baked vegan french toast

I had some silken tofu leftover from my zucchini skillet pie, which isn't something I usually have around, so I tried some french toast batter with my cardamom bread. I've tried a number of versions (with and without silken tofu) and it never worked, exactly (disclaimer: I have a lot of trouble with this, apparently, and also never tried a batter with lots of flour in it). The batter would flow around everywhere and not ever quite solidify and toast up properly. In defense of my frying-things skills, when I still ate eggs and dairy, I didn't have trouble making regular, egg-laden french toast, and I'm pretty sure the last time I tried to do that I was 14 years old. 

As I was searching for recipes to try, I came across a couple baked french toast recipes. Mostly they weren't vegan though, and those that were didn't use the kinds of ingredients I had on hand or wanted to use. One recipe I saw in the comments of someone else's recipe was pretty much only almond butter and nondairy milk, which sounded awesome, especially with my almond-sliver-topped bread. This is the result of combining that with all the other things I thought would make tasty french toast. I tried just baking it once, and it didn't turn out the way I'd hoped, so I broiled my toast the next time, to much more satisfactory results. 

BAKED VEGAN FRENCH TOAST 

Batter Ingredients: 

1 cup silken tofu 

1 cup soy milk 

1/4 cup maple syrup, honey, or agave nectar

1 tbsp almond butter 

1 tbsp cornstarch

cinnamon 

(makes batter for about 8 thick slices of bread)

Topping ingredients (optional): 

slivered almonds

blueberries 

maple syrup

Blend the ingredients together. Pour into a shallow dish and add all the bread slices that will fit (but still getting soaked with batter). Let the bread soak in the batter for several minutes on each side. Repeat with as many slices of bread as you're making. 

Place on a baking sheet and broil (on medium or normal, if you can set your broiler to anything) for about 3 minutes on the first side and about 2 minutes on the other, until golden and crispy. 

Serve with a smidge of maple syrup (there's sweetener in the batter, after all!), toasted slivered almonds, and blueberries.

simple & easy vegan banana bread

I've been making some variation on the Tassajara Bread Book's banana bread since I was a young child. It's fun and easy. (The only reason I don't say "quick" is that it has to bake for about 45 minutes.) I tried mixing this up in my food processor, and I had my dough ready before my oven was done preheating! It's the perfect way to use bananas that are turning inedibly ripe. Mine were practically liquified when I dumped them in my work bowl. Also, this is the easiest not-usually-vegan recipe ever to vegan-ize. Bananas are an egg substitute, so you just leave out the egg.

Okay, one more thing. I've got to toot my own horn for a second. This banana bread is so awesome, people who don't like bananas like it. Not all people who dislike bananas (I'm looking at you, Deborah). But others (hi Bridget!) have at least been kind enough to tell me that they enjoy my banana bread.

SIMPLE & EASY VEGAN BANANA BREAD

Ingredients:

1  cup white flour 

1 cup wheat germ

1/2 cup canola oil, or other flavorless oil 

1/4 - 1/2 cup sugar (if your bananas are as ripe as mine, that is, about to start rotting in a few minutes, go toward the 1/4 cup!) 

about 2 cups ripe banana pulp (I used 3 bananas) 

1/4 tsp salt 

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mash the bananas a little, then add everything else and mix it together until combined pretty evenly. Place in a greased loaf pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until fork or toothpick in center comes out dry.

vegan braided cardamom bread with slivered almonds

Another recipe modified from the Savory Way, in this case quite heavily, in order to make it vegan and adapt to my tastes and what I have on hand. I love having this bread on hand as a quick (once it's baked) snack or breakfast, loaded with earth balance or even a dab of honey. 

VEGAN BRAIDED CARDAMOM BREAD 

Ingredients: 

1 ½ cups soy milk

½ cup earth balance

1 ½ tsp ground cardamom

½ cup sugar

1 tsp salt

grated zest of 1 lemon, or a couple tablespoons of lemon juice

a ¼ oz package active dry yeast

6 tbsp cornstarch or ground flax seed mixed separately with 6 tbsp cold water for dough

6 cups or more all-purpose flour

2 tbsp cornstarch / flax seed mixed with 2 tbsp cold soy milk or water or melted earth balance for glaze

½ cup slivered almonds, approximately

sugar for topping

Heat the soy milk with the earth balance, cardamom, sugar, salt, and lemon zest. Stir occasionally until the earth balance is melted and the sugar is dissolved. When the mixture has cooled to lukewarm, gently stir in the yeast and let the mixture stand for 10 minutes or until the yeast is nice and foamy.

Add the first cornstarch/flax seed mixture to the milk and yeast mixture. Next begin adding the flour, whisking it in to make a smooth batter until it becomes too thick; then change to a wooden spoon and continue adding flour until it is again too thick, at which point you can turn the dough out onto a floured surface and begin kneading. Work in more flour as needed to keep it from sticking. Knead for at least 7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and shiny; then set it aside in a bowl that has been slightly filmed with earth balance or a flavorless oil. Rub a little of the earth balance or oil on the top; then cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap and set it aside in a warm place to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. When the dough has risen, turn it out onto the counter.

Braid into one big loaf. Glaze with the second cornstarch or flax seed mixture, press in the pine nuts or almond slivers, and sprinkle the surface with the sugar. Loosely cover the bread and set aside again to rise until about doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.

While the bread is rising, preheat the oven to 350F. Just before putting it in the oven, check to see if the dough has expanded so that some areas are now unglazed and unsugared. Brush more glaze on these areas and cover them with a sprinkling of sugar and more almonds / pine nuts. Bake the bread until is a deep golden brown on top, about 40-45 minutes. Allow to cool before eating. 


PS: this bread was also on the lovely baking is hot! 

mushrooms on toast, other snacks

Another favorite recipe from Deborah Madison's the Savory Way, mushrooms on toast provencale style. Pictured above and below with an herb salad, mug of chai, and crispy kale. I had a large, late pancake breakfast and needed something green and filling to keep me from making a meal of and entire pacakge of corn chips and an entire jar of salsa. There are probably as many ways of making crispy kale as there are kale-lovers; mine is only slightly different from the crispy sesame kale recipe in the vegan yumyum cookbook (not on vegan yumyum's site, but the veggie gal has posted the recipe). My herb salad was a mix of store-bought and garden greens: baby arugula, parsley, sorrel, baby spinach, chives, celery, sunflower seeds, and walnuts.

MUSHROOMS ON TOAST PROVENCALE STYLE

Ingredients: (makes 2 generous servings)

1/2 pound firm white mushrooms 

1/4 cup mixed light and virgin olive oils

salt 

coarsely ground or crushed peppercorns 

1 garlic clove, chopped 

lemon juice

2 or 3 slices of bread 

2 tablespoons chopped parsley 

2 teaspoons chopped marjoram and 1/2 teaspoon chopped thyme, or several pinches of herbes de Provence

Cut the mushrooms into quarters. Toss them with the olive oil, a light sprinkling of salt, the pepper, garlic, a squeeze of lemon, and the dried herbs, if using. Set aside to marinate for at least 15 minutes. Just before you're ready to eat, toast the bread. Heat a saute pan, add the mushrooms, and saute them briskly, until they've begun to color. Taste and season with more salt and lemon juice. Add the parsley and marjoram, toss, and serve the mushrooms over the toast. 

A similar salad, with chimichurri on toast. Chimichurri is really a sauce for grilled meat, but I love just spreading it on toast, or serving it as an appetizer with crackers. It's also great on seitan, and probably on fake meat. But on toast! Yum. 

gushy goopy garlic bread: a garlicky, vegenaise-laden vegan comfort food

This is based on my father's garlic bread, though of course mine is vegan! It's gushier and goopier than you may expect, but all this pulls together to be oh-so comforting and worth it. Like any garlic bread, this is a great side dish or snack. With the garlic-breath hazard and bits of green to get stuck in teeth though, probably not something not something to serve at dinner parties. I've sometimes used 2 whole heads of garlic for a single sliced baguette; if you are not as fond of garlic, this is probably too much. Baking does mellow the flavor, but if you're worried, try it with only a couple cloves.

GUSHY GOOPY GARLIC BREAD

ingredients:

half a baguette or so, sliced thinly 

about half a head of garlic, diced or pressed as small as possible

4 - 7 tablespoons vegenaise 

1 -2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 

a few leaves of fresh basil, chopped, to garnish

preheat the oven to 375F.

mix the diced garlic, vegenaise, and olive oil in a small bowl. if it looks like not enough to cover all the bread you want, thin with more olive oil and/or add more vegenaise. play around to get a texture that looks good to you. using a fork to spread over the baguette, distribute the gushy mix across your slices.

place on a baking sheet and bake until everything is golden and the bread is crispy, 15 - 20 minutes. garnish with fresh basil.