Friday, October 14, 2011

Vegan Popover Muffins - An Interesting Experiment

Vegan Popover Muffins

I've been wanting to make vegan popovers forever!   I made traditional popovers for the first time a few years ago to serve at a mother daughter tea-party and ever since, I've nursed the idea in the back of my mind.  The originals tasted quite egg-y and here I've used chick-pea flour instead of eggs.

This recipe is adapted from one posted on the PPK forums combined with another recipe I found on the web.  As you can see from the photo, they came out looking more like sunken muffins.  When I checked on them half way through they were nicely domed but - oops maybe I shouldn't have opened the oven because they sank.  The insides were very moist and the outsides fairly crisp.  There were no large air pockets but several small ones distributed throughout.  I think they must be eaten with jam or something sweet because on their own I don't find them super appealing.  I would rate this experiment as semi-successful because while they didn't look like a traditional popover, they still taste pretty good and I liked the contrast between the inner softness and the outer crispness.  I would love to hear about anyone else's experience with this type of recipe. Please let me know in the comments if you've found a good one.  

Vegan Popover Muffins

1 1/14 cups flour
3 Tablespoons chickpea/garbanzo flour
1 Tablespoon baking soda
pinch turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups soy-milk
1/3 water
1/2 package silken tofu (mori-nu vacuum pack)
2 tablespoons melted Earth Balance

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Grease a muffin or popover tin.
Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.  Add tofu, water, Earth Balance and soy milk to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.  Add the wet to the dry mixture and stir until thick and smooth.
Fill muffin tins about 3/4 full.  Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes and then turn down heat to 350 and bake for another 10 minutes.    Serve warm with jam.   Yields 12 popovers.

8 comments:

  1. I totally just dribbled a little bit. Ok a LOT! One of those (or two...) would be perfect with my cuppa tea right now.
    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Jeni! They kind of look a bit like corn muffins on the outside but the texture is completely different. I'm not quite sure what to make of them. It's fun to play around though.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lee, I'd be curious about another experiment: the same recipe and not opening the oven door until they're done. And, I hope someone who's made 100% successful vegan popovers gets back to you!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh, I'll have to try this! I'm not familiar with 'Popovers' but the pic looks very inviting! With a cup of tea or coffee.. yum! :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. If you hadn't said that you'd seen them all puffy and perfect-looking, I would've thought that this was exactly how they were intended to look. (I've got a solid record of making things sink by "peeking".)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh yes, they had lovely domed tops and then I opened the door. The problem with my oven is that the light only comes on when you open it so it's hard to wait in the dark! I have little patience.

    ReplyDelete
  7. OMG! I used to *love* popovers!!! This at least gives me hope that there are vegan versions out there, and with the jam it looks really yummy :-)

    ReplyDelete