Seitan Pepperoni Food

SEITAN PEPPERONI

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
• Mix vital wheat gluten flour, nutritional yeast, mustard powder, paprika, fennel seeds, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, anise seeds, and sugar in a large mixing bowl.
• Stir water, tomato paste, olive oil, liquid amino acid, and liquid smoke flavoring together in a separate bowl or measuring cup. Stir wet mixture into flour mixture until dough is evenly mixed. Turn dough onto a work surface and knead until smooth; shape into a log that is 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter. Tightly wrap log in aluminum foil, twisting the ends to secure.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 90 minutes. Unwrap pepperoni and cool to room temperature; store in refrigerator in an air-tight container or wrapped in plastic wrap.

PEPPERONI SPICED SEITAN

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325°F Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix the wet ingredients a smaller bowl.
• Pour the wet mixture into the dry, stirring well. Add more water if necessary. Remove from the bowl and knead for a few minutes, making sure ingredients are distributed well.
• Roll into a log shape, about 7 inches long. Place the log on foil and roll it up in the foil, twisting the ends to seal. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, turning over after 45 minutes.
• Remove from oven and unwrap to cool. Slice as needed and store leftovers wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge.

SEITAN PEPPERONI AND PIZZA

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F Mix dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix all wet ingredients in a separate mixing bowl. Make sure to mix the wet ingredients well so that they can be easily incorporated into gluten. An easy way to make sure peanut butter mixes with water is to heat both up in the microwave for a minute. This softens the peanut butter enough to mix with the water.
• Pour the wet mixture into the dry, stirring well; I use a Kitchen Aid mixer with the paddle attachment. Remove from the bowl and knead for a few extra minutes. You want to make sure that all your ingredients are evenly distributed. Tip: once you mix water or any liquid with your gluten you will not be able to add anything else to the mixture. This is why it is important to have all of your wet ingredients mixed together prior to adding them to your gluten mixture.
• Roll the mixture into a log shape and cut in half so that you have two shorter pieces. Normally I will cut this recipe into four equal pieces so they are more like snack sticks. Once you have created your logs tightly roll them in aluminum foil, shiny side inches Make sure to use lots of foil because your seitan logs will try to expand in the oven and they will, I have done it, explode out of the foil. Seal the ends by twisting and pushing in to compact the seitan even more. You want to make a tight seal. Place logs lengthwise on oven racks and bake for 1 hour, turning over after 30 minutes. Undercooked seitan will be gummy and rubbery in the middle so take it out after an hour, cut it in half and take a taste-test piece or just touch it with your finger.
• Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool. You do do not need to unwrap them from their aluminum foil prisons to store them in your fridge. If you want to thinly slice them you will need to do this before placing them in the refridgerator. Refridgerating them makes it impossible to thinly slice. I have only had success using my food processor when attempting to make a thin slice. Anything manual just crumbles the seitan. My friend thinks a mandolin will work but I have been too thrifty to purchase yet another cutting tool.
• The crust for this pizza came from Whole Grain Breads by Peter Reinhart. It is one of the best whole wheat pizza crusts I have ever used. Normally whole wheat pizza dough is too sticky, but this recipe produced a crust that was easy to work with. It had great gluten structure without having to add vital wheat gluten. I was even able to throw the pizza. Oh, how I love to throw pizza into the air and catch it again.
• Toppings on pizza:
• Half can of tomato paste (I didn't add spices to the sauce because most of the flavor of the pizza will come from the cheese and the pepperoni).
• Spinach.
• Chopped tomato.
• Mushroom.
• Provolone.
• Mozzarella.
• Shredded Parmesan.
• Seitan pepperoni.
• I pre-baked my crust for two minutes at 550F and then baked for another nine minutes with all of the toppings.