This is a very simple method for bread baking – no need to worry too much about kneading or shaping. This bread keeps well for a few days, stored in a paper bag that is wrapped in a kitchen towel.

This is what we used:

• 3 dl wheat bran
• 1 1/2 dl spelt flour
• 2 dl white wheat flour
• 3 dl whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon caraway seeds, crushed
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 dl water, warmed to about 37 °C
• 2 tablespoons muscovado sugar
• 25 g fresh yeast
• for decoration: about 2 teaspoons caraway seeds

I started by mixing the bran, the flours, salt, and the crushed caraway seeds in a bowl. Then I mixed the sugar with the water, and stirred with a fork until the sugar was diluted. Now I diluted the yeast into the water, crumbling it first with my fingers and then stirring with a fork. I poured the liquid into the bowl with the dry ingredients, and mixed it quickly into a dough. We spread the dough on a baking parchment placed on a baking sheet, and flattened with our hands until it was an evenly-shaped square, about 30cm x 30cm. Then we let it raise for 40 minutes.

The oven was set to 225 degrees Celsius. Before putting the bread in the oven, I sprayed it with some water and sprinkled caraway seeds over the top. I baked the bread for 15 minutes on the middle rack of our oven. Now the bread had browned just a little bit on the top, and I removed it from the oven and put it on a wooden rack to cool. Once it had cooled enough that I could touch it, I cut it into squares. We immediately enjoyed it with some soup.

The cherries are completely underrepresented in the picture – there were actually just as many berries as there were macadamias. The batter is only slightly adapted from the baking genius Celine’s butterscotch bars, and I can see how any combination of add-ins would work very nicely in this recipe. These squares are very sweet, but the sour cherries balance that up quite nicely. As usual, I prefer to enjoy these warm, whereas Heikki likes his straight out of the fridge.

The Ingredients (adapted from this recipe):

• 2 and 1/2 dl whole cane sugar (rapadura)
• 1 dl liquid margarine
• 3/4 dl soy yoghurt
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 dl whole spelt flour
• 1 dl plus 1 tablespoon wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 dl macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped
• 1 dl dried cherries

First I preheated the oven to 175 degrees Celsius and sprayed a 23 X 12 cm baking dish with olive oil (because I’m lazy, brushing with margarine would be even better).

I placed the sugar and the margarine in a small cooking pan and heated them up on low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring every now and then, until the sugar had almost melted.

I let the mixture cool down and meanwhile, chopped the macadamias, and mixed the dry ingredients (spelt flour through salt) together. Then I added the soy yoghurt and the vanilla extract to the sugar mixture, stirred until combined, and poured into the dry ingredients. I added the nuts and the cherries in the batter, spread it in the baking dish, and baked for about 25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center tested clean.

It’s best to let the squares cool in the pan completely before cutting, or they will most likely fall apart. I know.

Focaccia is one of my favorite homemade breads, mainly because I lack the patience of a true bread maker and it’s so simple! I used to always make it with white wheat flour, which results in lusciously soft and fluffy bread. Nothing wrong with that, but baking with whole spelt flour does add nice texture and makes the bread a lot more satisfying as a part of a meal, even if it doesn’t make a focaccia quite as tender and airy.

I always add onions in my focaccia, but olives, rosemary, red bell pepper, and eggplant are very nice as well. Frying the onions with balsamic vinegar makes them all caramelized and lovely, but when I don’t feel like any extra work, I just spread the raw onions over the bread and bake it a little longer to make sure they cook in the oven.

The Dough:

• 4 dl (300 grams) whole spelt flour
• 2 tablespoons gluten flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 sleeve (12 grams) dry yeast
• 2 and 1/2 dl warm water (approximately 42 degrees Celsius)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

First I stirred together the flour, gluten flour, salt, sugar, and dry yeast. Then I made a well in the center of the dry ingredients and poured in the water and the olive oil, and mixed with a wooden spoon until the dough came together. It ends up still a little sticky.

Now I let the dough rise in a warm place, covered with a plastic wrap, for about half an hour – or until doubled in size.

The Topping:

• 4 small onions, sliced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• pinch of sugar and salt
• (a few kalamata olives)
• more olive oil
• sea salt and black pepper

I fried the onions in the olive oil until they started to soften, and then added the balsamic vinegar, sugar and salt to the pan. Now, I continued to fry them on medium-low heat for about 15 to 20 minutes, until the onions were very soft and dark brown from the balsamico. Then I spread the onions on a wide plate to cool down a bit.

When the dough was well risen, I covered a baking sheet with baking parchment, and sprayed the parchment with olive oil (brushing is fine too). Then I formed the dough into an oval shaped log and placed it on the baking sheet, and flattened it until about 1 and 1/2 centimeters thick. Then I poked it with my finger to make wells, sprinkled with sea salt and black pepper, pressed a few kalamata olives here and there in the dough, and spread the onions over it all. Now I sprayed some more olive oil over the bread and let it rise in a warm place for about a half an hour more.

I set the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. When the bread had risen, I sprayed it with some more olive oil, sprinkled with some more sea salt, and baked it for 20 minutes on the lower rack of the oven. I took the bread out of the oven and sprayed it once more with olive oil, and let it cool down a little before enjoying with a bowl of soup.

Apple sauce made this cake very moist and gave it a little bit of fruity flavor as well – I wanted to bake an extra moist cake after having a disappointing chocolate cake experience at a nearby vegetarian restaurant. The cake had a nice crumble, thanks to the whole spelt flour that also adds great flavor. We stored this cake in the fridge after the icing had set, and it was even more flavorful on the following days.

The Cake Batter:

• 5 dl whole spelt flour
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 dl raw cane sugar
• 1/2 dl whole cane sugar (rapadura)
• 2 dl unsweetened apple sauce
• 1/2 dl canola oil
• 1 tablespoon coffee liqueur (or coffee)
• 1 tablespoon desiccated coconut (for the baking dish)

I preheated the oven to 175 degrees Celsius and greased a round baking dish, and then sprinkled the desiccated coconut over the bottom of the dish and up the sides. I used a small round baking dish with a diameter of 15 centimeters.

To make the batter, I first mixed the dry ingredients (flour through salt) together, then mixed the wet (sugars through liqueur) in another bowl, and then combined the two with a fork until smooth. Now I poured the batter in the dish and baked it on the lower rack of the oven for 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted came out clean.

The Mocha Icing:

• 1 and 1/2 to 2 dl (raw cane) confectioner’s sugar
• 1 to 2 tablespoons coffee liqueur (or coffee)
• 2 teaspoons desiccated coconut
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

I started by mixing 1 and 1/2 dl confectioner’s sugar with 1 tablespoon of the liqueur, added the coconut and cinnamon, and stirred. Then I added a bit of sugar and a bit of liqueur until I had a good spreadable consistency. Then I spread the icing over the cooled cake and let it set for an hour before serving.

Our spelt flour is quite coarse, about the coarseness of regular whole wheat flour we can buy from the store. I don’t think light spelt flour is even available in Finland, but I kind of like the crumb that comes from this flour – it makes a nice, slightly dense, and very satisfying morning muffin.

Dry mixture:

• 4 dl whole spelt flour
• 3/4 dl muscovado sugar (or other brown sugar)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
• 1 tablespoon potato starch
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Wet mixture:

• 1 dl plain, unsweetened soy yogurt
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/2 dl sweetened soy milk
• 1 dl cherry juice (from the cherry jar)
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

• 1 dl coarsely chopped (halved) cherries

First, I greased my muffin tin with a little vegan margarine, floured it with some spelt flour, and preheated the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

I mixed the dry ingredients in a small bowl, then mixed the wet ingredients in another bowl, and combined the two, being careful not to over-mix the batter. Then I folded in the cherry halves, and poured the batter in the 12 cups of my muffin tin, filling them about 3/4 full.

Now, I baked my muffins for about 18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin came out clean, and the tops had browned somewhat.

This is the label of our cherry jar, bought from the Estonian grocery nearby.

I’m increasing the amount of spelt flour in this recipe little by little, maybe I’ll use a half and half ratio next time. This bread is such a favorite and I don’t want to change it too much!

The Bread:

• 2 dl oat milk
• 2 dl water
• 11 g dry yeast
• 7 dl wheat flour
• 2 dl spelt flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon dark syrup
• 1 dl sun-dried tomatoes in oil, rinsed and chopped
• 1 dl walnuts, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 dl sunflower seeds
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

I made the bread exactly like the Olive Tomato Bread, only using the above ingredients. We only had 2 dl oat milk left so I used some water to make up for the rest of the fluid, and we had walnuts instead of cashew nuts. I also added sunflower seeds to the dough, and used a little more flour since part of it was spelt. I also chopped the tomatoes only coarsely, not as finely as I did the last time. This didn’t give the bread the nice orange color that very finely chopped tomatoes do, but bigger tomato pieces mean more flavor when they’re bitten into!

This dough is not stiff at all, so I kept my hands and the working surface floured at all times to avoid sticking, and kneaded the dough carefully to get the gluten to develop.

The Topping:

• 2 tablespoons soy yogurt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

I just mixed all the topping ingredients and brushed it over the bread before baking. The yogurt really keeps the seeds on the bread, even when it’s cut!

I’d cooked some ginger tea earlier on the baking day, and had some left, so I used it to give some extra taste to these muffins. The tea was just a bunch of sliced ginger and some grated lemon peel, cooked for half an hour in about 1 liter of water. The taste of ginger wasn’t very obvious in the baked muffins, and I think the tea just added a little depth to the overall cinnamony spiciness. It could easily be replaced with about 1/2 teaspoon of ginger powder for the taste, and an extra 1 dl of soy milk for the liquid.

The cinnamon that is mostly used in Europe and in the United States is actually Chinese cinnamon, cassia, which is sold in grocery shops as cinnamon. I have used real cinnamon sometimes, and it does have a less bitter taste than the “poor-man’s-cinnamon” that cassia really is. But, real cinnamon is much more expensive than cassia, and especially in baked goods there’s not much difference. When I started making these muffins, I realized that we were out of ground cinnamon (well, cassia), and I ground up some cassia sticks we’d bought from the Asian store. Freshly ground spices are much more aromatic, and I think this produced more cinnamony flavor than I usually get from just two teaspoons.

Dry mixture:

• 3 dl spelt flour
• 1 dl wheat flour
• 3/4 dl granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon barley (or potato or corn) starch
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Wet mixture:

• 1 dl plain, unsweetened soy yogurt
• 1/2 dl canola oil
• 1/2 dl unsweetened soy milk
• 1 dl home-brewed ginger tea (or soy milk and powdered ginger)
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Apples:

• 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and diced

Topping:

• 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and finely diced
• 1/2 dl raw cane sugar
• 2 tablespoons spelt flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 dl walnut, finely chopped

First, I peeled and diced my three apples. I diced the apple that went in the topping pretty finely, and left the ones that went to the batter in bigger cubes. I greased my muffin tin with a little vegan margarine, and preheated the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Now, I mixed the dry ingredients, then mixed the wet ingredients in a separate bowl, and combined the two, being careful not to over-mix the batter. I folded in the apple cubes, and then mixed the topping ingredients in a small bowl. Now, I poured the batter in the muffin tins, filling them about 3/4 full, and then spooned about 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of the topping over each muffin. I pressed the topping gently in the muffins with the back of my teaspoon.

Now, I baked the muffins in 200 degrees for 22 minutes, until the tops had browned somewhat. These muffins are delicious right out of the oven, when still warm, but they’re pretty great on the next day as well, when the moist apple bits and the yummy cinnamon have had time to team up. Compared to more bread-like muffins with a dense texture, like my carrot muffins or oat and spelt muffins, these were fruity, sweet, and soft – more like a dessert than a breakfast.

This is what I used:

• 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and grated
• 3 and 1/2 dl soy milk
• 3 dl spelt flour
• 2 tablespoons barley (or potato or corn) starch
• 1/2 dl granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
• pinch of salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• canola oil for frying

First, I peeled and grated the apples, and then mixed them with the soy milk. In another bowl, I mixed the rest of the ingredients (except for the oil), and then poured them to the apple-soy milk bowl. I mixed the batter with a wooden fork until combined, and then let it develop for about 30 minutes before frying the pancakes.

I used our pancake pan for frying, and heated it on medium heat. I added a little bit of canola oil in each compartment, and then poured about one and a half tablespoons of the batter in each, leveling the batter with the spoon to fill the whole compartment.

I fried these pancakes for a few minutes on each side, flipping them when the downside had turned golden brown. I had to adjust the heat every once in a while, so that the pan didn’t get too hot and burn the pancakes before they were done inside. They were still jiggly on top before flipping, so I flipped them very carefully with the help of a wooden butter knife and a wooden spatula.

During the frying process, I kept the already fried pancakes in the oven that was on 50 degrees Celsius. I placed them on a plate, and kept them uncovered to maintain some of their crispiness. We enjoyed our pancakes with blueberry-raspberry jam and our favorite whipped topping.

Here’s a photo of our pancake pan – at least for Finns and Swedes these pans with little compartments are very familiar. Traditionally they are made of cast iron, and have more compartments, but ours is non-stick and makes 4 pancakes at a time.

I adapted the recipe from the Jam-Filled Oat Bran Muffins recipe in The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. Unlike in the pretty muffins in the book, the jam in my muffins decided to spurt out a little bit, but they tasted wonderful all the same. This recipe makes about 7 muffins.

Here’s what I used:

Wet ingredients:

• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
• 5 tablespoons water
• 2 dl oat milk
• 1/2 dl canola oil

Dry ingredients:

• 1 dl rolled oats, finely ground
• 1,2 dl spelt flour
• 1,2 dl wheat flour
• 3/4 dl raw cane sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 1 dl chopped walnuts

Filling:

• 7 teaspoons raspberry-blueberry jam

For the topping:

• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons raw cane sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons margarine

First, I placed the flaxseed and water in our electric mixer and mixed for a minute or two, until it had a creamy and thick consistence. I haven’t used flaxseed as an egg replacer before, and here it worked very well. But I can imagine that in more delicate things it might have a little too much taste of its own, since it does have a kind of earthy, nutty flavor.

After making the flax egg, I ground the oats in our electric grinder. Then I mixed the wet ingredients in a small bowl. I mixed together the dry ingredients in a bigger bowl, poured in the wet mix, and stirred with a wooden fork just enough to combine everything.

Now, I mixed the topping ingredients in a small bowl and assembled the muffins. Since the jam burst out during baking, I probably wouldn’t follow my own advice in this, but here’s what I did: I greased and floured the muffins tins, and filled 7 muffin tins half full with the batter. Now, I placed a teaspoon of the berry jam in the middle of each muffin, and then covered the jam with the rest of the batter, at which point the muffins cups were completely full.

Now, I sprinkled each muffin with the topping, and baked them in 200 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes.

To keep the jam inside the muffins, I suppose the amount should be reduced a bit. Before adding the jam, it might be a good idea to make a well in the center area of the muffin batter instead of just spooning the jam over the batter.

Obviously, coconut milk is not the most healthy ingredient, and it pretty much is the only source of saturated fats for vegans. On the other hand, non-vegans eat saturated fats all the time, and one batch of these delicious cookies won’t change that. What it could change is the attitude toward vegan baking as difficult and dubious, we hope. And, most importantly, home-made gifts are the best even without any health-related or ideological motivations!

Cookie mix ingredients:

• 2 dl wheat flour
• 1 and 1/2 dl spelt flour
• 1 dl granulated sugar
• 1/2 dl raw cane sugar
• 1 tablespoon & 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons egg replacer powder (we have NoEgg brand)
• 1 dl nuts (we had cashews and walnuts), chopped
• 100 g dark vegan chocolate, chopped

Also needed:

• 2 dl coconut cream (1 small can)

First, we chopped the nuts and chocolate. Then we combined the cookie mix ingredients in a small bowl, and then poured them in zip lock bags. We mixed just one batch at a time to make sure that the proportions would be right. Then we stapled a label with instructions on how to make the cookies on the cookie mix bag, and gift-wrapped it with a can of coconut cream.

Instructions on how to make the cookies:

1. Preheat the oven in 190 degrees Celsius and cover two baking sheets with baking parchment.
2. Pour the cookie mix ingredients in a bowl.
3. Open the coconut cream can and stir with a teaspoon until smooth.
4. Pour the coconut cream in the bowl with the cookie mix and mix with a wooden fork. Only mix just enough to incorporate everything, don’t overmix.
5. Use a little more than a tablespoon of the dough per cookie. You can round the cookies at the edges, but there’s no need to flatten them before baking. There should be about 9 cookies on each cookie sheet.
6. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time, in 190 degrees Celsius, for about 12 minutes. These cookies shouldn’t get browned on top, only slightly on edges and in the bottom – this way they’ll be more yummy.
7. Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and place the cookies to cool on baking parchment or a cooling rack, with the help of a cheese-cutter, a cake server, or a thin spatula. The cookies will be soft straight out of the oven, but their surface gets crispy when cooled.
8. Enjoy!
9. If you have leftover cookies, store them in an air tight plastic bag (in the cookie mix bag, for example).

One of our unsuspecting testers enjoys her tea with cookies.