If you haven’t visited Gluten Free Registry.com before, now is the perfect time to check out the great resources available through their site. Not only can you find gluten free friendly restaurants all over the country, you can also find information on gluten free brands, new products and support groups for everything related to the gluten free diet.

We thought the site was pretty special and partnered with them to host a restaurant recipe contest. This contest is a little different, as it required participating restaurants to create a gluten free menu item using Bob’s Red Mill products and offer that item or dish for a month. The contest is in full swing. We have 10 restaurants participating and the dishes they’ve created are drool-worthy to say the least. Here’s where it gets really exciting, each restaurant was required to submit a photo and their recipe for the contest.

With only 10 restaurants, it’s not too likely that you’ll find one in your area to visit during the contest period, but you can help us pick the winner. Head on over to GlutenFreeRegistry.com and vote! You can vote once a day for your favorite dish and get some of the great recipes that have been submitted. Voting closes on August 14th.

If you forget to snag one of the lovely recipes, we’ll be putting them all on our website when the contest ends.

A Blue Ribbon Year!
By Christie Coykendall
Mill Tour Coordinator

Blue ribbons were flying at the Milwaukie Daze Parade this year. The Bob’s Red Mill section was led by a sky-blue banner proclaiming “Steel Cut Oats; The World’s Best Oatmeal” followed closely by Sam Miller (Brian’s son) wearing a costume of the famous cereal package proudly displaying our big, blue, first-place, ribbon (won last fall in Carrbridge, Scotland).

Next in line came the four beautiful antique cars owned Bob & Charlee Moore and Wes & Opal Tarr, always a popular favorite.

Behind them 30 employees and 24 family members filled the streets of Milwaukie handing out crowd-pleasing samples of those famous Steel Cut Oats and Muesli packages along with 600 free cookie coins from the Whole Grain Store.

Jeff Schrader drove the truck carrying a miniature red water wheel that pulled our huge “Shipping Case Box Float,” filled with bubbling children.

Riding beside the colorful float were six bicycles from the Maintenance Dept. sporting new display placards of our most popular products.

Did I mention that our group won a great big blue ribbon for the Most Enthusiastic entry?

On Saturday July 10th, a small team of dedicated oatmeal servers headed out at the crack of dawn to the 2010 Hagg Lake Triathlon and Duathlon to serve up bowls of steel cut oats to some hungry athletes. I was especially exciting because this was the first time that Bob’s Red Mill was at an event like this to see the rigors of competing in a triathlon up close and person.

You couldn’t ask for more beautiful summer weather, with hardly a breeze over the lake all day. We watched people of all ages, from their early twenties to their early eighties, compete in the different stages of swimming, biking and running. It was also amazing how many of these athletes knew all about the benefits of eating whole grains as a part of a competitive training regimen.

We hope some of our pictures inspire you to head out for a run, a bike ride, or a swim this weekend. Make sure you fuel up with a whole grain breakfast like the athletes that we spoke to!

Bob would like to share this article he wrote for our employee newsletter with you, our valued customers. Here is the article in his own words.

Like the solid old earth itself, whole grains have been here a long time.  Grains have supplied a wholesome diet since creation.  Years ago when, through my wife Charlee, I discovered the profound need for whole grains in everyone’s diet including my own, I have had a strong desire to produce those healthy grains.  That desire has been fulfilled in Bob’s Red Mill, of which you are all a part.  Having a dream about something is one thing – fulfilling a dream with reality is another.  As our company has developed over many decades and I take stock of how far we’ve come, it has certainly occurred to me that I have made real progress on those early dreams.

Now, in my 8^th decade, all that’s left is to insure the continuation of it all.  So here is what I’ve done recently.  We have a 35 year lease with an option to buy this property effective just three years ago.  Our unique and wonderful stone mills are the heart of our production and we are currently running 10 stone mills around the clock.  This past month we received from the manufacturer in Denmark our order of additional and replacement milling equipment.  We now have 10 new, complete stone mills and 12 sets of new replacement millstones.  We are not going to run out of mills to make our products or the place we make it in for a long time!

With our Employee Stock Ownership Plan in place, there is every reason to feel confident that Bob’s Red Mill will continue to supply whole grains to the world for a long, long time and keep our wonderful employees busy doing it!

To your good health,

One of my favorite Bob’s Red Mill mixes is our Gluten Free Biscuit and Baking Mix. It is incredibly versatile and easy to work with.  Here is a savory recipe I conjured up in the bakery, enjoy!

Gluten Free Herb and Cheese Biscuits

2 1/2 cups Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Biscuit and Baking Mix
1/4 t.  salt
1 T.  evaporated cane juice
½ cup unsalted butter, cold and chopped
1 cup cold water
1 T. chopped fresh rosemary
1 T. minced garlic
1 T. chopped fresh thyme
½ -¾ cup mozzarella or cheddar cheese

Mix fresh herbs, salt and sugar into biscuit mix. Cut cold butter into mix until crumbly. Add water and work in cheese. Drop dough onto pan in the shape and size you like. We have done triangles and square shapes as well. Bake at 325°F in a convection oven or 375°F in a conventional oven for 18 minutes. Biscuits will not get much color, so go by firmness of biscuit. Let cool for 5 minutes and enjoy with entrees such as spaghetti or a hearty soup.

Yield: 8 2-1/2 inch biscuits or 4 large triangle biscuits

Of the things that Bob brought back from his first visit to Scotland in the early 90′s was a taste for their style of oatmeal (ground), a renewed passion for stone milling and an affection for Scottish Oatcakes. None of these has been far from his heart since.

I had never heard of an oatcake when I started here six years ago. It sounded like a delicious little cake made from oatmeal. As an American, the word cake means something very different to me than it does to the Scots. Our cake is light and fluffy, full of sugar, flour, butter and eggs. A Scottish oatcake is a flat, cracker-like biscuit (for lack of a better descriptor) made using ground oats, water, salt, butter and a wee bit of baking powder.

It has been said that the oatcake originated from ancient Scots who would create a ‘cake’ out of the oats carried in their sporran and the water they had available; this they would heat this over the fire to sustain them. I have read a variety of opinions regarding what exactly was carried in sporrans and oats regularly top the list of what Scots carried.

When I first set out to make an oatcake, I genuinely thought I was creating a sweet biscuit. NOPE. An oatcake is a far cry from sweet and definitely nothing like the good ol’ American biscuit. What I discovered, however, is a wonderful treat- a perfect base for almost any topping. A whole grain goodie that holds up well in your bag while you’re on the go and keep you full through your day.

These cakes would be a perfect accompaniment to a cup of hot tea. I love eating these on their own where the oat’s natural nuttiness can shine through, but I’ve also topped them with jam, honey, peanut butter and cheese (no, not together). They’re great with dips or set out as a base for an appetizer stacked with meat and cheese or cucumber with cream cheese. Enjoy!

Bob’s Favorite Scottish Oatcakes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups Bob’s Red Mill Scottish Oatmeal
• 1/2 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
• 1/4-3/4 tsp Sugar (more for a sweeter oatcake)
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/4 cup Butter or Margarine, melted
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup Hot Water

Preheat oven to 325°F. Place all but 2 tablespoons of the Scottish Oatmeal in a bowl with flour, sugar, salt and baking powder; stir until combined. Add butter and stir until evenly distributed. With a fork, mix in water, just until moistened. Pat dough into a ball, and then flatten slightly.

Sprinkle reserved 2 tablespoons oats on a board. Roll dough out 1/4 inch thick. With a 2 to 3 inch round cutter, cut dough into rounds. Re-roll and cut scraps. Place oatcakes about 1/4 inch apart on a greased baking sheet. Bake until Scottish Oatcakes are golden, approximately 25 minutes. Let cool on a rack. Enjoy plain, serve with jam or cheese, or use them to build hors d’oeuvres. Makes 12 Scottish Oatcakes.

Happy Friday! Here’s a little Friday fun for you. Enjoy!

As you might have noticed, here at Bob’s Red Mill we have a huge selection of different types of grains and flours to choose from. One of the questions that we are asked most often here in the bakery is the difference between two specific kinds: Hard Red Wheat and Hard White Wheat. We thought we’d take a minute to give you some information to help you pick out the flour that is best for your baking needs.

The terms “red” and “white” are used to identify the color of the kernel and not of the flour that is eventually milled from those kernels. Hard white wheat was actually originally developed from hard red wheat. The idea was to create a new type of wheat with the same overall nutritional value, but with some different characteristics for baking.

Red wheat has a slightly higher amount of protein which makes it better for more rustic, artisan and generally harder bread loaves. In contrast, hard white wheat’s more moderate level of protein makes for softer loaves such as your typical pan loaves and dinner rolls. In the bakery, we use hard white wheat to create a single-twisted sliced pan loaf which is very soft in texture.

The other major difference between the two types of wheat is in flavor. Red wheat has a certain genetic makeup that gives the bran its darker color, whereas white wheat has been cultivated to be free of these certain genes. By eliminating these genes, the bitter taste sometimes experienced with red wheat is reduced. Health conscious bakers often prefer white wheat because this genetically reduced bitterness requires less additional sweeteners in the final product.

Of course, the best way to discover which flour is the one that you prefer is to test both out for yourself. Here is the recipe that our Quality Control Laboratory uses to test all our batches of flour for consistent quality. They use it to test out all our batches of unbleached white flour, our hard red wheat flour, and our hard white wheat flour. If you try this experiment at home, you will find that just the difference in flours makes for vastly different types of loaves of bread. Our Lab uses a machine that makes consistent 1.5 lb loaves.

Test Loaf Recipe
for a 1.5 lb loaf

1 ½ cups plus 2 tbsp Warm Water (above 80 degrees Fahrenheit)
3 tbsp Canola Oil
3 ¾ cups Flour (Hard Red, Hard White, or Unbleached White)
2 tbsp of Sugar
1 ½ tsp Salt
1 tsp Active Dry Yeast

Add the ingredients to your machine in the order listed above. Start the machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Be sure to share the results of your experiments with friends and family!

Thank you to everyone who participated in our giveaway and told us about the gluten free dishes they find the most challenging. Ravioli topped the list and I have to admit that ravioli is a challenge for all of us, or at least all of home-cooks. Those of us who can eat gluten do have the luxury of buying fresh or frozen ravioli, but I’ve personally tried to make them from scratch and ended up with fat dough balls that were barely edible.

Once again, the fabulous Gluten Free Girl, Shauna, has rescued us with a recipe that looks fairly straightforward.  Fried chicken, tempura and gnocci also made the list. A recipe for each of these can be found in Maltin’s book.

The winner of our contest is Krissi. For those of you who did not win, Maltin’s book can be purchased on Amazon.com, Wiley.com and will be available through Bobsredmill.com in October. For more from Vanessa Maltin, visit her site Celiac Princess. Thanks for participating!

Summertime is a great for getting out the grill and celebrating with family and friends.  Whether you choose to not eat meat yourself, or want to offer a meatless option for others, there are many tasty and healthy options for burgers.  More and more people are playing with whole grains, beans and other ingredients to create unique and satisfying options for a plant-based burger.  Here are a few recipes for you to try.

 

Textured Vegetable Protein Burgers

 Hemp Burgers

Quinoa Veggie Burgers

Bean and Barley Burgers

 

I played around with many of these ingredients myself and came up with my own recipe which uses a combination of many ingredients and the resulting burger is full of flavor.  Instead of forming the TSP mixture into burgers, you can also fry them up as meatballs, or cook up for use in spaghetti or chili.  This recipe is really versatile. 

Restaurant Veggie Burgers
recipe by Chelsea Lincoln

1 ½ cups TSP (Textured Soy Protein)
6 oz. Tomato Paste
1 ½ cups Hot Water
2 Tb Braggs or Soy Sauce
¼ cup Olive Oil
¼ tsp Liquid Smoke (optional)
¾ cup Gluten Flour
1 cup Quick Rolled Oats
¼ cup Sesame Seeds, ground
1 tsp Sea Salt
1 Tb Onion Flakes
2 tsp Poultry Seasoning
1 tsp Garlic Granules

Combine the hot water and tomato paste.  Pour this into the TSP and mix.  Let sit for 5 minutes.  Add the braggs, oil and liquid smoke to the TSP mixture.  In a separate bowl, combine the gluten flour, oats, sesame seeds, salt, onion flakes, poultry seasoning and garlic granules.  Pour the liquid ingredients into the wet and mix until all is combined.  Form into patties and place on a greased baking sheet.  Bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes, flipping burger after 10 minutes.  Makes 8 burgers.