Tag: Vegan

Vegan Baking — Basic Recipes

writ­ten 4/22/24, updat­ed 5/22/24

What

Veg­an Pie Dough

Veg­an Sweet Milk Bread Dough

Vegan Pie Dough

Uses

Any pie: dessert, fruit, meat, ice cream, large, small, open faced, etc

Ingredients

Dough

2 cups All-Pur­pose Flour (+ dust­ing)
2 Tbsp Gran­u­lat­ed Sug­ar
¼ tsp Bak­ing Pow­der
1 stick (8 Tbsp) Veg­an But­ter (cold, small pieces)
2 Tbsp Veg­etable Short­en­ing (cold)
4–6 Tbsp Ice Water

Option­al: ½ tsp Salt

Time and Serving

Time: 20 min­utes prep, 2 hours set

Serv­ing: 1 stan­dard pie or 8 stan­dard hand pies

20 min­utes (dough prep) + 2 hours (refrig­er­a­tion) = 2 hours, 20 min­utes Total

Directions

  • Whisk Flour (2 cups), Sug­ar (2 Tbsp), Salt (option­al ½ tsp), and Bak­ing Pow­der (¼ tsp)
  • Add half of But­ter (4 Tbsp) and all of Short­en­ing (2 Tbsp)
  • Rub until Short­en­ing not detectable
  • Add rest of But­ter (4 Tbsp) and work until pea-sized pieces remain
  • Mix in Ice Water (4 Tbsp) with fork or hands (option­al­ly can do all of this with a few puls­es of a food proces­sor)
  • Grad­u­al­ly add more of Ice Water (1 Tbsp at a time) only until dough sticks when squeezed (should look shag­gy, not super smooth)
  • Turn onto plas­tic wrap
  • Shape into a disk
  • Refrig­er­ate until firm (~2 hours)
  • OPTIONAL: For a more flaky crust READ THIS. Fold the dough in halves, thirds, or quar­ters, push down, then do it again. Refrig­er­ate and let rest for about 30 min­utes, then do it again. Don’t over­do it to the point where the dough is gum­my and forms gluten, but it will make the crust flaki­er.

Pictures

Whisk ingre­di­ents togeth­er
Ice water
First round of but­ter and short­en­ing
Rub until short­en­ing is gone
Pieces most­ly incor­po­rat­ed
Add remain­ing but­ter
Even with­out water, it’s already stick­ing togeth­er
Add water a Tbsp at a time!
Mix it togeth­er
Almost there, but still too crumbly
Look­ing shag­gy, but still not quite
Very close
THERE IT IS
Stick­ing togeth­er well, but not too well com­bined
Lay out a cross pat­tern of plas­tic wrap
Turn it out. Note how rough it is still.
Option­al fold­ing for flak­i­ness
Fold­ed in thirds
Wrap it up and refrig­er­ate it
When ready to use, light­ly flour, and have fun!

Notes

  • Some­times the dough comes togeth­er with more or less water
  • Can use food proces­sor, but I pre­fer by hand to real­ly feel when it comes togeth­er
  • Prac­tice makes per­fect!
  • Cold but­ter is real­ly impor­tant to flak­i­ness, as is rest­ing time
  • Over­work­ing can lead to gum­my, dense dough, so be care­ful
  • Can make it dri­er or wet­ter to your pref­er­ence for what­ev­er you’re mak­ing

Vegan Sweet Milk Bread

Uses

Pull Apart Breads, Dough­nuts, Plain Milk Sweet Bread, Fruit Bread, Bean Paste Loaves, Gar­lic Bread, etc.

Ingredients

4 Cups All-Pur­pose or Bread Flour (give or take)

1 Cup Plant-based Milk (e.g. Oat milk)

1 pack­et or 2¼ tsp Dry Active Yeast

2 tsp + ½ Cup Sug­ar

1 Tbsp Salt

4 Tbsp Veg­an But­ter

Option­al: 2 Large Egg Equiv­a­lent (e.g. egg replac­er), 2 Tbsp Cornstarch/Potato Starch/Tapioca Starch, some Hon­ey

Time

Time: 30 min­utes prep; 1–2 hours, or overnight in the fridge set

Serv­ings: 2 large bread loaves or 36 cup­cake sizes or 24 cup­cake sizes + 1 medi­um round

Directions

Yeast

  • Heat Milk (1 Cup) to about 100–115F (too hot and yeast will die)
  • Pour into stand mix­er bowl
  • Dis­solve Sug­ar (2 tsp) and option­al­ly, Hon­ey
  • Add Active Dry Yeast (2¼ tsp or 1 enve­lope)
  • Light­ly stir
  • Cov­er and let bloom for about 5–10 min­utes (until it foams and smells like yeast)

Dough

  • By now the yeast should have bloomed quite well
  • Melt then add Veg­an But­ter (4 Tbsp)
  • Add Sug­ar (½ Cup for sweet bread, less for less sweet)
  • Add Salt (1Tbsp)
  • Add Egg Replac­er (2 Large Eggs), if using
  • Add Starch (2 Tbsp), if using
  • Incre­men­tal­ly add Flour (~4 Cups) and mix until it starts turn­ing into dough
  • Using the dough hook attach­ment at lev­el 4 on a stand mix­er, fin­ish adding the flour in small incre­ments until the dough comes nice­ly off the sides of the bowl, about 15 min­utes
  • Oth­er­wise, hand knead 20–30 min­utes
  • When it is smooth and tacky, cov­er with plas­tic wrap and/or a dish cloth, and set it in a warm loca­tion to proof for about 1–2 hours
  • Option­al­ly: cov­er and let rise overnight in the refrig­er­a­tor
  • Poke Test: It’s ready when you poke it with your fin­ger and it does­n’t spring back

Pictures

Notes

  • Let­ting rise too fast can take away from the fla­vor. Yeast appar­ent­ly likes 70F — 100F tem­per­a­tures. It is rec­om­mend­ed to stay on the low­er end if you want to get the most fla­vor
  • Good added ingre­di­ents: dried fruits, nuts, sweet bean paste, gar­lic but­ter, etc

Vegan Bourbon Apple Pie

writ­ten 4/22/2024, updat­ed 4/22/2024

What

Bour­bon Apple Pie with veg­an but­ter and nei­ther milk nor eggs

Main Ingredients

Dough

2 cups All-Pur­pose Flour (+ dust­ing)
2 Tbsp Gran­u­lat­ed Sug­ar
¼ tsp Bak­ing Pow­der
1 stick (8 Tbsp) Veg­an But­ter (cold, small pieces)
2 Tbsp Veg­etable Short­en­ing (cold)
4–6 Tbsp Ice Water

½ tsp Salt

Fill­ing

¼ Cup Bour­bon
4–6 Apples (medi­um sized, peeled, cored, and sliced)
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice or equiv­a­lent
⅓ Cup Gran­u­lat­ed Sug­ar
⅓ Cup Brown Sug­ar
Pinch of Salt
Sea­son­ing (e.g. nut­meg, cin­na­mon, all­spice, gin­ger)
4 Tbsp Veg­an But­ter
Wash for Crust

Optional Ingredients and Supplies

Option­al Ingre­di­ents

Apple Juice

Vanil­la Extract

Corn­starch or Flour (thick­en­ing)

Oth­er Sea­son­ings

Sup­plies

Mix­ing Bowl

Peel­ing Knife

Cor­er (option­al)

Saucepan/Skillet

Bak­ing Dish

Oven

Time and Servings

Time: ~3 hours

Serv­ing: 9in Pie

DOUGH: 20 min­utes (dough prep) + 2 hours (refrig­er­a­tion) + 20 min­utes (rolling and shap­ing) = 2 hours, 40 min­utes Total

FILLING: 10 min­utes (Apple peel and core) + 20 min­utes (fill­ing cook) + 1.5 hours cooldown = 2 hours Total

BAKE: 5 minute (prep for oven) + 1 hour (bake) = 1.05 hours Total

Directions

Prepare

Dough
  • Whisk Flour (2 cups), Sug­ar (2 Tbsp), Salt (option­al ½ tsp), and Bak­ing Pow­der (¼ tsp)
  • Add half of But­ter (4 Tbsp) and all of Short­en­ing (2 Tbsp)
  • Rub until Short­en­ing not detectable
  • Add rest of But­ter (4 Tbsp) and work until pea-sized But­ter pieces remain
  • Mix in Ice Water (4 Tbsp) with fork or hands (option­al­ly can do all of this with a few puls­es of a food proces­sor)
  • Grad­u­al­ly add more of Ice Water (1 Tbsp at a time) only until dough sticks when squeezed (should look shag­gy, not super smooth)
  • Turn onto plas­tic wrap
  • Shape into a disk
  • Refrig­er­ate until firm (~2 hours)
  • OPTIONAL: For a more flaky crust READ THIS. Fold the dough in halves, thirds, or quar­ters, push down, then do it again. Refrig­er­ate and let rest for about 30 min­utes, then do it again. Don’t over­do it to the point where the dough is gum­my and forms gluten, but it will make the crust flaki­er.
Filling
  • Core and Slice Apples (option­al­ly peel, too) into ~¼ inch slices
  • Place into mix­ing bowl
  • Add Lemon Juice (2 Tbsp) and Bour­bon (¼ Cup), toss­ing it all togeth­er
  • Melt Veg­an But­ter (2 Tbsp) in a saucepan or skil­let
  • Com­bine Apple Slices, Brown Sug­ar (⅓ Cup), Gran­u­lat­ed Sug­ar (⅓ Cup), and Salt (pinch)
  • Cook medi­um-high heat, stir­ring, until Apples soft­en (~5 min­utes)
  • Add Sea­son­ings and adjust taste to your lik­ing
  • Con­tin­ue cook­ing and stir­ring, until thick­ened (~10 min)
  • Option­al­ly, now mix in cornstarch/flour if you want it thick­ened stir­ring well to com­bine (be care­ful not to cre­ate clumps) and let sim­mer some more (~5 min­utes)
  • Taste and adjust again
  • Remove from heat and let cool to room tem­per­a­ture

Baking

Oven will need to be pre­heat­ed to 400F if you choose to bake right away and not refrig­er­ate the assem­bled pie

Crust
  • Divide dough in 2
  • Form each into a ball
  • Using a roller, roll first ball (bot­tom crust) to over­fill the size of your bak­ing dish and to desired thick­ness (I per­son­al­ly don’t like thick crusts)
  • Dust with flour as need­ed
  • Place into bak­ing dish and push it to fill the form of the dish
  • Option­al: Pre-bake the crust after dim­pling the crust with a fork or using bak­er’s weights on parch­ment paper for about 10–20 min­utes (long-bak­ing desserts like fruit filled pies gen­er­al­ly don’t need to have pre­baked crusts as they’ll bake while the fill­ing sim­mers in the oven)
  • Form the 2nd dough ball which will be the upper crust
  • Option­al­ly: cut into lat­tice strips if desired
  • Spoon fill­ing in
  • Dot Veg­an But­ter (2 Tbsp) on top of the fill­ing
  • Lay the top crust over the filled pie
  • Press the dough togeth­er to cre­ate the crust and cut out some steam holes (have fun here with dec­o­ra­tions)
  • If using lat­tice, go ahead and lay the desired pat­tern
  • Option­al­ly, refrig­er­ate the assem­bled pie for about an hour or two
Bake
  • If you haven’t done it, pre­heat the oven to 400F
  • Brush on wash
  • Make sure you did­n’t for­get to cut out vent­ing holes
  • Bake for about 1 hour
  • Option­al: Bake for 25 min­utes, then cov­er the crust with foil so that it does­n’t burn
  • Remove
  • Let ful­ly cool (~2 hours)
  • Option­al: Serve with Ice Cream

ENJOY!!

Pictures

Shag­gy dough
Fold­ing for Flak­i­ness
Refrig­er­ate for 2 hours
Peel­ing and Cor­ing
Lemon Juice
Bour­bon
Melt But­ter
Add Sug­ar
Fill­ing Done. Let cool
Light­ly flour
Roll
This is actu­al­ly too small for the plate
Prick holes in bot­tom if pre­bak­ing
Top Crust
See, too lit­tle dough. It shrunk
Cooled Fill­ing
Dot with But­ter
Assem­bled and washed
Bak­ing!
Slight­ly burnt

Notes

If you have trou­ble with remov­ing the core from an apple cor­er, all you have to do is use your thumb. I’ve tried dig­ging at it with knives and chop­sticks, and the thumb real­ly works the best. You can remove the upper piece of the core if it’s being stub­born, and the rest will fly out like a bul­let. Apple cores and peels are GREAT for the com­post!

Removed the upper part as it was being stub­born

  • I messed up on the bot­tom crust by not mak­ing it big enough. The top crust does NOT have to be as large as the bot­tom crust as I found, just needs to meet the bot­tom to seal in. Sub­se­quent­ly, my pie fill­ing bub­bled out
  • I don’t like a lot of crust in gen­er­al, so this does­n’t both­er me. Should have done a lat­tice top, but was too lazy to take the extra steps
  • As I men­tioned in the instruc­tions, appar­ent­ly, long-bak­ing pies like fruit filled pies real­ly don’t need to have a pre-baked bot­tom crust. I just don’t like mushy pie bot­toms. If you do, that’s cool
  • Toast­er Ovens (I always use one) like mine tend to want to cook faster than a large tra­di­tion­al oven, so make sure you don’t let yours burn like I did. I’d already set it at 45 min­utes rather than 1 hour, but it still came out burnt