Friday, September 10, 2010

The continued quest for bread

I love my honey oat bread and plan to make many more loaves of it.  But to be honest I've had difficulty with the rising of the bread.  I wonder if it's because I have to sub out the eggs for silken tofu, I also wonder though if I wasn't using the wrong size pan.  I read that if you want to use a 9x5 pan then you should double the recipe.  I had no idea!  I will try the honey oat bread recipe again using my old 8x4 and see if that doesn't help.

In the meantime I found a vegan bread recipe that did not require any substitutions.  I tried it out early this week.  Oh...my.....goodness!  It works perfectly!  I had high hopes when I saw how beautifully it had risen and even had a sharp crisp edge develop as it lifted itself out of the pan.  I also tried a new method for the rising.  I had read on another blog about a steam method.  Take a clean towel, soak it, wring it out and warm it up in the microwave for 60 seconds.  Place your bread pan on the towel and shut the door.  Check on it later, reheat the towel if you need it to rise more.  Worked great. 



I was really excited to see how the bread had baked.  Nice and crispy, pretty brown color, that wonderful hollow thunk when you tap the loaf.  I set it aside and said a little prayer to the bread Gods that the loaf not fall during cooling. 


They answered my prayer.  My loaf did not fall.  My spirits were lifted.  I CAN do this!  Woo hoo!!



Sliced into that beauty after it had fully cooled to make my son a PB&J sandwich.  That is a pretty loaf of bread!  Taste and texture are both very similar to gluten full bread.  Paulo gave it his stamp of approval and declared "bake more of that bread Momma!"  Ok Paulo, I will!



4 comments:

  1. Place the pan on the towel in the oven. I need detailed step by step! Talk to me like I am 5, sista. Looks freaking amazing!!

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  2. Soak a clean kitchen towel, wring it out, place it in the microwave, turn on the microwave for 60 seconds to heat the towel up and create a steamy spot. Open the microwave and place the loaf of bread on top of the towel to rise-do not turn the microwave back on. If needed after 30 minutes, remove the bread pan, rewet the towel and reheat it for another 60 seconds, then put the bread loaf back in the steamy microwave. It creates a warm, moist spot for the bread to rise. My house is often chilly and very dry, the high humidity in the microwave seemed like the perfect spot for this bread to rise. I will try that when I make my next loaf of honey oat bread.

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  3. Okay, that bread looks awesome. What size pan did you wind up using? I think mine is an 8x4. I'm going to try this recipe. I have all the flours except the buckwheat and it looks like I can substitute it out for almond, which I have. Jaime

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  4. I used the 8x4 and yes you could sub the buckwheat out, I haven't tried almond flour yet, might have to pick some up next time!

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