The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Any solid vegan books?

Kooky's picture
Kooky

Any solid vegan books?

I'm sure I could adapt Flour Water Salt Yeast, but still... There are some modern nuances, like flax eggs, use of silken tofu, avocado which I have used to keep cakes moist... Now that I will be milling my own flour I'd love to own a vegan baking book.

Experimentation is great but I'm not rich enough to waste food and I don't do this for a living to where my few successes could earn me money.

When I buy a book, I cook the entire thing, I have used 3 books for 95% of my food the past 3 years. Cooked them front to back, many recipes dozens of times. I just find them to be cohesive. Blogs are great, Googling recipes is great, but they lack that tangible thought process that goes into a good book, a thread holding it all together, no matter if one chapter is filled with bagels and pretzels and the other is whole wheat loaves, then pastries, sweets... there will be something to unite them all.

Maybe it's best I create a virtual book via a collection of bookmarks :3

idaveindy's picture
idaveindy

is that every cookbook recipe intended for store-bought flour, even WW flour, needs modified for use with fresh-milled flour.

Second, you're still going to have to buy white flour (ap or bread) to do cookbook recipes because a) most book recipes are not 100% WW and still require some white flour, b) while you can sift home-milled flour, it is no where near store-bought white flour, and c) sifted home-milled flour is still far from true "high extraction" flour from a commercial roller mill, because the home miller is taking out different constituent parts than a commercial mill -- stone mills just  break  down the wheat differently than a roller mill does.

That said, I think stone-milled flour, commercial or home-milled, is better than roller-milled.  But most cookbook recipes are intended for roller-milled, even WW.

Www.theperfectloaf.com has some recipes for sifted home-milled flour.

There are three books on Amazon.com about using home-milled flour, but the consensus is that they aren't worth the price because they are not comprehensive enough, and the info they do have is readily available on line. You're better off reading this web site and theperfectloaf.com.

Some home-millers here on TFL sift, most don't, and just add in some commercially made store-bought white flour when needed.

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I put together some tips and links to other pages about  fresh-milled flour, including a list of TFL users who are home-millers. See: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/64863/7-things-about-freshmilled-flour

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So yeah, your last comment is spot on... no smiley needed.  And here's why....

Home-milled flour varies tremendously depending on the grain that you use. Wheat is not wheat is not wheat.  Not all red wheat is the same. There are dozens of strains of wheat in the farming and distribution system available to home millers.

And, get this: even the same strain varies from year to year, and from field to field. At a minimum, you have to adjust hydration. Some ferment faster than others. Some have gluten break-down faster than others.  Protein/gluten content varies widely, so some take more/less soak time, or kneading time. Water absorption _rates_ vary.

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Don't worry about specifically vegan bread cookbooks. Most bread recipes are not enriched with eggs. Milk can be replaced with water and a teensy bit of sugar, and if it's not skimmed milk, a teensy bit of oil.

My two favorite cookbooks for whole wheat are Reinhart's "Whole Grain Breads," and "The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book" updated edition.

Welcome to TFL, and bon appétit.

Kooky's picture
Kooky

Thanks for all the information. I figured my hunch was right. I have a few go to recipes online, I better just bookmark them in an organized way... I do usually use whole wheat, actually I can't remember the last time I didn't, so those will be great. Thank you again.

It'll be a few weeks before I get my mill, but also a few weeks before I get my grain. Best to experiment further with varied sourdough recipes like I've been doing rather than making the same one over and over.