Barley flour: features, benefits, recipes

For a long time on the shelves of our stores you could meet only wheat flour, but today you can everywhere buy a product from very different grains. Here is the barley meal, so revered in ancient times, returned to our table. How is it useful and what can be cooked from it?

Differences in barley flour

Barley - this is one of the oldest cultures, which was known even in ancient Korea and Egypt, where the grain was made flour and cooked porridge. The Bible also speaks of the 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, Kolobok is not only a fairy-tale character, but also traditional pastry made from barley flour. And also oatmeal was made from it.

Barley flour is grayish-white in color. It itself has no taste and smell, but the finished product gives a characteristic tart flavor because of the large amount of fiber. Also, flour can be of two kinds:

• Coat - almost a whole-grain flour with a lot of bran.
• Seed - more "pure" flour without shells of grain.

Beneficial features

In the ranking of products that are useful to humans, which made up scientists, barley is in second place. It helps in reducing "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 microelements, which are rich in barley flour. Useful properties of the product depend on the presence of bran (and therefore, a large amount of cellulose), which perfectly affect the gastrointestinal tract.

Features of cooking and storage

Pancakes made of barley flour are excellent, but it is also good to use for thickening sauces. Baking it gives a special softness, but to make bread it is better to mix it with wheat - barley forms too little gluten, so bread from it is not very attractive.

Barley flour is a perishable product, so do not leave a long open pack, 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 locker, but in a cool place, for example in a refrigerator.

Barley flour: recipes of dishes from it

If you bought a pack of barley flour and do not know what to make of it, start baking with a bite, for example from the legendary koloboks.

Barley barley prepared as follows. You will need:

• 2.5 cups of barley flour;
• Half a cup of water;
• Half a glass of sour cream;
• 200 grams of butter butter;
• A tablespoon of sugar;
• A teaspoon of salt;
• Sesame for caving in.

Flour sift 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 homogeneous. Let the dough lie down a little, and then, pinching off pieces, roll with your hands kolobki the size of a chicken egg. Finished koloboks roll in sesame and bake on a small fire (no more than 170 degrees) for about 40 minutes. Take care that the sesame does not burn. You should get crispy fragrant bread, which is perfect for breakfast or a glass of milk.

But for barley baking, 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 sugar with a slide;
• A teaspoon of soda;
• 2 eggs.

Soft butter, eggs and sugar mix well and beat with a mixer. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients and add them into the oily-egg mixture in portions. Stir smooth smooth dough. If necessary, add more wheat flour. The dough is rolled into a layer 5 mm thick and cut out with a molded biscuit. Bake at 160 degrees for 30 minutes, but be careful not to burn.

And of course, where without the soft, fragrant and useful barley bread. Try to cook it on a spoon. Prepare for her in advance:

• 200 grams of barley flour;
• 250 grams of water;
• A tablespoon of malted syrup.

Mix everything and leave in a warm place for a day. Then prepare the dough from the spoon and the following ingredients:

• 500 ml of warm water;
• 300 grams of barley flour;
• 500 grams of wheat flour;
• A tablespoon of salt.

In the spit, add water first, mix everything, then add a mixture of different flour and salt, mixing the dough. It will turn out to be damp and slightly liquid. Leave it to lie for half an hour, and then lay it on the surface powdered with flour and divide into two parts. So you will have two loaves or loaves. Put the dough in the mold and leave for 2 hours. Bake should be in shape 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 fire to 175 degrees and cook without steam for 50 minutes, and turn on the oven in the oven, if it is. So the crust turns crispy. When the bread is baked, cool it under the towel so that the crust does not soften.