The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Baking - Donna Diegel [12]
Part 2
Muffins, Coffee Cakes, and Pastries
Good morning! This part of the book is all about breakfast goodies. You’ll find a wide variety of easy-to-make vegan pastries, muffins, coffee cakes, and buckles in the following pages. Many of these vegan recipes come together quickly and will have you in and out of the kitchen in no time. They can be made ahead and eaten later, so whip up an extra batch now and freeze them for another day.
Part 2 starts off with a large selection of delightful muffins. Their individual serving size makes them perfect for lunch boxes, brunches, and pastry platters. In Chapter 2, I introduced a fiber-rich flaxseed egg substitute. It’s time to put that recipe to the test and use it as an egg replacement in Part 2’s muffin recipes.
There’s no need to skip breakfast with the list of vegan pastries offered here. Assorted coffee cakes and buckles are loaded with fresh berries, nuts, and topped with streusel. There’s even a carob coffee cake studded with cherries for those of you who can’t have chocolate. From turnovers to Danish, strudel to scones, there’s something for everyone here.
And speaking of substitutions, you’ll get used to using tofu cream cheese as a substitute for dairy cream cheese, which will come in handy in the “cheesecake” chapter later on.
Just because you’re vegan, doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy scrumptious pastries, so grab your spatula and muffin pans, and start baking!
Chapter 3
A Muffin a Day …
In This Chapter
• Muffin-baking tips
• Freezing suggestions for leftovers
• Fresh-fruit and dried-fruit muffins
Everyone loves muffins. They’re the not-so-sweet “cupcake” cousins you can eat every day, guilt free. They’re quick and easy, and because they need no yeast, they can be mixed and baked for company in 30 minutes!
In this chapter, I give you muffins for every day of the week, for every reason and every season. With all the choices in this chapter, you truly can have a muffin a day and not get bored!
Muffin-Baking Tips
Making vegan muffins is especially easy because you don’t have to fuss with dairy and eggs. Basic muffin recipes lend themselves to creativity, so play around and see what different options you come up with. Use traditional options like the Banana Muffin recipe as a canvas; by throwing a few handfuls of vegan chocolate chips into the batter, you’ve created a new muffin! Or switch up the dried fruits in the Tooty-Fruity Muffins if you don’t like dates and prunes. For an alternate egg substitute suggestion, pick something else from the list in Chapter 2. All these muffin recipes are vegan, so have fun experimenting!
What size muffins should you make? Your choice! Muffin pans come in all sizes, from large, Texas-size muffins; to regular-size muffins, which the recipes in this chapter were calculated for; to little, teeny, mini muffin pans. Nonstick pans work well if you spray them with vegetable spray first, or you can use colorful, themed paper cupcake liners for easy cleanup. Mini loaf pans are also available; approximately 4 muffins equal 1 mini loaf. If you use the loaf pan, increase the baking time accordingly. Generally, you’d add 10 to 15 more minutes or cook until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
All ovens were not created equal, and baking times may vary from oven to oven. Always preheat your oven, and resist opening the oven door for the first 15 minutes of baking. This can drastically reduce a muffin’s height in the end.
Don’t worry if you made too many muffins. They freeze really well. Simply layer muffins between waxed paper and paper towels in an airtight container for longer storage, or freeze them in zipper-lock plastic bags for short-term storage. Muffins last up to 3 months in the freezer, so you have plenty of time to eat them. Thaw muffins in the bag on the counter for a few hours, or overnight in the fridge before serving. If you only need one muffin, remove it from the bag, wrap it in a piece of paper towel, and let it thaw on the counter for 20