Day 4 - Vegan Pancake FAIL

I was so excited for pancakes this morning.  I got up early, went downstairs, started coffee and the batter, and promptly realized I might be a little screwed.  See, I didn't have the egg substitute called for.  No matter, I will grind up some flax seeds and make flax eggs.  Or I won't, because a mortar and pestle aren't so good for flax seed grinding.  Okay, I'll use half of a banana and just mush it up really well.  Not happening.  I mixed in my banana, set the pan going, and ended up with the stickiest pancakes ever.  Those things were not coming out of the pan without a fight.  I informed Max that we would not be having pancakes, but he responded with "but they smell like bananas and pancake and I want some."  So he got some.  They weren't pretty, but he claimed they tasted good and ate about 5, so I believe him.  I had a green monster since I was sick of messing about with the batter and had to go to spin class.  Eh, I'll try again, because I really want a vehicle for getting maple syrup into my mouth.  Maybe a coffee grinder would work for flax eggs.

The pizza I made last night, however, was a total success.  Apparently my pizza dough was mad at being left out of the recipe/photo extravaganza the other day, because it continued to rise in the fridge and exploded out of its plastic wrap, but it survived.  So, without further ado, the recipes:

Vegan Pizza Sauce - adapted from All Recipes

1 6 oz can tomato paste
6 oz warm water
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp agave nectar
3/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp each of oregano, marjoram, basil, black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (it's spicy this way, so decrease cayenne and flakes if you want less heat)

Put all ingredients into a bowl and whisk together.  Leave in the fridge for 30 minutes before use.

Wheat Pizza Crust
1 tsp natural sugar
1.5 cups warm water
1 packet yeast
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 cups wheat flour
1 - 1.5 cups all purpose flour

Prime the yeast by dissolving the sugar into the warm water and sprinkling the yeast on top.  Let it rest for about 5 minutes or until the yeast mixture gets foamy.  Mix in the salt and knead in the wheat flour with a dough hook on your stand mixer (if you don't have one, you can do this by hand.  Just start with the dry ingredients, prime the yeast mixture, and knead the wet ingredients in slowly).  Once you've been going for about 5 minutes, add 1 cup of AP flour to the mixture and knead until a ball forms.  At this point, I move the dough to the flour coated counter and knead the rest of the AP flour into the ball along with the olive oil.  You should flour or oil your hands before doing so because otherwise you will end up a sticky mess.  Put the finished dough ball into a lightly oiled bowl and coat the dough, then let rise for about an hour with a towel over the top.  Once it has doubled in size, punch it down, reshape the ball, and allow to rise for 45 minutes more, so that it has doubled in size again.  At this point you can shape your crust or put it in the refrigerator for up to two days (or freeze it).

Once you've got your dough and sauce ready, have at it.  I shape the dough by hand and put it onto a lightly oiled cookie sheet, but you can roll it out too.  Just crimp the edges a little bit so that your toppings don't slide off.  Preheat your oven to 425 and bake the pizza dough alone for about 7 minutes, so that it starts to get puffy and golden.  Take it out of the oven, spread pizza sauce on the dough, then add your toppings.  I used mushrooms, chopped spinach, onion and tomato, then covered the whole thing with Vegan Rella faux mozzarella cheese.  Boy is that stuff sticky.  It was really hard to grate, but it melted and tasted (mostly) like real cheese.  Anyway, stick the whole thing in the oven and bake for another 8 minutes or so until your "cheese" is melty and starting to brown/bubble on top.  Let it sit for a few minutes before cutting, and serve.  Mine was definitely fork and knife pizza because of the abundance of toppings, but it was delicious.  Spicy and full of veggies with melty cheesiness on top.  The recipe above will make for about 12 square slices, so it's enough to feed at least three and probably four people.

Vegan pizza, you totally surpassed my expectations

P.S.  On another note, I think I'll be wearing leggings for the rest of the experiment, because being a temporary vegan has turned me into a bloat monster.  Seriously.  I've been drinking ginger tea like it's going out of style.  Any vegans out there who can tell me if this is normal?  Because it is sure is annoying!

P.P.S.  OMG HARRY POTTER COMES OUT TOMORROW!  Am I a huge nerd?  Yes.  Am I so excited?!?!?!  Yes.

P.P.P.S.  Meet Goblin, the evil kitten that I keep talking about.  She's cute, but really bad.

Hi, I'm Goblin.  I like to climb onto things that are way too high for me.  Then I forget how to get down and leap right off, knocking over Liza's wine and turning her computer off.