Baking for breakfast

On weekend mornings when I don't have to rush out of the door to go to work, I often indulge myself by baking pastries for breakfast. Most pastries on the market are high-fat and high-calorie so I try my best to avoid them, whereas if you make your own you can control what goes into them and make them (slightly) more healthful. My breakfast pastries are usually vegan, contain minimal sugar, and are made from less refined flours such as whole wheat pastry and spelt flours. As a result, they have a denser texture and nuttier taste than conventional pastries, but I like them that way and would recommend you to give them a try.

Being impatient and slow as I am, I use recipes that take at most half an hour to make. My favorites are scones and muffins - you don't need a mixer or any fancy equipment, and they allow for much improvisation so you can use whatever ingredients you have on hand. The recipes I've tried are from my favorite vegan author and blogger Isa Moskowitz's bestselling cookbook Vegan with a Vengeance as well as Nava Atlas's The Vegetarian Family Cookbook. Isa takes an offbeat approach (much like a guerrilla!) to cooking and her recipes are ingeniously inventive, while Nava's are more down-to-earth and suitable for busy family cooks. Nava also makes a conscious effort to make her recipes as healthful as possible, so expect frequent uses of whole wheat flours and fat substitutes such as applesauce in the recipes.

Here are two creations I've been pretty satisfied with: orange raisin scones topped with sunflower seeds and banana chocolate-chip spelt muffins. For me, having freshly baked homemade pastries along with a cup of tea for breakfast is one of the simplest joys of life.

Orange raisin scones topped with sunflower seeds

Banana chocolate-chip spelt muffins