Just as promised: Jalapeño Cornbread

Didn't I say I was going to share a recipe for the cornbread I had with my chili the other night? Well, I at least try to keep my promises, so here it is. I have always loved cornbread. I remember my mom making it when I was a kid. Those chili dinners were pure you, and we ate it with butter and honey. Getting older I remember serving cornbread with chili when friends were over for dinner, and they simply didn't get it. In Sweden rice is the given thing to serve with chili. To me cornbread makes perfect sense, the perfect excuse to have something that is closer to cake than to bread but for dinner. Couldn't be better.

This time I actually decided to make my cornbread a bit savorier by adding jalapeños and scallions. This contrasts nicely with the sweet bread. You can omit this if prefer simple sweet cornbread, or take it one step further and add nutritional yeast to the batter. Another alternative would be adding pumpkin seeds in the place of jalapeños. I chose to bake my cornbread as muffins, but you can bake it in a cake pan too. The recipe makes enough for 4 muffins, and a double recipe would probably fill a 20 cm*20 cm/8*8" pan.

Makes 4 muffins

1 dl corn meal (polenta)
1 dl all-purpose flour
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tbsp. sugar
1 ¼ dl vegan milk
1 tsp. vinegar
2 tbsp. canola oil
1 dl sweet corn
½ jalapeño, finely chopped
1 scallion, finely minced
Optional: 1 tbsp. nutritional yeast

Pumpkin seeds to sprinkle on top
Coconut oil or other oil for greasing pan
Additional corn meal for breading pan

Turn the oven on to 175°C/350°F.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Make a whole in the middle and add the wet ingredients. Mix from the center and out to incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet ones. Add the sweet corn, jalapeños and scallions.

Grease 4 cups in a muffin pan with coconut oil. Sprinkle with corn meal. You can also use muffin cups, but I think this method gives the muffins such a nice crust all the way around. Divide the batter between the muffin cups and sprinkle the tops with pumpkin seeds.

Bake in the oven for 16-20 minutes, until a knife inserted at the center of a muffin comes out dry. Enjoy them with chili while they're still warm.

Sticky, gooey and deliciously not healthy

Many people think that being a vegan inherently means eating only healthy food. Well, they’re wrong. In many cases, going vegan means making your diet healthier, sure, but that does not mean that you can’t splurge. You can make just as good ooey gooey pastries as a vegan, which is just what I did for my roommates and me for breakfast a while back. I made sticky buns, completely vegan, not the least healthy and oh so delicious.

You can use this recipe to make regular cinnamon buns too, simply omit the sticky part and proof them on a baking sheet the second time. The recipe makes about 12 buns, and if you feel that is too much for breakfast, you can freeze half of the rolls before the second proofing. Simply put them on a baking sheet and put it in the freezer. Once they’re frozen you can keep them in a sealed bag. To use them, thaw them out in the fridge over night and then put them in a pan with the sticky topping in the morning, proof and bake. In that case, make half the amount of topping each time

Makes about 12 sticky buns

The dough

3 dl vegan milk

¾ dl vegetable oil, such as canola

½ dl sugar

1 chia egg (1 tsp chia seeds/ground chia + 2 ½ tsp water)

25 g fresh yeast or 1 ½ tsp dry yeast

8 dl all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

2-3 tsp cardamom (2 if ground, 3 if your crushing the seeds yourself)

The filling

2 tbsp. coconut oil

¾ - 1 dl brown sugar

Cinnamon

1 apple, cut into small pieces

The sticky topping

3 tbsp. brown sugar

3 tbsp. maple syrup

3 tbsp. water

3 tbsp. coconut oil

2 tsp. grated fresh ginger

1 1/2 – 2 dl chopped nuts

Carefully heat the milk, sugar and oil in a saucepan until lukewarm (about 37 C for fresh yeast and up to 45 C for dry). If it’s any hotter you’ll kill the yeast. Whisk in the chia egg. Place the yeast, salt and cardamom in a bowl. Pour over the liquid and stir to dissolve the yeast. Gradually add the flour and knead until you have a soft and elastic dough. It should still be quite sticky, as it will become firmer while proofing. If you have a bread mixer, do use it as it will improve the quality of the dough. In that case, wait to add the salt and first knead the dough for a good 10 minutes on medium speed. Increase the speed, add the salt and knead for another 2 minutes. Cover the dough with a kitchen towel and let proof until it’s doubled in size. This can take 1-2 hours.

Place the dough on a floured surface. Knead it into a firm ball and let it relax for 10 minutes. Roll it out into a rectangle, about 1 cm thick. Spread the coconut oil over the dough and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Leave about 2 cm at the far longer side of your rectangle unsprinkled, that way it will hold together better when rolled up. Distribute the chopped apple on top and roll it up from the longer side closest to you. Cut the roll into 12 pieces.

Bring all the ingredients for the sticky topping but the nuts to a boil. Stir to make sure all the sugar has dissolved. The oil and water might be a bit separated, but never mind that. Pour the topping into a 24 cm spring pan and sprinkle the nuts on top. Place the rolls in the pan, evenly distributed.

Proof for about 30 minutes to 1 hour, until the dough feels soft and fluffy to the touch and the rolls have about doubled in size.

Turn the oven on to 200°C/400°F. When the buns are done proofing, pop them in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, or until they have browned nicely on top. Take out the pan, loosen the sides and turn the whole thing onto a plate while the sticky topping is still warm. Serve warm.