..aka the recipe with a title that's almost as long as its ingredient list! This is the bread I made for the class on February, 10th. I found this recipe on a vegan blog, Oh She Glows. Until very recently I was intimidated by vegan baking. The ingredients seemed so strange and the idea of cooking without eggs or butter seemed unfathomable. However, after reading several vegan food blogs for a few months the mouth watering pictures won me over and I became more and more curious about how these egg-less, butter-less recipes would actually taste.
So, when I had to pick something to make for the class I figured it would be fun to try a vegan recipe. I was most apprehensive about the “flax seed egg”. I mixed 1 tablespoon of ground flax with 3 tablespoons of warm water and let it sit for 2 minutes per the package directions. While waiting for my egg to gel I googled “vegan flax egg” curious as to others results with this seemingly strange egg substitute. I found an article from the NY times on baking with flax where they had refrigerated the flax for an hour. A quick glance at the clock confirmed that I didn't have that time. I gave my flax one last stir and with a quick prayer to the vegan baking gods mixed it into the other wet ingredients.
55 minutes later I pulled out the bread and cut into it, half expecting it to crumble into my hands. However, it seemed just like “normal” bread. I would never have known that flax was used instead of egg. Overall I was fairly pleased with the recipe. But, if I were to make it again I would do a few things differently. I would disperse the pumpkin butter more evenly. This time it ended up being more of a frosting than a swirl. I would also add a few more tablespoons of nuts, I thought it could have had a bit more of a crunch factor. In the end though I am pretty pleased with my first vegan baking experience. Plus, there are some vegan dough balls I have been eying so I know exactly what I am doing with the left over ingredients!
Note: In the recipe, I used pumpkin instead of butternut squash, whole wheat flour instead of spelt and left out (accidentally!) the oil.
Thanks for bringing these in, and for sharing the recipe, Astrid. I'm generally skeptical of vegan foods--I tend toward the Bourdain model, in terms of butter consumption--but these were really good.
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