Tuesday, February 10, 2009

New and Improved Vegan Best Ever 100% Whole Wheat Rolls

Becoming a vegan seems to have made some of the recipes on my left sidebar obsolete, but there is one recipe I just couldn't give up. The Best Ever 100% Whole Wheat Rolls couldn't be thrown by the wayside, so I came up with a vegan version for whoever may be interested. Let me first say that a couple of things went wrong with this recipe. First, I had forgotten that it was a mildly sweet bread, great just plain or spread with butter. Unfortunately, I decided to use this recipe for garlic breadsticks and the flavors just did not work out together. Secondly, I substituted the refined sugar with agave nectar, as I'm trying to stay away from all processed foods, and as I was using the KitchenAid to knead the bread, I didn't get a good feel for how soft the dough was. It turns out it was too soft and the bread ended up taking a long time to bake. Adding a little more flour until the texture was a little firmer would have solved that problem. Other than those two things, the vegan substitutes worked out well, namely the egg substitute. I used flax seed...


...and water as described below and I couldn't detect any difference at all. Here is the new and improved Vegan Best Ever 100% Whole Wheat Rolls recipe!

4 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
3 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1 cup agave nectar (refined sugar substitute)
2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled (butter substitute)
2 tablespoons flax seeds plus 6 tablespoons water, blended until smooth in blender (egg substitute)
10 cups or more whole wheat flour (as finely ground as possible. If you don't have a wheat grinder, try putting your store-bought wheat flour in a blender, a cup at a time, until it is powdery.)

Step 1: I first dissolved the yeast in the warm water and let it sit for about ten minutes. If you're not sure how warm warm is, click HERE.

Step 2: I then added to the yeast mixture the agave nectar, salt, coconut oil, flax seed and water mixture, and 5 cups of the flour. I stirred this until it was mixed well.

Step 3: Next, I stirred in the remaining flour, one cup at a time, until the dough was soft and pulled away from the bowl. In the original recipe, I dumped it out onto my floured counter and kneaded it for ten miinutes. If you're not sure how to knead, here is a video I forced asked the 16-year-old boy to help me make that will show you how. In this recipe, I put everything in the KitchenAid with the new dough hook my wonderful husband ordered for me and let the machine do the work.



Step 4: I then put the ball of dough in a large, greased bowl, covered it with a damp towel, and set it in a warm place to rise in until it was doubled in bulk. (For more on how to find the perfect warm place to raise your bread, click HERE.) This could take anywhere from one to two hours.

Step 5: I punched down the dough, kneaded it for one minute to get the air bubbles out, then tore it in half, then tore each of those halves in half until I had 16 balls of dough. Then I tore each of these pieces into three pieces, rolled them up into neat balls, placed them on four cookies sheets (12 on each one), brushed the tops with melted butter, and let them rise, covered with damp towels, until doubled in bulk. (You should have had 48 balls of dough.)

Step 6: At some point in the rising process, I preheated my oven to 400 degrees, then baked them for about 12 minutes. They should be light golden brown.

Here's what the original rolls looked like...


Yeah I know, kind of plain, but it was easy...and delicious! If you would like your rolls to look fancier, like this...


(Photo by www.allrecipes.com)

...just click HERE for instructions at allrecipes.com.

Hope you love this recipe and thanks for being here today!

I am pleased to list this post @...
Shannon's "Works For Me Wednesday". Her blog is awesome so go check it out!

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7 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi,

I wanted to let you know that I love your blog. I have found many, many recipes that I want to try.

Anonymous said...

Congrats on finding different recipes for your new way of eating. You are so creavtive!

Keeslermom said...

Thank you for posting this! As a newbie vegan, I'm always stumped on substitutions.

Diane said...

I am not vegan, but have a very dear friend who is. I plan to share your recipe with her. It sounds delicious, just might try it myself! Love you blog!

Diane

Jarmeg Family said...

I am so impressed with you and all your vegan recipes. I just wanted to comment because i forgot to tell you last week at the birthday lunch how thin and good you look!

~gail~mooselovingmamabear said...

Yum-o.... I truly wished that I lived next door to you... :-)

Christy Lee said...

In my attempt to be a better homemaker, I stumbled on your blog and I am glad I did! Thank you for your wonderful posts. Take care.

Christy Lee
*~Petals and Pine~*