Well, foolhardy ol' me set myself the task of veganising and de-glutening this year's calendar recipes. January was a cinch, February was more success than failure, and March just about defeated me before I'd even begun. Croissants - little more than butter and flour - are surely the antithesis of a vegan, gluten-free diet. I ditched my gluten-free aspirations and focused on a vegan rendition. Here's what I came up with:Croissants: Croissants are just puff pastry, right? So why not use Borg's excellent vegan puff pastry for the job? I watched Emmanuel Mollois roll croissants on Poh's Kitchen a few weeks ago and figured I could give it a shot. (You can watch it too - it's at the 14-minute mark in the Family Favourites episode, archived here.) Mine were nothing special. Their shape was just barely evocative of a real croissant, and they were compact and heavy. Chewy, even. Fail.
Mushrooms: I stayed relatively true to the original recipe, just replacing the butter with Nuttelex and omitting the cream altogether. They were still delicious.
Not a meal worth repeating. Still, there were enough pleasant (if mis-matched) elements here to contently eat my way through what I'd cooked. And I reckon experiments like this one are doing me and my cooking skillz more good than harm.
Brie: I wasn't in the mood for elaborate vegan cheese-making, and instead thought that Vegan Brunch's cheesy sauce might be a nice alternative (even if it doesn't resemble brie in the least). It's a fab sauce, but ultimately I didn't really think it matched the mushrooms.
Not a meal worth repeating. Still, there were enough pleasant (if mis-matched) elements here to contently eat my way through what I'd cooked. And I reckon experiments like this one are doing me and my cooking skillz more good than harm.
Vegan croissants?!!!! WANT!
ReplyDeleteCan't go wrong with mushrooms. hehe, I saw that episode on Pho's kicthen. He made it look so easy huh? The almond croissants had so much butter- which of course we arte aware of but are forever in denial.... LOL
ReplyDeleteThey look toooo cute! I'd love to try them, even though I'm not vegan.
ReplyDeleteOh actually the dough for croissants is slightly different from puff pastry dough - croissant dough is yeasted.
xox Sarah
Sure, Toby, but not these ones. ;-)
ReplyDeleteYeah, Adrian, the real deal is awash with delicious, artery-hardening butter! But what a way to go...
Sarah, thanks for pointing out the yeasty difference - I didn't think of this and it makes a lot of sense now. Not sure if I'm brave enough to use this knowledge to make my own as you did. :-D
you are a brave woman to attempt this and I think that a gooey cheeze sauce is probably getting close to brie as that is what is great about it
ReplyDeleteI think that if you wanted to do a gf vegan version you could try baking the cheeze and mushrooms in some of the gf vegan pastry that vicki used at the potluck - wouldn't quite get the croissant taste but it might get the cheesy mushroomy pastry indulgence (I thought tortillas but they are not indulgent enough)
That's a neat gf idea, Johanna! This cheesy sauce recipe would also need a little tweaking to be gf - something other than flour for thickening (arrowroot?) and a check of the mustard, I suspect.
ReplyDeleteHaha, I tried making croissants with Borg's after watching Poh's Kitchen too. I had the same chewy problems, but I still enjoyed them.
ReplyDeleteHeh, 'great minds' and all that. If only we'd thought of the yeast!
ReplyDeleteI'm going through all the Melb vegan blogs for ideas for my trip and just noticed you mentioned by blog in this post, thank you :D
ReplyDeleteI think your croissants look delicious and I love the addition of mushrooms - must make!
You're welcome, Mandee. :-) I should really make these mushrooms again.
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