Vintage Homemaking: Home baked yumm yumms.

I bake a lot. Being vegan, I almost have to. I've never been the non animal product eater who indulges in overly processed soy substitutes. I don't get the point. I don't eat meat, so I'm going to eat something that is engineered to taste like it?

I'm also pretty big opponent of modern food production. I've read a lot of the books and I've seen a lot of the documentaries on the subject, but that's for another time. Mostly I just like simple foods made with basic ingredients. I bake that way too.

For the holidays a few years ago I decided to make some vegan baked goods for my family and friends. I made a whole wheat bread and a cinnamon sweet bread loaf.

I'm all about presentation, so I made some 'feed sack' pouches for the breads, and scanned some of my old button cards, photoshopped the recipes onto them, then distressed the printouts to make them look old. The packages turned out great and were a big hit.

This holiday I'm still up to my old staples, but I've added a few tricks.

Here are some of my most requested recipes.

Most recipes I've gotten from VegWeb, but I've made my own alterations to them. Some being ingredients. I'm a big proponent for good quality ingredients. One of my favorite brands is Bob's Red Mill. Because of them, I haven't purchased bread in over 3 years! They make *the best* dry active yeast I have ever found. They also sell it in 8oz bags, not those silly packets, and its priced great. It's hard to find retail, but totally worth it to buy online. I generally put in an order for some things every few months. I also love their rolled oats, their whole wheat flour, and flax seeds. Superb.

Another ingredient that I've just started using that has totally won me over is Cocoanut Oil. Use it in place of any oil in any recipe. I used it in my latest batch of whole wheat bread and it was AMAZING. I'm sold. I bought a half gal. jug from Vitacost.

Okay, onto the recipes!

Wheat Bread

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups warm water
3 cups whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons of yeast
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup cocoanut oil
1/4 cup soy milk
3 to 4 cups unbleached white flour (I sub with 1 cup of whole rolled oats)
2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Mix water, yeast and 1 tablespoon of the molasses together in a large bowl. Pour in the 3 cups of wheat flour and mix well. Cover the bowl with a towel and place in a dry place. Let it sit for a minimum of 20 minutes, up to a day.

Pour in the rest of the molasses, oil, soy milk and salt. Mix together. Begin adding white flour, a 1/2 cup at a time. After the third cup, it begins to get dense. Start to knead 1/2 cup of extra flour at a time. Knead it for 5 to 10 minutes until it is smooth and elastic.

Cut the dough into two, equal parts. Shape them into loaves and place them into two, 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 greased bread pans.

Cover pans with a towel in a warm place and let the dough double in size. This will take at least an hour to an hour and a half.

Bake loaves at 350 degrees F for 35-40 minutes.

Store in a vintage bread box for extra authenticity :)

Banana Bread

(my favorite breakfast is a banana muffin and soy yogurt with some maple syrup in it)

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed bananas (Takes 2-3 Bananas)
1/2 cup cocoanut Oil
equivalent of 2 or 3 Eggs (2 tbls flax seed, 2 tbls corn starch, 2 tbls oil, 4 tbls boiling water: mix and set aside)
1/3 cup soy-buttermilk*

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Mix flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl.

Mix bananas, oil, and buttermilk* in a medium mixing bowl.

Combine the banana mixture with the large bowl containing dry ingredients, and stir well. Add the 'Egg' in and stir well.

Pour into a greased 9x5 inch bread pan, or cupcake tins.

Bake in 325 degree oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes (30-35 min for cupcakes), or until a toothpick in the middle comes out clean.

*To make buttermilk, combine 1 cup soymilk with 1 tablespoon of vinegar. This can be used on a 1:1 ratio with buttermilk, so 1/3 cup of this = 1/3 cup buttermilk.

Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup cocoanut oil
2 teaspoons vinegar
2 cups soy milk

Directions:

Place all dry ingredients well.

Mix vinegar into soy milk set aside. Mix all wet ingredients with dry. Add soy milk and mix well.

Bake at 350 F for 35-40 minutes for 9x12 cake pan, or 20-25 min for cupcakes.

'Cream Cheese' Icing/Glaze

Ingredients:

1 cup tofruti
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt

Mix until desired consistency. Will be a bit runny, but can be firm. Add cornstarch if thicker icing is desired.

Lemon Squares

Ingredients:

Crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup margarine
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Filling:
3/4 cup apple sauce
3/4 cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3-4 lemons, zested and juiced

Topping:
powdered sugar, optional


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. For crust: In a bowl, combine crust ingredients and press into 8 X 8" pan. Add an additional tbl of margarine to mix if needed. Bake for 15 minutes.

**Tip**

Once crust is cool, spray sides of pan with non stick spray to keep filling from sticking to pan.

2. For filling: While crust is baking mix the filling ingredients together. Pour over the crust that has been cooled for 15 min, and bake 20 minutes more, or until set. Cool.

3. For topping: Sift powdered sugar on top.

I completely recommend all of these tasty recipes.

The bread in particular. It's amazing.

To close the post, I thought I'd include more baking tips from my 1003 Household Hints book.

Enjoy!