Vegan Corn Bread
A vegan cornbread recipe won an award (some years ago, but better late than never), so I had to try it out. The recipe is very similar to my basic cornbread recipe, though adjusts the amount of baking powder and oil used, and uses all-purpose flour. I use whole wheat flour, which makes the final product look more like a health store refugee than a traditional cornbread, but what can you do? I also substitute grade B maple syrup, though this works equally as well as brown sugar.
Round 1
Grinding flax seed then mixing it into boiling water does quickly produce a sticky, egg-white-like mass. This adhered to itself a bit too well, resulting in flax seed streaks in the batter. Also, I used a small amount of apple cider vinegar in the soy milk, which perhaps was left too long, or the batter stirred to much, as the batter ended up far too sticky.
Round 2
Better luck this time. Switched to using ¼ cup grape seed oil, 1½ cups corn meal, ½ cup whole wheat flour, and 4 teaspoons baking powder. (More like the winning recipe… shocking!) Also, spent some time stirring the ground flax seeds in water, this time not over heat. Did not leave the apple cider vinegar long in the soy milk before mixing the liquids and drys. Batter much improved: mostly runny with a few sticky spots, able to mix briefly without too much flax seed clumping. Coconut oil works well to grease the cast iron, though I have yet to try seasoning a pan with it. Increased cooking time from 20 minutes to 25 on the second batch, which turned out perfectly: a nice browned, crisp crust, and good interior. This one is a keeper.
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