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Oat and Banana Bread

This is not your typical banana bread. Not a dense, very sweet, strongly flavoured loaf with which you’ll be familiar as a way to repurpose overripe bananas, this Banana Oat Loaf is subtly flavoured, sweet, and with the texture of a regular bread loaf. It’s perfect for nut butter, suitable-for-vegans chocolate spread, or jam/jelly. You may replace the oil with extra banana or apple sauce, but the bread will have a slightly shorter shelf life.

Ingredients: 
300g white bread flour
100g wholemeal bread flour
100g oats
2 tbsp tapioca starch
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp suitable-for-vegans sugar
2 tsp yeast
2 tbsp olive oil
2 ripe bananas, mashed
200ml water

Directions: 
1. Add the flours, oats, and starch to a large bowl. Put the salt, cinnamon, and sugar in one side of the bowl and the yeast in the other. 
2. Add the oil, bananas, and 125ml water, and mix well to combine. If the dough is dry, add the rest of the water a little at a time until the dough comes together and the sides of the bowl are clean. 
3. Tip the dough onto an oiled surface and knead for about 10 minutes until smooth. Transfer back to the bowl and prove, covered with a tea towel, until doubled in size (about an hour). 
4. Preheat the oven to 200C. Place the dough in a non-stick loaf tin, and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the dough sounds hollow when tapped on the base. Cool completely on a wire rack before serving.

Naan (with a Peshwari Naan Option)

This is a beautifully soft and airy naan, perfect for serving with soups, curries, and so on. The secrets to its fluffiness are the strong white bread flour and frying it in a lidded pan. Although this recipe calls for white spelt flour, you can substitute that with plain wheat flour if desired, but adjust the liquid quantities accordingly. This recipe makes 8 side-plate-sized naan, so feel free to scale the recipe down if desired.

Ingredients for the Plain Naan

250g white spelt flour
250g strong white bread flour
2 tsp quick-acting yeast
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 cup soy yoghurt
250ml warm soy milk
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp garlic granules
1 tsp salt
Additional salt, smoked paprika, garlic granules, and nutritional yeast for frying
Suitable-for-vegans spray oil

Directions for the Plain Naan

1. Mix the flours. Make a well in the centre and add the yeast, maple syrup, soy yoghurt, soy milk. Combine. Sprinkle over the baking powder, garlic, granules and salt and begin to knead in the bowl. Transfer to a floured surface and knead well for about 5 minutes. Return to the bowl, dust with flour, cover with a tea towel, and leave in a warm place for about an hour to rise.
2. When ready to cook, heat a lidded frying pan over a medium heat and spray with some oil. Gather the dough into a ball, divide it into 8, and roll each piece out on a floured surface about 1/4 cm thick.
3. Spray the top of the rolled-out piece of dough with spray oil, and sprinkle with a little paprika, garlic, salt, and nutritional yeast. Place carefully into the frying pan, cover, and cook for a couple of minutes until the top bubbles and the bottom is browned; flip, and cook again until the bubbles start to blacken.

Ingredients for the Peshwari Naan

250g white spelt flour
250g strong white bread flour
2 tsp quick-acting yeast
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 cup soy (or other all-plant) yoghurt
250ml warm soy (or other all-plant) milk
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp garlic granules
1 tsp salt
Suitable-for-vegan spray oil

For the Filling

100g unsalted pistachios, shelled
100g ground almonds
Pinch salt
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp desiccated coconut
1/4 cup soy (or other all-plant) yogurt
30g raisins, sultanas, or dates

To serve:
Toasted, flaked almonds for sprinkling

Directions for Peshwari Naan
1. Mix the flours. Make a well in the centre and add the yeast, maple syrup, soy yoghurt, soy milk. Combine. Sprinkle over the baking powder, garlic, granules and salt and begin to knead in the bowl. Transfer to a floured surface and knead well for about 5 minutes. Return to the bowl, dust with flour, cover with a tea towel, and leave in a warm place for about an hour to rise.
2. Meanwhile, make the filling. In a food processor, mix everything together until you have a thick paste.
3. When the dough is doubled in size, knock it back and divide it into 8 pieces.
4. Roll the filling into 8 balls. Take each piece of dough, roll it into a ball between your hands, and make an indent in it with your thumb. Push one of the balls of filling into it, and smooth the dough back over it.
5. When ready to cook, heat a lidded frying pan over a medium heat and spray with some oil. Flatten out each ball of dough with your palm, and start roll each ball into a teardrop shape about 1/4 inch thick on a floured surface.
6. Place carefully into the frying pan, cover, and cook for a couple of minutes until the top bubbles and the bottom is browned; flip, and cook again until the bubbles start to blacken.
7. Spray the bubbled side of the naan with a little spray oil, and top with some flaked almonds.

Five-Minute Oat Flatbread

Simple, quick, tasty, and extremely inexpensive: what more could you ask for in a flatbread? This uses aquafaba (liquid drained from a can of chickpeas), which is a superb binder in cakes, and a lovely coating to help your spices stick to oil-free oven fries.

Ingredients

100g oats (blended to a flour if you have a blender; left whole if not)
1/4 cup aquafaba
1 tsp each garlic powder and smoked paprika

Directions

1. Mix the oats, spices, and aquafaba.
2. Add extra water if needed to make a sticky dough that you can form into a ball with a fork (the consistency doesn’t really matter here; you can make these very loose like pancakes, or very firm like patties).
3. Preheat a nonstick pan over a medium heat, divide the mix into two, and place in the pan. If you’ve got a firmer mix, you may need to flatten it out with the back of a spatula.
4. Fry for 2-3 minutes each side until the dough is set and lightly golden.