When Leslie Mialma started the pastry program at Echo Park’s hip-cozy neighborhood spot Winsome, her attention turned toward alternative flours—not because of trendiness or health benefits, but because she loved the taste.
“When I got hired, I started researching what I wanted to bring to Winsome, and I was seeing all these ancient grains and different flours,” she says. “I started experimenting at home, and I thought, for instance, the blueberry spelt muffin tastes better than the original one.”
Ancient grains were bred for flavor, unlike modern wheat, which is grown mostly for industrial-strength hardiness. (They also have more natural oil, which lends protein and moisture to baked goods.) So finding the right ingredients to pair with different flours is both important and part of the fun.
“People have the idea that baking is a science,” says Mialma, but she encourages curious home bakers to get in the kitchen and play around. “I’d never worked with any of these things before Winsome, so I’m still experimenting with new flours as much as I can.”
If you’re looking for inspiration, here are three of Mialma’s favorite pairings:
Spelt flour + sweet fruit
Spelt tends to be the easiest flour to work with for folks familiar with all-purpose flour—it has a nutty, buttery flavor that’s closest to AP in texture and taste. It goes particularly nicely in cakes and muffins; currently in Mialma’s pastry case it’s being featured in the perennial summer staple, that beloved blueberry muffin. “I try to keep something super classic on the menu,” she notes, for less adventurous palates, and the mildness of spelt pairs well with the lovely sweetness of summer berries.
Don’t be timid, though, because spelt can also hold up to stronger flavors: “I did a graham cracker crust for a s'more pie, recently, and I used spelt because I didn't have graham,” Mialma says. “And it was even better than I expected.”
Buckwheat + tart fruit
First things first: Buckwheat isn’t actually a wheat at all, which means that, unlike spelt and rye, the flour it creates is gluten-free. In fact, it’s a grass, related to bitter greens like sorghum and tart fruits like rhubarb. So perhaps it’s not surprising that buckwheat pairs well with flavors that zing: Mialma is currently baking it up with candied ginger and chopped almonds in a cookie that she refers to as “the ugly duckling” of the pastry case. Those who can get beyond the visual are rewarded with a crisp-chewy texture and the richness of brown butter, which brings out some of the flour’s nuttier, more intense undertones and balances the sharpness of the ginger taste.
Rye flour + chocolate
Rye is the heaviest flour of the three, and it wants to be matched with even stronger flavors. Mialma used to have a cherry-rye scone on the menu that she lightened up with buttermilk (and a little bit of all-purpose flour); these days, she’s pairing it with dark chocolate in a rye brownie that stays gooey much longer than a brownie made with AP would.
“I actually prefer the rye to regular flour for the brownies,” says Mialma. “It's more moist, and it has a more delicate texture.” Plus “it's adding something else, taste-wise,” which is to say, this is a dish guaranteed to get you recipe requests at parties. She also recommends rye in combination with AP for making pie dough, particularly if there’s chocolate in the pie: “It's got a nice texture, and will give a bit of a coarseness” to the crust, adding flavor and crunch to your favorite flaky recipes.
To get the most out of your alternative flours, be sure to buy the whole-grain versions instead of anything bleached or refined—only these kinds will have the oils and proteins you want for maximum flavor and moisture. But those oils also mean that, like nuts, the flours can go rancid on the shelf in a long hot summer, so store them in the freezer, where they’ll keep.
