Stripped Bare Fashion

Tag: recipe

Vegan sourdough hot cross buns

These were so good I have to share! Most of my recipes are subsistence recipes… simple, nutritious food for staying alive. Really nothing fancy. One of my staples is sourdough bread and I experimented on this hot cross bun recipe as a way of using the “discard”. I crossed a cinnamon bun recipe with a hot cross bun recipe, swapped sultanas and orange peel for dried raspberries and grated apple and boosted the yeast with unfed sourdough starter… and it worked!!

As with my sourdough bread, I use a Kitchen Aid for kneading. It makes bread – and these buns – soooooo easy.

Ingredients and Method:

Place your large metal Kitchen Aid bowl on electric scales and measure in the ingredients in the following order

125g slightly warmed oat mylk (not hot, not cold, just warm so the starter likes it)

130g unfed sourdough starter

1 egg’s worth of vegan egg replacer (I use Free & Easy which stipulates 1 tsp replacer shaken in a small jar until combined with 2tbl water)

25g vegan butter melted

285g strong white bread flour

50g rye flour (or substitute for another 50g white)

50g khorasan flour (or substitute for another 50g white)

100g golden caster sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp quick yeast

Fix the bowl to the Kitchen Aid base and mix to combine. Leave to sit for ten minutes after the initial mixing, then give it a good 10 minute knead using the dough hook attachment.

Add the following ingredients to the bowl

40g dried raspberries

1 medium sized apple grated

Mix until well combined. The addition of the fruit will make your dough initially very wet, but don’t worry, it will be fine.

Cover the dough with a damp cloth and a re-usable plastic cover – they look like a shower cap but are brilliant and can be used over and over to avoid single-use plastic.

Leave in a warm place for at least an hour.

Return mixture to the Kitchen Aid base and knead again for 5 minutes.

Turn dough out on to lightly floured work surface and work into 16 smallish buns, 8 large ones, or 12 if you want to go middle road… I love this dough video if you want to see how a super-baker does it!

Place buns slightly separated on a piece of baking paper or bake-o-glide on a large, flat baking tray. I love them expanding and joining up so you have to tear them apart, like proper HCB’s. (The first batch I cooked were too close together, and I baked them in a ceramic dish so they had nowhere to go and came out a bit square.) If you’re making 16 small buns leave about 1 cm between each dough ball.

Leave to rise in a warm place for a couple of hours. When nicely risen, it’s time to add the crosses on top.

Mix 4 tbl plain white flour with 4-6 tbl water to make a smooth paste.

Use a piping bag or gun to draw a cross on each bun.

Bake in a 170°C oven for 15 minutes.

While the buns are baking make a glaze by mixing 2 heaped tsp of golden caster sugar with 3 tsp water and blasting in the microwave for 20 seconds.

Take the partly baked buns from the oven after 15 minutes and brush thoroughly with the glaze. Return to oven for another 15 minutes.

When the buns look lightly golden and shiny, and feel hollow if you gently tap them, they are ready.

Serve immediately, with or without butter or vegan spread OR allow to cool on a wire rack.

Vegan sourdough hot cross buns will stay fresh in a sealed container for a few days, or can be frozen for a month and easily defrosted individually in 30 seconds in the microwave. They are also good cut in half and toasted in the toaster, or popped back in a hot oven for 5 minutes to warm before serving.

For a non-Easter variation, make exactly as described but without piping the crosses onto the buns. Take out half way through baking to glaze and decorate with a sprinkling of sugar instead. You could also experiment with different fresh and dried fruit in the same quantities. Banana and date? Carrot and dried mango…?

Experienced sourdough bakers who prefer not to use quick yeast could leave the dough overnight for a cold prove and then shape, leave to rise and bake on day two.

February 7, 2020
Tahini

If you’re thinking life’s too short to make my own tahini, I hear you. I too am very happy to use well made store bought items in everyday recipes. However, I love lots of food that benefits from tahini (humous, chocolate chip cookies and tahini dressing just to name a few…) and I really don’t like the bitterness of lots of store bought tahini. So here is a super quick and easy way to make your own which can be stored in a jar in the cupboard for a month, added to all sorts of delicious recipes and doesn’t have an overpoweringly bitter aftertaste.

I have stipulated to use hulled sesame seeds as unhulled seeds tend to taste more bitter and don’t give such a smooth end result.

Ingredients

95g hulled, toasted sesame seeds (toast your own if you prefer, over low heat in a dry pan and only lightly, but if we’re subscribing to life’s too short, buy them ready toasted!!

3tbl avocado oil (or your preferred light tasting oil – I think avocado adds a little more creaminess and sweetness)

1tsp salt

Method

Place the toasted sesame seeds in a food processor and process on high for a good minute until you see them starting to break down.

Pour in 1 tbl of oil and add the salt. I feel like the mixture gets smoother when it’s a bit thicker, so blend for a minute or more with just 1tbl of oil.

Once the mixture is looking very smooth, pour in the remaining two tbl of oil.

I store tahini in the cupboard in a glass jar. As well as being a useful addition to various recipes, tahini is very moreish spread on fresh bread or as a dip for crudite.

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February 3, 2020
Vegan lentil pies

Makes 4 x 12cm pies, or six x 10cm pies… or one big one if you prefer!

A few friends have asked me recently for recipe ideas… this is a very unusual occurrence, and obviously based on being vegan/ vegetarian more than my famous culinary skills!

So this is an absolute basic… In my book, lentil pies are a stand alone dish, but the filling is what I use for vegan mince if I don’t want to use a ready-made product (such as Quorn) and can be varied to make bolognese, cottage pie etc

Ingredients

1 tbl coconut oil

2 shallots peeled and finely chopped

1 garlic cloves peeled and finely chopped

A sprig of rosemary

A couple of sprigs of thyme

125g dried puy lentils, rinsed thoroughly

125ml passata

2tbl tomato paste

400ml stock (Marigold Vegan is good)

1 tsp liquid smoke or 1 tbl smoked paprika

1 sheet puff pasty

1 tbl egg replacer (you can use nut milk if you prefer but I find the egg replacer gives the crust a more golden colour!)

Method

Warm the oil and add the shallots and garlic

Soften on a low heat for 8-10 minutes until lightly golden

Add the rinsed lentils to the pan and stir though onions and garlic

Stir in passata, tomato paste and stock

Add rosemary and thyme and liquid smoke or smoked paprika

Leave simmering on a low heat, checking and stirring from time to time

If the mixture gets too think or dry, add a little extra water

When finished you want it to be moist without being runny and firm but not dry

The cooking instructions on my puy lentils always seem to underestimate cooking time… I would leave the pan simmering for a good 45 minutes, but I do prefer the lentils to be very soft (and I get complaints about them having “bones” if they’re crunchy…)

While the lentils are simmering, cut the top and bottom pastry rounds and fit the base into an oiled pie tin

When the lentils have cooked, spoon them into the prepared pie tin… don’t underfill or you’ll have stingy pies and the top will sag. The mixture won’t expland during cooking except for heat, so fill close to the top

Brush the edges with egg replacer and fit the lids on top, carefully pressing down to ensure the edges seal

Brush the top of each pie with more egg replacer

Bake in a 180°C for 20 minutes – slightly less for smaller pies, and up to 40 minutes for one large pie

One more idea: If I’m making these pies I usually make double quantity of the lentils, use half for little pies and put the other half in a ceramic baking dish that can go in the freezer…. a week or so later, I whip out the frozen lentils and top with mashed potato for super quick cottage pie.

January 27, 2020
Vegan Rice Crispie Cakes or Twilight Slice

Call them rice crispie cakes or Mars Bar slices, this is a vegan version which is super easy (the children could make it themselves)… Mars Bars have been substituted with Twilight bars by Go Max Go and butter is replaced with coconut products. It’s not the work of genius and I’m not even pretending this is somehow healthy or cheap… but it is delicious and if you’re keen to get the whole family to try plant-based food this might win them over for a few minutes at least.

Ingredients

4 x Twilight bars

60g coconut oil and 15g coconut butter (If you’re in Australia use 85g Copha!! – it’s the best product for this recipe but sadly only available downunder)

75g Puffed rice

Equipment

Heat resistant glass bowl and saucepan that fit together to create a bain marie

Large mixing bowl

20cm x 20cm baking tray

Baking tray liner such as Bake-o-glide or non stick baking paper

Mixing spoons and measuring scales

Method

Break up Twilight bars and put in glass bowl with the coconut oil/butter or Copha.

Sit bowl over a gently boiling saucepan of water to slowly melt the ingredients together.

Stir mixture and take off the heat as soon as it is melted.

Measure puffed rice into a large mixing bowl.

Tip chocolate mixture over puffed rice and stir gently (but quickly before it solidifies) to combine. Be careful not to crush the puffed rice too much.

Pour mixture into lined tray and gently press so it is evenly spread and flat on top.

Put tray into fridge to cool and set. This should only take 30 minutes.

Cut into small cubes, or longer bar-shapes as you prefer.

Store in airtight glass container.

January 21, 2020
Simple bread using a bread machine
Fail-safe bread recipe

This is an absolute fail-safe bread recipe. It’s so easy and so satisfying. It’s an adaptation of a recipe given to me by my niece, Anna.

So long as you use strong bread flour, you can use any combination of grain you fancy: kamut (also known as khorasan), rye and spelt are all great, high-protein alternatives to wheat flour. I regularly use 100% kamut, 100 %rye or 100% wholemeal wheat… and I also regularly upend the remainder of multiple packets of different flour to make up the necessary quantity.

For a lighter loaf try half strong white with half kamut, rye or spelt. To be honest, when it’s homemade and you know exactly what’s in the mix, I don’t even bat an eyelid at making 100% white for the children.

I use a bread machine to mix and prove the dough, then I like to give it a bit of a knead by hand and second prove in a loaf tin, before baking in the oven.

For an even simpler recipe, you can do it all in the bread machine. (I just don’t like the tall thin loaf shape I get from my bread machine by doing it that way.) Details of both methods follow…

Ingredients
- 310ml luke-warm filtered water
- 1 heaped tsp sea salt
- 2 tblsp brown sugar
- 2 tblsp oil (I use avocado, but rice bran or good old olive are fine too)
- 1 medium organic egg
- 600g strong bread flour – a good starting mix is 300g organic kamut (I use Dove’s Farm Khorasan), 300g organic white spelt (I use Sharpham Park)
- 2 tsp quick yeast (I use Dove’s Farm)
Equipment
- Measuring spoons
- Measuring jug
- Scales
- Bread machine with dough setting
- 2 lb loaf tin
- Loaf tin liner (I use a Bake-O-Glide loaf tin liner which I have cut slightly to perfectly fit my tin)
Method – to make dough in machine and bake in oven
- Preheat oven to 160°C – If using an AGA, as I do, you’re going to use the baking oven, and there’s no need to preheat.
- Place all ingredients unceremoniously into the bread making dish in order: water, salt, sugar, oil, egg, then tip in the flour and sprinkle the yeast on top.
- Switch bread maker to dough setting. This will mean your machine mixes and kneads, then warms the dough to prove, or rise. Mine takes just over an hour to get to the point of readiness. Don’t leave it longer or it gets dry on top.
- When the dough has risen take it from the machine and place it on a very lightly floured surface.
- Knead the dough by pressing and stretching it, folding it over and over onto itself. Here’s a simple “how-to” video if you’re not sure how to knead… have a watch, give it a whirl, it’s not that tricky! Modern yeast is so stable and effective that a few minutes of first-time kneading will be fine to do the job.
- Shape your dough to fit the bread tin: roll it onto a smooth sausage shape and pat the ends so it’s about the same size as the loaf tin.
- After the second prove… risen again beautifully in the tin, ready to bake…
  
  Fit the loaf tin liner into the tin.
- Slip the dough into the liner, in the tin.
- Cover the dough with a clean, damp tea-towel and leave in a warm place to rise again.
- After 30 minutes, it should be well risen and ready to bake.
- Gently cover the loaf tin and dough with foil, being careful not to squash or knock the air out of the dough.
- Place in oven and set timer for 30 minutes
- Check bread after 30 minutes by removing the foil and tapping lightly on the top of the bread. It should be firm to touch and make a hollow sound.
- Put bread back in over for 5-10 minutes to develop the crust.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool fully on a wire cooling rack.
- Slice and store somewhere cool and dry, or freeze for toasting.
Stripped bare loaf of bread! Ready to slice and eat…

Method – to make bread in bread machine
- Place all ingredients unceremoniously into the bread making dish in order: water, salt, sugar, oil, egg, then tip in the flour and sprinkle the yeast on top.
- Refer to the instructions for your individual machine for preparation and baking. Most have options such as loaf size (small or large), flour options (white or wholemeal), crust colour (dark or light) and then other options such as quick loaves, delayed cooking etc. For this recipe, use the large loaf and wholemeal flour settings, unless you have used anything other than 100% white flour.
- Shut the lid and leave the magic to happen.
Let me know how your loaf goes – do you like kamut? Rye? Stoneground wholemeal? Which mix works best for you and your family? I’d love to see photo’s if you fancy sharing. Tag @stripped.bare.fashion on instagram or email me at kate@strippedbarefashion.com and I’ll add you to my story x
February 14, 2019
Gluten free wholemeal flour
After making Vegan mylk, dehydrate the strained-off pulp to make your own unique gluten-free wholemeal flour!

Besides making a delicious and wholesome raw baking ingredient, this is the most useful and least wasteful way to use the nutritious by-product of homemade Vegan mylk. You’re not really going to make this by itself, you’ll start by following my mylk recipe and when you get to the part that says “…you will have about a cup of pulverized nuts left in the straining bag. Don’t throw it away!!!…” just set aside the bag of pulp, finish making the mylk and then come back to this page.

Ok. Here we go…

Gluten free wholemeal flour

Ingredients

The pulp left over in the straining bag from making Vegan mylk… possibly any combination of nuts and grains such as almond, cashew, hazelnut, chia, oats, rice, hemp… it can be pure pulp, for example, if you’ve made pure almond milk, or any mixture you have used to make your mylk. If you’ve followed my recipe religiously there will be a trace of date and salt in there too…

That’s it.

Equipment

Wide, flat baking dish

Food processor

Method
1. Empty out the contents of the nut mylk straining bag you have used to make mylk.
2. Spread the mylk by-product, pulp, in a ceramic baking dish. It’s ready to blitz when it’s dry and crumbly…
  
  You should have roughly a cup and a half of pulp, the equivalent of a fist-sized ball (this is the cup of nuts and seeds used in the mylk recipe which is slightly expanded due to soaking.)
3. Break up the pulp and spread as thinly as possible across the baking dish.
4. I am lucky enough to have an AGA oven in my kitchen, the top of which is the perfect place to dehydrate food. If you are using an AGA, just sit the uncovered dish of pulp on top of a closed hot plate and leave it to dry out over night. **I have to say, I adore my AGA rangecooker… but my Falcon American -style fridge/freezer – which is also an AGA Rangemaster product – has been nothing short of an disappointing and expensive disaster (rusted/peeling front door, malfunctioning ice machine, 21°C in the fridge (I put things in there to warm up!), failed water filter and a “frost free” freezer like a dripping ice rink) … a disaster which despite only being 5 years old at the time of publishing, AGA Rangemaster could not care less about. I digress…
5. If you don’t have an AGA, just preheat your oven to its minimum temperature and place the uncovered dish of pulp on the bottom of the oven for 2-3 hours.
6. The pulp is finished dehydrating when it is hard and crunchy to touch, and crumbles between your fingers.
7. Place the dried pulp into a food processor and blitz until a fine meal is formed. The longer you blitz, the finer the meal. I like to give it several bouts, lightly shaking in between to make sure any lumps come to the surface. When you no longer see lumps upon shaking, it’s done.
8. Store your gluten free wholemeal flour in an airtight jug.
9. Use for baking – it’s particularly good used alone in fruit crumbles, shortbread biscuits or heavier cakes such as banana or carrot cake. I also use 100g blended with 500g of strong bread flour (rye, spelt etc) to make a dense, moist loaf of bread.
[author image=”https://strippedbarefashion.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Kate-Harcourt.png” ]Kate Harcourt is the Editor of Stripped bare fashion. She is also a freelance journalist specialising in ethical fashion, women’s issues and interiors. Her opinion pieces have been featured in local and international press and a small collection now appear in Don’t bother asking. As the single mother of six children, with a passion for healthy vegan and vegetarian food, she inevitably ends up spending a lot of time in the kitchen! Some of her simple, wholesome recipes are here: Stripped bare food. Kate loves to hear from potential collaborators or brands keen to promote their ethical products and services. Media information is here, or contact Kate via email: kate@strippedbarefashion.com[/author]
January 29, 2019
Vegan mylk
Making your own organic vegan mylk is so easy and so delicious! Whats more you know there’s nothing but the wholesome ingredients you put in, and no heat treatments (like used for supermarket varieties) which might reduce the goodness of your raw ingredients. Making your own mylk also provides you with a nutritious, gluten free by-product – Wholemeal Flour! – which you can then use in baking…

Here’s how you do it:

1 litre Organic Vegan Mylk

Ingredients

1 cup raw, organic nuts (see Method for recommendations)

1 organic date

1 tsp salt flakes

Approx 4 cups filtered water

♥

Equipment

Measuring cup and teaspoon

Jug blender able to finely blend nuts without blowing up

1 litre glass storage jug, or two 500ml jugs

1 large glass jug for straining into (a wide-ish mouth makes it easier to pour and strain into)

Nut mylk straining bag – Buy an organic cotton bag from A Fine Choice, or try Rawsome Creations’ “more than a Nut Milk Bag”

♥

Dry ingredients for Vegan mylk ready to be soaked overnight in the fridge

Method
1. Measure 1 cup of raw nuts or a combination of several kinds of nuts, seeds, grains and/or a sprinkling of desiccated coconut. Purists can go for a cup of almonds, a cup of cashews or a cup of Brazil nuts, or mix up your recipe by combining with chia, oats, rice, hemp seeds… or any combination. Just pack a cup! My personal favourite is 1/3 cup almonds, 1/3 cup cashews and 1/3 cup desiccated coconut.It’s nutty but without an overpowering almond taste and smell, creamy because of the richness of the cashews and a hint of coconut makes it a little sweet…
2. Soak those nuts overnight. Put them in a glass container, cover with approx 1 cup of filtered water and leave them in the fridge. This activates, softens and plumps them up.
3. In the morning, drain off the water and discard.
4. Put the nuts into a blender with approx 1 cup of filtered water.
5. Add the date for sweetness and the salt for balance. (You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but I think it makes a sublime taste difference…)
6. Pour the blended ingredients into a wide mouthed jug lined with a nut mylk strainer
  
  Blend until very smooth. Give it a full 30 seconds and then pause for the bits to settle, then another 30 seconds.
7. Place nut mylk straining bag in glass jug for straining, and open it out securely over the rim.
8. Pour blended nut mixture into bag in jug
9. Make sure the bag isn’t sitting in the liquid as it drips through… I tie mine to the handle and leave gravity to pull it through for half an hour or so.
10. Gently squeeze bag to ensure all the liquid is out.
11. Sometimes – if I’m feeling impatient – I sit the straining bag between two small metal strainers and compress… though squeezing out the liquid by hand is more satisfying if you have time.
12. Allow the mylk to drop through into the jug, leaving the pulp in the straining bag
  
  When you are done you will have about a cup of pulverized nuts left in the straining bag. Don’t throw it away!!! – follow my recipe to make super-easy gluten free wholemeal flour here. But before you do that…
13. Pour the strained mylk into your glass storage jug(s). There will be less than a litre as you haven’t finished adding all the water yet.
14. Taste your mylk – it should be quite thick and creamy.
15. Top up your jug(s) with approx 2 cups of filtered water to make 1 litre of delicious MYLK. You can add less or more water to suit your taste, but as a rough guide, I suggest a cup of nuts makes a litre of good “milky” mylk.
16. Store your mylk in the fridge. It will separate when stored, just stir lightly with a spoon before using. Mylk can be used in hot and cold drinks, on cereal or anywhere you would normally use milk or store bought mylk. Best used within 48 hours.
Ta dah! A litre of wonderful tasting and nutritious Vegan mylk… store in the fridge and use within 48 hours!
January 29, 2019
Vegan superfood salad
I’m not a foodie of any worthy note, in fact my lifelong enjoyment of vegan, vegetarian and raw food has often convinced me that I am the opposite of a foodie! But Summer is coming and I have a recipe for a colourful and delicious salad that has only met with approval from friends and family, so here it is…
Superfood salad – makes enough for two

Prepare and layer the ingredients as follows:

A generous handful of organic spinach leaves, tightly rolled up and cut into thin spiky slices

One medium organic carrot, peeled if necessary and finely diced

One organic avocado, gently cut into small cubes

Half an organic red pepper finely sliced

Three organic spring onions finely sliced

Two small organic celery stalks finely sliced

200g smoked tofu, cut into small cubes

A dozen organic mint leaves, finely chopped

Three tablespoons of organic pomegranate seeds

Half a punnet of organic watercress sprouts, or if you grow your own, a good handful

Half a cup of raw organic almonds

One tablespoon of organic hemp seeds

Whisk the following ingredients in a small jug to make your dressing:

One tablespoon organic apple cider vinegar

Two teaspoons organic date syrup (or you could use Manuka honey if you’re not vegan)

One tsp organic Dijon mustard

Three tablespoons organic oil – I use one called Omega Cool Oil which is a mixture of flax, hemp, evening primrose and pumpkin seed, or you could use any of those oils by themselves, or avocado oil, or walnut oil or your own combination of any of the above oils!!

Pour the dressing over the salad, mix gently to coat but not pulverize the avocado and serve into two large pasta bowls.

Grind a little black pepper on top, sprinkle half a dozen whole coriander leaves on each serve (optional) and enjoy… It takes a while to eat!

Adapted from my recipe originally published on diamondsanddaisychains.com
May 24, 2017