Category Archives: bread

Lavender Earl Grey Tea Bread

lavender earl grey tea bread
lavender earl grey tea bread

It’s January so the celebration for National Hot Tea Month is in full swing. Although, if you ask me, we should have a hot tea season that would span several months. I love drinking hot tea, especially when it keeps me warm.

What goes well with a cup of hot tea? Tea bread, of course. And the perfect tea bread contains an infusion of tea to permeate the baked good.

To come up with a complementary treat for my cuppa, I found a recipe for a tea cake with Earl Grey tea in it. The classic Earl Grey is black tea flavored with orange-scented bergamot. A new twist has the addition of lavender buds which rounds out the tea nicely, so I knew I wanted to include the floral profile.

I first altered the recipe by including the lavender flowers. Next, I changed it from gluten free to using all purpose flour because that’s what I had on hand. Feel free to use a gluten free flour blend instead.

Then I reduced the recipe so it would make four small loaves that would bake better at high altitude. For altitude I also switched it up to include a combination of baking soda and baking powder. There was no need for vegan changes because the recipe was already vegan.

The resulting mini breads were moist and extremely flavorful, reminiscent of honey cakes. With a hint of lavender when warmed and depth from the maple syrup, they are fantastic alongside a robust tea as well as an herbal blend. I froze a few loaves so I can savor them this month, and also enjoy them on a future tea drinking day.

Lavender Earl Grey Tea Bread adapted from Earl Grey Tea Cake

1.5 cups boiling water
3.5 teaspoons Earl Grey loose leaf tea
1/2 teaspoon culinary lavender flowers
1/3 cup dried currants
3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup maple syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Grease the sections of a mini bread tin (mine makes four breads measuring 5 x 2.5” each) and set aside. Preheat oven to 350F.

Combine the water, Earl Grey tea, and lavender in a heat-proof container. Cover and steep for 5 minutes. Strain and discard the leaves. Add 1/2 cup of tea back to the container, saving the other 1 cup of tea for later. Place dried currants in the 1/2 cup of tea, cover, and set aside.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Add the oil and maple syrup to a medium bowl and whisk together. Add the vanilla and 1 cup of tea to the oil-syrup mixture. Whisk until combined, then stir in the tea with the currants.

Add the liquid mixture to the ingredients in the dry bowl and stir until combined and no longer lumpy. Distribute the batter evenly into the sections of the tin. Bake for 34-38 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a bread comes away clean or with a few small crumbs.

Let the breads fully cool in the tin placed on a wire rack. Run a knife along the outside edges of each bread to loosen, then tip the loaves out.

Until next time, happy baking!

The 5 Most Popular Posts of the Year, So Far

Can you believe we are halfway through 2024? I thought now would be a good time to collect the recipes that have gathered the most attention this year.

The Importance of Flour
The most viewed post in 2024 isn’t a recipe, but a helpful tip on how to choose flour for vegan baking.
Check out this recipe

1
chocolate tahini bars
Chocolate Tahini Bars
It's no surprise that these bars are popular right now because they are no-bake so you don’t have to heat up your kitchen.
Check out this recipe

2
almond meal date muffin
Almond Meal Date Muffins
For a healthier morning treat try these muffins packed with dates. raisins, oats, and almond meal.
Check out this recipe

3
sunken chocolate cake with an oat nut crust
Sunken Chocolate Cake in an Oat Nut Crust
This flourless and gluten-free cake was a hit at a friend’s birthday party. Go on, indulge.
Check out this recipe

4
lavender earl grey tea bread
Lavender Earl Grey Tea Bread
Often served with hot tea, these breads can be enjoyed during the summer with an iced drink.
Check out this recipe

I look forward to sharing many more tasty treats with you this year.

If you try a new recipe, or a golden oldie from the past, I’d appreciate your comments as to how it turned out. If you’re on Instagram, please post a picture and tag @decadentveganbaker

Misguided High Altitude Guidelines

measuring glass with flour in a kitchen

Some of my readers share that they have trouble baking at high altitude, whether they are vegan or not. High altitude baking is a challenge for any eater, and I am glad that I can offer tips and recipes for those looking to overcome the inherent problems at higher altitudes.

Throughout my early research I uncovered a multitude of baking suggestions, and I was overjoyed to get hints on how to make my baked goods successful. I was willing to try anything that was relevant to vegan baking, and in doing so I discovered that not all high altitude “rules” were actually correct. Let me discuss those rules now so you don’t have to waste time with misguided information.

Raise your oven temperature by 25 degrees F. I tried this on many types of baked goods and didn’t see a positive effect. At first I thought it could be that my oven temperature wasn’t accurate, so I got an oven thermometer and had the oven adjusted accordingly. My resulting cakes had dry crusty exteriors, although cookies didn’t fare as badly. My guess is that the longer an item is in the oven, the more likely this method will have bad results.

No changes are needed when baking cookies. Speaking of cookies, here is a suggestion that I’ve learned to adapt. Some cookies turn out perfectly without alteration, but many cookies spread too much. In Pie in the Sky, Susan Purdy explains that “the more they spread, the thinner and crisper (or tougher) they get … (To) reduce spreading, strengthen the batter by reducing the sugar, leavening, and very occasionally, fat; sometimes you can also add a little flour.” I have also found that by placing the cookie dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes can give it the strength it needs to form proper cookies.

Reduce oven temperature when using glass baking dishes. Interestingly enough, this seems to contradict the tip for raising the temperature. One of the first recipes I tried to adapt was brownies, and at that time I was baking them in a Pyrex dish. After reading these two opposing suggestions, I decided to disregard them both because they seemed incorrect. Now I no longer bake in glass dishes, so it may be a moot point.

Bake in larger pans to avoid overflowing batter. My test for this was a disaster. The cake baked horribly uneven and the edges burned. My suggestion is to use the pan size listed in the recipe but make sure that the pans are not overfilled. If a sea-level muffin recipe says to fill the muffin cups to 2/3 full, it’s better to make them closer to 1/2 full. Any more and they are likely to rise quickly and spill out of the cups. The same concept holds true for quick breads and cakes.

The high altitude suggestions I follow on a regular basis are mentioned in my post It’s All in the Math. By reducing leaveners and sugars, while increasing liquid, I have been assured of greater success with my baking at altitudes up to 7,000 feet. Admittedly, I haven’t used an oven over that altitude. I have friends who live up at 10,000 feet, and after listening to their baking trials and setbacks I must say that they have far surpassed my efforts. My hat is off to them.

Until next time, happy baking!

photo credit: morgane perraud on unsplash

Vegan Honey Mini Cakes for a Sweet New Year

vegan honey mini cakes
vegan honey mini cakes

This week was a celebration of the Jewish New Year. The tradition is to eat honey cakes at this time to ensure sweetness in the upcoming year. Because honey is not a vegan food, vegan bakers can turn to a honey substitute to have a sweet new year.

I have a honey-like syrup in my files from my “A Sweet New Year Apple Muffins,” so I went in search of a honey cake recipe that I could use it in. What I found was perfect because the spices in the cake would go well with the fruit in the vegan honey. Also, the cake was already vegan, but I amped it up by using my own egg substitute described in “Super Flegg – A Perfect Egg Substitute.”

Next I put the high altitude spin on it by adding flour and liquid (in the form of applesauce), then reduced the leaveners. The batter was divvied into mini cake pans to help with rise issues caused by altitude, but that had an added bonus. I now had several mini cakes so each person could have their own tasty treat to enjoy while ringing in the new year.

Vegan Honey Mini Cakes for a Sweet New Year adapted from Vegan Honey Cake for Rosh Hashanah

for the vegan honey
1/4 cup brown rice syrup
1/8 cup pure maple syrup
1/8 cup agave syrup
1/2 teaspoon vegan sugar
1/2 organic orange, thinly sliced
1/2 organic lemon, thinly sliced
for the cakes
1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds
3 tablespoons aquafaba (the liquid from a can of chickpeas)
1.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1.25 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup raisins, optional

To make the vegan honey, combine the syrups and sugar in a medium saucepan with high sides. Place over medium heat and bring to a boil. Add the sliced fruit. Lower the heat and cook at a low boil for 15 minutes, stirring a few times. Adjust the heat as needed to maintain a low boil. Once a syrupy consistency is reached, pour the liquid through a mesh strainer into a heat-safe measuring cup, discarding the fruit. If you do not have 1/2 cup of syrup, then add agave syrup to reach that amount. Set aside to cool.

For the cakes, preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour the cups of a mini cakes pan, or a muffin tin.

Prepare the super flegg by putting the ground flaxseeds and the aquafaba in a small bowl and stirring well. Set aside to thicken.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves into a large bowl. Place the applesauce, oil, vanilla, vegan honey, and super flegg into a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to combine. Stir in the raisins, if using.

Divide the batter among the cups of the pan you are using. Do not fill the wells completely or your cakes will overflow while baking. Bake for 18 to 23 minutes, depending on the pan used, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cake comes out with a few small crumbs. Place the baking pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then tip the cakes onto a wire rack to fully cool.

Until next time, Happy New Year and happy baking!

Learning New Things at The Bake Fest

Image by Anthea Chang @rainbownourishments
Image by Anthea Chang @rainbownourishments

When I first heard about The Bake Fest, the baking geek in me got so excited. Never having been to or even heard of a baking conference, I couldn’t wait to attend virtual lectures and hang out in chat rooms. It’s only been one day of The Bake Fest and already my head is filled with blog ideas for new creations, decorations, and scientific explanations.

The first half of the day I got warmed up by attending classes on cake and cookie decorating. It was inspiring to watch creative designers in their element, but then came the presentations most near and dear to my blog – Fundamentals of Baking Science by Kristin “Baker Bettie” Hoffman, and Introduction to Vegan Baking by Anthea Cheng. It’s impossible to quickly sum up Baker Bettie’s slides as she offered so much that my brain is still processing it. One quick bit to share concerns the differences between light and dark brown sugar. She says, “Light brown sugar has a small amount of molasses while dark brown sugar has larger amounts of molasses added. Molasses adds caramel notes to baked goods and also keeps baked goods very moist and chewy. Molasses is also acidic in nature which means that brown sugar can be used in recipes with baking soda in order to activate its chemical reaction.” However, she mentions that they can be used interchangeably, so I may stick with buying whichever is in sale.

Baker Bettie talking science
Baker Bettie talking science

Anthea Cheng’s segment started with a recipe for Vegan Brioche. Vegan brioche? And she made it look easy? I am not a bread baker, but I look forward to trying this out. We were also treated to a cake decorating demo that wowed me when she made frosting tinted with real food, not chemicals. The colorants included beet powder and blue spirulina. I must search online for these ingredients to add to my toolbox. (Literally … I keep my decorating items in a large toolbox).

Now, you may be disappointed that you missed out in this educational event. But, don’t worry! There is more going on today. You can register for The Bake Fest here and view tomorrow’s schedule here. If you see me in the Lounge, be sure to say hello.