn’t always the easiest. All I am saying is, take a look at your salt! We switched over to a brand called SALT WORKS for regular Sea salt and Pink Himalayan salt and have been VERY pleased with the quality. Again, if you are cool with things being added or you already knew it was there; that’s fine, but most consumers are unsuspecting and that’s the part that makes me angry because the manufacturers know that.
AGAIN, I am just trying to raise some awareness that these things are hiding in plain sight. If you are good with it and don’t care, that is fine; but I just feel that it should at least be something that is more well known so people can make the choice for themselves a little easier! When we know better we can obviously do better; but we can’t fix what we don’t know!