Bread is life. Bread is also easy. The quickest and simplest way to impress your friends is a hot, homemade batch of vegan dinner rolls. However, as I and others have experienced (read up Dad!) those with non vegan bread experience often stumble when it comes to vegan bread basics, like vegan dinner rolls and vegan biscuits. Furthermore, throw in wheat free cooking, and whoo-ie! Enter half baked and well intentioned mush. This post intends to fix all that, with three recipes that will give any amateur cook (myself included) the basics to cooking vegan dinner rolls, and vegan spelt dinner rolls/vegan spelt biscuits.
Things to keep in mind while creating vegan dinner rolls and biscuits:
1) Flax eggs and egg substitutes are crap. Seriously. Any time you are baking with gluten, the gluten holds the recipe together. Take my go-to recipe for vegan dinner rolls from minimalist baker for example. Easy, fluffy, and little effort is required. I’ve made this recipe several times to great success and friendship acclaim! However, I did perform one simple alteration, discussed below.
2) NEVER, EVER buy vegan butter for recipes. This stuff is expensive, and FULL of palm oil/chemicals, and just… well not natural. Any recipe that uses butter, substitute coconut oil or olive oil. In small amounts, olive oil is great, and you can use the non virgin olive oil if you are really concerned about the tiny itty bitty olive oil taste. For bigger amounts, melted coconut oil works wonders as long as your batter isn’t cold (cold batter solidifies coconut oil fast and it won’t mix evenly). If you must use palm oil, just buy the god damn palm oil from a sustainable source. Why minimalist baker continues to use this vegan substitute is the one thing that keeps her from perfection.
3) For rolls and biscuits, spelt can be substituted for all purpose flour in a 1 for 1 ratio. Spelt is an ancient grain that contains a different strain of gluten from commercial wheat. Unsurprisingly, many of those who are gluten sensitive can consume spelt with no difficulties. Furthermore, unlike wheat, spelt (once ground) has no enzyme inhibitors, leading to better digestions of more nutrients. My favorite recipe for vegan spelt rolls is also from minimalist baker. Funny, it is almost the same recipe as her normal dinner rolls, save she uses olive oil instead of vegan butter (yay!) and incorporates rolled oats for a healthier look. My favorite vegan recipe for sweet potato spelt biscuits is also below, and this weeks featured recipe!
Slightly sweet and wonderfully moist, these easy biscuits are a fine addition to any meal!
Ingredients
- 1 medium sweet potato (about 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cup mashed)
- 2 1/3 cups spelt flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup chopped nuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Bake sweet potato and mash. If you keep the skins, make sure they are cut up finely.
- In food processor, blend sweet potato with coconut oil and all other ingredients except flour and nuts.
- In bowl, combine all remaining ingredients into a soft dough.
- Grease baking sheet with coconut or olive oil.
- Divide dough into 2 inch balls, and slightly flatten each onto the baking sheet.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until fork comes out clean.
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