If you’ve ever bought a loaf of gluten free bread, you know how dry and dense they tend to be. They are so bad that I pretty much just gave up bread. GF bread just does not compare. I didn’t/don’t really miss bread at all, but it’s something I do like to have around for “emergencies”– those times when I realize that I.HAVE.TO.EAT.RIGHT.NOW! Put a little nut butter on there, maybe some jam and you’ve got a well-rounded snack. Besides that, Amanda likes it too (her fave is sunflower seed butter and jam).

A GF friend gave me her bread recipe (ingredient list, actually, as there were no instructions since she makes hers in a bread machine) and it sounded great. The only problem is that it was not vegan. At all. So, I’ve made some subs, figured out the instructions and made a really good loaf of bread on my first attempt. That never happens. I’m going to start looking around for a cheap bread machine to make this in. I think it will be even easier and just as good. If you’ve already got a bread machine, go ahead and use this recipe in it and let me know how it turns out (put the ingredients in according to the manufacturers recommendation for your bread machine).

2 1/3 cups brown rice flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/3 cup potato starch
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup teff flour
2 tsp salt
4 1/2 tsp xanthan gum (for a gum free version, you could try subbing 1 TB agar powder)

Wet Ingredients

1 1/2 cups warm water
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 packet (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
2 TB ground flax mixed with 6 TB warm water
1/4 cup Earth Balance, melted (or olive oil)

Directions

1. Measure dry ingredients into a large bowl. Whisk to combine. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl or large measuring cup, combine the 1 1/2 cups water, maple syrup and yeast. Allow to sit for a few minutes for the yeast to proof.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the ground flax and 6 TB water. Add the Earth Balance (or oil). When the yeast has proofed, add the water, syrup, yeast mixture to the flax and oil mixture. Mix a few times to combine the wet ingredients.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and turn the mixer on for several minutes. The dough will be very sticky once mixed.

5. Transfer the dough to a large, greased bowl. Cover with a clean towel and set in a warm place. Allow to rise 2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size. It will sort of resemble a head of cauliflower.

6. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
7. Grease up your hands and transfer the risen dough to a greased loaf pan. Allow to rise 30 minutes while the oven gets nice and toasty.

8. Bake for 30-45 minutes until golden brown on the top. The bread will sound hollow when you thump it. If you stick an instant read thermometer in the center, the internal temperature will be about 160 degrees. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
9. Let it cool some more.
10. Seriously, don’t try to cut it if it’s warm. Let it cool.
11. After the bread has cooled for about an hour, dump it out of the pan and slice. If it still feels warm to the touch, you might want to let it cool some more. If you cut into it while still warm, it will be gooey and mushy.

12. Store any leftover slices in an airtight container at room temperature. It will probably only last a 2-3 days (at the most). If you can’t eat it that fast, stick it in the freezer.

I just can’t get enough of my lentil burgers. They’re so easy to make with ingredients that I normally keep on hand that it’s been my go-to when I don’t know what else to make. They are good on top of bread, with salad, or eaten plain dipped in ketchup. To stretch the recipe even more, I made them with brown rice last time and they held together even better than when I make it without. I may add the brown rice from now on. This last time, I also dredged them in some rice flour before pan frying. It made the outside extra crispy.

Lentil Burgers with Brown Rice

1 cup dry green/brown lentils (about 2 cups cooked)
1 cup brown rice, uncooked
1 small onion, peeled
1 medium carrot, peeled
1/4 cup raisins
2 TB hemp seeds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 TB garbanzo bean flour

1. Begin by cooking the lentils and rice: bring 4 cups of water to a boil, add lentils and brown rice, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes or until water is absorbed and lentils/rice are tender. If lentils and rice are done cooking before all the water has been absorbed, just drain off any excess.
2. Meanwhile, chop the onion and carrot in the food processor. Throw them in, pulse a few times until finely chopped and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Add raisins, hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, salt and pepper to the mixing bowl.
3. When lentils/rice are cooked, drain off any excess water and pulse a few times in the food processor. Transfer to the bowl of ingredients and stir to combine, adding enough flour to hold everything together. You’ll probably need about 2 TB, but may need more depending on how wet your veggies are.
4. Form into patties and either pan fry or bake in the oven. I pan fried mine in a teeny bit of oil after dredging in rice flour first. If you opt to bake them instead, you may want to brush both sides with a little oil so that they get crispy.

In the photo, mine is on top of a slice of Rice Pecan bread that I found at Whole Foods. With the whole gluten-free thing, I’ve had a hard time finding breads that don’t have egg in them. This type of bread is one that I tried and liked and is also vegan. It’s kept in the freezer section. It’s a little bit denser than wheat bread (as I’ve found is the case with all gluten-free baked goods), but it’s pretty good and makes fine toast. I don’t eat a ton of bread as it is, but it’s nice to have some type of convenience food on hand to keep me on the gluten-free path. An update on my road to gluten-freedom coming soon! EDIT: Update can be found here!

Should I keep you all in suspense or spill the exciting news first? Hmmm… tough call. Okay, okay– here’s the exciting news:

Some of my recipes are featured in a free “Back-To-School” e-book. Yes, it’s free! Alisa over at One Frugal Foodie and Go Dairy Free had the brilliant idea of producing this e-book to help moms and dads with the back-to-school transition after seeing the back-to-school grocery ads featuring cheap cereals and other convenience items that contain little nutritional value. It was a great idea and, of course, healthy eating is something I fully support.  The book is not vegan, but there is a good selection of recipes to suit everyone’s needs and some can probably be made vegetarian or vegan with a quick swap of ingredients.  Download your free copy by either clicking on the image above or by clicking this here link.   My biggest, sincerest thanks to Alisa for coming up with this awesome idea and for putting so much time and effort into it.  And thank you to everyone who participated and contributed their recipes.  I hope this e-book is a big success and kids everywhere are able to enjoy healthy, homemade breakfasts and lunches.

Here are the direct links to the recipes of mine that are included in this lovely gem:

• Sweet Potato Waffle
• Granola
• Faux Tuna Sandwich Filling
• Black & White Hidden Treasure Burritos
• PB&J dilla

This new recipe is a spin on my Whole Wheat Oat Bread recipe, which is also featured in the e-book.  When this recipe was chosen for the book, I realized how long it’s been since I’ve made it so I thought I should give it another test before the book became available.  While testing it, I actually improved upon it and came up with a few substitutions for some of the ingredients.

Whole Wheat Oat Bread for the Bread Machine

1 1/4 cups warm water
2 tablespoons vegan margarine, canola/veg oil or olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
4 TB vital wheat gluten*
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 tablespoons brown sugar, maple syrup or agave
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 TB flax seeds

Put ingredients into bread machine in the order suggested by the manufacturer.  Use medium setting.

*In lieu of vital wheat gluten, you could use white bread flour and wheat bread flour in place of the all-purpose and wheat flours.  Adding 1 TB of vital wheat gluten for every one cup of regular flour is a DIY way of making bread flour.  I add an extra TB just for kicks.

It seems like it has rained here the entire month of February and now that March is here, there’s no end to the rain in sight.  I really am not much of a fan of the rain, but we need it and it will hopefully make for a beautiful summer.  To pass the time, my sous chef (Emma) and I have been having lots of culinary fun.

While shopping the other day, Emma nearly sweet talked me into buying Oreo-esque cookies.  Good thing my better judgment took over before I grabbed them off the shelf and threw them in the cart.  As a compromise (and a good way to pass time on a rainy afternoon), we made up a batch of Dreena’s chocolate chip cookies.  And because we’re crazy like that over here at Mission: Vegan, we added some sprinkles to them.  Yum!

We also picked up a starfruit the other day.  At $3 for just one, it wasn’t cheap, but I’ve never had one and wanted to try it.  For being so pretty, it really didn’t taste that great.  It sort of has the texture of a cucumber and isn’t sweet like how I expected it to be.  It almost had a green taste to it, sort of like an unripe banana.  Maybe I needed it let it ripen some more before trying to eat it.  I’m really not sure.

I’m very happy to announce that I have perfected my bread recipe with the addition of some flax seeds and by using whole wheat flour in place of   some of the all-purpose.  Definitely more healthy and I have to say it was the best loaf I’ve ever made.  Yummy!

Whole Wheat Oat Bread

(click here for a printer-friendly version)

1 1/4 cups water
2 tablespoons Earth Balance
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 TB flax seeds

Put ingredients into bread machine in the order suggested by the manufacturer.  Use medium setting.

And for breakfast on this rainy morning, my Emma requested waffles.  Not having the desire to make waffles one-by-one in my waffle iron, I convinced her that blueberry pancakes were the way to go.  I can’t say enough how much I love the pancake recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking.  They turn out perfect every time.  If you don’t have this book and are interested in baking vegan goodies, I highly recommend it.  There’s all sorts of stuff in here from cookies to brownies, scones and muffins, breads and cakes.   And you can’t beat the chocolate cake recipe– easier than a box cake mix and so good that people are often surprised to learn that it’s vegan (because “vegan” surely means that it should taste like sprouts and tree bark).

While I’m on the subject of chocolate cake, I’ll sneak this in.  We celebrated my friend Emily’s birthday this weekend and I surprised her by making a birthday cake.  It’s very simple– chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream decorated with swirls of buttercream and little candies.  This one was a triple layer and was oh-so-good.

(another horrible photo)

I wrote about some oat bread that I made a couple of days ago that was supposed to be a cracked wheat oat bread only I didn’t have any cracked wheat, or so I thought.  Well, yesterday I ventured to Whole Foods to get some cracked wheat, among other things.  There I’m standing in the bulk foods section searching for cracked wheat.  Surely it must be in the bulk foods section– where else would it be?  Somewhere near the bottom I see a big tub of bulgur and in parens underneath it says cracked wheat.  Duh!!!!!  It never even occurred to me.

Anyway, so this morning I made the same recipe but used the cracked wheat.  It was great, but I have a few tips for my own future reference and for you in case you decide to try it out:

1. If you are using quick cooking bulgur (cracked wheat), you probably don’t need to soak it, as the recipe states.
2. 1 1/3 cups water is way too much, in my opinion.  Both times I’ve made it, I’ve had to add extra flour because it’s been too gooey.
3. This recipe makes a large loaf that is too big for my machine to handle.  Both times I’ve had to take it during the rise and transfer to a bowl.  Otherwise, it will spill over in the machine.

For all the trouble this batch of bread gave me, it was well worth it.  It is delicious!  I followed this recipe, but made the following adjustments:  I didn’t have any cracked wheat, so I left that out; subbed maple syrup for the honey.  As I was putting the ingredients into the bread machine, I thought to myself “I wonder if I should decrease the water since I’m not adding the cracked wheat.”  Against my better judgment, I put in all the water and noticed when it was mixing that the dough was sticking to the sides of the pan.  So, I spooned in more bread flour just until it pulled away from the sides and stopped sticking.  I may have added an additional 1/3 to 1/2 a cup.  If you were going to make this without the cracked wheat, I would recommend only adding 1 cup of water.

Everything was going smoothly until just before it baked.  It was rising, and rising, and rising.  All of a sudden, the dough rose out of the pan and started to spill onto the heating mechanism.  Smoke started billowing out of the bread machine along with the grossest smell.  I thought for a moment that I really messed things up and was actually making a Fucking Motherfuck instead of a loaf of bread.

Ewww!  Burned, caked on bread dough.  Nasty.  I took out the pan out and cleaned everything up.  There was still the bulk of the dough in the pan, but I couldn’t put it back in the machine.  What a mess!  Not wanting to waste it, I put it in a greased loaf pan and baked it at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes (after letting it rise a bit in the loaf pan).  I certainly didn’t have high hopes for success here, but it was either that or toss it in the garbage.

I thought surely this bread would be a disaster considering the number of mishaps involved.  I was so pleasantly surprised when I sliced it and took a bite.  Yum!!!!!!  I’m going to the store today to get some cracked wheat.  This will be my go-to bread from now on, but I will probably bake it in the loaf pan after letting it rise in the bread machine.  You could also make this into rolls, buns, etc.  So good and so versatile, and (obviously) ruin-proof.

I couldn’t resist. 

Feeling so inspired yesterday after my first successful bread machine attempt, I decided to give it another go.  This time, I wanted to make a bread that was more my style.  Yes, white bread is fine every now and again, but, to me, it’s almost like chewing glue after you’ve been eating it for a while.  Even with the addition of the oats, my oat bread had the consistency of white bread.  I tend to like breads with more texture– lots of seeds, nuts and grains.  So, I came across this recipe and, even though the reviews weren’t great, I decided to give it a try.  Ummm… it’s not bad, but definitely not something I’d brag about.

The person who posted the recipe aparently forgot to include the wheat ingredients.  One review said to try 2 cups whole wheat flour and 1 cup bread flour, which I did.  I don’t know what happened.  Everything was going great until the end.  When it was done baking, the entire top of the bread caved in.  When I sliced into it after it had cooled, it was like cutting through a tree trunk.  It’s super duper dense, not light ‘n fluffy.

For breakfast this morning, I tried a toasted slice of each type of bread.  I thought that the oat bread might be better for sandwiches and this bread might make better toast, but that is not the case.  The oat bread wins hands down, even if it is like chewing glue.  *sigh* I don’t want to waste it, so I will keep chomping away.

My mom gave me a bread machine months ago because I really, really wanted to get away from buying store bought bread.  Not only do I get tired of reading the labels on store bought bread, scanning for honey or any other hidden animal ingredients, but I find the packaging to be extremely wasteful and unnecessary.  Up until today, I was too afraid to try out the bread machine because (1) I’m lazy and (2) every single recipe in the booklet that came with it calls for nonfat dried milk.  So, really, I’ve been too lazy to either veganize one of those recipes or find a vegan recipe.  My friend, Trina, even took the time to email several recipes.

So, yesterday we ran out of bread and I decided that I was going to make some instead of waiting until I went to the store.  But, still being afraid of the bread machine, I made the Whole Wheat Bread recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking. Whole Wheat Bricks is more like it.

Sadly, these loaves are destined for croutons or bread crumbs.

Still determined to make my own bread (and mad at myself for being so lazy not to use the bread machine, which actually took more effort because I had to make the stupid things by hand!), I busted out the bread machine this afternoon and made this Light Oat Bread.

Now, this is what bread is supposed to look like.

It’s super fluffy and really good.  The loaves are pretty small, so I’ll probably have to make 2-3 per week.  I could kick myself sometimes for being so stubborn!