One thing many people miss when transitioning into a more raw foods diet is bread. While there are lot of raw crackers, flat breads and veggie chips, ‘white’ breads are more difficult to replicate raw. Without the use of yeast or baking soda, raw foods simply don’t have this light and airy quality. Instead, raw breads are dense, filling and nutritious: satisfying us instead of leading us to crave more and more.
This raw sweet nut-free bread recipe is simply delicious. It reminds me of thick sweet Portugese bread or a sweet bagel. It will satisfy if you crave those heavy breads. Very versatile, you can use this batter to make Blonde Brownies, Vanilla Cupcakes, Oat Muffins, or as above, Sweet Scones. You don’t need to dehydrate these, which makes it ready in 5-10 minutes if you have all the ingredients ready!
The Sweet Bread
Like my Mama Won’t Mind If You Have Another Of That Chocolate Cake, this batter consists mainly of dates and oats.
The day before you make the cake, prepare the oat flour: 1. Soak oat groats overnight. 2. Drain and rinse. 3. Dehydrate until thoroughly dry by placing on 2 mesh screens on trays so the groats don’t easily fall out. I place the dehydrator on full for 1 hour then decrease the temperature to 105F. This takes about half a day. 4. Process 2 cups of dehydrated oat groats in a high speed blender, such as aVitamix, to make a fine flour. EASY ALTERNATIVE: grind rolled oat flakes into flour.
The Batter
Place in a food processor and mix together:
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups dates, pitted
Add in and process together:
2 cups oat groats that have been processed into fine oat flour as above (ALTERNATIVE: you can use rolled oat flakes that have been ground into a fine powder)
Add slowly to the powdery mixture until you have a batter that sticks together:
2 tbspns raw local honey
Mix in:
your choice of additions, like raisins or currants or cacao nibs
Form into your choice of shapes. For the scones, I used silicone mini-cupcake molds. You can place in a square pan and cut them into squares too. Just remember to grease your molds with oil first to ease removal.
Accompaniments
(I was inspired to make these after reading Ani Phyo’s Ani’s Raw Food Essentials!)
Salted Butter
I love this alone with the Sweet Oat Scones because of the play of tastes between salty and sweet.
Mix together in food processor or by hand:
1 – 1 1/2 tsp unpasteurized white miso
1/4 cup coconut butter
Strawberry Jam
My boys prefer this alone with the scones.
Mix together in food processor or blender:
1/4 – 1/3 cup dates, pitted, to taste
1 cup strawberries
Enjoy your Afternoon Tea with some Sun Tea too!
These look delicious! Bread is one of the things I’m having a hard time giving up, so I will definitely try this recipe. Thanks! 🙂
Rebecca, let me know what you think. It’s not baked bread, but it’s a great sub!
Do you have to soak the dates first? Thanks!
I don’t… Too lazy! 😉 but if your dates are really really hard, I would. My dates from date people are usually soft as it is.