Friday, October 28, 2016

Easy Homemade Breadcrumbs (vegan, gluten-free, yeast-free, low fat)

I've been on the hunt for vegan, gluten-free, yeast-free and low fat bread crumbs for far too long. Everything I find in stores is either including ingredients I'm not willing to put in my body or sugar-laden and over-priced. I really, really wanted to try a vegan version of crab cakes recently, so it was time to solve the breadcrumb dilemma (vegan crab cake recipe on its way).

My idea was to make a biscuit dough, bake, crumble and re-bake to create breadcrumbs. And much to my surprise, it worked! Not only would I have eaten the biscuits as made, but the breadcrumbs were absolutely delicious.

It was one of those ideas where I really went out on a limb, didn't expect much and was thrilled at the wonderful results.

Ok, your turn!

SUPER EASY HOMEMADE BREADCRUMBS

Yield: Approximately 2 cups bread crumbs
Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Bake Time: 12-15 minutes + 15-20 minutes

You'll need parchment paper for this recipe.

Dry Ingredients

1 1/4 cups rice flour
1 cup garbanzo bean flour
1 Tbsp tapioca starch
1 Tbsp potato flour
1 Tbsp aluminum-free baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground chia seed

Wet Ingredients

3/4 cup rice milk (or other plant milk)
1/2 c unsweetened applesauce

Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Combine dry ingredients in a small bowl. Combine wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until well combined.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Spread breadcrumb dough in an even layer onto the cookie sheet (for me, the dough was about 1/2 inch thick, and I was able to spread it easily with my mixing spoon).

Bake at 400 degrees F for 12-15 minutes or until dough is slightly golden on bottom and edges.

Step 1: Bake the dough


Cool the dough thoroughly. Once cooled, gently crumble (so as not to create doughy lumps) the baked dough into small crumbs. You don't have to worry about getting the crumbs super small, as you'll be grinding them after the re-baking process.

Step 2: Crumble the bread

Preheat over to 300˚ F.

Place the crumbs in a thin layer on two parchment-lined cookie sheets (I was able to reuse my first sheet of parchment). Bake at 300 degrees F for 15-20 minutes, stirring the crumbs every 5 minutes to encourage even drying and toasting. Make sure the breadcrumbs are "crunchy," they should be fully dried out. I bake mine until they were a rich brown color.

Step 3: Bake bread crumbles to a rich golden brown


Cool the breadcrumbs thoroughly. I prefer my crumbs much smaller than what comes out of the oven (see above photo), so I grind them to suit my needs. Place about a cup of crumbs at time into a food processor or small blender (I used my Magic Bullet, it worked perfectly). Pulse the crumbs a few seconds at a time, until they are the consistency you desire, using caution not to turn them into dust, which is easy to do if you aren't watching closely.

Store your leftover breadcrumbs in an airtight container. They should keep for about a week at room temperature as long as you baked them long enough to remove all moisture. To store them longer, keep them in an airtight container in the freezer, they should stay fresh about 6 months this way. I put my breadcrumbs in a mason jar tucked into a gallon size freezer bag to help protect them from moisture, and tucked them in the freezer. As with all food storage suggestion provided here, they are just suggestions; use your own good judgement on food storage, and when it doubt, throw it out. It's never worth it to eat food that hasn't been properly stored.

These breadcrumbs are super tasty and work great in my Crabby Cakes recipe (coming soon)!
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*gluten-free, soy-free, low fat