Holistic Vegan

Wheat free bread suitable for vegans is horribly expensive, not to mention hard to get hold of. Tesco make a passable loaf but the price is about 5 times what I would have spent on a wheat loaf, and you gate about one third of the quantity. It's far from good value! I decided to have a go at baking my own wheat free bread, so I invested in some Freee gluten free bread flour and started experimenting with my bread maker. Whilst I used to make all my bread by hand, I tend to use my bread maker these days for convenience and speed, so the bread maker method is the one I will be focusing on in this blog. The Freee flour made by Doves Farm, is made from blend of rice, tapioca and potato flour, with added xanthan gum.  If you're not familiar with xanthan gum, it's an additive that adds the elasticity missing from most gluten free flours and stops your baked goods from crumbling to bits when you touch them. Freee have a standard recipe for a white loaf on the packet w

One of the most frequent questions I get asked about vegan baking is how to replace eggs? It's certainly something of an artform, because you have to think about what properties the egg brings to each individual dish in order to correctly veganise them. One of the easiest and most effective egg-replacers for baking cakes, cookies and anything where the egg primarily serves to bind the mixture together, is Flaxseed. Ground flaxseed, also known as linseed goes thick and sticky when mixed with water, and acts as a very good binding agent. It has a slightly nutty flavour which is fine alongside strong flavours like chocolate, banana, fruit and nuts etc. You may find it's not your preference for almond or vanilla flavoured sponge cakes, and for these I tend to prefer a flavourless commercial egg replacer. But as a go-to, flaxseed is the cheapest and the easiest to have on hand. I normally buy mine from Aldi which is probably the cheapest way to get it, but it is also ava

Gram flour is one of my newest and favouritest (is that a word?) flours to cook with. I was first introduced to it a few years back by a friend whose Persian mother was kind enough to teach me some of her delicious, traditional middle eastern recipes.  What is it? Gram flour is usually described a chickpea flour, but if you take a look at the ingredients on the packet of any of the brands you can buy, most also contain a percentage of yellow lentil flour too. It's a highly versatile flour made from pulses that has many uses. Where can I buy Gram flour? It's easier to get hold of than you might think. Pop into your local Asian food store, or if you don't have one nearby, the bigger supermarkets here in the UK normally stock it in their Indian/Asian food aisle. Failing that, you can always order some online from specialist food retailers or on Amazon. What is it used for? Being made from pulses rather than grains, this flour is higher in protein than your reg