vegan easter bun
Hi all! This week I finally tried out the vegan stout bun recipe from Chantal Thomas of Amazing Ackee. There are a number of Jamaican Easter season bakes which are new to me—this stout bun is of the non-yeasted variety, and Thomas also shares a yeasted variety in which she includes the ackee which her writing and bakery highlight. Both recipes can include dried fruit and be eaten with cheese, which is a favorite combination of mine (another favorite example being
’s fruitcake cheese plate).This stout bun, which also includes molasses and browning, was fantastic with cheese (vegan included). As someone who doesn't consume much alcohol, I really enjoyed this combination of deep and intense flavors in baked form. The cheeses we tried were Wisconsin dairy cheddar, as well as vegan Violife cheddar slices, Rebel truffle brie, Rebel honee pistachio chèvre, and Rind classic cambleu—thank yooou Gordon for grabbing me a couple expired brie and the cambleu which wasn't on the shelf yet! All were good.
I think the bun and cheese combo is a great one to do vegan because the combination makes up for what either may be lacking. My bun was overbaked (should have followed the recipe), and benefited from the fat and creaminess of cheese. Meanwhile, the bun distracts from the cheese not being a 100% match for dairy, while balancing and bringing out the funkiness.
For more background on Thomas’s work, I really enjoyed this interview with
in . For more on bun and cheese, I enjoyed Nylah Lee’s “Bun and cheese: The Jamaican answer to the hot cross bun.” Always here for a pagan origin story—I didn't know the cross as a lunar symbol! (Although I was loyal to We’Moon planners in the ‘90s, so it's possible I forgot.)While the hot cross bun's origins are typically associated with Easter and Good Friday, its history extends beyond Christian traditions. In ancient Assyria, the cross-marked bread was believed to be an offering to the Goddess Ishtar in Babylon. These were often decorated by markings symbolising the Moon's four quarters. Similarly, British hot cross buns were also associated with superstitions and folklore, which states that a bun baked on Good Friday would never spoil, and that keeping one in the house would protect it from fire and ensure that all bread baked in the house would turn out well. Now, Jamaican tradition has bound the treat to a looser interpretation of "protection" as a symbol of fellowship, or "breaking bread" with friends and family.
I brought the spice bun on a picnic along with a menu that was loosely inspired by doing a web search for “ploughman's lunch with asparagus,” and finding this menu from L.M. Browning:
A Spring Plate
A Dozen Halved Fresh Figs
English Cheddar Cheese
Halved Hardboiled Eggs *10-12 mins so yoke is slightly soft
Blanched Asparagus Drizzled with Olive Oil and a pinch of Kosher Salt
Spring Onions
Sliced Raw Fennel with Olive Oil
Drizzle Sliced French Baguette
Serve with a Dry White Wine
Our picnic included:
Em-i-lis’s caramelized fennel, leek, and orange salad with Muaddi Craft Distillery arak, and my favorite thing, Burlap & Barrel coriander sugar
Emma Laperruque’s open-faced asparagus sandwich with backyard mustard blooms… I think giving the whole mustard “rabe” this treatment would be good too
Hard-boiled eggs
Bun and cheese
Rebecca Frey’s strawberry shortcake with King Arthur climate blend, and Ashleigh Shanti’s sumac-forward kitchen pepper in the macerated strawberries
Nonalcoholic drink… De Soi spritz italiano. I know very little about beverages, but am reading that spritzes don't contain citrus—this one is citrus-flavored though. Also, I meant to get nonalcoholic but didn't mean to get adaptogens. Too healthy!! Should have gone with sparkling water.
The picnic was an excuse to hang out under Lake Merritt’s blossoming cherries which are just getting started, before walking over to Grand Lake Theatre to watch Sinners. It was a nice Easter weekend date!
more eating
The charred citrus compote was my favorite part of this cake, but I'm also thinking of replacing it with
’s persimmon-ginger compote for M + R’s October wedding. I don't think there's a wrong answer here.
Luxurious scrambled eggs with the extra yolks from the cake. Sautéed radicchio and radicchio caesar with the pretty greens that I attempted a More Than Cake-style decoration with, but abandoned because mine did not look like the chic cookbook or instagram posts. The horror, I know.
reading
I generally feel like it comes across as more sincere to share one or two links, and that sharing a dozen posts—especially from this platform—risks looking a bit desperate for engagement or cliquish. Oh well because I enjoyed a lot of stuff this week! I hope you find something you enjoy here too.
’s “To Cook Without Folding”’s “Easter Flavours from Africa & Beyond”’s “Considering Food Scarcity's Closeness”’s “A Mushroom-Based Condiment That Captures the Essence of Filipino Cuisine” — to try!’s “Teaching Poor People About Food Is Not the Answer”’s “Grocery Update- Every Clerk Can Govern: An Oral History Series.”’s “Portrait of a Palate: Karuna Long”’s “Chocolate cake with black rice, beetroots and a berry mascarpone frosting”’s “Art! Food Conferences! TV! Recession Food!”’s “Hey Mama, Your Californian Ideology is Showing”’s “When Did We All Become Afraid Of Being Amateurs?”
Thank you 💛
Thanks so much for the mention! The picnic menu also looks divine. I am a sucker for a strawberry shortcake!