baked vegan wholewheat parsley & mint donuts w blood orange/plum brandy glaze

another one from 'the "who kidnapped Rob?" cookbook.'

Adapted from Sarah Owens. I changed the recipe to whole wheat (basically because I wanted to use up some of what I have in my cabinet.) I subbed in violife faux-butter, soy milk, and a flax seed faux-egg for the animal equivalents.

Results:

a fun experiment, but --

with, essentially, an entire bunch of parsley and an entire bunch of mint in the mix, I expected these to almost blow the roof of my mouth off. But, oddly, the flavor is muted mixed veggie, as if I had used old kale instead of knock-your-socks-off herbs. Could it be the 'looks fresh but really isn't' produce from Whole Foods? Or does it need a ton more mint, or some other more aromatic herbs?
the vegan substitutions worked fine, texturally, but, honestly, they lack the expected umami. I'd like not to use animal fats & proteins, but I still need to understand how to make up for the 'mmmmmm-deficit.'
they would have been so so so much better fried instead of baked -- the crispy (and, yes, oily) exterior would have brought a texture/flavor contrast that would have helped make these more irresistible. As someone said to me this morning: everything's bad for you, it's bad to breathe the air in New York, so why not fry?
the glaze could have leaned a bit more into the flavors. Perhaps I should have reduced it on the stove or used a slightly more intense variety of citrus -- meyer lemon, maybe -- and a jolt more brandy.

Rob

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ROFLMFAO 😂You definitely should write a book with that title!

I love peppermint! Was that peppermint?

And glad to see two doughnuts posts in a week. More doughnut posts, please!

You might want to try toasted soybean flour and powdered coconut milk, Rob. I feel they are quite a game changer, especially in cake baking

And I'm genuinely happy for you diversifying your baking repertoire! Keep them coming!

Jay

thanks Jay! Yes to more donuts! I eagerly await the styling 'baked by Jay' take on the humble fried dough treat.

Rob

PS-- I get the soy flour idea, but why add powdered coconut milk. Couldn't I just use the canned or vacpac'd stuff from the store?

PPS -- looked like peppermint but it was just labeled mint

Loving all the things that come out of your kitchen Bor, how exotic this all sounds.

Not sure if whole-wheat is the best flour for it though, but I guess you knew that and just went for it anyway which is a testament to your baking skills that you could still pull something good off.

I did misread the sentence and thought you'd substituted all of the vegan ingredients with the animal equivalents to be dafka.

Hope you enjoyed them very much with your coffee substitute.

-Noj

Let's collaborate on a cookbook that turns all vegan recipes into full-on paleo caveman concoctions🤣
Coffee is fruit juice -- and once I realized that it made it so much easier to consume too much of it.
Years ago, I worked the counter in the Cupcake Cafe at 39th & 9th in NYC, which, despite the name, actually specialized in cakes and 2 styles of whole wheat donuts -- ww-orange & ww-oat. Both were terrific -- the orange were memorably crunchy & light -- but it was long before my baking days & I never got the recipe.

Bor

innovative doughnuts there Rob.

I know it can be difficult to lock in certain flavours sometimes, flavours being mostly volatiles, we bake them away in the oven.

Dried herbs might be a better choice, otherwise doing some kind of infusion in the days prior might help lock in those flavour compounds.

Mint, blood orange and brandy - could be the makings of new cocktail!

Happy experi-baking!

thanks, Michael. In addition to the volatile flavors dissipating in the heat, chlorophyll's trademark color fades as well. Thanks for the idea of doing an infusion.

And, a big yea! to the non-traditional mint julep. The idea almost makes me regret that I've mostly sworn off hard liquor.

Rob

in the wrong order, so having been relieved to read the other rye bread post, I find myself in utter shock reading about parsley, mint and brandy in your bread, Rob. Are you OK?

Did laugh at the kale. For me, herbs come out strongly when infused in slightly warm oil that is then left to cool and used in the recipe. Or - as Michael suggests above, dried herbs.

P.s. is this IDY or sourdough? If the former, making it a very long and slow fermentation increases umami and tenderness significantly.

P.p.s. I'm just joking. I love your creative spirit so much.

🤣Sourdough, Lin. truth is, not only am I a rye guy, but I love donuts -- so no one had to hold a gun to my head to get me to make these. Next time, though, I'll try the lukewarm oil trick. There's got to be a way to get these things to be so flavorful they blow up in your mouth. -- Bor

Those do look tasty for an experiment!

I’ve got a few thoughts on your findings; I hope something here will useful to you in some way!

On the muted herb flavor. I’ve been using parsley and mint (specifically pudina) fresh from the garden this summer and the only application where I’ve found them to have a big, herbaceous punch was an oil free pesto. Falafel, yogurt sauces, or anything else where the herbs are basically an inclusion surrounded by a main ingredient, they just aren’t going to stand out the way they do on their own. I think I got a more full mint flavor in yogurt sauces when I ground the mint in a mortar and pestle, probably unsurprisingly since crushing can release more -- or maybe just different? -- flavors from herbs (including a touch of bitterness, but the salt in the dough should counteract that if you want to try.) That does make them release more liquid than other methods, so some hydration may need to be held back if you crush them. Grocery store herbs probably have less flavor but I think you would find even garden fresh ones to be surprisingly dull in this application. And of course using red wheat (which it looks like you’re using?) is going to mask the herbs more than refined flour or WHW.

As for the lesser “umami” you noticed, well, I’m not sure any of the animal products you’re substituting have significant glutamate content, but the way to get more umami in a food without affecting its flavor is MSG. The advice I generally follow is to replace 1/8th of the salt with MSG, though in breads that rely on gluten formation I often reduce it to 1/10th both for the easier math and because MSG does contain less sodium than the salt it’s replacing; I don’t know if it’s enough of a difference to meaningfully affect the gluten, but that amount helps the “delicousness” factor without causing issues so I stick to that.

I suspect what you’re missing may instead be the saturated fat of the animal products, which your substitutions do reduce even if the total fat quantity remains the same. There’s a reason industrial food manufacturers go for palm oil or hydrogenated oils when and where they can/could, particularly in baked goods: people tend to prefer it.

As for the glaze, while I’ve never used plum brandy, whenever I make an orange honey glaze I find them to be strongly orange flavored, so I suspect you can get a more pronounced orange flavor if that’s what you want. You might also try adding zest to the glaze, or maybe use it as a topping for the donuts? Maybe some of the herbs freshly chopped if you go the topping route? I’ve never tried either technique but those are the thoughts that occur to me.

thanks, VertigRegis. Much to think about. I used White Whole Wheat, btw, and the herbs were muddled in a blender with the fake milk & butter & egg. I think a long infusion before the blender action might have helped bring out the mint flavor. Or a soak in lukewarm oil, as Lin mentioned. MSG is fine in theory but a problem for me as it has always given me headaches and made me sweat. Also, I'm tempted to add the orange (and, good idea!, zest) to the dough, rather than making a glaze. Finally, I think the biggest umami helper would have been frying the doughnuts rather than baking.

Rob