I bake bread in my breadmaker almost every day. Most recipes I use are from The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook, by Beth Hensperger. This thick paperback cookbook has over 600 pages of recipes, breadmaking tips and useful information. In addition to recipes for bread, it has recipes for other things you can do with your breadmaker, such as pizza dough (the recipe for artisan pizza dough is out of this world!), pretzels, jam, and chutney. A couple of nights ago I made her Honey Whole Wheat Bread and it was even more delicious than most of the other breads I have made with her recipes. My son said I should post the recipe on my blog. I think that would be copyright infringement, so I can’t do it (but I recommend that you buy that cookbook if you have a breadmaker!). However, I thought I would try a variation for vegans that I made up myself, adapting from her recipe. Hensperger’s recipe contains milk, butter, and an egg. I replaced the milk with rice milk, the butter with olive oil, and the egg with flax seed and water, following the instructions for egg substitution on my package of ground flax seed meal. I also added a little corn meal and oats, reducing the amount of bread flour she calls for proportionately, just because I like breads that contain those ingredients. After I made it, I learned that a strict vegan would not eat honey, because honey is animal-derived product. If you are such a person, try substituting maple syrup for the honey. I did not try that variation, but I am sure it would taste good. This bread is not quite as good as the non-vegan version in Hensperger’s cookbook, but if you want to avoid or reduce animal products in your diet, this is an excellent recipe to try.
1/2 cup plus 3 TBS water
2/3 cups rice milk
1/3 cup honey
1 TBS ground flax seed meal
2 TBS extra virgin olive oil
2 1/2 tsp sea salt
2 cups bread flour
1/3 cup corn meal
1/3 cup rolled oats
1 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 TBS plus 2 tsp vital wheat gluten
1 TBS active dry yeast
Put ingredients in bread maker in order above, or order recommended by your bread machine manufacturer. Set crust setting to medium and use basic cycle.