Following in the footsteps of Susan’s veggeroni, and a number of other similar recipes I’ve seen floating around the Internet, this is my own version of oven baked gluten. This makes a dense, sort of dry salami-like wheat gluten log, ideal for crumbling for further use.
This seitan has some tiny air bubbles in it, as seen in the photo, and for an even denser texture, I would make sure it’s wrapped in multiple layers of foil. The bad news is that aluminium foil is far from being ecological, but I can’t think of anything that could replace it in this recipe.
The gluten flour we use is not high-gluten wheat flour, but 100 % gluten. In Helsinki, this kind of gluten flour is available for example in the organic store Ekolo that’s close to where we live.
This is what I used:
- 3 dl instant gluten flour
- 3 cloves garlic, pressed or grated
- 1 dl fried onions (the store-bought kind), crushed
- 2 dl water
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
- 1 teaspoon red paprika powder
- 1 teaspoon dried chili in oil
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
First, I preheated the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
I measured the gluten flour in a bowl, mixed everything else in a different bowl, and then poured the wet mix in the gluten bowl. Now I kneaded the dough for 5 minutes, forming it in a log about 25 centimeters long, and then wrapped the log tightly in aluminium foil.
Then I baked the seitan for one hour and 15 minutes; the first 45 minutes it was placed with the seam side down, then I turned the log around so that the seam side was up, lowered the heat to 150 degrees, and baked for further 30 minutes.
After it had cooled down, I refrigerated the log overnight, and then crumbled it in our electric grinder. This could also be sliced as a pizza topping or a sandwich filling, but for me, that’s just too meaty.
8 Comments
This is a great writeup on veggeroni. My only complaint is that if it is overcooked, it becomes bready instead of meaty. Either way, it is delicious and full of protein.
the alu logs explodes!!! hehe!!! so much fun!!! it’s been in the (toaster) oven for 30 minutes…
put some more alu on, the logs are twice longer theye were before:)
the gluten stopped (i hope so) to spread, my kitchen strted to smell nice of the spices:)
my first thought is that when you wrap the gluten – you should leave some “loose ends” – so as in my case it has some space to grow:). This is the forst time I prepare it in the oven, not cooked. I thought that it would condense inside, but I was wrong – it still spreads – or one would have to have a very strong alu foil for that:)
gluten still in the oven:)
some more minutes to go – Then I’m going to leave it inside the oven to cool down. I have two of those – one I will freeze. I’ll write later to report on my results.
my results – the surface is hard – it resembles some kind of a tire (hard gum about 2-3mm), inside it is just like a regular cooked seitan. spices are felt, and the taste is nice, but i expected better result, i cant stand the structure…..
I must try steamed seitan next time.
in fact – in the middle of the log the “holes” are bigger than those in the cooked version. If you like chewing a lot – go ahead!