vegan bread
Posted by tiffstain on Oct 14, 2007 · Member since Jul 2007 · 35 posts
i attempted to make zucchini bread ( i don't EVER bake.) after finding this great recipe online. It tastes pretty good, but it falls apart really easily, and is pretty sticky. BUT, it's completely vegan, not even any egg replacer or anything.
My question is: what is it in breads that make it stick together and dry (basically the opposite of how my bread turned out)?
Did you bake it to long? I don't know if that has anything to do with it. Maybe
wellll, egg replacers make it stick together. and since the recipe didn't use any, that's proably why it was crumbly. the thing with eggs in baking is that they bind everything together, so it's usually a good idea to use something with similar properties. i've found that flax works much better than applesauce or mashed bananas
and a lot of vegan baked stuff uses maple syrup as a sweetener, so if that is in there it might explain the stickiness. this can also be fixed by just baking it longer next time.
It sounds like it was underbaked, not overbaked. From my experience, though, MOST breads are vegan, so there's no reason it shouldn't hold together. Bread is notoriously difficult to get right, so it's really about perfecting it. Letting it rise long enough, and kneading it properly will help it to get "lighter," (not as dense).
Bread recipes tend to be simple and deceptively easy looking. It's all in the preparation. (and practice!)
ok, here's the recipe:
3/4 C whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 C unbleached white flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 C walnut oil
1/2 maple syrup
1/4 C plain soymilk
1/4 apple juice
1 C grated zucchini
the directions said to bake @ 350 for 45 minutes, and i tried to squeeze some of the liquid out of the zucchini, but wasn't sure if it needed to be totally dry.
any reccommendations you bakers have would be great, i would love to try to make another loaf!
I'd take out the walnut oil and use 1/2 c. ground flax instead. (The ground flax will act as an oil and a binder, plus add fiber)
I'd cut the maple syrup to 1/3 c.
Increase the soy milk to 1/2 c. and take out the apple juice.
Possibly adding more soymilk one Tablespoon at a time, if needed...
I think cutting down on the maple syrup and taking out the apple juice will get rid of the sticky problem. The ground flax should help bind.
Yes, you should squeeze the zucchini!!! Just squeeze out the excess liquid so none drips off, not dry as a bone. This will keep the center of your loaf from being gooey.
Oh yeah and I'd add some chopped walnuts...1/2c. or so... but that's just me.. ;)
I just wanted to point out that while most YEAST breads (breads that contain yeast and have to rise) are vegan, most QUICK breads are not. Sweet or tea breads--like zucchini bread, banana bread, pumpkin bread etc--don't contain yeast and traditional recipes rely on eggs to make them rise. Most recipes require 2-3 eggs for a loaf.
If you are making a vegan quick bread, you need a fair amount of leavening agent, like EnerG or baking powder. And for best results texture-wise, you will probably have to use white flour. I'm not saying there aren't good vegan quick bread recipes out there that use whole grain flours, but these tend to be more dense. Especially if you have a moist ingredient, like shredded zucchini or mashed pumpkin, you want to make the batter as light as possible or your end result may be too dense and soggy.
As far as underbaking--you might try an oven thermometer to make sure you have really preheated long enough to reach the correct starting temp. You want your bread to go straight into the HOT oven.
FWIW, I made this recipe yesterday and it was fabulous. I subbed the eggs with Ener-G, and everything else was already vegan. My other modifications were 2 parts WW flour and 1 part white whole wheat, and I also subbed out about 1/4 of the oil with peanut butter. It was sooo tasty.
I just wanted to point out that while most YEAST breads (breads that contain yeast and have to rise) are vegan, most QUICK breads are not. Sweet or tea breads--like zucchini bread, banana bread, pumpkin bread etc--don't contain yeast and traditional recipes rely on eggs to make them rise. Most recipes require 2-3 eggs for a loaf.
Good call! I totally forgot about that.
I just wanted to point out that while most YEAST breads (breads that contain yeast and have to rise) are vegan, most QUICK breads are not. Sweet or tea breads--like zucchini bread, banana bread, pumpkin bread etc--don't contain yeast and traditional recipes rely on eggs to make them rise. Most recipes require 2-3 eggs for a loaf.
If you are making a vegan quick bread, you need a fair amount of leavening agent, like EnerG or baking powder. And for best results texture-wise, you will probably have to use white flour. I'm not saying there aren't good vegan quick bread recipes out there that use whole grain flours, but these tend to be more dense. Especially if you have a moist ingredient, like shredded zucchini or mashed pumpkin, you want to make the batter as light as possible or your end result may be too dense and soggy.
As far as underbaking--you might try an oven thermometer to make sure you have really preheated long enough to reach the correct starting temp. You want your bread to go straight into the HOT oven.
I have to sort of disagree with this, I prefer my zuchini bread dense and whole grain. If you're looking for a cake-like quick bread then maybe white flour is a better choice.
And this particluar recipe has plenty of baking powder and baking soda/salt to leaven...
OOPS... maybe not I'd increase the salt to 1/2 tsp.
so i ended up just trying a batch with 1 cup of the white flour and 1/2 cup of the whole wheat pastry flour, without substituting any of the other ingredients, and squeezed the hell out of the zucchini and it turned out great! it held together a lot better and wasn't so sticky. i took it to work and it was a big success!
Glad to hear that it worked out better for you than last time!