Vegetarian cheese and bacon quickbread

We bought some vegan bacon recently that looked much more like pork bacon than any other vegan bacon I have ever bought.  It seemed very meaty to me but not to E who eats bacon regularly.  Sylvia found the texture quite odd.  I liked the idea of cooking rashers of bacon to have in a fry up or a sandwich but it seemed a bit intense.  So I found a recipe for a cheese and bacon bread and made it vegetarian.

This is the vegan bacon (or facon as I like to say).  I liked that it was called "bacon rashers without the oink".  One thing I often find different between meat and vegan alternatives, especially with bacon, is that the meat version releases lots of fat so it can affect the texture of dishes to use veg versions.  With this facon I chopped it first (with scissors like my mum often cut bacon) and fried it on a cast iron frypan in a slosh of rice bran oil.  It was lovely and crisp and chewy.  I would love to a comparison with my favourite tofu bacon - I can't help but feel I loved the ease of this ready made facon than the one we usually make with tofu.

When I made the bread - a quickbread with no yeast - I had quite a bit of "vegan Artisa Gladstone aged cashew cheese smoked with Tasmanian applewood".  I'd eaten some on crackers but had had enough of that so I grated it into the mixture.  It is the more beige than the yellow dairy cheese above. 

When the cheese and bacon bread came out of the oven it smelled so good that it was too hard to wait until it was cooled.  We ate warm slices with melting butter and it was wonderful.  The cheese and facon and chive mixture made it full of flavour and texture.

The next day I had some with dinner with a delicious carrot and roasted capsicum soup from the Colour Me Vegan cookbook by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau (who also wrote The Joy of Vegan Baking).  As I didn't change the recipe I am not reproducing it here but suggest you check out the cookbook.

Sylvia at first wasn't sure of the bread but by the end of the loaf had come around to it.  I wonder if it was more yellow because it was all dairy cheese.  When she made it we didn't have chives.  The recipe was fine to make a few changes to and tasted just as wonderful.  We hope to try it with tofu bacon at some stage.  I am sure it will disappear just as quickly as these loaves.

More quickbread recipes on Green Gourmet Giraffe:

• Beetroot, goats cheese and onion bread 
  
• Cheesy cornbread 
• Damper (v)
• Margaret Quinn's brown bread (v)
• Sweet potato soda bread
  

Vegetarian cheese and b/facon quickbread
Adapted from Country Living
Makes 1 loaf

1 1/2 cup plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt 

1/2 tsp mustard powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk (or 1/2 cup of milk plus a tsp of vinegar)
4 tbsp (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
125g (about 1 cup) vintage Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 slices (vegetarian) bacon, fried and finely chopped
3 tbsp chopped fresh chives
extra grated cheese for sprinkling on top

Preheat oven to 180 C.  Grease and line a loaf tin with baking paper.

Mix flour, baking powder, salt and mustard powder in a large bowl.  Melt butter and lightly whisk in eggs and buttermilk.  Pour into dry ingredients and gently mix.  Then mix in cheddar cheese, parmesan cheese, fried bacon bits and chives.  

Spoon into prepared tin, smooth the top with the back of a spoon and sprinkle with extra cheese.  Bake for 35-50 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

NOTES: if you don't have a vegan bacon like this one, you could use tofu bacon that is fried until crisp or chewy.  I would use parsley instead of chives if I didn't have them.

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Ask Me No Questions: Bridget St John