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.

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!

The white chocolate I used was Bonvita Rice Milk White Bar, and the reason I baked it into cookies was that it’s completely too sweet to eat as is. I love white chocolate, but will stick with the Organica White Bar variety from now on – if I’m able to hunt it down somewhere in Helsinki.

Two of the cookie flavors had white chocolate in them, and compared to the dark chocolate cookies, those were a lot sweeter. All in all, I liked all three, and would definitely make each one of them again!

The Wet Mix:

• 1 dl canola oil
• 1 and 1/2 dl raw cane sugar
• 1 dl soy milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or vanilla sugar)

The Dry Mix:

• 3 dl whole spelt flour
• 1 dl wheat flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 dl rolled oats

Additions:

• 55 g vegan white chocolate, chopped
• 55 g vegan semi-dark chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 dl dried cranberries
• 1 tablespoon dark cocoa powder

I mixed the wet and dry mixes in separate bowls first, and then combined the two with a wooden fork. Now, I divided the dough in three equal parts, and then mixed in the chocolates and the cranberries: in the first part, I put half of the white chocolate and one third of the dark chocolate; in the second part, I added the cocoa powder and the rest of the dark chocolate; and in the third, I mixed the cranberries and the second half of the white chocolate. The dough was quite sticky and stiff at this point, so it took a little effort to get everything well mixed.

I covered three baking sheets with baking parchment. I scooped the dough on baking sheets, one tablespoon at a time, and then flattened the cookies with a fork dipped in cold water. I ended up with 12 of each variety. Then I baked the cookies at 200 degrees Celsius for 7-8 minutes.

The process of making pizza is considerably easier with store bought pizza crusts and tomato sauce, but I highly recommend making your own – it is more than worth it. I have never had a store bought crust that wasn’t dry and too thick, and I like my tomato sauce filled with flavor – just a thin layer of the home-made sauce will be enough to season the whole pizza. However, for almost instant gratification, our potato pizza had no tomatoes whatsoever, and was just as delicious.

Double-Rised Spelty Pizza Crust (for 4):

This is the end of my spelt madness for a while, since I used the last of my spelt flour in this pizza crust. But it was the best pizza crust I’ve ever made – thin and crispy, just like I like it, and as a bonus it was very easy to roll out. Double-rising process requires some planning ahead, but improves the texture of the crust.

• 2 and ½ dl water, in 42 degrees Celsius
• 3 and ½ dl spelt flour
• 3 and ½ dl wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon dark syrup
• 1 sachet (11 g) dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt

First, I placed the water, that was a little warmer than my hand, in a mixing bowl. Now, I mixed in the syrup and salt, and stirred until combined. Then I mixed all the other ingredients in a separate bowl, and then poured about half of them in the liquid bowl. I stirred vigorously with a wooden fork until the dough seemed glutinous, and then poured in the rest of the flour. Now, I kneaded the dough until it formed a firm and springy ball, which took about 4 minutes.

I filled our kitchen sink halfway full with hot water, covered the dough bowl tightly with plastic wrap and a cutting board, and placed the bowl in the water. I let the dough rise for about an hour and a half while we were doing some grocery shopping. When we came back, it had almost tripled in size. I took the dough out of the bowl and flattened it on a floured surface, kneading it lightly to get the air out, and repeated the rising process; placed the dough in the bowl, covered, filled sink with warm water, and placed the bowl in sink.

Now, I started making the tomato sauce and preparing the fillings. When that was done, after about 45 minutes, I took the dough out of the bowl, cut it in four pieces, formed a ball of each piece, and rolled them with a rolling pin on a well-floured working surface. This batch makes four round pizzas that each fit on a regular baking sheet.

Tomato Sauce:

• 500 g tomato sauce (the passata style, or crushed tomatoes)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, finely cubed
• 5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 and ½ tablespoons dried basil
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• freshly ground black pepper to taste

First, I fried the onions in the olive oil for about 4 minutes, until they started to brown a little. Then, I added the sliced garlic, and fried it for another 2 minutes. I added the basil, and sautéed it for about 30 seconds, and then added the rest of the ingredients. Now, I let the sauce simmer until we were ready to fill our pizzas, for about 45 minutes. Had I started earlier, I could have let it simmer up to 2 hours for maximum taste.

Before filling the pizzas, I like to purée the sauce with our immersion blender, and let it cool down a bit. This batch makes enough for about four pizzas, and since we only topped two with tomato sauce, we’ll probably use the leftovers as a pasta sauce.

Our Fillings:

• fresh spinach, rinsed and coarsely chopped
• red bell pepper, sliced
• sun dried tomatoes in oil, rinsed and sliced
• red onion, thinly sliced
• green beans (haricots verts)
• sliced button mushrooms (for Heikki)
• grated vegan cheese that melts (we had Cheezly brand)
• freshly ground black pepper

The tomato sauce is filled with flavor, so we just spread a thin layer of it over two pizza crusts. If there’s too much sauce, it can easily overwhelm all the other flavors. Then we filled our pizzas with all the yummy fillings, and topped them with grated vegan cheese and freshly ground black pepper. We baked our pizzas on the upper rack of our oven, in 225 degrees Celsius, for about 7 minutes.

A Note on Vegan Cheese: The only commercial vegan cheese we’ve tried that really melts is the Cheezly brand, but there might be others. We’ve tried their mozzarella, edam, and cheddar, and they all have the kind of artificial flavor that vegan cheeses generally do – I think they are best for cooking and baking, as opposed to sandwich fillings and such. Heikki prefers his pizza with drizzles of olive oil instead of vegan cheese, but I kind of like its salty soft meltiness.

Unbaked pizzas – these little photos can be clicked to make them larger.

Potato Pizza:

When we are making pizza, Heikki always insists on at least one potato pizza, the concept of which an old flatmate introduced to me. The spelt crust recipe makes 4 round pizzas, so we baked two tomato pizzas and two potato pizzas, which left us with next day’s lunch as well. This potato pizza really is amazingly good in all its simplicity.

• 5 potatoes, scrubbed and thinly sliced
• 3/4 dl olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 tablespoon dried dill
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• thinly sliced red onions

First, I mixed the olive oil, dried dill, garlic, and salt in a cup. Now, I placed the sliced potatoes in a mixing bowl, and poured in half of the olive oil mixture, stirring to coat each slice. When the pizza crusts were ready, I brushed the rest of the olive oil over the crusts, and then arranged the potatoes evenly so that they covered the pizza crusts. Then we ground some black pepper over the potatoes, and sprinkled the pizzas with sliced red onions. The potato pizzas were also baked in 225 degrees Celsius, in the upper section of our electric oven, for 7-8 minutes.

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.

Maple syrup is a little bit of a luxury item, but it does deepen the flavor of these muffins. I ground the raisins along with the flaxseed because I am not a big raisin lover and still wanted to get some of their fruity sweetness. Lemon grass powder produced a nice, bitter edge with the sweeter flavors of cardamom and cinnamon, but ginger powder would be a more traditional addition.

Dry mix:

• 1 and 1/2 dl wheat flour
• 1 dl spelt flour
• 1 and 1/2 dl rolled oats, finely ground
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon dried lemongrass powder
• pinch of ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Wet mix:

• I mixed these in an electric mixer first:
  • 1 dl raisins
  • 1 dl soy milk
  • 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed

• 1 and 1/2 dl soy milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 dl maple syrup
• 1/2 dl (or a little less) canola oil
• 1 organic carrot, brushed and finely grated or ground

First, I made the flaxseed “egg” by grinding the raisins, flaxseed, and 1 dl soy milk in our food processor until they formed an emulsified mixture. I also ground the rolled oats until they resembled a coarse flour, a little like spelt flour, and then coarsely ground the carrot as well. We have a mini food processor attachment to our immersion blender, and that’s my best friend when preparing ingredients like these.

Now, I mixed the wet and the dry mix in separate bowls first, and then combined the two. I stirred the batter with a wooden fork just until incorporated, and then filled the cups of my prepared muffin tin up to two thirds. This batter made exactly twelve muffins.

I baked the muffins in 180 degrees Celsius for about 18 minutes, and after a few minutes removed them from the muffin tin to cool down.

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.