Ugh Those Brown Bananas

I think everyone, at least vegans, have experienced those too ripe bananas that just look terrible and a breath away from the banana graveyard. I keep telling myself that I’m going to make banana bread before it’s too late. I have never made. Today I did. I searched the internet for a vegan recipe and I found quite a few. I then had to narrow it down to those who matched the ingredients I had in the pantry. I landed on Nora Cook’s recipe. Of course I didn’t have everything required. I don’t use all purpose flour. Subtitue number 1. I didn’t feel like softening up my brown sugar. Substitute number 2. I had ground so much today that I didn’t feel like grinding flax seeds to make the flax egg. Subtitute number 3. Had no almond milk. Substitute 4.

The resulting recipe: 2 cups of buckwheat flour, 2 TBLs chia seeds, 12 Tbls Water to make chia eggs. Add more water if needed to get an egg like texture. 1/4 cup flax milk, 1/3 cup melted vegan butter, 1/2 cup Agave nectar, 1 tsp Baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, walnuts. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Aaagh! Their Green!!

Okay that might be a little dramatic but it is actually what I thought when I opened the waffle maker. My next thought was candidate for a SyFy scene. I opened the waffle iron and saw green and brown waffles. It doesn’t show how dark green but the dark grid lines were green.I don’t know what in the ingredients caused this phenomenon. I used buckwheat flour, almond flour, baking soda, baking powder, almond milk, salt, coconut oil and eggs. Does that sound green to you?

The Experiment

1. Use a whole wheat flour waffle recipe as a guide.
2. Change the flour to another grain or combination of grains.
3. Use coconut oil instead of shortening.
4. Almond milk and baking soda instead of buttermilk.

The Discoveries

1. Baking soda was added because I didn’t have buttermilk.  Must have added too much because the taste was really strong.
2. Didn’t need the baking soda at all on further research
3. 1/2 cup of coconut oil was too much for the flour combination.
4. Let the batter sit about 5 minutes to thicken before pouring in the waffle maker.
5. And then there is green.
6. After removing from the waffle iron and a little cooling, the color changed to golden brown.

 

The Whole Wheat Recipe           My Changes

2 c whole-wheat flour                     1 c buckwheat flour, 1 cup almond flour

4 tsps baking powder                      2 tsps baking powder, 2 tsps baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1/2 c melted shortening                  1/2 c coconut oil

1 3/4 c buttermilk                             1 3/4 almond milk