Breads « Low Fat Vegan Cooking

May 22, 2010

Potato Scallion Bread

Filed under: Breads, Higher Calorie Density — admin @ 1:02 am

Potato Scallion Whole Wheat Bread

Potato Scallion Bread

I never made potato bread before, but i liked the ones i bought. It’s very simple – you just put some mashed potatoes in place of some of the flour and liquid. To make a savory bread, i added scallions, although chives or onions would be good too.

I liked this bread, but something in the back of my mind is thinking of a different way to do it. It’s still largely unconscious, and i know sometimes these things take years to come to light, so meanwhile, here’s what i’ve done so far with potato bread, and i’ll make an addition if i get any better ideas.

Makes 1 loaf, about 12 slices

Preparation about 35 minutes, plus 10 minutes for the yeast to wake up

Can be made ahead, though all bread is wonderful warm

Freezes well

2 ¼ t. /1 package active dry yeast

1 c. warm water (105°)

1 T. vegan sugar

2 t. salt

1 c. mashed potatoes

1 c. vegan milk

About 5 c. whole wheat flour

1 c. minced scallions, chives, or onion

Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature, except the water and vegan milk which you will heat.

If you don’t have mashed potatoes, just cook a large chopped potato in water to cover it about 15 minutes until tender but not falling apart. Drain. Put the drained potatoes back on a low burner for about 1 minute, stirring constantly, to dry and fluff them. I learned this secret from the old Galloping Gourmet show. Mash with fork or potato masher. Don’t put it in the food processor, it gets too starchy. If you cook the potatoes just before you add them to the yeast mixture, cool them with the cold measured vegan milk, and mix well.

Heat the water until warm but comfortable enough to leave your finger in it, which is about 105°. Add yeast and sugar and stir gently. Wait 10 minutes until the yeast has dissolved and bubbled and begun growing.

Meanwhile, gently heat the vegan milk to the same temperature, unless you use it to cool the potatoes.

Add salt and mix. Add potatoes, the vegan milk, scallions, and flour. A mixer makes bread making easy, but kneading is its own kind of peaceful, creative, and meditative activity. Knead about 10 minutes, adding flour if it gets too sticky, until dough is elastic and stretches thinly when you pull a piece apart.

Place in a clean bowl and cover with a damp towel, and leave in a warm place for about an hour, until dough has about doubled. Punch it down (gently) and knead a few minutes, then shape into a loaf. You can bake in a loaf pan, or on a parchment lined baking sheet. You can form your bread into one or more round loaves or flatten it like focaccia, or make individual rolls. If you use a loaf pan, you will need to oil it slightly to be able to get the bread out in one piece. Cover whatever loaf or rolls you made, and let rise about 45 minutes, until they are about one third bigger.

Preheat the oven to 400° about 15 minutes before you’re ready to bake the bread.

Bake the loaf about 40 minutes and a smaller bread about 10 minutes less. Cool before you peel the parchment paper off, and slice.

Adapted from Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson

http://www.globalvegankitchen.com/

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:

Per Serving – 1/12^th loaf: 200 calories/8.3 g protein (16.6%)/1.3 g fat (5.9%)

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May 8, 2010

Banana Bread with Optional Walnuts and Chocolate Chips

Filed under: American Cuisine, Breads, Breakfast, Higher Calorie Density — admin @ 1:02 am

Banana Bread with Walnuts and Chocolate Chips

Banana Bread with Optional Walnuts and Chocolate Chips

My daughter has been making gluten free banana bread with chocolate chips recently, and i decided to try a version myself.

The plate you see the result on was made by laying a piece of lace cloth on the wet clay, and glazing in two different colors. I found it at a crafts fair some years ago.

There are many versions of low fat banana bread. You might like a more sweet or a less dense loaf, both of which are attained by adding more bananas. But i think this amount balances best with the chocolate chips, if you are going to use them. Walnuts relieve the sweetness, but you don’t need a lot to do that.

For some reason, raw sugar crystals don’t melt well in this recipe. Whole Foods carries granulated vegan sugar.

Makes 1 large loaf or about 12 muffins

Preparation about 30 minutes

Can be made ahead

Freezes well

2 ½ c. whole wheat flour

1 ½ t. baking powder

½ t. baking soda

½ t. salt

¾ c. granulated vegan sugar

3 medium bananas, about 1 ¾ c. chopped

½ c. almond or other vegan milk

2 t. apple cider vinegar

1 t. vanilla extract

½ c. chopped walnuts (optional)

½ c. vegan chocolate chips or a fair trade chocolate bar, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 375°. Prepare baking pans or tins with oil or paper liners.

Mix dry ingredients.

Mix wet ingredients in a food processor until smooth.

Mix wet and dry ingredients together.

Add optional nuts and chocolate and mix well.

Bake 50-60 minutes for a loaf, or 40-45 minutes for muffins, until top is browned and toothpick comes out clean – you may have to try several times not to hit a chocolate chip.

Adapted largely from two recipes:

Banana Split Tea Bread in Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson.

Banana Bread from Post Punk Kitchen by Isa Moskowitz and Terry Romero.

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:

Plain 1/12th recipe: 155 calories/3.5 g protein (9.2%)/.6 g fat (3.6%)

With walnuts: 187 calories/4.3 g protein (9.3%)/3.8 g fat (18.4%)

With walnuts and chocolate chips: 233 calories/5 g protein (8.5%)/6.4 g fat (25.2%)

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April 24, 2010

Zucchini Bread or Muffins

Filed under: Breads, Breakfast, Higher Calorie Density — admin @ 1:02 am

Zucchini Muffins with Applesauce, Raisins, and Walnuts

Zucchini Bread or Muffins

I didn’t grow up on zucchini bread, although my stepfather grew huge zucchinis that my mother tried to find creative ways to use. I know i had it a few times before, but it wasn’t until my good friend Melissa made it for me that i grasped that it was delicious. Until then, i thought of zucchinis as something to add to other vegetables, not as a star of a recipe. Of course i had to make my own version, although hers was great and vegan too!

I made zucchini bread (which has little flecks of green) to go with the 10 Green Things Soup i also made.

Makes 1 loaf or about 16 muffins

Preparation about 70 minutes, including making applesauce

Can be made ahead

Freezes well

3 c. whole wheat flour

3 ½ t. baking powder

½ t. baking soda

1 t. salt

1 T. ground cinnamon

1 T. Ener-G egg replacer, dry

1 c. raw sugar

2/3 c. unsweetened applesauce

2 t. apple cider vinegar

2 t. vanilla extract

3 c. zucchini, grated

1 c. raisins

½ c. chopped walnuts (optional)

½ c. vegan milk (i used soymilk)

If you need applesauce, and i prefer homemade, cut up about 3 medium sized apples and cook them over medium heat with about ½ c. water until soft, and water reduced by at least half, about 10 minutes. Cool. Put the cooked apples in a blender and process. Measure out 2/3 c. of the puréed apples and save the rest for another recipe.

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Mix dry ingredients together.

Mix the wet ingredients together, except the vegan milk, and add to the dry ingredients, and mix briefly.

Add the grated zucchini, raisins, and optional walnuts, and stir these in well.

Add the vegan milk and mix briefly.

Pour into an oiled loaf pan or paper baking cup lined muffin tins.

Bake the loaf about 45-50 minutes, when the top is browned and a knife comes out clean. Use a knife to get a bigger sample of the inside, as it can be hard to tell if it is really crumbly or still too moist.

Bake the muffins about 35-40 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.

Inspired by Melissa’s Zucchini Bread and adapted from Zucchini Bread in How It All Vegan by the greatest cook i know Sarah Kramer, and her friend, Tanya Barnard.

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:

Per Serving – 1 muffin or 1/16^th loaf with walnuts: 188 calories/4.2 g protein (8.9%)/ 3 g fat (14.4%)

Per Serving – 1 muffin or 1/16^th loaf without walnuts: 163 calories/ 3.6 g protein (8.9%)/.6 g fat (3.3%)

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April 10, 2010

Oatmeal Whole Wheat Bread

Filed under: Breads, Breakfast, Higher Calorie Density — admin @ 1:06 am

Oatmeal Whole Wheat Bread

Oatmeal Whole Wheat Bread

The little loaf pans in the photograph are a birthday present, and came from Emerson Creek Pottery.

This is a favorite and quick bread to make. It goes with many things.

I’ve also made it with rice and sorghum flour and oatmeal, with great success, though many people with gluten sensitivities can’t handle the oatmeal.

If you want a less calorie dense bread, you can make it with water.

This bread is also good with about 2 T. poppy seeds, or Italian herbs, ½ c. fresh or ¼ c.dried. Or try it with cinnamon and sugar, about 1 T. cinnamon and ¼ c. more sugar.

Makes about 12 slices

Preparation about 15 minutes

Can be made ahead

Freezes well

2 c. rolled oats

2 c. whole wheat pastry flour

1 T. baking powder

1 t. salt

¼ c. vegan sugar

2 c. vegan milk

Preheat oven to 450°.

Mix dry ingredients. Add vegan milk. Pour into a lightly oiled loaf pan or three mini-loaf pans. Or, this would make about 24 muffins.

Bake about 30 minutes for the loaves, 25 for the muffins. Check with a toothpick to see if the inside of the loaf is still wet.

Adapted from Kissing Cousins Oat Bread by the terrific Sarah Kramer.

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:

Per Serving – using almond milk – 146 calories/5.1 g protein (13.9%)/1.7 g fat (10.2%)

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March 17, 2010

Irish Soda Bread

Filed under: Breads, Higher Calorie Density, Holidays, Irish Cuisine — admin @ 1:04 am

Whole Wheat Raisin Irish Soda Bread

Irish Soda Bread

My mom’s been making this as long as i can remember. I made it whole wheat, low fat, and vegan.

Makes about 12 servings

Preparation about 25 minutes

Can be made ahead although it is very good fresh out of the oven

Freezes well

4 c. whole wheat flour

1 ½ t. baking soda

1 t. baking powder

1 ½ t. salt (optional)

1 c. raisins

1 ½ c. vegan milk mixed with:

1 ½ T. lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350°.

Mix dry ingredients. Mix in raisins.

Mix vegan milk and lemon juice. You should see it curdle. Mix this in with the rest.

Knead on a floured board about 2 or 3 minutes until smooth and form it into a loaf. Put in on a baking pan or an oiled loaf pan. My mom made a round loaf and cut an X into the top.

Bake 50 – 60 minutes for a loaf of the whole recipe, about 25 minutes for half a loaf. It is done when it sounds hollow if you knock on it, the bottom is brown and the sides light brown. You can also insert a toothpick and see if it comes out clean.

I cut the loaf into fourths and then each fourth into at least three pieces.

Thanks Mom.

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:

Per serving – 228 calories/6.5 g protein (13.8%)/1.2 g fat (5.9%)

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February 27, 2010

Vegetable Pizza

Filed under: Breads, Higher Calorie Density, Holidays, Italian Cuisine, Main Dishes — admin @ 1:05 am

Pizza with Red Pepper, Broccoli, Zucchini, And Portabella Mushrooms on a Whole Wheat Herb Crust

Vegetable Pizza

It is possible to make a totally low fat pizza. If the crust is good, you hardly need a cheeze substitute. However, i offer one if you want it. You might want to mix in some crumbled tofu to make it even cheezier.

Mushroom Cheeze Sauce

Almost any veggie combination is good for pizza. For this one, i choose something green (broccoli), plus red peppers, zucchini (which after all is an Italian vegetable, at least in name), and onions (in this case portabella), and mushrooms. In my vegetarian days, we usually ordered a mushroom and black olive pizza.

I sliced my veggies to make them look pretty, but they are easier to eat if they are chopped. I sautéed the mushrooms and onions for about 4 minutes in ¼ c. water, then added the rest all at the same time and cooked another about 4 minutes. You definitely don’t want your veggies soggy, and they will cook more in the oven. In fact, you don’t need to put them in the oven, but i like the browned taste, especially without sauce on top.

A few olives make this pizza festive. They dry in the oven, so put them on just 5 minutes before you take the pizza out of the oven, just to warm them.

The tomato sauce is here, but cooked a little longer to make it thicker. And yes, i put mushrooms both in the sauce and on top of the pizza. But you don’t need to. I usually make more tomato sauce for a recipe than i need and freeze some. It takes no noticeably longer amount of time to do this, and then you have homemade (cheap) tomato sauce ready to go. If you have tomato sauce made for pasta, you can cook it about 45 minutes longer when you take it out of the freezer, or a little longer if it is still frozen when you start. Stir it frequently at the end, when the sauce starts getting as thick as you want.

I tried a slice of pizza without the tomato sauce, which you may know by now is not my most favorite food. I liked it quite a bit.

Yeast-free Pizza Crust

Makes 4 large servings

Preparation about 15 minutes

Can be made ahead

Freezes well

3 c. whole wheat pastry flour

1 t. baking powder

6 t. mixed dried or ¼ c. fresh Italian herbs (sage, oregano, marjoram, basil, and/or thyme)

½ t. salt (optional)

1 T. Ener-G egg replacer or other egg replacer such as ground flax seed to equal 2 eggs

1 c. vegan milk

2 – 8 T. water

Preheat the oven to 425°. It is important to have it hot when you put the pizza dough in. Line a large baking sheet (or two for a thinner crust) with parchment paper.

Mix the dry ingredients together. I just mix the egg replacer in with the flour, but you get a slightly different consistency if you mix the egg replacer with 2 T. of the water until frothy, and add with the wet ingredients.

Add the milk, and stir. Add a little more water at a time until the dough can be gathered into a ball and is not too sticky.

Roll out on a lightly floured board. I have just patted the dough onto the pan, but i like the smoother surface of the rolled dough.

Bake 10 minutes until lightly browned around the edges. You can poke the center with a toothpick to be sure it is not doughy.

At this point, you can add the topping(s) and eat, or bake now or later for about 20 minutes, also at 425°.

Pizza is to my mind also good cold or room temperature.

I also use this dough to make a vegetable pie with a creamy sauce for Frodo and Bilbo’s Birthday September 22^nd.

A salad with an Italian vinegary dressing goes well with pizza.

Adapted from La Dolce Vegan by the cook whose recipes most closely resemble my own combinations of flavors, Sarah Kramer.

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February 6, 2010

Scarborough Fair Bread

Filed under: Breads, Higher Calorie Density — admin @ 1:02 am

Scarborough Fair Bread with Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme... Also Marjoram

Recipe to Follow…

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January 13, 2010

Gluten-free Soy-free Cornbread

Filed under: Breads, Gluten Free, Higher Calorie Density — admin @ 1:01 am

Gluten-free Soy-free Cornbread

Gluten-free Soy-free Cornbread

Regular readers of LFVC will already know that when i cook for my husband it needs to be gluten and soy free as well as low fat and vegan. I am indebted to two vegan gluten-free blogs for educating me about how to cook delicious gluten-free dishes:

http://iamglutenfree.blogspot.com/

http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/

I used the education to make my old cornmeal and wheat flour cornbread into a gluten-free cornbread. I also pictured the cornbread in the 1/2/10 post.

If you can’t find masa harina, you can use more corn meal, though the texture will be different, it’s still pretty good.

If you are new to gluten-free baking, the mix of flours helps the texture and taste. The sorghum is sweet, the tapioca and potato both make the mix more doughy, each in a different way, and the xanthan gum thickens the mixture. Each adds something useful to the final bread.

Gluten-free Soy-free Cornbread

Makes about 17 muffins or 1 square 8 x 8 pan – servings depends on whether you have any other starch in the meal
Preparation about 30 minutes
Best eaten fresh out of the oven, but you can make ahead or freeze it if you must – it is still pretty good

1 c. whole grain cornmeal, yellow or white
½ c. masa harina
½ c. sorghum flour
¼ c. potato starch
¼ c. tapioca flour
3 T. vegan sugar
1 T. baking powder
½ t. baking soda
2 t. xanthan gum
½ t. salt
2 c. vegan milk

Preheat the oven to 350°. Prepare pan or muffin tins. If you use muffin tins and paper muffin cups, you don’t have to use any oil, but you do have to oil the baking pan. Mix the dry ingredients thoroughly in a large bowl. Add the vegan milk and stir it in just until the dry ingredients are saturated.

Mixture will be thick. Scoop the batter into the pan you’ve chosen – for muffins you use about ¼ c. each. Bake immediately as the baking powder is acting on the flours and you want the cornbread to bake when that has the maximum effect, which occurs in the first few minutes. Bake about 25 minutes for muffins, and 30 minutes for the pan of cornbread.

Original cornbread recipe was adapted from Albers Corn Meal box recipe

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:
For 1 out of 17 muffins per recipe using almond milk
Per muffin – 77 calories/1.3 g protein (6.9%)/.7 g fat (8.8%)

Total nutritional information of the recipe:
1314 calories/22.9 g protein/12.8 g fat

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January 2, 2010

Pumpkin Biscuits

Filed under: Breads, Breakfast, Higher Calorie Density — admin @ 1:03 am

Pumpkin Biscuits

Pumpkin Biscuits

Adding pumpkin to a low fat biscuit is a good way to get more flavor. I usually just add cinnamon to pumpkin biscuits, but if i want to make them more special, i add 1 t. cinnamon, ½ t. ginger, ½ t. nutmeg, and ¼ t. cloves to the mix. Pumpkin biscuits are good for a special breakfast, or for supper with a nice soup.

I like to roll the biscuits out and use a cooky cutter (i have so many nice ones) but you can also drop them onto the baking sheet with a spoon, although you might want to increase the vegan milk by about ¼ c.

Pumpkin Biscuits

Makes about 20 biscuits, which is about 4 servings
Preparation about 20 minutes
Best eaten as soon as they come from the oven
Freezes well but only for a couple of months

2 c. whole wheat flour
3 T. sugar
4 t. baking powder
½ t. salt
2 t. ground cinnamon
1 c. cooked mashed pumpkin

Preheat oven to 450°.

Mix dry ingredients. Add pumpkin and mix just until blended.

Roll on a lightly floured board, and cut out.

Bake about 9 minutes until firmer and light brown. The biscuits usually get brown on the bottom first, so you might want to flip one over to check.

My mom made pumpkin biscuits, so i give credit to her for these.

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:
Per serving – 261 calories/8 g protein (12.2%)/1 g fat (3.4%)

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December 28, 2009

Stollen – Cherry Whole Wheat Sweet Bread

Filed under: Breads, Breakfast, Feasts, Higher Calorie Density, Holidays — admin @ 1:01 am

Stollen - Cherry Whole Wheat Sweet Bread

My friend Heidi was thinking about having Stollen for New Year’s Day, so i decided to post this, even though to me Stollen is a Christmas bread, and i was planning to post this in early December of next year. So Heidi, this is for you, and i hope it will start a new tradition of New Year’s Stollen. Or… how about spring Stollen?

My mother has made Stollen for Christmas morning as far back as i can remember. She made it with candied cherries, and later, i made it with candied cherries and dried apricots. This year i thought i would try it with less sugar, and made it with thawed frozen sugarless cherries. It was great!

As a friend reminded me, kneading is hard when you haven’t done it before. It gets easier, and then you, or at least i forget that it was ever hard. But you have to knead bread regularly before you develop the right muscles. Don’t let this deter you. The bread will be worth it. I used to make bread about every week, but now i only make it about once a month, but i can still knead it, although not as easily as when I did it all the time.

My mother says:

“For many years, I have kneaded bread on the floor — on a bread
board, placed on towels. I started doing this when my children were
small so they could watch and participate. I would give the child a
small piece of dough to knead, but periodically I would switch the
child’s piece with a new piece broken off of the big mass I was
kneading and work the child’s old one into the big mass, so it ended
being well kneaded. In later years I continued kneading on the floor
so I could kneel over the board and put my whole weight behind the
kneading. Now I think I would get too tired, or not knead it with
the “force” necessary, if it wasn’t on the floor for me to bend over it!

I actually did many other cooking procedures on the floor so the
young child could easily watch and participate.”

I decorated the stollen with raspberries and basil leaves. The bread inside is a brownish red, like Georgia’s soil.

Stollen

Makes about 12 servings
Preparation about 25 minutes
Freezes okay
Best served the day it’s made, but it can be made ahead – you might want to decorate it just before serving

½ c. warm water – 108 degrees
1 package active yeast
¾ c. vegan milk
½ c. sugar
½ t. salt
1 c. fresh or frozen cherries
4 c. whole wheat pastry flour

Be sure to have the flour at room temperature, if you refrigerate your flours. Warm the water and the vegan milk. On my stove, this takes about 1 ½ minutes. If you get either too hot, measure out half of it and mix with cold water or vegan milk, depending on which you are cooling. Warm the cherries, too, if they are cold. Stir the yeast into the warm water and let bubble about 10 minutes.

Mix the sugar and salt into the yeast mixture. Add the cherries. Add the flour and mix well. I usually use my Kitchen Aid mixer to mix bread instead of kneading it. If you are going to knead the bread, put it on a floured board. Knead about 10 minutes.

My mother told me that at this point you can refrigerate the dough over night, so you can have fresh bread for breakfast. I haven’t tried it, but she is always right. Take it out when you first get up, and put it on or in a pan, as directed below, and let it rise – probably about an hour and a half, since it was cold.

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper, and form the bread into a loaf, and cover it with a damp cloth. Or you could use a loaf pan, but then you need to oil it. Put the bread dough in a warm place. I put it next to the stove, if i’m using it, or the heater, in the winter. In the summer i put it outside or in a room where the insulation isn’t as good, and it gets hot. Bread will rise if it is cooler, but it rises slowly. In a 70 degree room, it usually rises in an hour to double.

When the bread is almost doubled, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Bake 30 to 40 minutes, until the loaf sounds hollow when you tap it and is browner than the dough was.

When cool ice with:

2 c. powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
1 T. vegan milk
Green or red food coloring for Christmas, if desired

Decorate with cherries, or raspberries, holly leaves or basil leaves, or flowers, or whatever your heart dictates.

Keeps a couple of days, but is best the first day, or frozen until a couple of hours before serving – depending on how large the loaf is, or whether it is sliced.

Nutritional information- not guaranteed to be accurate:
Per serving – 259 calories/6.3 g protein (9.7%)/1.1 g fat (3.8%)

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