Sourdough Discard Crackers (Vegan version available)

So I'm finally doing the same thing as everyone else. I'm making bread and working on a sourdough starter. This also means I have A LOT of sourdough discard (basically we "discard" the majority of the starter so it doesn't become too much and overflow the container when it bubbles). I want to be less wasteful with my food, so I found some cool recipes to follow to use up this discard. Today is only day 3 of one of my starters (day 2 of my other one), and I used the discard to make some yummy crackers.

Here is a link to the King Arthur recipe I am following for the sourdough starter.

This is the link I used to make my sourdough discard crackers (King Arthur).

For the crackers the only thing I did differently was I used vegan friendly "butter', and avocado oil. I also chose to use some italian seasoning I had in my pantry in the dough. This was super easy, quick, and yummy! OH, and I forgot to poke the crackers with a fork but they still look fine.

I was snacking on these all afternoon, but my boyfriend said they needed a soft cheese or dip. Our fridge was pretty empty so we didn't have that option. I liked how they tasted on their own.

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Rustic No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread

 

Here is a link to the recipe I was following: adailysomething.com 

I really loved how simple this recipe was to make. I made the dough around 8AM, and I left it in the oven with the light on (not actually turned on) for about 8 hours to rise. Then I folded the dough a little, and let it set again for 15 minutes. I took it out and placed it in a towel with flour and let it use in the oven for another 2 hours. The recipe said between 1-2 hours, but with such a short rise time during the day (8 hours is short- 18 is preferred) I could see where I needed the extra hour. The recipe said to generously coat the towel and dough with flour, well, I found out there is a limit to how much is too much. When I baked the bread I also put a little olive oil in my dutch oven to prevent any weird sticking from the dough. This caused the excess flour to bake and harden creating a tough bottom crust. I've been keeping a journal of my baking so I can avoid making the same mistake twice. I recommend dusting off the flour from the dough before baking, you want the flour to keep it from sticking but not enough where it's piled on top. Also, do not do the oil like I did. I saw online that it's more common to line the bottom with parchment paper. This helps with sticking and removing the loaf later. 

Another note: my dutch oven is extremely heavy. When I placed it in the oven to bake I felt like it was bending my oven rack. Does anyone else have this problem? Am I suppose to buy something special to put in my oven for baking? Help, I don't want to ruin my oven.

Other than those notes, this recipe was easy to follow and worked really well. We have been toasting it lightly with some homemade garlic infused olive oil. It's absolutely perfect. I plan I trying this again, but making the dough the night before and allowing it to proof for 18 hours. It's been 24 hours and half of it is goooooneee.

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Vegan Banana Zucchini Muffins

Here is a link to the recipe I followed: CozyPeachKitchen

I had some leftover bananas and zucchini, thank goodness I found this recipe on pinterest. I really loved the taste of these muffins, but sadly I didn't get to eat them all.

My fist note on this recipe, IT WAS TOO DRY. I followed everything exactly how it was written and it was so dry. I did not have apple cider vinegar so I used regular apple cider for the liquid and the flavor. I mixed everything and kept mixing, it would not mix. I added almost a 1/2 cup of the apple cider before I gave up. I also added almost double the recipe for shredded zucchini. That really helped bring some moisture into these muffins.

I don't want to completely bash this recipe, but do people actually try their own recipes? or at least proof read the instructions before they post it? This is exactly why I don't post my own recipes. I never follow one when I'm making something random, and I would feel bad giving you the wrong measurements. That's why in my more recent posts you'll just see a link to the recipe I used, and my comments on how it went in the blog post. 

That was super frustrating, but it's over and I will find a better recipe to use in the future. That is why I love following recipes from RainbowPlantLife or Caitlin Shoemaker (FromMyBowl). I know these ladies are testing their recipes before they post them.

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Naked Strawberry Chamomile Cake

Here is the link to the recipe I was following for this cake: HalfBakedHarvest

This cake did not turn out well. It was 100% my fault. For my birthday this year I decided to make my own birthday cake since I've been on such a cooking/baking spree lately. I settled on this cake because the pictures made it look delicious. I am also not a huge fan of heavy chocolate cakes, so this one seemed perfect.

The recipe was fairly easy to follow. It is not vegan- contains eggs, butter, and milk. I choose to use almond milk, and vegan butter as my swaps. For the buttercream frosting, I added way too much milk/chamomile and then I ran out of powdered sugar half way through. So I made a meringue to try and make it thicker- it didn't work. It was super thin, but tasted great. 

The actual cake was yummy. I messed up the top layer because I realized after it cooled that it did not cook thoroughly, so I put it back in the oven to try and fix it. It ended up sticking to the pan and started crumbling. That's why the top layer looks so bad.

So for assembly I just slapped it all together to take a quick photo and dug in. I want to try this recipe again, except I will make it a two layer cake or cupcakes. I would still do the same frosting, just more powdered sugar this time!

The cake was light and fluffy. I loved the strawberry jam in the actual cake. The chamomile gave the frosting an interesting flavor which worked really well with the strawberries. Loved it (minus my own mistakes)!

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A Happy Loaf or Two (Potato Bread)

Potato Bread

Here is a link to the recipe I followed: Butter with a side of bread

My loaves did not turn out like the ones in the recipe pictures, but it tasted amazing. I was inspired by my new friend, Andrea to make these. She was following this recipe over on her instagram page @Andycydesserts and it looked so yummy I had to try it. She usually makes this recipe using only one loaf pan, but her most recent dough overflowed in her pan and burned some of it. SO, I made sure to have two loaf pans ready to use. 

I tried my best to eliminate as much dairy as possible from this recipe and swap it for vegan substitutes. I made a vegan version of mashed potatoes which was a little watery, but I added cornstarch to fix that. I also used vegan-friendly "butter" by the brand EarthBalance. I did use eggs in this recipe because I wasn't ready to use a flax egg, I was scared it would make the loaf too dense.

I know that ceramic or glass pans are best to use for baking, but these were the only two I had and I wanted to see how they would bake differently. I actually ran to the store while the dough was rising the first time to get the glass dish you'll see below. I ordered one off Amazon a few days before, and it didn't arrive in time to bake this- so now I have 2 glass dishes.

As you can see there's even a difference in how the dough rose the second time after it was placed in these dishes. The dough in the glass dish rose significantly more than the metal pan. They also baked differently. In the very top photo of this post, the loaf on the left was baked in the metal pan, the one on the right in the glass. The metal pan loaf was sightly more dense and required a little longer to fully bake.

This bread was super light and fluffy (both loaves). it's the perfect bread to serve with dinner- mine was kind of sweet/savory like a dinner roll. We just toasted it and ate it with butter most of the week. I plan to make more of these, but it will have to wait since the recipe makes so much and I can only eat so much bread in a week before I'm sick of it. I also tried to mix it up a bit and ate it as an open faced BLT (veggie bacon) sandwich! I'm sure you'll see more of this bread in the future!

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Vegan Blueberry "Cinnamon" Rolls

Here is a link to the recipe I followed: MakeItDairyFree

Let just start off by saying, if you plan to make this for breakfast, WAKE UP REALLY EARLY. This took me HOURS to make. I was up by 8-9AM and we didn't get to eat these till almost noon. The part that takes the longest is allowing the dough to rise, twice. I was very hangry by the end of this, and really hated taking the time to style these photos before I could eat. Hence, why the main photo has a fork in it. It was taken as a joke when I thought I was done taking pictures and could finally eat.

Also I messed up during the actual baking and covered the pan with foil because I read that they can brown or burn easily on top. Yeah, don't do that. Just throw the dish in the oven to bake without a cover. it will be fine. The temperature is low enough that it will cook and brown perfectly (if you follow the recipe).

I also changed how I made the glaze and icing. I accidentally didn't read all the directions and basically made the icing, then added it to the saucepan to cook. oops. To fix this, I just simmered the glaze/frosting in the pan like the recipe called for, and then later added even more powdered sugar to a separate bowl with some of the "glaze" to make the icing. It worked out for me because I knew how to fix it (luckily). 

Besides those few hiccups I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out like this! I'm not the biggest fan of the actual dough recipe, as I think it needed more time to rise to be fluffier. Generally with vegan baking a lot of dough ends up becoming very dense, oily, or rubbery. This one was a little dense. I'll keep testing out recipes and let you know how it goes. If I'm going to make this full transition to veganism I need to master some good baking recipes to prove that I dont need eggs to bake something delicious.

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Vegan Crunchwrap Supreme

OMG. Let me tell you about this amazing crunchwrap supreme. It is the best thing ever, and will satisfy any vegan taco bell craving you're having. I have been dying to try some form of a vegan crunchwrap for the past year. My friend, Mikayla has sent me many recipes for us to try, then I moved away and we couldn't make it together. Then I saw Nisha's video of her attempting to make one, and it's stuck with me since. The recipe I followed was from RainbowPlantLife, you can find a direct link to her recipe, HERE.

As a vegan the type of crunchwrap supreme that you can typically get from TacoBell is just beans, tomatoes/salsa, lettuce, and guac. It's actually kind of sad looking and lacks a lot of flavor. Well this recipe is the opposite. It packs a punch and can definitely compete with the classic crunchwrap.

For my crunchwraps I choose to make my own nacho cheeze using Nisha's recipe which was the best nacho cheese I've ever made. I know I keep saying that about this recipe but I'm serious. I've actually been making it as a dip for chips since it's that yummy. I also followed her recipe to make the vegan "meat" and it tasted way better than just using a vegan "meat' ground from the freezer section (although that would work just fine if you're in a hurry or just feeling lazy. I also changed a few things with the recipe since I didn't find all of the right ingredients. 

For mushrooms in the "meat" I found a blend that had cremini, white, and bella mushrooms. I just chopped all of them and added it in, probably better if you just use cremini since the rest hold a lot of moisture.

I also couldn't find porcini mushroom powder so I used Trader Joe's Mushroom Umami seasoning instead.

We also made our own tostada shells, but brushing them with oil and baking them till they became crispy. Be careful of how long you bake them as they can puff up and make almost a taco shell shape. so take them out before they do this. You want them as flat as possible to fit in the crunchwrap (makes it easier for folding the edges.

For store bought items I bought Tofutti's Better than Sour Cream and a store-brand guacamole.

YUM!

Also with the leftovers you can make more crunchwraps the next day, or do what I did and turn them into vegan nachos! I took my corn tortillas and baked them the same as the tostada except I pre-cut them into chip shapes to bake. Sprinkled them with salt and lime juice. This was the perfect birthday dinner for me!

Birthday nachos with the leftovers, much tastier than it looks!

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