Kitchen disasters. They happen to all of us. Since going gluten-free, kitchen disasters have made a more regular appearance at my house.

I could let that get me down. It would be easy to let that get me down.

But, you see, I have this stubborn streak. It runs in the family. We’re a tenacious German lot. We don’t give up easily.

I’ve been on a quest to make a decent loaf of vegan gluten free bread. It started with Mark Engleman’s Gluten Free Vegan bread. It was okay. Certainly better than others I tried, and it gave me the inspiration to continue working on it.

This week, Aubree Cherie posted a recipe for a whole grain bread that looked intriguing. It was based on a recipe by Amy of Simply Sugar and Gluten-Free. It looked like it could convert to vegan relatively easily, since Aubree Cherie had already made it dairy free and it only contained 1 egg. Shouldn’t be hard to convert, right?

Well, not so much.

Fallen Bread

The loaf fell – a victim of too much rising time, and perhaps not quite the right combination of flours without the binding strength of an egg.

As homely as it looks, it actually tasted pretty good. So. What to do? I could pitch it. But us stubborn types would consider that giving up. Besides, that seems like such a waste. I could make a strata or a bread pudding. But, that would be just a wee bit ironic, wouldn’t it?

Croutons are always an option. Garlic and olive oil and salt…. Yum. But, it wasn’t what I was craving. I wanted something sweet and spicy. Sweet croutons? Why not? In a bowl, with some chopped pecans and a splash of coconut milk? Better than any store-bought gluten-free cereal, any day.

Cinnamon Crouton Cereal

Cinnamon Croutons

1 loaf gluten-free, vegan whole grain bread, cubed
1/4 cup brown rice syrup
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 T. vegetable oil
1/2 T. vanilla
1 T. cinnamon (divided)

Preheat oven to 300°. Mix syrups, oil, vanilla and 1/2 the cinnamon in a small bowl. Pour over bread cubes, tossing to coat. Sprinkle remaining cinnamon on coated cubes and toss again. Spread on 2 cookie sheets. Bake until croutons are crunchy, stirring often. (The total time will depend on how moist your bread is. Mine took about 50 minutes to get crunchy, stirring every 10-15 minutes.)