flaxseeds | anunrefinedvegan

Apr 30 2012

Bread, Quickbread

Oat Quickbread with Sunflower Seeds and Flax

One night not too long ago as I was contemplating dinner, I realized that I had no bread. Bread with dinner is nearly a must in our household – probably a holdover from when I was a kid and mom always had a loaf to go along with dinner (with luck, a crusty Italian one from Alesci’s). Even the freezer was bare. Luckily I remembered a quick and delicious recipe for oat quickbread and within 15 minutes, a batch was baking in the oven. I messed with the original recipe, of course, and now can’t remember from which cookbook the recipe came. I replaced whole oats with slightly ground oats (it’s a texture thing), used whole wheat flour for white, veganized and de-sugared.

Oat Quickbread with Sunflower Seeds and Flax
Serves 8

2 cups quick-cooking oats (or lightly grind regular oats)
2 cups whole wheat flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. flaxseed meal
2 cups soy milk
4 oz. unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup sunflower seeds

Preheat oven to 450F and lightly oil a loaf pan – or use an oversized pie plate as I did. (It looks prettier, I think, and bakes faster.)

In a large bowl, combine the oats, flour, flaxseed meal, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the soy milk and applesauce. Stir this mixture into the oat mixture and add the sunflower seeds. Stir just enough to make sure there are no dry spots.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25-45 minutes (depending on which type of pan you use). Bottom of loaf should sound hollow when tapped. Let cool a bit before cutting and serving.

(I think this would also be tasty with the addition of dried cranberries and/or toasted walnuts. Add a couple of tablespoons of maple syrup if you like a sweeter bread.)

Tagged applesauce, easy, flaxseeds, oats, postaday, quick, quickbread, soy milk, sunflower seeds, whole wheat flour

Mar 31 2012

38 Comments

Bread, Yeast Breads

Whole Wheat Pita Bread

When Kel and I moved to the boonies, one of the items I didn’t even think about missing was whole wheat pita bread. But miss it I did. In D.C., there were two Whole Foods within walking distance of my office and several good bakeries nearby, so getting whole wheat pitas was never a problem. By contrast, the stores where I now shop offer bland, hard, refined pitas that have that unidentifiable commercial bread taste. I wasn’t having any of that, so I went in search of recipes.

Pita bread – though one of the easiest breads to make (I now know) – was a mystery to me. How on earth was I going to get that pocket in there? Turns out the magic happens in the oven. Without you even asking. It’s very cool to watch the flat rounds of dough puff up. The jumping off recipe for this came from Epicurious. I upped the whole wheat flour, omitted the olive oil and added flaxseeds (cuz they look great) and dried thyme for that nice warm, summery flavor they impart.

Whole Wheat Pita Bread
Makes 8

1 (1/4-ounce) package active dry yeast (2 1/2 teaspoons)
1 tsp. agave nectar
1 1/2 cups warm water (105–115°F)
2 cups bread flour or high-gluten flour, plus additional for kneading
1 cup whole-wheat flour
2 tbsp. flaxseeds, optional
1 tsp. dried thyme, optional
1 tsp. salt

Stir together yeast, agave nectar, and 1/2 cup warm water in a large bowl, then let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If mixture doesn’t foam, discard and start over with new yeast.)

While yeast mixture does its thing, stir together flours in another bowl. Whisk 1/2 cup flour mixture into yeast mixture until smooth, then cover with plastic wrap and let stand in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled in bulk and bubbly, about 45 minutes. Stir in salt, flaxseeds, thyme, remaining warm water, and remaining 2 1/2 cups flour mixture until dough forms.

Turn out dough onto a floured surface and knead, working in just enough additional flour to keep dough from sticking, until dough is smooth and elastic, 8 to 10 minutes. Form dough into a ball and put in an lightly oiled bowl, turning to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rise in draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Punch down dough and cut into 8 pieces. Form each piece into a ball. Flatten 1 ball, then roll out into a 6 1/2- to 7-inch round on floured surface with a rolling pin. Transfer round to one of the baking sheets. Make 7 more rounds in the same manner, arranging them on baking sheets. Loosely cover pitas with clean kitchen towels (not terry cloth) and let stand at room temperature 30 minutes.

Set oven rack in lower third of oven and remove other racks. Preheat oven to 500°F.

Transfer 4 pitas, one at a time, directly onto oven rack. Bake until just puffed and pale golden, about 2 minutes. Turn over with tongs and bake 1 minute more. Cool pitas on a wire rack 2 minutes, then stack and wrap loosely in a kitchen towel to keep pitas warm. Bake remaining 4 pitas in same manner. Serve warm. These freeze very well when wrapped in plastic wrap and sealed in freezer bags.

Tagged dried thyme, easy, Epicurious, flaxseeds, healthy, pita bread, whole wheat, whole wheat pita bread

Oct 30 2011

Did You Know?

I’m as addicted to food and cooking magazines as much as I am to cookbooks (see An Autobiography in Cookbooks for more on that) and after several months, old issues start to pile up and I get nervous and anxious about it until I can’t stand it anymore. That’s when I brew a cup of tea, get a pair of scissors and pile the stack of magazines on the dining room table and do a little surgery, cutting out the recipes that I think I’ll use someday. I came across some interesting, perhaps useful factoids while eviscerating a fairly recent issue of Cooking Light. Observe:

I’m a fan of wheat germ and add it to pancake batter, sprinkle it on top of my morning oatmeal and use it in muffins and cookies as well – and that’s a good thing – but wheat germ is not a whole grain. A whole grain consists of bran, endosperm and germ. Wheat germ is…only the germ. So sprinkle and enjoy, but make sure you’re getting true whole grains elsewhere in your diet.

Garlic. If it’s a savory dish, chances are excellent that I’ll be adding copious amounts of it. I can get a little lazy sometimes with the mincing, especially when I’m in a hurry, but the more you mince, the more you release heart-healthy thiosulfinates, which prevent blood platelets from clumping – keeping your arteries clear. So mince for everything you are worth! Or to make the task a little easier, get yourself a kitchen tool you never thought you needed (but will cherish): a microplaner. One of these bad boys makes quick work of garlic and really releases those thiowhatevermajiggies.

Do I love flaxseeds? You bet your cute, little shiny seeds, I do! Let me count the ways: they’re a vegan’s omega-3 friend, they replace eggs in baked goods like a champ and add a warm, nutty flavor to cereal, muffins, pancakes, cookies and the occasional salad. And they love us back – but only if the little seeds are ground first. You can purchase flaxseed meal or make your own with whole seeds using a spice/coffee grinder. Keep either variety in the refrigerator or freezer to retain freshness.

Shake it like you mean it – your soy milk, that is. You’ve probably seen it at the bottom of your soy milk carton – a thick white…sludge. Yum. But that sludge contains stuff that is good for you, namely the calcium that has been added to the soy milk. Shake, drink, enjoy.

Are all oatmeals created equal? For the most part, yes. Whether it’s the long-cooking Scottish variety, rolled or instant (which is pre-steamed to cut down on cooking time), they all contain the same vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber – even though you probably feel more virtuous eating the big, slow-cooking groats. I would suggest, however, that you avoid those frightening packets of oatmeal that contain way too much sugar and salt and strange chemical flavorings. For an overnight solution to the fast and healthy breakfast dilemma, see my post, Morning Fuel, Made the Night Before.

Tagged flaxseeds, garlic, microplaner, oatmeal, soymilk, wheat germ

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Oat Quickbread with Sunflower Seeds and Flax

Whole Wheat Pita Bread

Did You Know?

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