I am not vegan, but I have a brother-in-law and two nephews who are, so I have been exploring a few items that I can bake that do not use eggs or dairy, which are both a big part of my baking. My problem with most vegan ingredients is the long list of artificial ingredients that goes into trying to simulate the original non-vegan ingredient.

With a sweet roll recipe that I found on line at Love and Lemons, I have been able to tweak the original recipe it to make it healthier by including whole grains, replacing the coconut oil with avocado oil, adding some flax meal, and reducing the glaze by half. I substituted slightly more than half white whole wheat flour the first two times I baked the recipe. This time, I used whole wheat flour instead of white whole wheat, and I do not detect any difference in taste and texture. In the future I will use the whole wheat, which is less expensive and has a higher nutritional value. I might even increase the amount that I substitute next time.

The almond milk I made is less processed than what I could buy in the store and does not include the preservatives, but the calcium is dramatically less than what is in a cup of milk. Where a cup of milk has 250 mg (where I live!), a cup of my homemade almond milk has 60 mg, so only about 25%.

I am not sure that I can do more to increase the nutritional value of this recipe.

I still have a cup of homemade almond milk to use (my dairy allergic friend tells me it only lasts about 5 days and does not freeze well). I have an oil-based scone recipe, but it calls for an egg. I may try replacing it with flax meal and water, and I would adjust the baking powder and baking soda, as I would not be using buttermilk.