Sylvia Bass

Orange Cranberry Bread with Chocolate

Although, I’m not a vegan, I have been an ovo-lacto vegetarian for 18 years. Lately, we have been cutting back on dairy and eggs. I’ve experimented with using soy milk in place of cow’s milk since we don’t have it in the house anymore. I’ve found that it actually works better in quick breads. It seems to add a bit of tanginess, not unlike buttermilk.

I decided to try making a complete vegan bread using a recipe that was already close. It called for buttermilk, sour cream or yogurt. Substituting soy milk and soy yogurt was easy. I also am trying egg substitute and this recipe only had one egg, so I thought it would be a good test. As an added bonus, I tried adding a bit of chopped vegan dark chocolate. Dave thought it would be good in orange bread, and boy was he right!

This bread was delicious, both warm and cold. I’ve made this bread using dairy and eggs and now I’ve made the vegan version. I have to admit, the vegan version is better. It’s clean and bright with the orange contrasting nicely with the chocolate and the tang of the cranberry adding the extra zing.

Vegan Orange Cranberry Bread with Chocolate

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 orange (zest and juice)
• 1/4 cup of vanilla soy yogurt
• 1/2 cup of vanilla soy milk
• 1 serving Ener-G egg substitute
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup of fresh cranberries, roughly chopped
• 2-3 ounces of vegan dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 350º F.

1. Using a Microplane zester, zest the orange making sure not to go into the white pith. Juice the orange and place the zest in the juice to bloom.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the orange juice and zest, yogurt, soymilk, egg substitute and vegetable oil.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until just combined. Do not overmix.
5. Fold in the cranberries and chocolate.
6. Pour the batter into a greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.
7. Bake the bread for 55 – 65 minutes until a tester inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean and the bread starts to pull away from the edges of the pan.
8. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack for 15 minutes and then run out of the pan to finish cooling.

I go through creative phases in my life where I am inspired to make things. Sometimes it revolves around cooking and baking, sometimes drawing, sometimes sewing.

Last month I made a few skirts using a fun book called, “Sew What! Skirts“. The premise of the book is to show you how to make your own patterns to create simple skirts. I made two wrap-around skirts that I wear frequently.

New cushion cover and old cat

Last weekend, I made new covers for the pillows on the sofa. We have a lovely Room & Board sofa that is covered with a blanket most of the time. We keep it covered so the cats don’t get hair all over it since it’s really their sofa and we get to borrow it on occasion. The blanket is easily removed when we have company and the sofa looks like new. We never bothered to cover the pillows and they are starting to show wear in little drool spots, mysterious stains and bits of feather poking through. I had some mid-century style modern fabric in my stock. I had purchased it in the hopes of making place mats or an apron, but the pattern was too big. It was perfect for the pillows, however. With the addition of vintage buttons from my mom’s stash, I had two nifty looking pillows that make the sofa pop — even with the cover on.