In praise of self-raising flour and water

[Breadandwine]

As a vegan, I'm always experimenting with recipes - taking ingredients out and seeing what works.

I did this with pancakes - took the eggs out, and found no difference in the result. Then I made it with water instead of milk - again, it worked. So then I removed the sugar and was left with flour (s/r) and water. And again, you can't tell the difference.

So now I make pancakes which cost about a penny each instead of about 10p each. And these are available to everyone - including those with egg or dairy allergies.

Then I looked around to see what else can be made with flour and water and discovered soda bread (which I've been making for years), homemade pasta - and only this morning I made some tempura which we had for lunch. Not to mention pikelets - both plain and fruited!

So simple - and so cheap!

Here's my blog post on the subject, with a few links:

nobreadisanisland.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/what-can-i-make-with-just-flour-and.html

Good to know, it's a bit of a long drive from home in rural Wales, but my folks live in the West Country, so I'll remember for when I next visit!

There is nothing wrong with flour and water pancakes as part of a healthy balanced diet.

Dumplings without any fat in them are very heavy. The other recipes are vegan anyway, so wouldn't "suffer" from missing ingredients.

We eat all types of food in our house. Some meals are vegan, some vegetarian and some contain meat or fish.

An exclusively vegan diet wouldn't appeal to me as it would feel like a diet that involved deprivation and sacrifice - no cheese, tea needs milk from a cow to taste good IMO, no light sponge cakes and toast with margarine doesn't appeal.

To use that very irritating phrase: "each to their own"

Hi Bunbaker - great name!

Haven't tried my flour and water dumplings for a while, but I don't remember them being heavy. I need to make them again and write up a recipe.

An exclusively vegan diet wouldn't appeal to me

I felt exactly like that for most of my life - I've only been vegan for the past 8 years - and I did miss cheese more than I missed meat when I gave it up. But now, I don't feel deprived in the least - in fact I think I eat very well!

I have a rather nice chocolate cake on my blog - which only costs about 70p to make. And with my toast I have olive oil, which stays solid in my fridge (I do put it in the freezer, first).

I was asked to write an article for our Village News magazine - so I wrote it on this very subject. It's worth repeating here, not least because it does reference the dumpling recipe I was talking about upthread.

And, as Pancake Tuesday is coming up shortly, it's very relevant:

What can you make with just flour and water?

I run a blog where I post my recipes and breadmaking experiences:

nobreadisanisland.blogspot.co.uk

One of the most popular posts on my blog is “What can you make with just flour and water?” Every day I get a great number of people – from all over the world – posing this very question.

So, what can be made from these two simple ingredients? Plenty - most of them quick, cheap and cheerful.

I have to hold my hand up at this point and admit that the flour I use is mainly self-raising flour, which technically contains three ingredients – the flour, plus two chemicals, an acid and an alkali. When the chemicals come into contact with water, they produce CO2, carbon-di-oxide. It is this action that raises soda bread for instance.

And that’s the first thing that can be made from flour and water: 1 mug of s/raising flour, with an optional ¼ teaspoon of salt and 1/3rd of a mug of water, mixed together into a dough, shaped into a flattened round. This can be cooked in a dry frying pan (with a lid) for 5 minutes each side – or placed in an oven at 220C for around 15 minutes.

1. Pancakes. Yes, despite all you’ve learned in the past, excellent pancakes can be made with just flour and water. No need for eggs or milk. These will cost you approximately 1p each as against 10p using a traditional recipe.

1. Dumplings. No need for suet, vegetable or otherwise, make the dough as for the soda bread above, divide the dough into golf ball size balls and cook in your stew for around 15 minutes.

1. Pasta. You don’t need s/raising flour for this (or a machine!). I use wholemeal flour – 100g flour to 60g of water with an optional pinch of salt. Mix into a dough, knead for a few seconds until it is smooth, then, using plenty of flour roll it out into a large sheet. It’s thin enough when 3 folds (8 layers) measures less than 1cm. Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into strips then boil these for 3 minutes, roughly.

1. Tempura. Make up a slightly thicker batter than the pancake batter, coat your mushrooms or sausage or whatever with the batter and fry in about 1cm of hot oil.

1. Sourdough starter. Mix an equal amount (by weight) of any flour - organic, preferably – and leave, covered, on your worktop for a few days. After a couple of days you should see bubbles start to form. When this happens, take out half and replace with the same amount of fresh flour and water. Use the discard to make pikelets. Do this about three times, then your starter is ready.

1. Pikelets. Mix the dough once again into a thickish batter and place dessertspoonfuls around a hot frying pan. Don’t turn them over until the top has dried out.

There’s more, but that’s enough to be going on with!

Finally, someone called Kwasi - I know no more than that! - made a comment on my pancake recipe, that made all my efforts worthwhile:

“I love you for this idea. broke to my last penny but have many stuff home. thank you soo much. life saver”

Pictured are a dumpling, tempura and a soda bread bap cooked in a frying pan.

Since I became a vegan I've made egg & milk free pancakes and gosh I'm still alive! I haven't even developed malnutrition or nuffin!!

If you want to make pancakes with egg go ahead, or make these and add a poached egg as a topping. Of course this pancake is not nutritionally balanced but every single food eaten is not that's why we eat a balanced diet. As a vegan I found out very quickly that each meal does not have to be balanced, looking at a balanced week or month is what matters not one sodding pancake!!

I make mine with self raising flour, water or almond milk and vanilla extract, I've also been known to add chopped scallion for a savoury pancake.

Obviously none of you are FORCED to eat it if you don't want to. Not many people eat pancakes naked anyway - it can only be improved by whatever you normally put on the blasted things for your precious Tarquins and Mollys. Jeez.

On very poor days I used to make little dumplings out of just flour and water to jazz up a soup. I think I made spinners that way.