Spelt Cinnamon Rolls

This is the second time I tried to make cinnamon rolls and they came out pretty good, so I can say I have a recipe! I tried to make them as healthier as possible, using mostly wholewheat spelt flour, Rapadura sugar [evaporated cane juice] and agave syrup in the dough. But then I got to thinking about icing-glazing. I tried a mixture of rice syrup and soy milk powder, but it was a failure and and I realized it couldn’t be that healthy, so I used a dairy-free white chocolate. Extra decadent, high in fat, creamy but still vegan! But hey, that was a small amount of topping the buns! Anyway if you still don’t want to do that, then you can just drizzle on top of the some rice syrup or agave -for the ‘regular’ days.
If you are feeling fancy, you can totally add pecans, raisins or anything you like. I just sprinkled some silvered toasted almonds on top, keeping it simple. I also made a small batch, so that I didn’t end up eating too many. Yes part of a healthy diet is knowing when to stop!

you need :
-1 cup wholewheat spelt flour [ the one I use is very fine, like whole wheat pastry flour, so do try to find one like that. Mine is Demeter]
-1/2 cup unbleached white flour
-1/2 tsp salt
-3 tbsp agave syrup
-2tbsp non-hydrogenated margarine
-3tbsp lukewarm water
-4 tbsp soymilk
-1 tsp lemon juice

1tbsp non-hydrogenated margarine
2tsp cinnamon
31/2 tbsp evaporated cane juice [Rapadura sugar]

50gr dairy free white chocolate or rice syrup or agave syrup

Mix salt and the flours together. In a separate bowl add 1tsp agave syrup, water and yeast and let stand until frothy. In another bowl add soy milk and lemon juice until it curdles.[5min] Now add to the soymilk the rest of the agave and melted margarine. Make a well in the middle of the bowl with the flour and add all the wet ingredients. Mix with a spatula until combined and start kneading with your hands for about 5 minutes. If the dough is too stiff add some lemon juice to soften the gluten. Form a ball and place in an oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth and leave in a warm place ferment until double in size.

Now deflate evenly the dough by pressing with your hands, and start rolling a rectangle with a rolling pin, until it is thin like a towel. Brush on the surface one tablespoon of melted margarine and sprinkle evenly the sugar&cinnamon mix. This is the part where you add the extras if you wish.[raisins, pecans] In my opinion, raisins is the best option, but I wanted them more simple.
With your hands roll the rectangle and cut in six equal pieces. Pinch the ends seams to seal. Place in a baking dish and let rise fro 30 minutes. Preheat oven at 180c and bake for 15-20 minutes.

To glaze melt the white chocolate and pour over the buns or for a healthier option drizzle rice syrup or agave syrup.

*The dairy free chocolate I used is made with rice milk by Bonvita. I got it at Prasino Market but I found it also online at Vegan Perfection, where I took the picture from.

Lemon Peel Poppy Seed Puff Twist

It is so easy to make puff twists [provided you have the puff pastry] and you can be as creative as you want with the filling. The most common are cheese,cinnamon-nut twisters and chocolate. But lemon peel+poppy seed+puff pastry= unbeatable combination. They are light, with delicate taste and go with everything from soups to desserts!! They also stand alone really well. So if you are too bored to think of a filling, use this one! Now, where to find vegan puff pastry? Thats is easier than you might think. Jus-Roll I think is the best choice from the brands available, but there are many. Just check if they are made only with vegetable fat!

You need :

1 puff pastry sheet, thawed
1 tbsp poppy seeds
1tbsp lemon peel [thats 1 lemon]
Flax wash :1 1/2 tbsp flaxseed, 3 tbsp water

Grind the flaxseed in a spice grinder and mix with water in a small bowl. Let stand for 10-15 minutes or until water is slimy and sticky. In an other mixing bowl mix poppy seeds with lemon peel.
With a pizza cuter cut the pastry in half inch strips [vertically or horizontally, one side will give you around 5 long ones, other will give you about 8 shorter ones]
With a basting brush dip in flax wash and brush the surface of a strip. Sprinkle a good amount of lemon peel+poppy seed mix all over the surface of the strip. Transfer to baking dish, and grab ends with your hands and roll until the whole strip is twisted. Repeat until you use up all the strips and bake in preheated oven at 180c for 35-30 minutes, or until golden.

Hemp Seed Hot Dog Bun

I got these vegan hot dog sausages that are really good, so I had to make hot dogs. But I really hate commercial bread buns. They are horrible, like plastic and usually not vegan. I found a recipe for hot dog buns, replaced the milk with soy milk and topped the buns with hemp seeds for a kick.

You need :
-1tsp agave syrup
-1 package active dry yeast
-1/4 cup water
-1 cup soymilk + 1tsp vinegar
-2 tsp grape seed oil
-2 tsp salt
-1 cup whole wheat bread flour
-2 cups white unbleached flour

First combine agave, yeast and water and stir. Let sit for 5 min until frothy. Separately combine soymilk and vinegar, stir and let curdle. [5 min] Pour yeast and milk mixture in a bowl and add 1 cup flour. Using and electric mixer with the dough hooks on low speed to combine flour to the mixture. Add 1 cup wholewheat flour and once combined, add tablespoons of the rest of the flour. [I found that I needed less than 3 cups] The dough is ready when it is soft but not sticky. Transfer dough on floured surface and knead for 2 minutes. Shape it like a ball and put in oiled bowl, cover with damp cloth.Let rise somewhere warm for 1+1/2 -2hours. Deflate dough, and divide in 6 balls. Flatten and roll to shape long rolls. Make them quite thin keeping in mind they will rise again. [This needs practice]. Put on a baking dish with unbleached baking paper and brush tops with grape seed oil. Sprinkle hemp seeds on top and press lightly. Let rise again for 30 minutes and bake at 180 C for 20 minutes.

Whole-Wheat Croissant

Croissant dough is similar to puff pastry dough. Both use the technique of layering fat and dough to form this puffy texture. But since I have tried making puff pastry, croissants are easier to make, because they need less foldings. But it is still time consuming, though it is totally worth it! I mean, yeah you can buy puff pastry dough to make croissants, but where is the fun in that? And for sure you cant find ready to buy whole wheat, egg free, animal fat free, hydrogenated fat free, sugar free croissant dough! So if you are looking for a reason to make croissant from scratch, I just gave you 5!

I tried to use some filling other than chocolate, like peanut butter and ricemellow fluff. Peanut butter came out too dry, and I dont think it was nice with the croissant flavor [thats just my mums opinion and mine] and the ricemellow melted completely. So either make them plain, which I think is the best way to go, or with chocolate chips [ if you still want peanut butter flavor, you can use if you find vegan peanut butter chips, instead of the regular peanut butter I used, they will probably melt better.] As for the ricemellow, that thing is so damn good on its own that I prefer eating it plain, but you can spread some on your BAKED croissants for breakfast/snack. And then there is always the savory option of the croissant sandwich…

Now if all the following instructions sound alien to you, watch this video on you tube where they show you how to make the croissant pastry [ I strongly recommend to watch it if you haven’t made croissant before, to get ‘the moves’] But use my vegan ingredient list :

1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
1 ½ cups white extra strong flour
1tsp powdered bourbon vanilla
1tsp salt
3Tbsp agave nectar
6 tsp non-hydrogenated margarine, cubed, room temp
1 package active dry yeast
270 ml lukewarm water (1 ¼ cup water)

370gr HARD non-hydrogenated margarine ( not the tub style, important )- aprox 1 ½ cups
30cm long baking sheet.

First combine water, agave and salt in a small bowl and pour the yeast in there. Leavew for 10 min or until frothy.
In a bigger bowl combine whole wheat flour, strong white flour and vanilla. Whisk to distribute everything evenly, form a well in the middle and pour water-yeast mixture. With a spatula mix to wet all the flour and then knead with your hands. Move to a floured surface and knead more. The dough should be light brown, soft and elastic. Now take the 6 tsp of margarine and with your hands crumble it over dough and knead again to incorporate it to the dough. Add more flour if needed [ by teaspoons, just to make the dough less sticky due to margarine] Knead by pressing pulling and tucking ends of the dough so that you form a tight ball. Now place the dough in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let sit 24 hours in the fridge so that yeast ferments. [ gives nice, ‘professional’ croissant dough smell!’]

Now we need to make the fat layer [sounds gross, but that’s the key ingredient in croissant or puff pastry]. Cut 350grams hard margarine in sticks and arrange on one part of baking sheet to form a rectangle. Now fold over the other part of the rectangle, so that the margarine is covered. Now with a rolling pin tap the margarine many times, until you form a smooth rectangle layer of margarine [approximately 20x 22 cm] Place it in the fridge laying it flat overnight to chill it.

The next day. take the dough out of the fridge, flatten it to deflate it, and knead, pulling and tucking to form a ball again and let sit for 5 minutes to regain elasticity.Roll out the dough into a rectangle a bit bigger than the margarine rectangle you shaped yesterday. Take the margarine and peel off the baking sheet on one side, flip over onto the dough rectangle and peel of the baking sheet completely. This is how it should look:

Now you need to enclose this in the dough, like making an envelope.

…And roll it out for the first folding. With a rolling pin tap the dough and start rolling out with steady moves from left to right and up to down.

Be careful not to make holes in the dough because the butter is going to pour out and you will lose. If in any case that happens dab with water and sprinkle some flour and wait to dry, then remove excess flour. Something like a patchwork. But try not to tear the dough in the first place.So roll out the dough [1-1 1/2 ich thick] in a rectangle shape and fold one edge over to the center and over to the other side. [ like folding a letter] What you just did is called single book fold :

Once you do the first fold return dough to the fridge for 30 minutes. You will do this after every fold to the marg from melting.Next is the double book fold :

The double book fold basically makes 4 layers of dough instead of three. Just grab both sides of rectangle and fold over in the center[ looks like an open book] and now ‘close the book’. Get it??

Return to fridge for 30 minutes and execute the single book fold again, and return to fridge AGAIN. Hahaha by this time you should be freaking out, but we are almost finished.

Now the hard part : steady and patiently roll out the dough to a bigger rectangle as thin as you can, without tearing dough layers.

And we are FINALLY ready to shape the croissants! With a pizza cutter, or knife, cut the dough first in stripes and then in triangles like this : [ I made small croissant, for bigger ones cut only two stripes to shape the triangles from]

And shape by pressing tip, then roll from base to tip:

[If you want to put filling inside place around 1/2 tsp for small croissants to the base, center of the triangle and roll as if you were rolling a sushi!!]

Now place all croissants in a baking dish and let them rise/proof for 1 1/2- 2 hours. Bake in preheated oven, at 200c for 11-12 minutes.

Yes, now you can eat them! After all this waiting and hard work I dont think you want me to say ‘ let them cool before handing/eating’

[Yet another image to brainwash you into making these, served with a dollop of Suzanne's ricemellow fluff on the side]

Mini ‘Cheese’ Pies

The last few days I have been experimenting with baking Teese to make various recipes. I found that teese melts so much that almost disappeared in some of my trials. Then I thought of making tiropitakia [ mini cheese pies] which is something very common in Greece. Tiropitakia are stuffed with many different cheesses, but usually are stuffed with feta. The pastry used can be puff pastry, phyllo sheets or other kinds. I really love phyllo though cause its super flaky, light and very tasty. In Greece you can find fresh or frozen phyllo sheets, so I used fresh. But you can use frozen and just put it in the fridge overnight to thaw. Use the thinest phyllo you can get your hands on.

Now for the filling I wanted to make something that everyone can make. So I made a filling with common easy-to-find ingredients and added some Teese which is optional, but really, really adds to the flavor. You can also replace it with vegan parmesan or any other NICE FLAVORED vegan cheese to compliment the filling.

For the filling :

-3/4 cup rolled oats

-1 pack firm tofu

-2tsp mellow miso paste (if not using any vegan cheese add more to taste)

-1 1/2 T bsp cashew butter

-1/2 cup nutritional yeast

-1/2 tsp salt (if not using ANY vegan cheese, add more + pepper to taste)

-1 tsp italian herb mix

-1/4 tsp garlic powder

-1 Tbsp lemon juice

-1/2 cup water

In a saucepan add water, cashew butter, nutritional yeast, miso paste and stir on medium heat until they dissolve. Add oats and mix. Add everything else and stir again. Remove from heat, add tofu crumbling it with your hands and mix thoroughly. Now your filling is ready to use!

For the pastry :

-1 package extra thin phyllo dough sheets

-Olive oil

you also need 1/4 pack Teese (or other vegan cheese)

Now you need to cut lenghtwise the phyllo sheets [ with scissors ] in 9-11 cm strips, like this:

Brush with olive oil all the surface of the strip.

Cut one sheet at a time keeping you other sheets under a damp cloth to prevent drying up! Now scoop 1-1 1/2 tsp of the filling [ depending on the width of you pastry sheet ] and place it near one end of the strip. Pinch off some Teese and crumble it over the filling you just placed on the phyllo sheet. Dont over fill it because during baking it might start pouring out of the triangle. Fold the edge of the strip tightly over the filling creating a triangle and keep folding over until you reach the other end.

When you finish it must look like this :

Keep doing this until you finish all your filling. This makes around 22-25 mini cheese pies, depending on the width of your strips. You can freeze half for later use and bake the other half.

Place in oiled baking dish and brush with olive oil the tops of the mini pies. Now bake in preheated oven at 180c for 25-27 minutes, or until golden brown.

Let cool on cooling rack and enjoy!!

P.s. I left some pof these covered in the car today while I was at class, to give them to my boyfriend later tonight and when I came back, I swear I could smell nice ’stinky’ cheese!! I was very surprised…But it might just be the Teese. Anyway these are amazing! I even surprised my self, there where exactly as I was imagining them in my head, so I just had to share the recipe. If you dont eat them fresh baked, they will lose their crisp and become a bit softer, but just heat oven again and put them a few minutes to gain the crispiness back!