Sunday-Funday of Cooking, Meal 1: Vegan Four Grain Blueberry Pancakes

Sunday involved serious cooking for every meal of the day... utilization of all those Saturday farmer's market vegetables, since we realized that we're going to Pittsburgh on Tuesday for a week and everything will go bad. We started the day with pancakes! I hadn't had pancakes in a reallllly long time; when going out for brunch, I tend to lean towards savory rather than sweet breakfasty dishes (like Veggie Tofu Breakfast Burrito at Quiet Storm, YUM). This Vegan Four Grain Blueberry Pancakes recipe is delicious and healthy, its adapted from the Holy Cow! Vegan Recipes blog.

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup stone-ground cornmeal
1/4 cup quick-cooking rolled oats (I used Quaker quick oats)
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon, ground
1/4 tsp nutmeg, ground
1 1/2 cups soy milk (feel free to substitute with almond milk)
1/2 tsp vinegar
4 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup honey
6 tbsp flax powder whisked together with 6 tbsp water
1 cup frozen blueberries, cooked in microwave

Preparation

-Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl: whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, stone-ground cornmeal, quick oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg
-Whisk flax seed powder with water in a separate bowl
-Warm blueberries in microwave for 45 seconds or until juicy.
-Add and mix in the rest of the wet ingredients to the flax seed mixture: blueberries, soy milk, vinegar, olive oil, honey.
-Pour wet mixture into dry mixture bowl. Mix quickly and in as few strokes as possible, until the dry ingredients are just moistened. The batter should be lumpy and not smooth. Overmixing the batter promotes the formation of gluten which would make the pancakes heavy and chewy as opposed to light and fluffy. The batter will be very thick but spreadable.
-On a hot griddle or frying pan over medium heat, spread a thin film of olive oil.
-Spoon about 1/3 cup of batter into the center of the griddle and shape the batter into a circle with a wooden spoon. This can be hard because the batter is very thick and doughy.
-Wait until the sides start looking a little dry, then lift the edge carefully and check if the underside is golden-brown, if so then flip the pancake.
-Press the pancake with a flat spatula so that it sizzles, allowing any uncooked batter to squeeze out and cook as well.
-When both sides are golden brown (with shades of blue berry!), remove from griddle/pan and repeat with more batter.
-Enjoy the pancake by itself, or with your favorite spread, maple syrup, more blueberries...

Fall Fun and Vegan Pumpkin Apple Pecan Bread and Muffins

I was inspired by Frugal Fun to re-use our jack-o-lanterns to the fullest extent. You know I love those three Rs -- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. I harvested the pumpkins one day after carving them to get awesome, fresh pumpkin puree and roasted pumpkin seeds. This recipe was adapted from the Post Punk Kitchen, which is an awesome resource for vegan cooking and baking. I used apples because they were laying around and no refined sugar (just honey) for sweetening. I ended up giving this bread to one of my best friends from high school, Chee, when I visited her in D.C. on the day that she found out that she passed the Maryland bar exam! I made a lot of other pumpkin based baked goods, including scones, muffins (see below), and cookies.

Ingredients/Supplies:
-8 ½ x 4 ½ loaf pan (or larger)
-3 cups Fresh Pumpkin Puree or pumpkin puree from a can
-1 cup pecans, crumbled
-4 or 5 whole pecans for decoration
-2 cups of whole wheat flour
-2 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp baking soda
-1 tsp ground cinnamon
-1/2 tsp ground ginger
-1/2 tsp ground allspice
-1 cup of honey
-1 tablespoon canola oil
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-1 cup apple sauce
-2 apples, chopped into small ½ inch cubes

Bread Preparation:
-Preheat oven to 350
-Spread a thin layer of canola oil onto inside surface of pan to prevent sticking, or mist pan with nonstick cooking spray
-In a large mixing bowl, sift together dry ingredients: whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, allspice.
-Combine wet ingredients in a mixing bowl: pumpkin puree, honey, canola oil, vanilla extract, apple sauce. Whisk well.
-Pour the wet into dry ingredients until everything is evenly moistened. Batter will be stiff.
-Fold in chopped apples and crumbled pecans.
-Spoon batter into loaf pan, distribute evenly along length of the pan. Fill pan no more than ¾ full (otherwise the bread will spill over into the oven, as I learned the hard way). If you have extra batter, see below for muffins!
-Place whole pecans to the top of batter in the pan for decoration.
-Bake for 50 minutes to an hour, or until a knife comes out clean when you pierce the bread.
-Remove bread from oven and let it cool before slicing. Wrap in plastic wrap and it should keep for about a week for you to enjoy!

Muffin Preparation:
I had some extra batter left over, since you don’t want to fill the bread pan up the whole way but only ¾ full. So I put the rest of the batter in a muffin pan and placed a whole pecan on the top of each.
-Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when you pierce the muffin.

I baked mine for too long, and the outside was a little hard. So keep an eye on them. Otherwise, they were really delicious and a kind of healthy snack or breakfast during the wonderful season of Fall Fun!