Oats and wheat pancakes

Miss E, our two-year old granddaughter, arrived Sunday afternoon for a sleepover. It's always fun to have the charming Miss E running around the house (she never walks), sharing meals and snacks with us. She loves to eat and is willing to try just about anything before passing judgement. She's just started using the word love to describe how she feels about things, and it's hilarious to hear her tiny self say things like, "I love tempeh!," or "I love pink!" or "I love quinoa!" For dinner she had some unusual-looking seitan which she tentatively picked up and nibbled before exclaiming, I LIKE it!"

Miss E likes to have pancakes for breakfast when she stays with us but I was debating between pancakes and oatmeal, and ended up making pancakes with half wheat and half oats. I even measured the ingredients so I could post a recipe. Then I searched this blog to make sure I hadn't posted the exact recipe before and nope, not the exact one. So here it is.



Oats and wheat pancakes

• 1 cup white whole wheat flour
• 1 cup regular rolled oats, ground to flour in blender or food processor
• 1 tablespoon evaporated cane juice (natural sugar)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt (optional)
• 1-3/4 cups soy or other non-dairy milk
• 1 teaspoon cider vinegar or rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons canola oil

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt, if using.
2. Add the vinegar to the milk and stir to curdle. Stir the oil into the milk.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix together. The batter will be fairly thick, but if it seems too thick, add a small amount of additional milk.
4. Heat a cast iron griddle over medium heat until hot, then lightly oil it by spreading the oil with a spatula. Throw a few drops of water onto the pan and if it hisses and jumps, it's ready.
5. Drop batter onto the pan to make approximately 2" pancakes. When bubbles form on top and the edges look dry, turn the pancakes over and cook about 15-30 seconds or until browned.
6. Serve with pure maple syrup, applesauce, or the topping of your choice.

Makes 4 — 6 servings.



Update: I had batter left over so I stored it in a glass container in the refrigerator. On Wednesday morning I made pancakes again, and they were just as yummy (maybe even better) than they were on Monday. Of course I had to add a little more soymilk to the batter because it had thickened, but having the batter in the fridge made pancakes seem as easy as cold cereal. Well, almost! Had them with date syrup.

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Food odds and ends



When my husband is out of town I tend to make myself simple suppers that usually end up being stir fries cooked in my wok. I love cooking in my wok. It's the perfect place to make a one-dish meal. Here's a little back story about our wok. We bought our favorite, flat-bottomed wok when we were living in Australia. We were visiting a living museum — a reconstructed mining town focused on the 19th century Australian gold rush era. All the businesses of the town were functioning as they would have been back in 1861; the bakery sold bread, the foundry produced metal objects, etc. Since many Chinese people had been brought to the area to work on the railroads, Chinese culture influenced the products available in the town. The foundry of the mining town made woks, and, missing my wok from home while living in Geelong, I bought one! We still have it and use it often.





Here's a dinner made from leftovers brought home from Bamboo Garden, a vegan Chinese restaurant. (Everything served at the restaurant is vegan except the fortune cookies.) The crunchy-looking tidbit on the right is fried yuba. After reheating, it had lost its crunchy texture, if not its crunchy appearance. Still tasted great, though.



This is what I currently see when I look out my kitchen door. It seems to be a rhododendron tree. Seattle is loaded with rhododendrons. They're not only abundant, they're enormous. Everywhere I go they are in bloom. I'm familiar with the shrub variety but until I came to Seattle, I'd never seen them grown as trees. The tree is beautiful but piles of the sticky blooms litter the back patio and constantly get tracked into the house. I no sooner sweep them up than they are all back again. It's hard to believe that the tree hasn't run out of blossoms yet.

Flaxseed brownies (two versions)

© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

(We are on the road between Madison and Seattle. This post was written before we left is is posting automatically.)

I remember visiting my next door neighbor's house as a nine-year-old child and receiving a glass of orangeade. I'd never had orangeade before, and when I got home I told my mother of this wonderful discovery, and asked if she could please, please, please buy some. "Orangeade is nothing but a little orange juice diluted with water and sweetened with sugar. They add cheap ingredients, make an unhealthy drink and charge a lot of money for it. Why should I pay for something like that?" she said. She then suggested that if I really wanted orangeade I should make my own, using the real oj in the fridge. This was not what I wanted to hear. I was sure that if I did, it wouldn't taste as refreshing as the kind you could buy in a store.

Growing up, I never thought of my mother as a health food promoter. We ate a pretty standard meat-based diet. Except for fresh salad, which we had every night, our vegetables consisted mainly of canned peas and frozen green beans. But thinking back, when I was very young, we had very little junk food around the house. We didn't have candy, chips or soda on a regular basis. Those things might make an appearance as a special treat (TastyKake, anyone?), but I never developed much of a snacking habit or a sweet tooth. My mother had a strict and limited food budget and she spent her dollars on what she considered "real" food, so maybe that has something to do with why my sweet tooth is underdeveloped.

Nevertheless, every so often I can appreciate a really good dessert!

Recently I posted about the wonderful catered dinner we enjoyed with our veg meet-up group. It was a four course meal catered by Jen Gaber of Nutshell Catering, and we loved it. My recipe for edamame hummus was inspired by one of the appetizers, and now I have Jen's recipe for one of the desserts. These were very fudgy brownies and maybe the best brownies I've ever had. I altered the recipe slightly when I made these and needed more baking pan space than the original recipe called for. Don't be too alarmed by the ingredient quantities, this recipe makes brownies for a crowd. (Or maybe you REALLY like brownies and it's only enough for you! Could be.) I think I made about 40, using a 12" x 18" and about 3/4 of an 8" x 8" pan. They were cut more or less 2-1/2" square. I'm going to give you (with permission) the original recipe for very dense and fudgy brownies, and then my slightly altered one. I made changes to accommodate cost, texture, and ingredients on hand.


© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

Flaxseed brownies from Jen Gaber, Nutshell Catering

• 1 cup ground flaxseed
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 cup maple syrup
• 1 cup oil
• 1 cup soy or rice milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
  
• 6 cups flour
  
• 1 cup cocoa powder
  
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• vegan dark chocolate chips
  

1. Mix the flaxseed, sugar, maple syrup, oil, milk, vanilla and espresso powder together in a large bowl. Let sit for 10 minutes.
2. After the wet ingredients have had their 10 minute sit, sift the flour, cocoa powder and sea salt into the wet ingredients and mix.
3. Spread into a lightly oiled 12" x 18" sheet pan.
4. Sprinkle with semi-sweet or bittersweet vegan chocolate chips.
5. Bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes.
   
6. Jen says, "I pull them out before they look entirely done, since the residual heat keeps cooking them, then they won't be dry."
7. Andrea says, "let them cool at least one hour before cutting. If you let them cool completely, the chocolate chips will harden and make a crunchy topping. If you cut while still warm, the chips will turn into frosting. Your choice. You can see in the photo what my choice was." :D
   

Notes and changes: When I made the brownies, I used one cup of maple syrup and 3/4 cup of agave syrup. I didn't have enough maple syrup on hand, and it seemed too expensive to use 2 cups, anyway. (I will probably reduce the maple syrup even farther next time I make these.) I also added one level tablespoon of baking powder with the flour and cocoa because I wanted a less dense, softer brownie. Because I expected the brownies to rise a bit, the 12 x 18 pan wasn't quite large enough, so I also used about 3/4 of an 8" square pan. Without the baking powder, they would probably be fine in the one large pan. I used white whole wheat flour and it worked great. (I actually meant to use whole wheat pastry flour but someone switched my bins and I didn't notice until all the flour was in!) I didn't have espresso powder so I used freeze-dried coffee crystals. I baked my brownies for 20 minutes but I think the big pan could have used at least five minutes more. The small pan was just right.

Flaxseed brownies (with changes)

• 1 cup ground flaxseed
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup maple syrup
• 3/4 cup agave
  
• 1 cup oil
• 1 cup soy or rice milk
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
  
• 6 cups white whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
  
• 1 cup cocoa powder
  
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• vegan dark chocolate chips
  

1. Mix the flaxseed, sugar, maple syrup, oil, milk, vanilla and espresso powder together in a large bowl. Let sit for 10 minutes.
2. After the wet ingredients have had their 10 minute sit, sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and sea salt into the wet ingredients and mix.
3. Spread into a lightly oiled 12" x 18" sheet pan. (see notes, above)
   
4. Sprinkle with semi-sweet or bittersweet vegan chocolate chips.
5. Bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for about 25 minutes. (check at 20 minutes)
   (see notes, above)
   
6. Let them cool at least one hour before cutting. If you let them cool completely, the chocolate chips will harden and make a crunchy topping. If you cut while still warm, the chips will turn into frosting. Your choice.

White whole wheat flour

I use white whole wheat flour in so many recipes I thought it might be time for a mini-post devoted to this excellent grain. I first heard the term at work when one of my co-workers was trying to add more whole grains to her diet. She asked me about the bag of white whole wheat flour she had just purchased and I assured her that whole wheat flour doesn't have the word "white" in it. Ahem. Then I went home and did a little research to find out that yes, white whole wheat is the real deal.

White whole wheat is a hard winter wheat with nutritional value equivalent to hard red wheat, but with baking and taste qualities more akin to unbleached white. It's a naturally occurring variety that lacks the genes for red bran color. It also lacks certain phenolic compounds that contribute to the stronger taste of red wheat. The taste of white whole wheat is milder and sweeter. It also seems to produce lighter and softer baked goods.

Ar first I was using it only in bread and pizza dough in the same proportions that I had used red whole wheat. I usually added up to half unbleached white to lighten the bread. Then I started using higher and higher percentages of white whole wheat until I was making the bread entirely with this product, with great results. I usually used organic 100% whole wheat pastry flour for cakes and cookies. I started experimenting with white whole wheat and was surprised to find that the white whole wheat worked great in those things, too. It's become an all-purpose flour for me, though I still often use whole wheat pastry flour (from soft white wheat) out of habit.

I've been purchasing Bob's Red Mill organic white whole wheat flour which I find at Whole Foods and at our local food co-op. Other companies offer it but not as an organic product. (Grains are subject to so much pesticide use that I prefer to buy organic products.)

You can read more about white whole wheat here.