100% Whole Wheat No-Knead Bread

At last! After months and months of experimenting I’ve finally nailed the 100% Whole Wheat Bread baking.

If you’ve browsed through the archives you may have noticed my obsession with bread making. And not just any bread making but the no-knead technique brought to the attention of the masses (I’m totally the masses and love it!) by the New York Times back in November 2006.  I’ve baked many many loves.  For the most part they have all been delicious but have varied in success based on my flour ratios, add-ins, moisture etc.  The goal has always been to make a fabulous all whole wheat loaf.

After A LOT of research I came across a site (mentioned in my last post about the bread) that suggested using Gluten Flour.  At the time I hadn’t even heard of gluten flour but I went over to my local Bulk Barn and picked some up and got to baking.  I tried it first on a loaf with a white/whole wheat mix.  The loaf was great and rose very well.  I knew that 100% would be next.

For my maiden voyage into the 100% whole wheat effort I used of course 3 cups of whole wheat flour, about 3tbsp of gluten flour, just shy of 2 cups of water and the usual recommendations for salt and yeast.  I have to say the results were great.  The loaf wasn’t too dense but it had the great nutty whole wheat flavour.  The loaf rose well, not as great as my last mixed loaf but pretty impressive for the whole wheat.  Part of me thinks that I left it to rise for too long.  I didn’t time things out properly so the first rise was about 20hrs.  Next time I’d monitor it more closely so that I wouldn’t lose any height in the first rise.

Definitely delicious and a great alternative to buy airy supermarket loaves with HFCS.  Also a great alternative to buying $6 loaves at the bakery or gourmet shop.  Now that I think of it… I kind of want to put another loaf together…

Vegan Pumpkin Muffins

This one is from the vault of my brief period as a vegan. I have a few recipes that I haven’t posted from that time that may pop up every once in a while. I’m back from a brief hiatus. Somewhere between trying to get my taxes done, accomplishing life goals and regular yoga practice posting has fallen to the wayside. Cooking hasn’t fallen so much but it’s the posting.

But I’m back and back logged… so much more to come!

Back to the muffins.

As I’ve made it pretty clear I’m a fan of pumpkin flavoured anything. I love when fall rolls around and everyone brings out their pumpkin flavoured treats. I had some leftover frozen pumpkin puree from the fall and figured that it would be a good time to experiment with some vegan muffins. I’ve had vegan muffins before. Some were awful and some were amazing. My favourite vegan muffins are the vegan blueberry muffins at Whole Foods in the Time Warner Center in New York. They’re GREAT. I don’t even buy their regular muffins because the vegan ones are so good. So I pretty much wanted to recreate that experience.

The endeavour was mildly successful. The muffins were great the first day or two but beyond that they got rubbery and weird. I somehow made it to day 4 with them but dumped the rest. They would probably have been better with some toasting.

I was very impressed by the height of the muffins. They got great height and a nice dome. But I guess that would be attributed to the baking powder. That aside the muffins were delicious. I sprinkled some pumpkin seeds on top for kicks and they were great and added a nice crunchy. If I were doing this again I would probably add some walnuts because nuts are always a great addition to muffins.

Would I make these again? Probably only if I were in the mood to make muffins but didn’t have any dairy products. They weren’t bad, just not amazing — especially past day two.

vegan pumpkin muffins
1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1 cup pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 Tablespoons molasses

sift together all the dry ingredients and set aside. in another bowl whisk together the remaining wet ingredients. pour wet mixture into dry and combine with a fork until just mixed. do not over mix or your muffins will suffer in texture. pour batter into muffin cups about 2/3 full and bake for 18 – 20 minutes. these muffins are a little chewy when they are hot so allow to cool completely before eating.

Recipe from Bunnyfoot

http://bunnyfoot.blogspot.com/2006/01/vegan-pumpkin-muffins.html