veggieburgh

Here’s a hearty but relatively low fat quickbread that uses whatever frozen/dried fruit, seeds, and nuts you happen to have in your kitchen on a chilly winter morning. It’s loosely based on the “Date Nut Bread” recipe from the Joy of Cooking (p.775), but we’ve veganized it and pretty much changed all of the original ingredients. It produces a moist, textured loaf that’s not overly sweet.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups frozen/dried/fresh fruit
  (we used 1 C frozen blueberries, 1/4 C raisins, and 1/4 C dried cranberries)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 C boiling water (1 C if using all dried fruit)
• 1 C whole wheat flour
• 2/3 C white flour
• 1/4 C nutritional yeast
• 1/4 C wheat germ (optional)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 Tbsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 C flaxseed meal
• 3/4 C apricot juice (or other juice)
• 1 Tbsp canola oil
• 1 C packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 C seeds/nuts
  (we used 1/2 C roasted flax seeds, 1/2 C chopped pecans, and 1/2 C pumpkin seeds)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine frozen, fresh, and/or dried fruit in bowl. Carefully combine baking soda and boiling water (it fizzes!) and pour over fruit.
3. In another bowl, whisk together flours, nutritional yeast, wheat germ, baking powder, salt, and spices.
4. In a large bowl, combine juice and flax seed meal and stir until slightly thickened (an immersion blender works well for this, or shaking it for a couple of minutes in a jar). It should be about the viscosity of beaten eggs.
5. Add canola oil, brown sugar, and vanilla to juice mixture. Stir in the fruit mixture. Add seeds and nuts. Stir in the flour mixture until just combined (don’t stir too much) .
6. Grease a 9×5″ (8-cup) loaf pan and pour in batter. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, approximately 55 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes in pan and 10 minutes on a rack before serving.