Pumpkin Rolls (and Bread)

Tonight's post is kind of two ideas in one. First, adding pumpkin to just about any kind of bread is a good idea. I peel and seed the pumpkin, chop it, and boil it in water for about 30 mins until it is soft. I then drain it and blend it in a food processor until very smooth. I have found that this puree can be subbed in for water in bread recipes, almost cup for cup. Start by simply replacing the water with the puree, then add in more as needed. It gives the bread a wonderful light orange/yellow colour and makes it tender and moist.

Second, I give you mini buns. Not really a ground-breaking idea, I know, but hear me out. This year the boys' school changed to something called the equal day. Instead of two recesses and a lunch break, the kids get two 40 min "nutritional breaks," one in the morning and one in the afternoon. This makes packing food a little more interesting, but I have had great luck with these mini buns. The recipe is Peter Reinhart's Italian bread recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice: the starter is made as per the book, but the final dough is made with whole wheat flour, and the water is replaced with pumpkin puree. Each bun weighs 50 grams, is brushed with soy milk after rising, and is baked at 400 degrees for 14 mins. The great thing about these is that there is no crust to leave behind, so the kids gobble them all up, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I make 40 of them at a time (double batch of dough), freeze them, and pull them out as I need them throughout the week.

Apple Juice

We have apples coming out of the wazoo! I guess it is too cold to grow apples up here (there are no local orchards that I know of), so my in-laws bring us a whole whack of apples from down south every fall. So, after making apple pie, apple crisp, and huge batch of apple sauce, we still had tons left. The obvious thing to do next was to try my hand at apple juice. OK, first just let me say that apple juice is A LOT of work. I don't know how they can sell huge cans of it for 99 cents. I started with a recipe in my canning cookbook that called for 24 lbs of apples to be chopped, cooked in 8 cups of water, then hung in a cheesecloth and left to drip for 2 hrs. That sounded like too much work, plus I doubted any cheesecloth could hold 24 lbs of cooked apples. Enter my Jack LaLanne power juicer! I figured the juicer would eliminate the initial cooking step and perhaps filter the juice a bit. Well, it didn't work exactly as planned since the juice still needed considerable straining to filter out all the sediment. Here is what I did to get a delicious juice with an amber colour and cidery taste. Son #1 set up the photo for tonight's post.

EQUIPMENT/INGREDIENTS
Makes about 6L of juice
- 24 lbs apples
- 1 juicer
- 2 clean tea towels, damp (they will get stained)
- two large pots/bowls
- kitchen thermometer
- 6 1L canning jars and lids

METHOD
Sterilize your jars. Get a large pot of water boiling to process the jars of juice.
1. Use large rubber bands to affix the tea towels over the top of the pots/bowls. Don't make the towel tight over the bowl; rather, make sure it dips into the bowl so it can hold the juice.
2. Working in batches, chop the apples and process them through the juicer. Pour into the towel over one of the bowls and let drip through. You will find that the towel quickly gets gummed up with a pectiny residue, so I made this a pretty rough filtering. Once most of the juice passed through, I detached the towel and squeezed the remaining juice through. Then, I poured it through the other towel while I cleaned the first towel. I then passed it through the first towel once again.
3. Once all the juice has been filtered, heat to 190 degrees F and keep at that temperature for 5 mins. Pour into jars, top with lids, then screw the ring on finger tight. Place in pot of boiling water (making sure water covers lids), return to boiling, then boil for 10 mins with lid on. Remove from heat, remove lid, and let sit for 5 mins. Remove jars from water and let cool.

Thanksgiving Roundup

This post won't help my Canadian readers, but perhaps it will be of some use to all you Americans (and anyone else celebrating Thanksgiving some time soon). First, let me apologize for the lack of a picture (of food--this is from our fall hiking trip). I was all ready to snap a pic of the feast when I realized my battery was dead. Sigh. For the entree I made the Thanksgiving Mini Pot Pies than I blogged about a few days ago. I made a triple batch of the roasted mushroom gravy to pour over absolutely everything. Both the pot pies and the gravy went over very well with vegans and omnis alike. I was afraid that the pies would be a little redundant, but that really wasn't the case. The other problem was how to serve the pies since they were baked in a ramekin. I placed them off centre on the plate, then piled all the other dishes around the ramekin--it worked perfectly. The other dishes were pretty standard: mashed potatoes, baked yams, acorn squash, peas, carrots, and corn. I also made stuffing, though it I didn't stuff it anywhere. First, I made Peter Reinhart's Italian Bread recipe, subbing the water in the dough (not the starter) with pureed pumpkin. The result is a wonderfully soft and golden loaf. I cubed the bread and tossed it with onions and celery that had been sauteed in olive oil. I seasoned it all with sage, thyme, and salt and pepper, and added raisins and dried cranberries and baked at 350 in a greased pan for about 1 hr and 15 mins.

Happy 2nd Anniversary

I just realized I forgot to toot my own horn and celebrate the 2nd anniversary of the Vegan Dad blog on September 8. Go back and look at my first month of posting. Yikes.

Perfect Pumpkin Custard

When I posted a pumpkin custard recipe a week ago I said I didn't have time to refine it any further. Well, I lied. My in-laws have come to visit and so I took the recipe for another spin. Further research on the interwebs revealed a recipe by Bryanna that used corn flour to thicken the custard and give it colour. I gave this a try and I also revised the method to make the whole thing easier.

INGREDIENTS

Makes 4 custard cups

- 1/2 cup sugar

- 1/2 tsp cinnamon

- 1/4 tsp nutmeg

- 1/4 tsp ground ginger

- 2 cups plain soy milk

- 1 tbsp agar agar flakes

- 2/3 cup sugar

- 1/2 cup coconut cream

- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 1 1/2 tbsp arrowroot

- 1 tbsp corn flour

METHOD

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Get a kettle of water boiling.

1. Grease 4 ramekins (with 1 cup capacity).

2. Place sugar in a saucepan over med-lo heat. While sugar is heating, mix soy milk and sugar in a saucepan and sprinkle agar overtop. Without stirring, heat sugar until it caramelizes (turns brown and liquefies). Shake pan to melt all the sugar. Add spices, quickly stir in, then quickly pour 1/4 of mixture into each ramekin to coat the bottom. Set ramekins aside.

3. Heat soy milk and sugar over medium heat. Bring to bubbling, stirring constantly, until agar is fully dissolved. Set aside. Whisk together coconut cream, pumpkin puree, arrowroot, corn flour, and vanilla. Whisk pumpkin mixture into the soy milk mixture until smooth. Pour into the four ramekins.

4. Place ramekins in a 9 x 13 pan, and fill pan with boiling water, no more than 1/3 the way up the ramekins. Bake in the oven for 40-45 mins, until top has browned and center has set.

5. Cool in the fridge until custard has fully set.

This recipe yields a more delicate custard than the first recipe. I found it tasted best at room temperature, but that it needed to fully cool (and get cold) to be able to hold its shape when inverted out of the ramekin. You may just want to skip the inverting part and serve it straight out of the ramekin itself.