Book Review: Vegan Baking Classics – With Recipes

A few times a week I peruse Amazon for the newest in freebie Kindle downloads – there are often quite a few, although one must wade through a lot of junk to find gems (Lets just say that Amazon has an ample supply of ‘Mommy-Porn’ it seems). They are there though, Vegan Baking Classics: Delicious, Easy-to-Make Traditional Favorites is one of them. The print book came out a few years ago and is now available via Kindle. The free books change often, so don’t hesitate to “buy”, if you wait you could miss it. And you don’t need a Kindle either. You can read via a computer, laptop, iPad and many phones (I have reading apps on my iPad and Nokia Lumia 800 Windows phone + I read via Amazon Cloud on my Mac). This is one to grab!

BTW, I post links to the free books on our Facebook Page, so if you haven’t checked our page out, you should! I often post things there that don’t make it here, such as freebies and coupon deals.

I was reading the book on my phone while making dinner last night and it was good enough to get me to start baking muffins for dessert and lay out the ingredients for pancakes in the morning. What truly got me pulled in was the simplicity of the recipes. Easy to follow, easy ingredients. Lots of choices, from savory to sweet, breakfast to dessert.

I adapted the two recipes a bit, using almond milk versus soy. Use what you prefer. As well, I used high-end foil muffin liners. I hate cleaning muffin tins, paper liners are horrid and stick. The Reynolds StayBrite® ones that are foil inside paper on the outside are worth the cost, they peel right off.

Something else? I caved recently and let Kirk get me a package of Misto oil sprayers from Costco. Years ago we had an oil sprayer that was awful. The Misto one seems better and works nicely – I had hated that old one so much it kept me from buying a new one for many years. Having said all this, the Costco deal was good. A pack of two for $19.99 and then on sale with a ‘no-coupon’ needed. It was $16 I think for two? And should it break I can always take it back to Costco…..but for now it worked nicely in spritzing the griddle when making my pancakes!

Apple Muffins

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup Earth Balance Buttery stick (or butter for non-vegan), melted
• ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 2 cups white whole wheat flour
• ½ cup granulated sugar, preferably organic
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp fine sea salt
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• 1½ cups apple, peeled, cored and diced (about 3 apples)

Topping –

• ¼ cup granulated sugar, preferably organic
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°, line a 12 count muffin tin with foil liners.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the flour through nutmeg together.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the milk, ‘butter’ and applesauce together. Add the dry to wet, stir till just mixed. Add in 1 cup of the apples, gently fold in.

Divide between the muffin cups (they will be full). Sprinkle the remaining apples on top, gently pushing down.

Stir the topping together, sprinkle over the tops of the muffins.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, till golden and a toothpick comes out clean. Let rest for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. These freeze well and make a great breakfast for toddlers…..

Makes 12 muffins

Heart-Healthy Oat Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quick cooking oats
• 1 cup white whole wheat flour
• 2 Tbsp baking powder
• 2 Tbsp granulated sugar, preferably organic
• ½ tsp fine sea salt
• 1½ cups unsweetened almond milk
• ¼ cup water
• ¼ cup neutral vegetable oil

Directions:

Preheat a large griddle or skillet over medium heat.

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Whisk the wet together, add to dry and stir till just mixed.

Spritz a little oil on your skillet, drop ¼ cup of batter, cook until bubbles are breaking on top and bottom is golden, flip over and cook other side.

Repeat as needed till you run out of batter.

Makes about 9 pancakes. Mine were um…on the “healthy” side of large. Yours might get more pancakes with a less heavy-handed dumping of batter. They do freeze well – also a bonus for a toddler in the morning.

~Sarah