Vegan cornbread

I began my A&E firm today, and it's really going to be a tough three weeks. 8 hour shift every day, one weekend and one night, and revision on top. Goodbye sleep!

Leonardo Da Vinci once said 'simplicity is the ultimate sophistication'. Who needs to bake something elaborate for a delicious result? This very simple basic vegan cornbread is so easy to bake but is filling, healthy, and has a slight sweet taste that is just perfect. It literally take less than 10 minutes to prepare - which is of course perfect for tough days like the day I had today.

Makes 12-16 slices
Ingredients
2 cups soya milk
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 cups coarse cornflour/ polenta flour/ cornmeal
1 cup plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup oil
2 tbsp honey/ maple syrup/ agave
Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and line a 9x13 inch baking tin with grease proof paper. 
2. In a medium bowl whisk together the soya milk and vinegar and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, sift together the coarse corn flour, flour, baking powder and salt. Add the oil and honey to the soya milk mixture and whisk with a wire whisk or fork until it is foamy and bubbly.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix together until combine. Pour into the prepared baking tin and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Original recipe: Vegan cornbread

Week 16 Dish 2: Vegan spiced pear bread

SJT done!!!!!!!!!! It is such a relief! For those of you who don't know, it's the situational judgement test that all medical students have to take in their final year. It's not really an exam that can be revised for, it's more common sense questions. We get points out of 50 for the test, and this is added to the points out of 50 that we get for our degree/ educational achievements. We are then ranked alongside all other medical students who are applying for a junior doctor position base on our total points. And where in the UK we work as junior doctors depends on our rank - the people with the highest rank get their top choice etc. So basically, the exam I had yesterday decides the next two years of my life. Scary right? That's why I'm just glad that it's over - more time would not have given me a better score.

Anyway, on to the yummy stuff. Today was the first time since I begun this baking challenge that I really found it difficult to bake. I was out all day (went to an Anthony Horowitz event for his new Alex Rider book, followed by a Crisis at Christmas induction, and finally to see my 10-day-old baby nephew who is just too cute) and I just wanted to sit and do nothing. But, I did get my butt into the kitchen, and as usual ended with a yummy bake. Definitely worth it!! Another easy recipe that anyone can try :D

Makes one loaf
Ingredients
2 ripe medium-size pears
2 tbsp ground linseed
6 tbsp soya milk
1 cup wholemeal flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 heaped tsp cinnamon
1 heaped tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/3 cup melted coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup brown sugar
Method

1. Chop the pears into 1/2 inch pieces. In a small bowl, mix the linseed and soya milk and let sit for five minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and line an 8x4 inch loaf tin with grease proof paper.
3. In a large bowl, combine the oil, vanilla, pear, sugar and linseed-milk mixture. The pears will get a bit smooshed but that's fine.
4. In another bowl mix the flour, spices, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Carefully fold the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined. The mix will be very thick and seem a bit dry but when it starts baking all the pear juices will make the loaf nice and moist, so don't worry!
5. Spoon the batter into the loaf tin and bake for about 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Just like the pear muffins I made last week, the pear juices seep into the whole bread and make it moist, sweet and delicious. Let it cool a bit before slicing otherwise it will crumble, though not when completely cold - nothing like warm fresh bread!

Original recipe: Seasonal spiced pear bread

Week 12 Dish 2: Vegan banana walnut muffins

As I mentioned before, I started experimenting with vegan dishes because my dad recently decided to become vegan. He actually make this choice early this year, but I was so busy with 5th year and looming exams (nightmare!) I never really baked anything vegan until July after my exams were finally over. What really inspired me to begin were 3 extremely overripe bananas; usually used to make banana bread but the recipe was not vegan. So I thought, it can't be that hard to find a vegan recipe can it? And it wasn't hard at all! I found so many, chose the simplest one with ingredients that most people would have, and voila! Vegan banana bread! Soon this became a standard treat I would bake if the bananas became too mushy (and thanks to the gorgeous summer we've had, this has been pretty common). I've since experimented with bars and cookies, but nothing beats a moist muffin! So here is the recipe, which can be made as a bread, muffins or cake.

Makes 12 muffins/ one bread loaf/ one 8 inch cake
Ingredients
225 g plain flour
3 heaped tsp baking powder
100 g brown sugar (I've been reducing this to 75 g)
3 tsp ground cinnamon or mixed spice or a combination of the two (I've been using 5 tsp and would recommend it to anyone who loves cinnamon)
3 large mushy bananas, mashed
75 g vegetable or sunflower oil (weight)
50 g walnuts (or other nuts or dried fruits)
Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and get the muffin cases ready.
2. Add the mashed bananas, sugar and oil to a large mixing bowl and mix well.
3. Add the sieved flour, baking powder and cinnamon/ mixed spice and mix until combined.
4. Stir in the nuts/ dried fruit and spoon into the muffin cases.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean.
6. To make as a bread, bake in a greased and lined loaf tin at 180°C for 20 minutes, then check. If the loaf is browning, cover with foil and bake for another 40 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean. Remove from the tin after cooling for 10-15 minutes. Allow to cool completely before slicing.
7. To make as a cake, bake in a greased 8 inch cake tin at 180°C for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick come out clean. Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before removing from the to and cooling completely on a wire rack.

Original recipe: Vegan banana bread
Like I said, a very simple recipe with scrumptious results! Because vegan muffins are usually made with oil, they are often more moist and soft than their non-vegan counterparts - try them and see for yourself!!

Week 10 Dish 1: Vegan pumpkin bread

Oh yeaaaaaaaaaaaaa!! I've made it to week 10, double figures! And guess what is coming up soon? Halloween!!! And so I decided to buy a pumpkin and use it in my bakes. I first made it into pumpkin puree (I will put up instructions soon). It was definitely...educational - but a whole lot of effort. It's worth it if you have the time, but I would definitely buy tinned puree next time. I now have about 10 cups worth of pumpkin puree (it was a MASSIVE pumpkin) in my fridge and freezer ready to be used and I'm really looking to baking a few pumpkin recipes!

For my first recipe I decided to go for pumpkin bread. And oh my god it turned out so well! Moist and delicious, and as long as you've got pumpkin puree on hand it also very very easy. Please do give it a go!

Makes 2 loaves
Ingredients
1 cup chopped walnuts
3 1/2 cups plain flour (can substitute with some/ all whole wheat flour)
2 cups dark brown sugar
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup vegetable oil (can replace with some unsweetened apple sauce)
2/3 cup coconut milk
2/3 cup desiccated coconut
Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line two 8x4 inch loaf tins with grease proof paper.
2. Spread walnuts in a single layer on an ungreased baking tray and toast in the over for 8 to 10 minutes until slightly browned. Leave aside to cool.
3. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Mix in the pumpkin puree, oil and coconut milk until combined. Fold in the nuts and desiccated coconut.
4. Divide the batter between the two tins and bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes - until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
5. Remove from the oven, cover tightly with foil and allow to steam for 10 minutes. Remove foil and turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Tent loosely with foil and allow to cool completely. (All this foil business keeps the bread so moist, trust me it's worth it!)

Original recipe: Super moist pumpkin bread

Week 3 Dish 2: Vegan apple bread

I've really cut it close this week, haven't I? Two and a half hours before week 4 starts and I've finally finished dish 2! But I still made it, that's what counts. My only excuse is that I've had a pretty busy week, though not because of university but because I've been out having a bit too much fun. Ah well :p So this was a difficult dish, I tried a different apple bread recipe first and it just didn't come out right - it wasn't cooked at all inside but burned on top. It was raw (but still tasty - couldn't throw it away without trying a bit) and I was pretty disappointed. Of course, I had no choice but to try another recipe to reach my two-recipe goal. Thankfully this one turned out fine, yay! The saying 'if at first you don't succeed...' comes to mind. One other thing I learned is that peeling things, like apples, is just so tedious. Good thing that the rest of the recipe was much faster to complete.

Ingredients
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup applesauce
1 cup apples, peeled and grated
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 cup wholemeal flour
1/4 cup ground linseeds (aka flaxseeds. I bought whole linseeds fron asda and ground them myself. Also available from health food shops)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
Method

1. Preheat oven to 150°C. Line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper.
2. Combine the oil, applesauce, apples, brown sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl.
3. In a separate bowl sift the plain flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Add the wholemeal flour and ground linseed.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients gradually until just combined. Finally add the walnuts.
5. Bake in loaf tin for 1.5 - 1.75 hours until a skewer come out clean and the top in a nice golden brown.
6. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minute before removing (so hard to wait!!)

Original recipe: Vegan apple bread

This is a brilliant recipe to make when there are no exotic fruit around - even apples make amazing bakes goodies!