Well, this was my first baking experience with cleaner eating.  Clean eating being something with five or fewer ingredients.  Not easy to do when baking, but I figured that I am making it myself so a couple extra ingredients aren’t so horrible.

I love cornbread.  For some reason it is always accompanied by either chili or something spicy.  Cornbread is always doused in butter and tons of honey.  Cornbread is not naturally sweet, always dry and in need of something to make it just that bit better.  This is the first time I have ever made corn bread not from a box, when you just add a liquid and voila!  Bake and done.

Doing it myself, and following the directions on the package and making the obvious changes-applesauce for eggs, soy milk for regular milk.  I used Silk light vanilla soy milk to add sweetness and to eliminate the sugar in the recipe.  The part I was stuck on was the oil.  In normal baking recipes that is the obvious elimination.  Add applesauce and be done with it; but with the corn bread recipe I was confused.  Does the non-rising bread need the oil to make what it is, or is it not necessary.  Is the cornbread not clean with the oil in it?  Hmm.

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Well, I added the oil.  As I was adding the oil I was thinking this is probably not needed.  After it was baked into bars, I immediately wanted to make another batch and eliminate the oil so I could see the difference.  I didn’t, but I wanted too.  It turned out really good.  Had it with my favorite Ina Garten recipe, Guacamole Salad.  This is an amazing salad full of veggies and spicy.  The cornbread bars were perfect for the salad-which is spicy with the jalapeno.  Somehow it totally tamed down the mouth burning heat of the peppers.  Yum.

Vegan Cornbread Bars, 19 servings

1 1/4 C Whole Wheat Flour

3/4 C Aunt Jemima Corn Meal

4 Tsp Baking Powder

1/2 Tsp Salt

1/4 C Unsweetened Applesauce

1 C Silk Light Vanilla Soy Milk

1/2 C Vegetable Oil

 

1.  Heat oven to 400 degrees.

2.  Measure and mix dry ingredients in mixing bowl.

3.  Add applesauce and milk and mix well.  Add oil if using and mix.

4.  Spray pan with non-stick spray.  Pour batter onto pan and spread with spatula.  Spread evenly.

5.  Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.  Since this was bars and not a bread it won’t take as long.

6.  Let cool slightly and cut into bars.  Eat with spicy foods 🙂

Calories: 78

Total Fat: 3.3g

Cholesterol: 0g

Sodium: 7.2mg

Total Carbs: 11.5g

Protein: 1.7g