I am fighting my compulsion to check WHO stats and refresh my favourite newspaper’s website every 15 minutes – I am sure you can relate. As the situation is far from being contained (apart from China and South Korea, it seems) checking the stats is definitely not a smart move, Ania. Stop it right now! There is nothing you can do so you might as well move into acceptance… That’s the chat I have with myself several times a day. I commit to it and then just a tiny little peak, and here we go, I am sucked into the bad news vortex AGAIN.
I try really hard to focus on other things, but the pull to know what is going on outside of our four walls (which we are especially grateful to have right now) is just so strong. As getting engrossed in things helps, I’ve keep myself relatively distracted by batch cooking and baking. Although with Duncan working from home there is no one but us to eat the fruits of my labour and that is really quite dangerous, but sod it, we need something to lift our spirits. Today’s recipe is a trip down memory lane as I’ve been thinking about my childhood a lot lately. In the spirit of that, I have veganised my childhood staple known as ‘drozdzowka z serem’, which roughly translates as yeast roll with a cheese filling. These fluffy doughnut shaped buns are deep-filled with a sweet cheese filling made from a Polish ricotta-style cheese. They make a great on-the-go breakfast or a mid-morning snack. The dough is super easy to make without animal products so no big issues there and as for the filling, I made a cashew ricotta style cheese filling that is sweet, tangy and fragrant with lemon. If you cannot have nuts (or have trouble finding them right now – funnily enough they were one of the very few things my local supermarket still has on its decimated shelves), I am pretty sure that plain firm tofu will work just as well. Enjoy and keep yourselves safe!
250 g / 2 cups all purpose (not bread) wheat flour, plus extra for dusting a pinch of fine salt 7 g / 2 tsp instant dried yeast 2 tbsp sugar (including coconut sugar) or maple syrup approx. 160 ml / 2/3 cup lukewarm plant milk 15 g / 1 heaped tbsp mild coconut oil (or vegan butter) vegan ‘eggwash’: 2 tsp plant milk + 1 tsp maple syrup
