Whole Wheat Raisin Bran Muffins

This recipe is from the cookbook Whole Grain Vegan Baking by Celine Steen and Tamasin Noyes.

Recipe: see page 73 of Whole Grain Vegan Baking.

These are tasty muffins that also have plenty of fiber. I was pleasantly surprised they are so light and fluffy. Usually when I've tried making bran muffins they are dense and heavy, and these weren't like that at all.

They are sweetened with a little bit of applesauce and Sucanat. The applesauce helps to act as binder since there are no eggs used in vegan baking, and they also help to keep the muffins moist since there is little oil in this recipe.

I had never heard of Sucanat before this. It is short for Sugar Cane Natural. It is dried sugar cane juice, and processed differently than white or brown sugar, retaining more of its vitamins and nutrients. I had a difficult time finding it, finally ending up at Whole Foods and paying $5.50 for a 1 pound bag. The book notes you can also use muscovado sugar as a substitute.

Be sure to check out the other stops on the The Whole Grain Vegan Baking blog tour.

Ingredients: oat bran, whole wheat pastry flour, raisins, unsweetened applesauce, cinnamon, oil, vegan milk, lemon juice, Sucanat, vanilla extract, baking powder, baking soda, salt.

Whole Grain Tortillas

This recipe is from the cookbook Whole Grain Vegan Baking by Celine Steen and Tamasin Noyes.

Recipe: see page 113 of Whole Grain Vegan Baking.

I made these tacos using the Whole Grain Tortilla recipe in the book. That looks like meat, but is actually Trader Joe's Beefless Strips, which are vegan.

I picked this recipe because it seemed like it would be fairly quick. Mixing the ingredients went fast, but I was using a single cast iron pan to cook them, one at a time, so that did take me awhile... about 40 minutes to make 12 tortillas. And all of that was standing over the stove making sure they didn't burn. So, it turned out to be a lot more work than I figured.

My big concern was whether they would be able to be folded into tacos, or if they would break. I kept them covered like the instructions suggested, and that kept them moist, and it worked. I tried folding them into a burrito, but they weren't stretchy enough for that. But these were great for tacos, and I really liked the fresher taste of these homemade tortillas.

I put the leftover tortillas in the fridge and they were hard the next day. I was thinking of frying them up as tortilla chips, but decided to try steaming to get them softened. That worked out great and they folded nicely without breaking and I had tacos again.

Be sure to check out the stops on the The Whole Grain Vegan Baking blog tour. May 26 is my official day. I'll have one more post then.

Ingredients: white whole wheat flour, whole spelt flour, finely ground cornmeal, baking powder, vegan milk (Trader Joe's Unsweetened Soy Milk used here), salt, oil.

Onion Caraway Whole Wheat Loaf

This recipe is from the cookbook Whole Grain Vegan Baking by Celine Steen and Tamasin Noyes.

Recipe: see page 57 of Whole Grain Vegan Baking.

It's been awhile since I've posted, but I just received this new cookbook and wanted to break it in. I told you before I had a new oven installed a few weeks ago. I had all sorts of problems with the old one. It was one of the really cheap ones and it did not handle baking duties very well. Everything always turned out uneven. This one is really nice. It beeps when it reaches the preheat temperature. No more guessing. And did you know there is a specific rack in the oven for bread. I didn't know that. It's amazing what I learn when I read manuals.

So, the first recipe for vegan bread that jumped out at me was this one for Onion Caraway Whole Wheat Loaf. I looked interesting because, well, it had a pretty picture, and I'm a chump for pictures of pretty food (There are over 100 recipes in the book, and over 40 of them have photos.). And also, it looked really easy. There was no kneading or rising time involved on this one. Prep time was only 5 minutes or so, then it was in the oven.

This bread has a very hearty flavor, similar to rye bread. That comes from the caraway seeds and the beer. Then there are toasted pumpkin seeds (pepitas) that give it a nutty taste. This isn't the type of bread you would want to make sandwiches with because it is so crumbly, but it would complement a bowl of soup or chili.

I had a little bit of a problem with the pepitas. On the first loaf I made, they weren't sticking to the bread, so when I went to slice it, pepitas went flying. By the time I sliced the whole loaf, all the seeds had popped off. It didn't make for much of a photo, so I made the loaf again and pressed the seeds into the dough a little before putting it in the oven. That helped some of them stick a little better, but a bunch still fell off.

I am participating on the The Whole Grain Vegan Baking blog tour. May 26 is my official day, but I will be posting more on this book between now and then. Be sure to check out the other stops on the tour to see what other bloggers are doing with the recipes.

Ingredients: whole wheat pastry flour, baking powder, caraway seeds, onion powder, toasted pepitas, cornstarch (or arrowroot powder), vegan beer, oil, salt.