Has this ever happened to you guys?
You decide to bake up a storm, and am confident you have all the required ingredients just to find out midway that you have run out on some of the most crucial ingredients?
My standard is as follows: I take my recipe, open my pantry cupboards and take out all the required ingredients, and set them on the counter in the order to be used as per my recipe. Now I am sure everything is ready and I can get started.
Today I am baking rusks. I prepared the first batch, all good and in the oven they go.
While baking, I get ready to mix the second batch. Midway I get the rude awaking that I am running short on two of the ingredients, although I thought I had enough. NOW WHAT????
OK, the first one was easy to fix. I needed 3 extra wheetabix, so I substitute that with an additional cup of Whole wheat flour. Close enough.
Second one a bit more tricky. I need 16 tsp of baking powder. I start to spoon it out and then I only have 9 tsp of baking powder. NOW WHAT??? Google is my friend, so quickly I search and found the following:
What can be used in place of baking powder?
Mix 2 parts cream of tartar with 1 part baking soda. For example, mix 2 tsp cream of tartar with 1 tsp baking soda. Use the amount of baking powder called for by the recipe. No matter how much homemade baking powder you made, if the recipe calls for 1-1/2 tsp, add exactly 1-1/2 tsp of your mixture.
Well, that’s exactly what I had to do.
***** Have a look at the very bottom picutre, and see if you can tell me which one has the substitutes. Would love to hear your thought’s and if this has happened to you and what you did to resolve the issue.
———————————–
I have made this recipe many many times before (I bake this every 6 weeks and make the below recipe twice), never had a problem, fortunately it’s a very forgiving recipe. I am adding the recipe here should you want to try it;
Es’s Family Favorite Vegan Rusks
Mix together and let sit for ± 10 minutes to thicken up
600 ml Almond milk ***
4 teaspoons white vinegar
Add the following to the milk mixture and mix well
1 cup canola oil
1½ cups sugar (you can use up to 2 cups, if want it sweeter)
Mix together
8 cups whole-wheat flour
16 teaspoons baking powder
1½-2 teaspoons salt (see note below re salted pumpkin seeds (*), then use less salt)
2 teaspoons baking soda
8 Weetabix – rub between your hands to form crumbs and mix with the dry ingredients
Optional:
1 cup Sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, raisins or any other seeds or mixture you like.
Our preference: pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds and I use 1 cup of seeds per recipe. When using pumpkin seeds (*), I use the salted ones, as I always have it in the house just to munch on. In such a case, I will reduce the salt to 1½ teaspoons.
Make a well in the dry ingredients, and add the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly, until no more flour or dry spots visible.
You can use a big wooden spoon or spatula to mix and scrape the excess from the side of the bowl.
Spray the bottom of your pan with oil, or use a cooking spray and transfer the mixture to your pan and then flatten it with oily hands or you can use the spatula again. Mark out the size of the rusks by cutting through it. I have a funky baking pan with cutter (see picture below)
Bake for 18-20 minutes at 400 degrees F, and it should have a nice brown baked color and when inserting a baking pin it should come out clean.
When ready, take out of the oven and let it cool down, preferable let it sit for and hour or two, then break open the pieces and place it on a cooling rack which you place in a baking tray and dry overnight at 200 degrees F or till it’s properly dried out (say 4-5 hours).
Let it cool down, and then store in an airtight container, or pack in zip lock bags and enjoy.
*** Note: You can also make this Non-Vegan: Use regular buttermilk and omit the vinegar.
Prepared, tried and tested by: Es Slabs