Fresh Milled Flour Chewy Gingerbread Bars Recipe
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A delicious blend of fresh milled soft white wheat and a handful of spelt elevates these classically flavored gingerbread bars with warm spices and molasses to make the perfect brownie for a real Christmas treat! These chewy bars are covered with a thick layer of cream cheese or chevre frosting and are a big hit in my family. You’ll probably be invited to things just so you show up to holiday parties with them! Baking with fresh milled flour has become a delicious addition to my homestead arsenal. Once you go to fresh milled flour, going back to the sad, storebought, processed flour is flavorless and lacking. It will work and can be subbed in this recipe successfully, but I promise you, you’ll be missing out on flavor and texture you can only obtain with fresh milled flour.
How To Grind Fresh Milled Flour
I use my WonderMill, which is a beast of a mill, that’s been a great addition to my kitchen. It makes quick work of just about anything short of rocks. It’s one of the few that can handle milling popcorn for cornmeal, which is my preferred corn variety and if you’re not new to Red Feather Farm social media… you already know! Milling your own wheat and making your own white whole wheat flour means your flour is LITERALLY whole wheat. Everything is there and alive and not sifted out. Be sure and research all the lovely goodness that fresh milled flour provides us as opposed to processed store flour, or as I like to refer to it….. dead flour.
I stick to the estimate of milling 2/3 cup of wheat berries for every cup of flour I need and that gets me pretty close if not right on the money. I usually add a little extra and feed my sourdough starter while I’m at it. I used to think that milling flour was crazy and unnecessary when I could buy a 50lb sack of already milled flour and use that, but after looking into the health benefits and now experiencing the flavor, I can easily admit I was very, very wrong.
The Best Way to Brown Butter
I used to think browning butter for desserts was a silly step that wasn’t worth my time. That is, until I actually started doing it. Browned butter gives an extra depth of nutty flavor to your baked goods you can’t live without. The extra step is ALWAYS worth it, I promise.
To brown butter, add what your recipe calls for to a small stainless steel sauce pan or a small cast iron pan. Heat over medium heat until the butter melts and starts to simmer. As the butter browns, it will crackle and pop during the process as the dairy solids get deliciously crispy and brown. Be sure and stir it as you work and do not turn your back on it, for it will always bubble up and cook over and burn to your stovetop. Ask me how I know.
You know your butter is finished browning once it stops talking to you. When the sputter and crackles stop, you smell the nutty flavor, and the butter appears a beautiful golden brown, it’s finished. Remove from heat and set your butter aside. For recipes, like this one, calling for melted butter anyway, allow the browned butter to cool slightly before using in your recipe. For recipes calling for room temperature butter or softened butter, place it in the fridge until it just starts to solidify or let it sit out at room temperature for a couple hours. When adding the browned butter to your recipe, be sure and scrape the pan really good with a rubber spatula and get allllll that browned goodness out. Those browned butter solids are the flavor!
Do it. You won’t regret it, but you will miss the flavor if you skip this!
What the Heck is Chevre?!
You might have read the recipe and thought, what on Earth is chevre. I’m here to tell you it is the easiest and most versatile cheese you will ever make. Chevre is the soft cheese made with goat milk and bovre is the version made with cow milk. Since I have a slew of milk goats, chevre it is. It is whole milk I culture with kefir and set with rennet and allow to culture and set for 12 hours and then hang to drip anywhere from 6 to 12 hours depending on how dry or wet I want it. Less hang time if I’m going to use it like ricotta and longer hang time to use like cream cheese. Chevre is an extremely easy recipe to find and follow. It’s my go-to substitute for a lot of cheese products, one of my favorites being cream cheese. It’s a bit tangier and since it’s a homemade cheese with no emulsifiers or gums to make a smooth and creamy texture, it’s not as smooth but it whips up nicely! Anything homemade is so much better than store bought and cheese is no different; especially since it doesn’t have all those gums and flavor enhancers and such.
Contrary to popular belief, goat milk that’s been properly handled and cooled quickly does not have that “goaty” flavor like the store bought goat cheese does (those tiny extremely expensive logs of cheese you see at the store are chevre as well… they’re gross so don’t judge your love of goat cheese off those). Goat milk is sweet and refreshing to drink and the cheese is delightful.
Let’s get started……
Equipment You Might Want:
- Grain Mill
- Large Bowl
- Hand Mixer
- Stand Mixer
- Saucepan
- 9×13 Baking Pan
- Parchment paper
- Spatula
- Wire rack for cooling
- Oven
Ingredients:
- soft white wheat berries
- spelt berries
- butter
- ginger powder or fresh ginger
- cinnamon powder
- clove powder
- nutmeg powder
- baking soda
- salt
- brown sugar
- maple syrup
- unsulfured blackstrap molasses
- egg
- vanilla extract
- chevre, bovre, or cream cheese
- butter
- confectioners’ sugar
Step 1: Mill Your Wheat Berries
Measure out 1 cup of soft white wheat berries and 1/3 cup of spelt berries and run them through your grain mill on a medium grind setting. I have also successfully used 100% spelt in this recipe and it was delicious. Go with your flavor preferences.
Step 2: Brown the Butter
To a saucepot or small cast iron pan, add 1/2 cup butter over medium heat and simmer til browned. Remove your pan from the heat and allow it to cool a bit.
Step 3: Mix Dry Ingredients
Measure out 2 cups of the fresh milled flour into a separate bowl by taking your measuring cup and fluffing it up and then shaking it to level. This is how I do it anyway, it might be wrong, but we don’t carreeeuuhhhh. If you aren’t milling your own flour, measure out 2 cups of all purpose flour.
Add in 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger powder, 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/2 teaspoon good quality salt, and 1 teaspoon baking soda. Whisk to combine and set aside
2 teaspoons of finely minced or grated fresh ginger would be a lovely substitution if you have it on hand. If you prefer a different spice ratio or mixture, absolutely do your own thing here!
Step 4: Mix Wet Ingredients
To the bowl of a stand mixer, pour in the browned butter scraping your pot/pan to get all those delicious brown bits out.
Add in 1/4 cup lard, 1 cup brown sugar, 2 Tablespoons maple syrup, and 1/4 cup unsulfured blackstrap molasses. I purchase my molasses by the gallon jug from my local Amish bulk food stores for the same price you can buy those small jars in the grocery store. We use molasses for a whole bunch of things here.
With the paddle attachment on your stand mixer, mix until well combined.
While stand mixer is running on low speed, add in 1 egg and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract (measure with your heart not a spoon), mixing to combine and scraping sides of the bowl as needed.
Step 5: Mix
With the stand mixer still running, slowly add in dry ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture. Allow to mix until just combined. The batter will be very thick, almost like cookie dough. Remove stand mixer paddle and scrape sides of bowl.
Cover bowl with plastic wrap or a beeswax wrap and allow to rest for 20-30 minutes. I do this to allow the fresh milled flour to rehydrate as I feel it helps with the end consistency and flavor. You can skip the rest period if you’re using store bought flour.
Step 6: Bake
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Grease your 9 x 13-inch pan with lard or butter. Lining with parchment works well, too.
Press batter evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan using a spatula or your hands rubbed with a little oil works perfectly.
Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until edges are raised and center is just done. DO NOT OVERBAKE. They will be so sad if you do and you’ll lose that perfect chewy brownie everyone loves!
Cool bars completely before icing; this takes approximately a couple hours.
Step 7: Make the Frosting
Use room temperature ingredients; with paddle attachment on a stand mixer, whip together 8 ounces of chevre, bovre, or cream cheese and 1/2 cup of butter on medium speed til fluffy. Scrape down sides of the bowl a couple of times while you do this.
Add in 3 cups of confectioners’ sugar (or powdered sugar) gradually, working 1/2 cup at a time, allowing to mix completely before adding more. Add in 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
Whip with paddle attachment of your stand mixer on high speed until it’s super fluffy and light. Chevre will not be a silky smooth as store bought cream cheese gets, so don’t be surprised by a little grittiness… that’s normal.
Evenly frost bars. Definitely lick the spatula.
Step 8: Enjoy!
Try not to eat the entire pan in one sitting; it’ll be hard! The classic gingerbread cookie flavor all wrapped in easy to make bars and slathered with tangy cream cheese frosting is the perfect holiday treat. Enjoy and happy baking!
Store bars in and air tight container in the refrigerator until ready to serve. For longer storage, cut into bars in flash freeze individually on a cookie sheet. Once bars are frozen, stack into a freezer bag or vacuum seal with wax paper between each bar for about 6 months. Remove from freezer to fridge a day before you plan to serve them to thaw.
I hope you enjoy these chewy gingerbread cookie bars this holiday season!
Equipment
- stand mixer or large mixing bowl and hand mixer
- 9 x 13-inch baking pan
- parchment paper
- Grain Mill like my WonderMill
Ingredients
Bars
- 2 cups fresh milled flour I mill 1 cup soft white wheat and 1/3 cup spelt
- 1 1/2 tsp ginger or use 1 tsp fresh grated
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp cloves
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup butter browned and cooled
- 1/4 cup lard room temperature
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 1/4 cup unsulfured blackstrap molasses
- 2 Tbs maple syrup
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp vanilla extract measure with your heart
Frosting
- 1/2 cup butter room temperature
- 8 ounces chevre room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Bars
- Using your grain mill, mill your flour. Measure out 2 cups to a separate bowl.
- To the flour, add ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine.
- Into the bowl of a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, mix together cooled browned butter, lard, brown sugar, maple syrup, and molasses until well combined.
- With the mixer running on low, add in the egg and vanilla extract and mix until incorporated.
- Keeping the mixer running, slowly add in the flour mixture, allowing it to mix until just combined. This is a thick, almost stiff batter.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a beeswax wrap and allow to sit for 20-30 to allow the fresh milled flour to rehydrate.
- While the batter rests, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Once rest period is complete, grease 9 x 13-inch baking dish with butter or lard OR line with parchment. Give batter a few stirs with a spatula and turn out onto prepared dish. Press it into an even layer using hands or spatula.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes, or til edges appear done and center is just set. Be very careful not to overbake here. Remove from oven and transfer dish to wire cooling rack to cool completely before adding the frosting.
Frosting
- To the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and chevre til smooth and fluffy using the paddle attachment.
- Add in the powdered sugar and vanilla gradually with mixer running. Mix until light and fluffy.
- Spread frosting over cooled bars. Add sprinkles if desired.
- Place in fridge in an airtight container and chill for a few hours prior to cutting bars and serving!
